Customer Reviews

Architects of Illusion: Men and Ideas in American Foreign Policy, 1941-1949,

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Since the 1980's, many books have been published on the Cold War using secret information, including archives from the former USSR, the USA, and other nations. Many of these are excellent. However, most of them to focus to an extrme degree on their core strengths--the secret history of the Cold War. Others tend to be extremely acrimonious, assuming that an implausibly hard line taken here or a concession there might have led to an entirely different, or more favorable outcome.

For this reason, there might have been some merit to Gardner's now-ancient book (c.1970); sadly there is little. The book is organized to profile eleven men (William C Bullitt, FDR, Truman, James F Byrnes, Will Clayton, George C Marshall, Bernard Baruch, Dean Acheson, Lucius Clay, George F Kennan, and James Forrestal), supplying for each a general outline of their influence on American policy and what they believed was the nature of the situation they were working with. Readers accustomed to modern accounts are likely to be frustrated with the sketchy treatment--the biographical organization means the same circumstances will be treated repeatedly--and by the abrupt and arbitrary way in which actors change their minds. I personally was infuriated by Gardner's lack of clear dates--his narrative is almost useless as a source. It's also impressionistic and involves frequent flashbacks. Readers are advised to skip this effort.