cover image Inside the Cold War: An Oral History

Inside the Cold War: An Oral History

John Sharnik. Arbor House Publishing, $19.95 (360pp) ISBN 978-0-87795-866-6

ABC's file of on-the-air interviews and photo-coverage of key events of the Cold War period supplied the material for a three-hour special called 45/85, on which this ""oral history'' is based. Sharnik, a TV producer (he also wrote Remembrance of Games Past and coauthored Playing for Life, chronicles for a new generation of readers the most dramatic and significant Cold War passages from Winston Churchill's 1946 ``Iron Curtain'' speech in Fulton, Mo., through the Greek civil war, JFK's response to the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam war and our current era of terrorism. This interesting overview is enriched by interpolated comments made by U.S. presidents from Truman to Reagan, along with revealing words by key players in the Cold WarRobert McNamara, Dean Rusk, Henry Kissinger et al. Photos. (July 22)