BOOK NOTES

"Undermining the Kremlin": U.S. strategy in 1947-1956

"Undermining the Kremlin," by Gregory Mitrovich. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000, 256 pages, $32.50, cloth.

Following the Allied victory in World War II, the United States turned its efforts to preventing the spread of Communism beyond Eastern Europe. However, in his book "Undermining the Kremlin: America's Strategy to Subvert the Soviet Bloc, 1947-1956", Gregory Mitrovich argues that the policy of containment was only the first step in a clandestine campaign to destroy Soviet power.

Drawing on recently declassified U.S. documents, Mr. Mitrovich reveals a range of previously unknown covert actions launched during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. Through the aggressive use of psychological warfare, officials sought to provoke political crisis among key Soviet leaders, to incite nationalist tensions within the USSR, and to foment unrest across Eastern Europe. Mr. Mitrovich demonstrates that inspiration for these efforts did not originate within the intelligence community, but with individuals at the highest levels of policymaking in the U.S. government.

National security advisors, Mr. Mitrovich asserts, were adamant that the Soviet threat must be eliminated so that United States could create a stable, prosperous international system. Only the shifting balance of power caused by the development of Soviet nuclear weapons forced U.S. leaders to abandon their goal of subverting the Soviet system and to accept a world order with two rival superpowers.

"'Undermining the Kremlin' is a stimulating and eye-opening account of American grand strategy- especially 'psychological warfare'- during the Truman and early Eisenhower years," according to Marc Tachtenberg of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Mitrovich received a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Southern California. His book was published by Cornell University Press (http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu).

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 18, 2001, No. 7, Vol. LXIX

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