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Charles Levinson strips off the mask of "cold war", to show that trade relations between the "Vodka" block and the "Cola" front have flourished and boomed, even stimulated by U-2, Berlin Wall, Cuban Missile or Vietnam crises.
Description
Vodka-Cola is a witty, amusing, thought-provoking, sensational look at the East-West detente. Charles Levinson strips off the mask of "cold war", newspaper headline, to show that trade relations between the "Vodka" block and the "Cola" front have flourished and boomed, Berlin Wall, Cuban Missile or Vietnam crises. We may think of detente as the outcome of political efforts to secure peace, but Mr. Levinson shows that detente has been a response to economic relations which reach back far beyond the overtures of Nixon and Willy Brandt. Western investors discovered the advantages of Communist low-paid, strike-free labour as early as the Eastern bloc discovered its need for Western technology and investment. Together they developed a sophisticated system of buyback agreements to side step non-convertible Eastern currencies. The authoritarian elites on both sides operate an "Overworld" of organized conspiracy, which mirrors the "Underworld" of organized crime. Richard Nixon even managed to bring the two together through his ties with Pepsi-boss Kendall and Mafia-boss Lansky. Levinson paints a witty and lively portrait of the money deals and trade agreements concocted by the Overworld financiers.
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