Includes bibliographical references (p. [395]-400) and index.

In a reinterpretation of the postwar years, historian Robert Dallek examines what drove the leaders of the most powerful nations around the globe--Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Mao, de Gaulle, and Truman--to rely on traditional power politics despite the catastrophic violence their nations had endured. The decisions of these men, for better and often for worse, had profound consequences for decades to come, influencing relations and conflicts with China, Korea, the Middle East, and around the globe. This book is a penetrating look at the misjudgments that caused enormous strife and suffering during this critical period, from the closing months of World War II through the early years of the Cold War. The men who led the world at this time executed astonishingly unwise actions that propelled the nuclear arms race and extended the Cold War. Dallek has written a cautionary tale that considers what might have been done differently.