Toward a Military History for the Cold War: a Bibliographic Essay

Abstract

This essay discusses the historiography of the Cold War from the perspective of American policy and strategy, civil-military relations, and politico-military culture. It presents the history and historical literature of the Cold War in two parts, focusing first on the superpower confrontation in the early decades of the conflict before turning to the Vietnam War era and the global Cold War. It is intended as a guide to secondary sources as of mid-2009. There is no particular argument, other than to support the notion that scholarship has to consider the Cold War as a global event and should not regard either 1945 or 1991 as zero hours. Also, this essay makes no claims at an overarching conclusion, but suggests that while Cold War military history remains fragmented, it represents a more comprehensive picture than many students of the era have thus far come to recognize.