Way Out There In the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold WarSimon and Schuster, 21 févr. 2001 - 592 pages Way Out There in the Blue is a major work of history by the Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Fire in the Lake. Using the Star Wars missile defense program as a magnifying glass on his presidency, Frances FitzGerald gives us a wholly original portrait of Ronald Reagan, the most puzzling president of the last half of the twentieth century. Reagan's presidency and the man himself have always been difficult to fathom. His influence was enormous, and the few powerful ideas he espoused remain with us still -- yet he seemed nothing more than a charming, simple-minded, inattentive actor. FitzGerald shows us a Reagan far more complex than the man we thought we knew. A master of the American language and of self-presentation, the greatest storyteller ever to occupy the Oval Office, Reagan created a compelling public persona that bore little relationship to himself. The real Ronald Reagan -- the Reagan who emerges from FitzGerald's book -- was a gifted politician with a deep understanding of the American national psyche and at the same time an executive almost totally disengaged from the policies of his administration and from the people who surrounded him. The idea that America should have an impregnable shield against nuclear weapons was Reagan's invention. His famous Star Wars speech, in which he promised us such a shield and called upon scientists to produce it, gave rise to the Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan used his sure understanding of American mythology, history and politics to persuade the country that a perfect defense against Soviet nuclear weapons would be possible, even though the technology did not exist and was not remotely feasible. His idea turned into a multibillion-dollar research program. SDI played a central role in U.S.-Soviet relations at a crucial juncture in the Cold War, and in a different form it survives to this day. Drawing on prodigious research, including interviews with the participants, FitzGerald offers new insights into American foreign policy in the Reagan era. She gives us revealing portraits of major players in Reagan's administration, including George Shultz, Caspar Weinberger, Donald Regan and Paul Nitze, and she provides a radically new view of what happened at the Reagan-Gorbachev summits in Geneva, Reykjavik, Washington and Moscow. FitzGerald describes the fierce battles among Reagan's advisers and the frightening increase of Cold War tensions during Reagan's first term. She shows how the president who presided over the greatest peacetime military buildup came to espouse the elimination of nuclear weapons, and how the man who insisted that the Soviet Union was an "evil empire" came to embrace the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and to proclaim an end to the Cold War long before most in Washington understood that it had ended. Way Out There in the Blue is a ground-breaking history of the American side of the end of the Cold War. Both appalling and funny, it is a black comedy in which Reagan, playing the role he wrote for himself, is the hero. |
Autres éditions - Tout afficher
Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars, and the End of the Cold War Frances FitzGerald Affichage d'extraits - 2000 |
Way Out There In the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War Frances FitzGerald Affichage d'extraits - 2001 |
Way Out There In the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War Frances FitzGerald Affichage d'extraits - 2000 |
Expressions et termes fréquents
ABM Treaty According Adelman administration’s advisers agreed agreement American anti-missile arms control asked ballistic missiles Baucom budget Bush called campaign Cannon Chiefs Codevilla Cold War Congress conservative Deaver Democrats deploy deployment Dobrynin forces foreign policy Garthoff Geneva Glasnost going Gorbachev Haig Ibid ICBMs idea interceptor interview issues laser later McFarlane Meese meeting memoir military missile defenses Moscow negotiations Nitze Nixon NSC staff nuclear weapons Nunn Oberdorfer offensive officials Paul Nitze Pentagon percent Perle political polls Powell President Reagan President’s proposal quote Republican Reykjavik Richard Perle Ronald Reagan SALT II SDI program SDIO secretary seemed Senate Shevardnadze Shultz Smith Sofaer Soviet Union space space-based speech Star Wars Strategic Defense Strategic Defense Initiative Strobe Talbott summit Talbott talks technologies Teller testing thought threat tion told Turmoil and Triumph U.S.-Soviet wanted warheads Washington Weinberger Weinberger’s White House wrote York
Fréquemment cités
Page 12 - Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back — that's an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you're finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.
Page 37 - The national security of all the Americas is at stake in Central America. If we cannot defend ourselves there, we cannot expect to prevail elsewhere. Our credibility would collapse, our alliances would crumble, and the safety of our homeland would be put in jeopardy.
Page 12 - You don't understand: Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine.
Page 37 - I've become more and more deeply convinced that the human spirit must be capable of rising above dealing with other nations and human beings by threatening their existence.