Uses contemporary documents to explore the development of the Cold War struggle, the consequences in the 1950s and 1960s, and the lasting effects on American social and cultural patterns.

What is a document? -- How to read a document -- Early antagonism : origin of the atomic bomb -- Tensions and strategies -- The Truman doctrine -- The Marshall plan -- A Soviet bomb -- The China white paper -- NSC-68 -- War in Korea -- The anticommunist crusade : Hollywood and HUAC -- Chambers vs. Hiss -- The Rosenbergs on trial -- Senator Joe McCarthy -- Cultural responses -- Army vs. McCarthy -- To the brink : Eisenhower's inaugural address -- Liberation of captive peoples -- The domino theory -- Unstable peace -- Kennedy's inaugural address -- Bay of pigs -- Standing up to the Soviets -- The Cuban missile crisis -- The atom unleashed -- Catastrophe in Vietnam : French colonial rule -- War in Indochina -- The Geneva conference -- Nation building in Vietnam -- Horrors of war -- Antiwar movement -- Vietnamization -- Reunification -- An end at last : the nuclear test ban treaty of 1963 -- SALT treaties -- Reagan's nuclear strategy -- An end to the Cold War.