Deterrence, Reputation and Cold-War Cycles [Paperback]

A historical reexamination of the Cold War's cyclical pattern. It aims to show how Soviet aggressiveness was most likely to occur when the credibility of US efforts at deterrence was damaged by the inability or unwillingness of the US to meet previous challenges.Credibility and deterrence; the Pearl Harbor reaction; covert misadventure, failed summitry; the road to Kabul; US reputation and Soviet expansion.