"Ambassador George McGhee is one of the unsung heroes of American foreign policy in the Cold War. He was the third highest ranking State Department official and ambassador to Germany and Turkey. In Europe and the Far and Middle East, he helped construct and implement the containment of the Soviet Union. He negotiated with Hailie Silassie, the Shah, and Nehru and brought Greece and Turkey into NATO. McGhee was the right-hand man of secretaries of states and, significantly, the highest ranking member of the Kennedy-Johnson administration at Secretary Dean Rusk's funeral....His book on the Cold War written from the frontline fills a void in the literature. Few living Americans can match his experience." - Kenneth W. Thompson Director, Miller Center for Public Affairs J. Wilson Newman Professor of Government, University of Virginia
Product Description
In this insider's account of the Cold War, Ambassador George McGhee outlines how the 43-year Cold War emerged unexpectedly in 1947. McGhee follows the standoff in Europe and the Far East, the competition in the developing world, including the shooting wars fought in Korea and Vietnam in which the U.S. lost 111,000 lives. McGhee personally directed Greek-Turkish Aid, the first American effort to contain the Soviets. He also led the movement to get Greece and Turkey into NATO, using them as a bulwark against encroachment in the Middle East. McGhee accounts, using his hitherto unpublished field notes taken while he was special assistant to the Secretary of State, his attempts to cope with the Arab Refugee problem and the hostilites that followed the emergence of the state of Israel. McGhee served in Guam with Curtis LeMay and was involved in the bombing of Japan and the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He negotiated with Nehru, Haile Selassie, the Shah of Iran, and Ibn Saud to protect U.S. interests in the Middle East. In addition, he negotiated with Tshombe in the 1962 Cong crisis, diverting a Soviet threat. He was also U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1963 to 1968, when U.S. forces reached 250,000 in Europe.
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