The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War

Nicholas Thompson

Picador, Sep 28, 2010 - History - 432 pages

Only two Americans held positions of great influence throughout the Cold War. The two men embodied opposing strategies for winning the conflict. Yet they dined together, attended the weddings of each other's children, and remained lifelong friends.

Paul Nitze was a consummate insider who believed the best way to avoid a nuclear clash was to prepare to win one. George Kennan was a diplomat turned academic whose famous "X article" persuasively argued that we should contain the Soviet Union while waiting for it to collapse from within. A masterly double biography, The Hawk and the Dove "does an inspired job of telling the story of the Cold War through the careers of two of its most interesting and important figures" (The Washington Monthly).

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - bookmarkaussie - LibraryThing

An interesting twin biography of possibly the two leading American theorists of the Cold War. They both believed in the Soviet threat and that Communism needed to be contained but they have very ...

THE HAWK AND THE DOVE: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War

User Review  - Kirkus

A gently critical assessment of two influential shapers of U.S. foreign policy, hawk Paul Nitze (1907-2004) and dove George Kennan (1904-2005).Wired editor Thompson—Nitze's grandson—transitions ...

About the author

Nicholas Thompson is an editor at Wired magazine, a fellow at the New America Foundation, and a regular contributor to CNN. He has written articles for The New York Times, The Washington Post and numerous other publications. A grandson of Paul Nitze's, he lives in New York City with his wife and son.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War
• Author: Nicholas Thompson
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, reissue
• Publisher: Picador, 2010
• ISBN: 0312658869, 9780312658861
• Length: 432 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Political; History / Modern / 20th Century / Cold War; Political Science / International Relations / Arms Control