America's Cold Warrior - by James Graham Wilson (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book is a political biography of Paul Nitze, the lead author of NSC-68, who served in eight presidential administrations and contributed to Cold War debates from 1945-1991. It considers his legacies after September 11, 2001, and in the context of Russia and China in the 2020s"--

Book Synopsis

In America's Cold Warrior, James Graham Wilson traces Paul Nitze's career path in national security after World War II, a time when many of his mentors and peers returned to civilian life. Serving in eight presidential administrations, Nitze commanded White House attention even when he was out of government, especially with his withering criticism of Jimmy Carter during Carter's presidency. While Nitze is perhaps best known for leading the formulation of NSC-68, which Harry Truman signed in 1950, Wilson contends that Nitze's most significant contribution to American peace and security came in the painstaking work done in the 1980s to negotiate successful treaties with the Soviets to reduce nuclear weapons while simultaneously deflecting skeptics surrounding Ronald Reagan. America's Cold Warrior connects Nitze's career and concerns about strategic vulnerability to the post-9/11 era and the challenges of the 2020s, where the United States finds itself locked in geopolitical competition with the People's Republic of China and Russia.

Review Quotes

James Wilson's book America's Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan from Roosevelt to Reagan provides readers with a worthwhile survey of Nitze's career.

-- "International Journal of Military History and Historiography"

As this lively, readable and informative biography reminds us, Paul Nitze's name is forever associated with some of the key episodes of the Cold War.

-- "Survival"

Wilson has written a definitive history of Paul Nitze...

-- "CHOICE"

Although he lived almost as long as George Kennan, Paul Nitze never quite achieved the fame of his coeval. But James Graham Wilson makes a compelling case in this biography that Nitze was comparably influential in US diplomacy.

-- "The Foreign Service Journal"

James Graham Wilson makes a compelling case that the under-celebrated example of Paul Nitze is both instructive and worthy of our emulation.

-- "Law & Liberty"

This splendid book is... long overdue.

-- "War on the Rocks"

In his superb America's Cold Warrior, State Department historian James Graham Wilson portrays Nitze as consistently animated by a single, "steadfast conviction that the United States needed to possess overriding strength."

-- "Foreign Policy"

Wilson has ably shown (in less than 300 pages) how State Department historians can extend their remit from publishing documentary records to enlivening the past--and educating those who seek to navigate the future.

-- "The National Interest"

The result is an admiring, but not uncritical, portrait of one of the great national security "experts" of the second half of the 20th century.

-- "New York Journal of Books"

America's Cold Warrior by James Graham Wilson, an historian at the US Department of State, expertly recounts and analyzes Nitze's career and influence.

-- "The Cipher Brief"

A brilliant political biography, elegantly written, rich in archival material. Mr. Wilson tells Nitze's story with an impressive command of detail and sources, no mean feat given the span of Nitze's career.

-- "The Wall Street Journal"

This book is not a stale history of an insignificant person. It is a well written, fascinating story centered around a very influential man. It just happens that the man's name is unknown to most, even if his acts are not. Paul Nitze is a real-life Forrest Gump, albeit a very serious and more reliable narrator of history. America's Cold Warrior is a book for the casual reader and policy wonk alike. If you enjoy history, war, or great biographies, this book is for you.

-- "Global Security Review"

About the Author

James Graham Wilson is a Historian at the US Department of State.