Reasons for Origins of the Cold War
Historian interpretations
Orthodox View
Revisionist View
Post-Revisionist View
neither the USA nor the USSR can be held solely responsible
John Lewis Gaddis
"The Cold War grew out of a complicated interaction of external and internal developments"
"The external situation - circumstances beyond the control of either power"
"Internal influences in the Soviet Union - the search for security, the role of ideology, massive post-war reconstruction needs, the personality of Stalin - together with those in the United States - the need for self-determination, fear of Communism, the illusion of omnipotence fostered by American economic strength and the atomic bomb"
both superpowers overestimated the strength and threat of the other
USA held responsible for the Cold War
William Appleman Williams explained Cold War by "dollar diplomacy"
containment of Communism was driven by the need to secure markets and free trade
Historians Gabriel and Joyce Kolko view Soviet action as even less relevant to US foreign policy
Thomas Patterson wrote that "coercion characterized United States reconstruction diplomacy"
Stalin was a pragmatic leader
Soviet Union was responsible for the Cold War
Soviets were inevitably expansionist due to suspicion and according to the Marxist theory
Arthur M Schlesinger
"Marxism-Leninism gave the Russian leaders a view of the world in which the existence of any non-Communist state was by definition a threat to the Soviet Union"
"An analysis of the origins of the Cold War which leaves out these factors - the intransigence of Leninist ideology, the sinister dynamics of a totalitarian society and the madness of Stalin - is absolutely incomplete"
Historians W.H. McNeill and H. Feis also presented the Orthodox view
Was the USA responsible?
1945 A-bombs designed to show military superiority over USSR
US failing to see that Stalin's actions were defensive
determination after 1947 to interpret all Soviet actions as being ideological
Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine
seen by the Soviets as "Capitalist interference"
Introduction of a new currency in Berlin
West's establishment of NATO
Was the USSR responsible?
Stalin not keeping to agreement made in Yalta regarding Poland
exploited wartime agreements to retain military presence in north Iran until 1946
Berlin Blockade was ill-conceived
Establishment of Cominform was an attempt to control Communist parties
Stalin viewing all Western actions as aggressive
Role of Great Power Rivalry
Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835
"Their starting point is different, and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems marked by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe"
written before Karl Marx's 'Das Capital and the 'Communist Manifesto'
Walter LaFeber
USA and USSR viewed as expansionist powers
"They first confronted one another on the plains of Asia in the late nineteenth century. That climaxed a century in which Americans had expanded westward over half the globe and Russians had moved eastward across Asia"
Role of Ideology
US Perspective
USSR Perspective
Ideas of capitalism and communism were incompatible
Mistrust began after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and the Red Scare in the USA
Salami tactics after 1945 appeared as a desire to spread Communism
Cominform seen as an organization made to promote worldwide revolution
Rise of Communist parties in France and Italy after WW2
Soviet activity in Iran reinforced the belief that Stalin wanted influence outside Eastern Europe
Marshall Plan seen as 'dollar imperialism'
US economic power and drive to establish free trade indicated possible US global economic domination
US actions in Germany appeared to be an attempt to spread US influence
Role of Fear and Suspicion
US Fear
Soviet Fear
USA afraid that the USSR would continue expanding if it wasn't resisting by the policy of containment
Kennan's Long Telegram presented an analysis of Soviet foreign policy
Developing Red Scare
Congress passed the Marshall Plan when the Czech communists seized power
Establishment of Comintern was evidence of the Soviet desire to spread revolution
First Soviet atomic bomb in 1949 increased US fear
China becoming communist
North Korea invading South Korea
USA trying to pursue dollar imperialism
USSR weakened economically after WW2 whereas USA had an economic boom
US aggressive actions
US pursuit of open trade policies
Setting up the Marshall Plan
Introduction of a new currency in Western zones of Germany
Establishment of NATO
Fear of USA deliberately undermining the USSR
using nuclear superiority and economic strength to stake out its primacy