ANOTHER SUCH VICTORY: President Truman and the Cold War, 1945-1953 (Stanford Nuclear Age Series) - Softcover

"This major book is a critical revisionist portrait of Truman's personal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy toward the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. . . . The importance of the scholarship, the author's careful voice of reasonable criticism, the lucid writing style-all should give the book a popular readership that reaches beyond the university and foreign policy publics." -- J. Garry Clifford * University of Connecticut * "No recent book has stirred up the world of Truman devotees and cold war scholars quite like Arnold A. Offner's [Another Such Victory]." -- New York Times "This book is one of the most important to appear in recent years on the early Cold War and opens up a badly needed debate over Truman's foreign policies. Another Such Victory should enjoy wide readership. Whether or not the thesis is accepted, it should force a reexamination of the popular myth that Truman was the confident president who preserved American national interests and the 'free world' from unwarranted encroachments by the 'evil empire.'" -- South Dakota History "One wonders what the fiesty president would say if he were around to rebut such charges and whether it would be printable." -- Wall Street Journal "Offner has written a provocative, critical analysis of Harry S Truman, now the most acclaimed president of the Cold War era. Everyone who has read McCullough on Truman will want to read Offner and reexamine previous conclusions. If you are interested in executive decision-making in times of international crisis, this is a book worth reading and pondering." -- Melvyn Leffler, University of Virgina and fellow * The Woodrow Wilson Center * "At a moment in the early 2lst century when the choices in a new crisis seem simply black and white, this is precisely the kind of historical perspective we should have. Professor Offner has reopened a long overdue debate on Harry Truman-both on the man and his role in the origins of the Cold War. . . . [I]t certainly demands to be read and widely discussed." -- Walter LaFeber * Cornell University and author of America, Russia and the Cold War * "In this cogently argued and meticulously documented study, Arnold Offner challenges popular attitudes about Harry Truman's leadership. Another Such Victory presents a powerful indictment of a president whose inexperience, provincialism, and uncritical acceptance of the superiority of American values and interests led to needlessly provocative policies that exacerbated international tensions at a crucial juncture in modern world history. . . . [O]ne of the most important books about the early Cold War to appear in the past decade." -- Robert J. McMahon * University of Florida * "Prof. Arnold A. Offner of Lafayette College has produced a work of stupendous research, which demolishes the Truman myth completely." -- Frontline "Offner's well-written, thoroughly documented, and provocative book underlines the importance of presidential leadership and reopens questions about whether Truman's 'near-great' stature is deserved." -- American Historical Review "This excellent revisionist account updates Daniel Yergin's seminal Shattered Peace: The Origins of the Cold War and the National Security State and is enthusiastically recommended for academic diplomatic history collections." -- Library Journal "This important contribution to Truman biography and Cold War history runs against the grain of much recent scholarship. It is certain to generate controversy and open up debate." -- David Reynolds, Christ's College * Cambridge University *

This book is a provocative and thoroughly documented reassessment of President Truman's profound influence on U.S. foreign policy and the Cold War. The author contends that Truman remained a parochial nationalist who lacked the vision and leadership to move the United States away from conflict and toward détente. Instead, he promoted an ideology and politics of Cold War confrontation that set the pattern for successor administrations.