FDR and the Soviet Union

This is a well-organized analysis of the conflicting positions on policy toward the Soviet Union of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (fdr) and of the Soviet specialists in the U.S. Foreign Service. The book covers the main issues in U.S.-Soviet relations from U.S. diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union in 1933 to Roosevelt's death in 1945. The thesis of the book is that fdr showed great skill and vision in his dealings with the Soviet Union, while the bureaucrats in the U.S. Foreign Service displayed narrowness and rigidity. In the author's view, it is tragic that the bureaucrats outlived fdr; after his death in 1945, the bureaucrats were able to influence the inexperienced Harry S. Truman, with the result that the United States changed direction from fdr's more imaginative and flexible policies to more rigid policies that brought on the Cold War. Mary E. Glantz has made use of newly available sources in American and Soviet archives. Only at the margins, however, do these new sources make an impact. For the most part, the book is based on familiar sources. She has made good use of the extensive historiography on the subject. The notes and bibliography indicate solid research and sound scholarship

Economic history · Foreign policy · Historiography · Library science · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Soviet union · Subject (documents · World War II · History · Intelligence, Security, War Strategy · Law · Public Administration

• A Long, Slow and Painful Road”

  Martin H Folly, Martin Folly•Diplomacy and Statecraft•2012

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