JHU SAIS Scholars James Mann Publishes New Book on President Reagan and End of Cold War

Washington, D.C.-03/10/2009 - James Mann, Foreign Policy Institute author-in-residence at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), has recently published The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War.

In The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan, published by Viking on 03/9, Mann explores the role that President Ronald Reagan played 20 years ago in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Was he as pivotal in the Cold War victory over the Soviet Union as his admirers say, or was he merely lucky, as some critics have argued?

Mann tackles this question by shedding new light on the hidden aspects of American foreign policy. He reveals previously undisclosed secret messages between Reagan and Moscow; internal White House intrigues; and battles with leading figures such as Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who repeatedly questioned Reagan's unfolding diplomacy with Mikhail Gorbachev. He details the background and fierce debate over Reagan's famous Berlin Wall speech and shows how it fit into Reagan's policies. Ultimately, Mann dispels the facile stereotypes of Reagan in favor of a levelheaded, cogent understanding of a determined president and his strategy.

This book finally answers the troubling questions about Reagan's actual role in the crumbling of Soviet power; and concludes that by recognizing the significance of Gorbachev, Reagan helped bring the Cold War to a close.

Mann is the best-selling author of Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet, The China Fantasy, Beijing Jeep and About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship With China From Nixon to Clinton. He was previously the diplomatic correspondent and foreign affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times and served as the Beijing bureau chief from 1984 to 1987. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Mann also has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic and The Washington Post.

SAIS is one of the country's leading graduate schools devoted to the study of international relations. Located along Embassy Row in Washington's Dupont Circle area, the school enrolls more than 580 full-time graduate students and mid-career professionals and has trained more than 15,000 alumni in all aspects of international affairs. SAIS also has campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China.