1: Despotism and ideology -- Stalin's "election" -- National Sovietism -- The Vozhd -- Homo staliens -- Russia in 1946 -- Stalin's international policy -- 2: The west -- The coming of entangling alliances -- The new Americans: Truman, Leahy, Byrnes -- The new Americans II: officials, friends, cronies -- The legacy of Roosevelt -- Anglo-Saxon relations -- 3: Disputed lands -- Far away countries: eastern Europe; Poland and Czechoslovakia -- Nations of the Danube: Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria -- Heirs of the Turkish empire: Yugoslavia and Albania -- Baltic harbours: Finland, the Baltic states, East Prussia -- The heart of Europe: Germany and Austria -- Gardens of the west: France, Italy and Spain -- The "northern tier": Greece, Turkey and Persia -- The east: China, Japan, Korea and Indo-China -- 4: A professor's dream -- The "Manhattan project" -- The Soviet weapon; and first steps in "atomic diplomacy" -- 5: World's apart -- The road to Fulton: Kennan's telegram -- Fulton and Churchill -- Denouement in Persia -- "Patience and firmness"; or, "strength without ostentation" -- Conclusion to the armed truce.