Includes bibliographical references (pages 138-149).

Introduction: the gigantic Civil War -- 1945-1949: a world restored -- 1949-1953: thunder out of China -- 1953-1957: new men, new strategies -- 1957-1962: the wave of the future -- 1962-1965: the great armed truce.

"From the break-up of the wartime 'grand alliance' in 1945 David Rees shows how successive East-West crises have their roots in the Communist leaders' belief that their Marxist-Leninist view of history represents the inevitable wave of the future. This belief when imposed on the traditional rivalries of international relations in a period of revolutionary racial violence results in unpredictable consequences. The study also shows how the nuclear-missile statemate between the U.S and the U.S.S.R., the Sino-Soviet schism, and the challenge of the new countries has modified the original duel between Washington and Moscow, while in no way altering the fundamental contradiction which remains between free institutions and totalitarianism, despite all political, economic, doctrinal and military developments. Original material and contemporary press comment are quoted extensively and the general reader is helped by clear maps and a chronological table. Detailed references and a commentary on the bibliography are supplied for the specialist, along with an analysis of the Paris agreements which admitted West Germany to Nato, and the text of President Kennedy's speech of 22nd October 1962 on the Cuban missile crisis". - Publisher.