What caused the Cold War?
1. Role of Ideology - Examples of Conflict
2. Role of Economic Rivalry
3. Role of Great Power Rivalry
Was the war inevitable?
Historiography
- Views on this issue depend a lot upon how you view the nature of Cold War:
- Conflict about ideas and political systems?
- Conflict about Rival Economic systems?
- Conflict about Great Power Rivalry?
1. Role of Ideology - Examples of Conflict
- Communism vs. Capitalism - 19th century, aims
- Bolshevik Revolution 1917
- Red Scare USA 1920s
- Western attempts to destroy Communism 1918-22
- Salami tactics in post-war Europe; Czech Coup
- COMINTERN, COMINFORM
- Rise of Communist Parties post-war (Greece, France, Italy)
- Truman Doctrine
- Marshall Plan
- Dollar Imperialism - Atlantic Charter
- US calls for "free trade" and "democracy"
- American Imperialism
- War Conferences - Iron Curtain Speech
- Stalin's Speeches and Ideology - Western Liberal Democracy vs. Soviet Totalitarianism?
- Stalinism = paranoid and hostile to outside world
2. Role of Economic Rivalry
- US economic policy - open markets, free trade, IMF, GATT, World Bank, Bretton Woods Agreements
- Marshall Plan
- aim to prevent Communism by solving poverty in Europe - COMECON
- Soviet attempt to create economic sphere of influence
- Imposed Stalinist economic systems - German Problem
- Stalin feared economically powerful Germany
- US wanted to export to Germany, West introduced new currency in its zones
- Led to Berlin Blockade - Iran Crisis 1946
- Stalin/West wanted control of Iranian Oil
3. Role of Great Power Rivalry
- Breakdown a result of traditional great power rivalry
- Balance of power always emerges in history
- Power-vacuum of post-war Europe - Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)
- US and UUSR seemed destined to control half the world - Expansionist power
- Both needed to "feed" their countries with raw materials, new markets, make the world safe for their countries - Kissinger 1980s
- Soviet policy a continuation of Tsarist empire building
Was the war inevitable?
- USSR was to blame?
- Roosevelt at Yalta wanted US troops gone from Germany in 2 years
- US expected USSR to be a part of new global system
- Stalin disregarded promises at Yalta regarding Eastern Europe (Salami Tactics)
- Remained in Northern Iran despite promises to withdraw
- Berlin Blockade
- COMINFORM, evidence of Stalin's expansion
- Stalin promoted hostility to the West within USSR - USA was to blame?
- USSR had legitimate security concerns
- USSR faced hostile West since 1917
- USSR lost 20million in war
- USSR had weak economy
- USSR needed buffer zone in Eastern Europe to prevent future attacks
- Atomic Bomb
- Truman exaggerated Communist threat to Congress
- US viewed all Soviet actions ideological
- Introduction of new currency into Berlin was provocative
- US wanted anti-Soviet state
- Establishment of NATO - Were both sides to blame?
- West and USA feared communism as a threat to its existence
- Communism in world would be a threat
- USSR's actions were suspicious and expansionist, against Yalta
- Kennan's Long Telegram presented a very fearful view of the USSR
- Developing Red Scare in USA increased paranoia
- China, Korea, USSR atomic bomb in 1949
- USSR scared because they were in a weak position after war
- USA had strong economy, nuclear monopoly (US imperialism)
- Stalin was a paranoid leader (totalitarian state)
- Stalin was unable to view US actions logically
Historiography
- What do Orthodox Historians think?
- Believe that the USSR was to blame
- Writing in 1950s/1960s
- Narrative was shaped by the US government
- Argue that Communism was expansionist due to Marxist theory
- Wanted world revolution against Capitalism
- Highlight Stalin's role in violating Yalta and Potsdam, occupying Eastern Europe, planning revolutions in Asia.
- USA "had to" act through the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan and NATO
- Arthur M. Schlesigner Jr., Herbert Feis, Winston Churchill, Georgy Kennan - What do Revisionist Historians think?
- 1960s when Americans began to question the actions of their own government over the controversial war in Vietnam
- Believed that USA was responsible for the Cold War
- Argue that US policy was linked to the needs of capitalism
- Containment was all about securing access to markets
- US was aggressive and wanted to dominate post-war world
- WIlliam Appleman Williams argued that US policy was a form of "dollar diplomacy"
- Gar Alperowitz argued that primary reason the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan was to "scare" USSR - What do Post-Revisionist Historians think?
- 3rd perspective emerged in the 1970s and 1980s
- Questioned both the orthodox and revisionist
- John Lewis Gaddis; argued that war grew out of complex misconceptions on both sides
- Both sides failed to recognise the needs of each other
- Both overestimated the strength of each side
- Long-term factors made peace between them difficult - What do Post-Cold War "New" historians think?
- End of the Cold War 1989, many Soviet archives were opened which allowed historians to see events from the Soviet perspective
- Growing consensus that both sides were to blame
- Stalin was a crazy leader, his actions encouraged war
- New historians using new evidence focus more on the role of individuals and their ideologies
- John Lewis Gaddis, Daniel Yergin, Constantine Pleshakov