Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521176668)

Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War offers a diplomatic history of the 1980 Olympic boycott. Broad in its focus, it looks at events in Washington, D.C., as well as the opposition to the boycott and how this attempted embargo affected the athletic contests in Moscow. Jimmy Carter based his foreign policy on assumptions that had fundamental flaws and reflected a superficial familiarity with the Olympic movement. These basic mistakes led to a campaign that failed to meet its basic mission objectives but did manage to insult the Soviets just enough to destroy détente and restart the Cold War. The book also includes a military history of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which provoked the boycott, and an examination of the boycott's impact four years later at the Los Angeles Olympics, where the Soviet Union retaliated with its own boycott.

Author: Nicholas Evan Sarantakes
ISBN-10: 0521176662
ISBN-13: 9780521176668
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 09/27/2010
Pages: 356
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.14lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 03/01/2011