The War's Long Shadow: The Second World War and Its Aftermath: China, Russia, Britain, America

Smith contends that most of the diplomatic phenomena of the postwar era are ""the natural consequence'' of the dynamics of the war itself. The wartime experiences of China, Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States are here recounted in terms of the way postwar patterns were set. The author argues that while China fell into economic and political chaos after 1945, and Britain slumped to the second or third rank, a ``greater awareness of international relations'' led the Soviet Union and the U.S. to accept as necessary some of the obligations of international power. He discusses how the Korean War undermined the stabilizing trend of the years 194849, with American militarization forcing the Soviets into an armaments program of their own, thus beginning a series of arms races that continue to this day. This leisurely historical meditation preaches to the already converted. Smith is the author of The Shadow Warriors. (August 19)