8 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
41st President of the United States (1989–1993) — CIA Director, VP under Reagan, WWII naval aviator — who managed the Cold War's end (German reunification, Soviet collapse), assembled the Gulf War coalition, and signed the ADA, Clean Air Act, and Americans with Disabilities Act — arguably the most experienced man to serve as president.
33rd American President who made the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, launched the Marshall Plan, created NATO, and oversaw the beginning of the Cold War — a small-town Missouri politician who became president without preparation when FDR died and made some of the most consequential decisions in modern history.
American historian at Yale — the leading Cold War historian in America — author of The Cold War: A New History, Strategies of Containment, and George F. Kennan: An American Life (Pulitzer Prize 2012) — co-creator of Yale's Grand Strategy program.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1985–91) and last President of the USSR — who launched perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness), ended the Cold War, allowed Eastern European revolutions, and presided over the Soviet Union's dissolution — possibly the most consequential peaceful political choice in modern history.
Pope (1978–2005) — Karol Józef Wojtyła — Polish cardinal from Kraków — the first non-Italian pope in 455 years — who survived an assassination attempt, galvanized Polish Solidarity, contributed to the Soviet collapse, and produced the most extensive papal theological writing in history.
American historian who wrote UFOs and the National Security State — the most comprehensive historical account of US government engagement with UFO phenomena during the Cold War — and who has become one of the most prominent advocates for UAP disclosure.
40th President of the United States (1981–89) — former actor, California Governor — who cut taxes, rebuilt the military, confronted the Soviet Union ('evil empire'), and presided over the Soviet collapse — the defining figure of 20th century American conservatism.
Ben Macintyre's 2018 account of Oleg Gordievsky — the KGB colonel who became Britain's most valuable Cold War spy — a narrative of one man's double life and the operation that extracted him from the Soviet Union.