John le Carr and the Cold War explores the historical contexts and political implications of le Carr 's major Cold-War novels. The first in-depth study of le Carr this century, this book analyses his work in light of key topics in 20th-century history, including containment of Communism, decolonization, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban missile crisis, the Cambridge spy-ring, the Vietnam War, the 70s oil crisis and Thatcherism.