Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended will be met with skepticism by some readers.

The author is Jack F. Matlock Jr., who among other tasks served as President Reagan's ambassador to the old Soviet Union before the fall of communism and the breakup of that megastate. It may not be fair, but there are those who will assume a book by a former Reagan appointee — and a book published mere weeks after the ex-president's death June 5 — must be apologist cant.

Yet it is much more. Matlock fuses clear writing and clear thinking to evaluate how Reagan and his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev, worked through their differences to find common ground.