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Boiling Point: How America Brought War to Ukraine
Not yet published
Expected 3 Nov 26From bestselling author Stephen Kinzer, the untold story of the secret 75-year American campaign that set the stage for war in Ukraine
Until the Russian invasion in 2022, few Americans could find Ukraine on a map. Once the fighting began, however, support for its cause surged. The reason was clear: Russia was the aggressor, Ukraine its victim.
Yet this war did not explode out of nowhere. For seventy-five years, Moscow and Washington have fought over Ukraine. It is the most sustained covert conflict in modern history. Both sides sought to keep this story secret. They succeeded―until now.
In his groundbreaking new book, Stephen Kinzer tells this long-hidden story. Beginning in the refugee camps of postwar Europe, where CIA officers recruited their first Ukrainian agents, it follows generations of rebels, exiles, traitors, and covert operatives through decades of clandestine missions. Although nearly all of the guerrilla warriors that the CIA sent into Ukraine were captured or killed, it never gave up. From the late 1940s through the end of the Cold War, American leaders saw Ukrainians as their most effective weapon against Moscow. They continued to press that strategy after Ukraine’s independence and the eastward expansion of the US-dominated NATO alliance.
Richly detailed and plot-driven, Boiling Point shows how the United States made Ukraine its most important European project of the twenty-first century, culminating in the escalation that led to war. From battlefields in the Carpathians to smoke-filled offices in New York to the Olympic Games, it is full of the wild stories and improbable characters that made All the Shah’s Men a classic. This is the last great untold spy-versus-spy story of our time.
Until the Russian invasion in 2022, few Americans could find Ukraine on a map. Once the fighting began, however, support for its cause surged. The reason was clear: Russia was the aggressor, Ukraine its victim.
Yet this war did not explode out of nowhere. For seventy-five years, Moscow and Washington have fought over Ukraine. It is the most sustained covert conflict in modern history. Both sides sought to keep this story secret. They succeeded―until now.
In his groundbreaking new book, Stephen Kinzer tells this long-hidden story. Beginning in the refugee camps of postwar Europe, where CIA officers recruited their first Ukrainian agents, it follows generations of rebels, exiles, traitors, and covert operatives through decades of clandestine missions. Although nearly all of the guerrilla warriors that the CIA sent into Ukraine were captured or killed, it never gave up. From the late 1940s through the end of the Cold War, American leaders saw Ukrainians as their most effective weapon against Moscow. They continued to press that strategy after Ukraine’s independence and the eastward expansion of the US-dominated NATO alliance.
Richly detailed and plot-driven, Boiling Point shows how the United States made Ukraine its most important European project of the twenty-first century, culminating in the escalation that led to war. From battlefields in the Carpathians to smoke-filled offices in New York to the Olympic Games, it is full of the wild stories and improbable characters that made All the Shah’s Men a classic. This is the last great untold spy-versus-spy story of our time.
384 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication November 3, 2026
About the author
Stephen Kinzer
22 books820 followersStephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents. His articles and books have led the Washington Post to place him "among the best in popular foreign policy storytelling." (source)
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 29, 2026
In this history of U.S. foreign policy towards Ukraine, Stephen Kinzer convincingly states the case that decades of aggressive promotion of Ukrainian nationalism significantly influenced the course of Ukrainian politics at key intervals and made the ongoing conflict with Russia more or less inevitable. Despite covering decades of history, often in close detail, Kinzer keeps the text highly readable and understandable for readers who may have little background understanding of the subject matter.
The Cold War era promotion of anti-Soviet militants and, more significantly, pro-nationalist messaging in Ukraine is a story that is probably known by few Americans. The exact impact of these efforts is hard to measure, but Kinzer’s concurrent tracing of the pivotal influence over American policy towards Ukraine held by a relatively small number of U.S. officials with familial history in the region is direct, largely based on their own statements, and disturbing.
None of the U.S. presidents come off particularly well in the narrative, but Clinton and Biden figure particularly negatively. Clinton’s gleeful promotion of Boris Yeltsin’s shambolic oversight of the looting of Russia over the way for Putin. Biden’s insistence on avoiding potential off-ramps for escalation looks deeply wrong-headed in hindsight.
Kinzer takes pains to make it clear that the book is not an apologia for Russia or an endorsement of the invasion. Rather, it is an explanation of how years of American influence clearly had an impact. As with any conflict, the starting point that one chooses determines much of which parties will be seen as at fault. At the very least, Kinzer makes a strong argument that when looking at the causes of the Ukraine war, we should not start in 2022, or 2014, or even 1996, but in the period after the end of World War II. Considering how much money the U.S. has spent on Ukraine, more Americans should have at least a passing familiarity with the history.
Thanks to Henry Holt/Macmillan for providing an ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
The Cold War era promotion of anti-Soviet militants and, more significantly, pro-nationalist messaging in Ukraine is a story that is probably known by few Americans. The exact impact of these efforts is hard to measure, but Kinzer’s concurrent tracing of the pivotal influence over American policy towards Ukraine held by a relatively small number of U.S. officials with familial history in the region is direct, largely based on their own statements, and disturbing.
None of the U.S. presidents come off particularly well in the narrative, but Clinton and Biden figure particularly negatively. Clinton’s gleeful promotion of Boris Yeltsin’s shambolic oversight of the looting of Russia over the way for Putin. Biden’s insistence on avoiding potential off-ramps for escalation looks deeply wrong-headed in hindsight.
Kinzer takes pains to make it clear that the book is not an apologia for Russia or an endorsement of the invasion. Rather, it is an explanation of how years of American influence clearly had an impact. As with any conflict, the starting point that one chooses determines much of which parties will be seen as at fault. At the very least, Kinzer makes a strong argument that when looking at the causes of the Ukraine war, we should not start in 2022, or 2014, or even 1996, but in the period after the end of World War II. Considering how much money the U.S. has spent on Ukraine, more Americans should have at least a passing familiarity with the history.
Thanks to Henry Holt/Macmillan for providing an ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Displaying 1 of 1 review