From the Cold War to the Persian Gulf War, the high drama of America's contemporary foreign policy crises comes to life in this collection of primary documents designed for use by high school and college students.

The comprehensive work dramatizes through memoirs and diaries of the major players, as well as key public documents, eight major crises: The Origins of the Cold War, the Berlin Blockade of 1948-49, the Korean War, the Berlin Crises of 1958 and 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979-80, and the 1991 Persian Gulf War with Iraq. The selection of documents for each crisis dramatizes the tension between the opposing nations and illuminates the process of decision-making by U.S. policy makers.

Meticulously culled from a wide variety of sources and voices, many of the 382 documents are available in no other resource.