Author : M. E. Sarotte
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 0807860271
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (78 download)
Book Synopsis Dealing with the Devil by : M. E. Sarotte
Download or read book Dealing with the Devil written by M. E. Sarotte and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2003-04-03 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using new archival sources--including previously secret documents of the East German secret police and Communist Party--M. E. Sarotte goes behind the scenes of Cold War Germany during the era of detente, as East and West tried negotiation instead of confrontation to settle their differences. In Dealing with the Devil, she explores the motives of the German Democratic Republic and its Soviet backers in responding to both the detente initiatives, or Ostpolitik, of West Germany and the foreign policy of the United States under President Nixon. Sarotte focuses on both public and secret contacts between the two halves of the German nation during Brandt's chancellorship, exposing the cynical artifices constructed by negotiators on both sides. Her analysis also details much of the superpower maneuvering in the era of detente, since German concerns were ever present in the minds of leaders in Washington and Moscow, and reveals the startling degree to which concern over China shaped European politics during this time. More generally, Dealing with the Devil presents an illuminating case study of how the relationship between center and periphery functioned in the Cold War Soviet empire.