Letter: Thompson's war

Sir: Edward Thompson was a great historian and a good man, albeit one deluded by Communism for too long. What he was not was someone who played a significant role in the ending of the Cold War, as Mary Kaldor absurdly claims (Obituaries, 30 August).

The Cold War did not 'end'. It was won by the West, and for that we have to thank - as the younger generation of Russian leaders is first to recognise - that bogeyman of the anti-nuclear movement, Ronald Reagan. If anybody should be 'rescued from the enormous condescension of posterity' it is he.

Yours faithfully,

TIM WILLIAMS

London, E8