This book concentrates primarily on the historical development of the Cold War. But the "overview" concentrates more heavily on World War II in terms of background while the "origins" goes back in time to the beginning of the modern era in Western Society. The book also deals with the various "wildcards" of the postwar era. Among these were Eurocommunism and the developments of terrorist activity (in Germany and elsewhere) in the 1970s.

Ch. 1.Historical patterns underlying the Cold War -- Ch. 2. Shaping of the Cold War in Europe -- Ch. 3. Wartime cooperation to peacetime antagonism -- Interpolation I : the Berlin airlift -- Interpolation II : the rising of June 1 -- Ch. 4. 1950s : reconstruction and international bloc building -- Ch. 5. Cold War as customary stimulus and response -- Ch. 6. Brezhnev Era and disillusionment -- Ch. 7. Detente and after : into the 1980s -- Ch. 8. end of the Cold War -- Ch. 9. historical shaping of the Cold War in Germany -- Ch. 10. role of postwar vacuums (1945 and after) -- Ch. 11. Finding an American policy : Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and NATO -- Ch. 12. far east, Yugoslavia, and a Cold War deadlock -- Ch. 13. extension of containment to Asia-Indochina -- Ch. 14. Stalin's death and afterward -- Ch. 15. Cuban missile crisis and the end of an historical era -- Ch. 16. Berlin and Germany : intelligence battleground after 1945 -- Ch. 17. Korean War's impact on German intelligence -- Ch. 18. Post-blockade intelligence operations in Germany -- Ch. 19. East German state security and intelligence establishment -- Ch. 20. 1950s intelligence : the development of opposing networks -- Ch. 21. End game : threats and counterpressures until fall of 1963.