Engaging the Evil Empire - by Simon Miles (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In a narrative-redefining approach, Engaging the Evil Empire dramatically alters how we look at the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Tracking key events in US-Soviet relations across the years between 1980 and 1985, Simon Miles shows that covert engagement gave way to overt conversation as both superpowers determined that open diplomacy was the best means of furthering their own, primarily competitive, goals. Miles narrates the history of these dramatic years, as President Ronald Reagan consistently applied a disciplined carrot-and-stick approach, reaching out to Moscow while at the same time excoriating the Soviet system and building up US military capabilities.

The received wisdom in diplomatic circles is that the beginning of the end of the Cold War came from changing policy preferences and that President Reagan in particular opted for a more conciliatory and less bellicose diplomatic approach. In reality, Miles clearly demonstrates, Reagan and ranking officials in the National Security Council had determined that the United States enjoyed a strategic margin of error that permitted it to engage Moscow overtly.

As US grand strategy developed, so did that of the Soviet Union. Engaging the Evil Empire covers five critical years of Cold War history when Soviet leaders tried to reduce tensions between the two nations in order to gain economic breathing room and, to ensure domestic political stability, prioritize expenditures on butter over those on guns. Miles's bold narrative shifts the focus of Cold War historians away from exclusive attention on Washington by focusing on the years of back-channel communiqués and internal strategy debates in Moscow as well as Prague and East Berlin.

Review Quotes

Engaging the Evil Empire is a thought-provoking historical analysis of the people and events that accelerated the Cold War's peaceful conclusion. Miles's work is an efficient case study for any student of grand strategy. His use of archives from multiple European states adds credibility to the importance he places on back-channeling and quiet diplomacy as the profound aspects of Reagan's approach.

[A] provocative new book on the Cold War relationship between the US and the Soviet Union during the first half of the 1980s.

Miles makes clear that the groundwork for improvement was being quietly laid during the time when U.S.-Soviet relations seemed most ominous. The great strengths of Miles's book is his use of an impressively rich international set of archival sources that complements and goes beyond much of what previous scholars have accessed.

Miles's book represents a very valuable contribution to the Cold War research and no historian who is interested in the superpower competition in the second half of the 20th century should miss it.

Simon Miles's Engaging the Evil Empire initiates a more pointed and factual exploration of the topic. Miles makes clear that the groundwork for improvement was being quietly laid during the time when US-Soviet relations seemed most ominous.

This fast-paced and well-documented analysis of the 1981-85 period provides much new evidence about an oft-neglected period in superpower relations. Simon Miles contradicts the widely held view that the Cold War flared up once more during Ronald Reagan's first term and the concurrent final years of gerontocratic rule in the Soviet Union, arguing instead that the two superpowers were genuinely interested in negotiations, though not necessarily cooperation. Engaging the Evil Empire benefits from a clear narrative, concise writing, and the use of a dazzling array of archival material.

About the Author

Simon Miles is Assistant Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. He is coeditor of The Reagan Moment.