This book is a study, based on the most recent scholarship, of American policy towards the Soviet Union from 1917 to the present. From a perspective of the end of the Cold War, it looks at the ideological conflict throughout the period, focusing on such issues as American intervention in Russia in 1918-20, the origins of the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, detente in the Nixon-Kissinger era and relations between Reagan and Gorbachev. The book is both an attempt to understand what precisely were the roots of the Cold War and an analysis of the US/Soviet relationship in the light of its historical evolution since the Russian revolution. Peter Boyle's thesis is that American policy has been shaped not only by the external threat from the Soviet Union but also by internal forces within American society, especially domestic politics, economic interests, emotional and psychological attitudes and images of the Soviet Union. The author develops this thesis chronologically, looking at the lessons which the history of the period provides for post-Cold War relations.