Re-entry

Just returned from a month of vacation. Managed to place War in the Modern World fairly far back in my mind after a race on December 31 to finish the long essay and the commentary on the Cuban missile crisis simulation. Straight back into the swing of things though with the topic on Strife in the Communist World which I am co-presenting. Its a huge subject area, with so many different avenues to explore and I hope one which will provoke a lively and interesting debate.

While away, I read a great short guide to the Vietnam war: Vietnam: A War Lost and Won by Nigel Cawthorne and also finished Zubok and Pleshakov's Inside the Kremlin's Cold War which gives an interesting version of events based on Soviet archives and thus rounding out my understanding of the period.