At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War

This is an interesting, and surprising book. I was expecting a critique of the first Bush presidency's foreign policy, given author Talbott's credentials (he's a lifelong friend of Clinton and served as Deputy Secretary of State under him). Instead, it's a detailed recounting of the diplomatic negotiations during the last three years of the Soviet Union, culminating with Gorbachev's dissolution of the U.S.S.R.The book focuses, to a large extent, on the relationships between the men (and women) on both sides, and their negotiations. It spends a good deal of time on the positions they take, the ideals they followed, and the tactics they tried. There is detailed discussion of the personalities of the various men involved, the issues they had to deal with domestically, and the things they feared the other side might do. I have to say I was impressed with the way the book was structured, and with the opinions it expressed. Academics here in the U.S.A. tended, at the time, to be exasperatingly infatuated with Gorbachev, and blind to his shortcomings. The authors are smart enough not to fall into these traps, and are refreshingly perceptive of the last General Secretary and his personality quirks, both positive and negative. Even more surprising, given that Talbott is so close to Bill Clinton, the assessment of the elder George Bush is pretty fair, too. The authors spend a good deal of time praising his attitude and intelligence, and while they do criticize some of his decisions and maneuvers, they also praise many of the things he did.The book is written in the Woodward style, with extensive interviews with people who participated in the various discussions and negotiations. Those interviews are sealed for a serious length of time, and in the meanwhile we have to take the authors at their word. There are extensive discussions of the various negotiations, and they're fascinating. I enjoyed this book a great deal, but thought that it was a bit focused on the narrow subject, and somewhat isolated in narrative as a result.

Beschloss and Talbott spin a tremendously absorbing narrative about the collapse of communism. They describe in detail the summits, conversations and debates that took place between Gorbachev and his foreign minister on one side and George Bush on the other. Their main focus is the foreign policy of the Bush administration. Their prose flows well, their anecdotes are interesting their characters are engaging. They only rarely fall into the trap of overly-journalistic prose. Their description of George Bush and his role is a bit under-stated; they focus more on George Schlutz and James Baker. The book is surprisingly straightfoward concerning the opionions of the power elite and their concerns about creating a "culture of compliance." The best part in the book describes the Malta Summit of '89, where Bush and Gorbachev meet on a ship off the Island of Malta amidst a violent storm. This book, while good, misses a couple of crucial areas of the Cold War. There is not a single reference to formerly-communist Yugoslavia, a country whose war in the early 1990's was both bloody and protracted. References to Gorbachev's frustration with the World Bank and the GATT/WTO deserve better examination. The book is at its best describing the spirited jargon and one-liners of the wonks, politicos and statesmen.