Reflections on the End of the Cold War

Abstract

In the preceding pages I have tried to tell the story of what has happened to the Cold War over these past ten years. It is a story still very much imbedded in the Cold War, still very much a part of its time. The countries involved in the story still defined problems and sought to solve them in ways that would favor their own interests. To be sure, each player naturally sought to define objectives in terms that went beyond narrow national problems and goals, in language that others could understand and agree to. Hence ideals were very much part of the story. When asked whether I thought players were sincere in promoting those ideals, I have found it wise to give them all the benefit of the doubt. But it remains true that actual developments, actual decisions, were shaped less by these ideals than by specific interests in specific situations.