The Folly and the Glory
America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945–2020
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4.8 • 8 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From Tim Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, an urgent and gripping account of the 75-year battle between the US and Russia that led to the election and impeachment of an American president
With vivid storytelling and riveting insider accounts, Weiner traces the roots of political warfare—the conflict America and Russia have waged with espionage, sabotage, diplomacy and disinformation—from 1945 until 2020. America won the cold war, but Russia is winning today. Vladimir Putin helped to put his chosen candidate in the White House with a covert campaign that continues to this moment. Putin’s Russia has revived Soviet-era intelligence operations gaining ever more potent information from—and influence over—the American people and government. Yet the US has put little power into its defense. This has put American democracy in peril.
Weiner takes us behind closed doors, illuminating Russian and American intelligence operations and their consequences. To get to the heart of what is at stake and find potential solutions, he examines long-running 20th-century CIA operations, the global political machinations of the Soviet KGB, the erosion of American political warfare after the cold war, and how 21st-century Russia has kept the cold war alive. The Folly and the Glory is an urgent call to our leaders and citizens to understand the nature of political warfare—and to change course before it’s too late.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this colorful and richly detailed account, journalist Weiner (One Man Against the World) charts 75 years of Russia-U.S. antagonisms, beginning at the end of WWII and culminating with present-day Kremlin stratagems to "subvert the United States, undermine its power, poison its political discourse." Weiner credits American diplomat George F. Kennan with recognizing Joseph Stalin's imperialistic intentions after WWII, and details Cold War clashes in Cuba, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Afghanistan. Weiner also profiles CIA agent Larry Devlin, who resisted an order to assassinate recently ousted Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba with poison toothpaste in 1960, and describes U.S. influence campaigns behind the Iron Curtain, including Voice of America radio broadcasts and support for the pro-democracy Solidarity movement in 1980s Poland. Meanwhile, Weiner writes, Kremlin leaders capitalized on the Iran-contra affair to spread disinformation in the U.S., including rumors that the Pentagon originally developed AIDS as a bioweapon. Motivated by Cold War hard feelings and emboldened by new technologies, Russian leader Vladimir Putin (Stalin's "true heir," according to Weiner) "plung democracy into danger" by helping elect Donald Trump. Weiner briskly relates a treasure trove of declassified material from the Cold War and draws on insider accounts to present a plausible portrait of the current state of affairs. Newshounds and espionage fans will be enthralled.
