At the beginning of the cold war the us and its allies acted primarily out of fear of a soviet union that had triumphed in the second world war and occupied much of eastern europe then when the dangers of thermonuclear war and the limitations of american policy were revealed by the cuban missile crisis and the vietnam war the emphasis was upon maintaining stability through a recognition of both soviet and chinese geopolitical and regional legitimacy and a mutual recognition of equivalent . The cold war a new history provides an excellent example of the ideological biases of a historian creating a skewed misrepresentation of the facts about an era in order to conform with biased perceptions this so called new history is full of sweeping generalizations unwarranted conclusions and dubious assertions that scream out bias at every turn in conclusion beware of books claiming to be history books this one doesnt meet the most basic criteria of objective . John lewis gaddis book the cold war a new history accomplishes what it sets out to do very nicely provide a general overview of the events personalities and issues at stake in the us ussr confrontation gaddis expertly traces the evolution of relations between the two powers their allies and neutral nations during the period in which nuclear annihilation was an ever present fact of life. The cold war a new history by gaddis john lewis publication date 2005 topics cold war world politics publisher new york penguin press collection inlibrary printdisabled internetarchivebooks china digitizing sponsor internet archive contributor internet archive language english includes bibliographical references p 299 314 and index the return of fear deathboats and lifeboats