On the Brink: The Dramatic, Behind-the-Scenes Saga of the Reagan Era and the Men and Women Who Won the Cold War, by Jay Winik (Simon & Schuster, 672 pp., $30)
JAY Winik has written a magnificent book: a thorough, stylish account of how President Reagan brought the Cold War to an end. Obviously there is no single explanation for any historical event: a variety of personalities, circumstances, and situations contributed to the great event under discussion here. Thus the debate as to how and why the Cold War was won will continue to rage, especially among liberals, who, as Winik demonstrates, deserve little in the way of congratulations. Nixon’s policy of détente did not help, either. Certainly we can argue that corruption and decadence among the Soviet leadership were contributing factors. But the fall of the Soviet Union could have taken place ten or twenty years from now. Why did it happen when it did? Winik gives proper credit to the brilliant team that advised President Reagan: notably Caspar Weinberger, Richard Perle, and Jeane Kirkpatrick. But after all it was the President who chose his advisors, and the President’s contribution extended far beyond simply hiring great minds. The importance of Winik’s book lies in his clear identification of Reagan as the central actor in the initiation and planning of the policies that led most directly to the victory over Soviet Communism. —Amos Perlmutter
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