America's Cold Warrior

Reviews / Votes

A brilliant political biography, elegantly written, rich in archival material. Mr. Wilson tells Nitze's story with an impressive command of detail and sources, no mean feat given the span of Nitze's career.

(The Wall Street Journal) In his superb America's Cold Warrior, State Department historian James Graham Wilson portrays Nitze as consistently animated by a single, "steadfast conviction that the United States needed to possess overriding strength."

(Foreign Policy) America's Cold Warrior by James Graham Wilson, an historian at the US Department of State, expertly recounts and analyzes Nitze's career and influence.

(The Cipher Brief) This book is not a stale history of an insignificant person. It is a well written, fascinating story centered around a very influential man. It just happens that the man's name is unknown to most, even if his acts are not. Paul Nitze is a real-life Forrest Gump, albeit a very serious and more reliable narrator of history. America's Cold Warrior is a book for the casual reader and policy wonk alike. If you enjoy history, war, or great biographies, this book is for you.

(Global Security Review) The result is an admiring, but not uncritical, portrait of one of the great national security "experts" of the second half of the 20th century.

(New York Journal of Books) Wilson has ably shown (in less than 300 pages) how State Department historians can extend their remit from publishing documentary records to enlivening the past-and educating those who seek to navigate the future.

(The National Interest) Although he lived almost as long as George Kennan, Paul Nitze never quite achieved the fame of his coeval. But James Graham Wilson makes a compelling case in this biography that Nitze was comparably influential in US diplomacy.

(The Foreign Service Journal) This splendid book is... long overdue.

(War on the Rocks) James Graham Wilson makes a compelling case that the under-celebrated example of Paul Nitze is both instructive and worthy of our emulation.

(Law & Liberty) Wilson has written a definitive history of Paul Nitze...

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