Stalin's American Policy - From Entente to Detente to Cold War

?Succeeds in evoking some sobering parallels to the present decline of détente. . . . One of [Taubman?s] most important contributions, in fact, is his well-documented argument for regarding the Cold War not as the unique product of World War II and a paranoid Soviet dictator, but as the result of aims and tactics that persist to this day.? ?Robert Taylor, New Leader

How and why did the Cold War arise out of wartime entente? Here, in a study focused on Soviet foreign policy from 1941 to 1953, William Taubman describes an intermediate stage of détente that Stalin abandoned reluctantly only after the Western powers did. Stalin, seen here as cautious and even conservative, viewed America as hostile and devious. His détente was designed to undermine Western interests.