This innovative study demonstrates with great clarity the importance of the decline of British power in the creation of the Cold War. The author subjects to detailed analysis the concerted attempts made by the British wartime coalition to forge a perpetual merger with the USA in international affairs to arrest this global decline. He reveals the origins of this policy, the great efforts made towards its realisation, and the ultimate impossibility of fulfilling all of its aims. Dr Ryan uses the Polish and Greek crises of the mid–I940s as case histories to demonstrate his thesis that both the Churchill and Attlee governments recognised the need for the American connection and to provide examples of how they set about obtaining it. Thus, the book casts light on the beginnings of British policy toward the United States that continues today. Reissued in paperback by Cambridge University Press in 2004, Ryan is also the author of The Fall of Che Guavara.