Drawing from new archival research, prize-winning historian Michael Burleigh gives new meaning to the seminal decades of 1945 to 1965 by examining the many, largely forgotten, "hot" wars fought around the world.

Includes maps of: Korean War; Malayan Emergency; Luzon, the Philippines; Indochina; Kashmir; Algerian War; Mau-Mau Emergency; Decolonization of Africa; Missile Crisis 1962. "First published in Great Britain by Macmillan, an imprint of Pan Macmillan 2013; first published in the United States of Ameica by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2013"--Title page verso.

Introduction: From the Halls of Montezuma to the Green Zone of Baghdad -- Japan opens Pandora's box -- Harry Truman's world -- Arab nationalism, Jewish homeland -- Some more victorious than others -- "Police action" : Korea -- "Emergency" : Malaya -- By Huk or by crook : the Philippines -- Parachute the escargot : Indochina -- Sometimes special relationship -- Hungary and Suez -- With us or against us : the Sub-continent -- Losing by winning : Algeria -- Terror and counter-terror : Kenya -- The Cold War comes to Africa -- Backyard blues : Cuba -- To the brink : the Missile Crisis -- Overreach : Vietnam -- Watershed of the American century -- Epilogue: Legacies.