Cold War (1945-1989)

After World War II. thousands of Nazis became informants in the Cold War against the Soviet Union -- and then got entry into the U.S. Eric Lichtblau's new book, The Nazi Next Door, tells the story.

Michael McFaul, ambassador to Russia from January 2012 to February 2014, says, "I've never seen [Putin] devote a speech to the necessity of reuniting Crimea with Russia. That came only recently."

Set in the Cold War era, the espionage thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy spotlights a retired security agent's mission to uncover a Russian spy within Britain's MI6. David Edelstein says the movie is thrilling, creepy and full of "faces you'll love to study."

Journalist David E. Hoffman reflects on the high-stakes maneuverings of the Cold War arms race and tells Fresh Air about the urgent search for the nuclear and biological hazards left behind after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He also details the inner workings of the Soviet nuclear program in his book The Dead Hand.

This story was first broadcast October 8, 2009.

Journalist David E. Hoffman revisits the high stakes maneuverings of the Cold War arms race and details the inner-workings of the Soviet nuclear program in his new book.

Errol Morris' Academy Award-Winning documentary about former defense secretary Robert McNamara, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, offers fresh insight into the man many consider to be the architect of the Vietnam conflict.

United States security has long been a primary issue for the conservative movement. But is an aggressive foreign policy actually counterproductive? Author J. Peter Scoblic says yes.

Slate columnist Fred Kaplan offers a scathing critique of the Bush administration's foreign policy initiatives in his new book, Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power.

Taubman is a political science professor at Amherst College and an expert on Russia. This week he received a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of the Russian ruler Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era.Enter Me

His new book is At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War. Reed recounts America's fight against communism at the height of the cold war. Reed was director of national reconnaissance, a special assistant to President Reagan for national security policy, and a consultant to the director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a well-known center for nuclear weapons research.