Origins of Cold War

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Origins of Cold War

• 1941-1949 by Martin McCauley

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COLD WAR CHRONO

• 1. Communists (Bolsheviks) take over Russia,
  create USSR post 1917
• 2. No threat to US or West til we needed them in
  WWII
• 3. Post WWII no more isolation, now we must
  interact
• 4. Insecurity over goals and strengths 1945-53
  (death of Stalin)
• 5. Khrushchev era better relations, then Castro,
  Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin Wall, arms race,
  space race, cold war proxy wars i.e. Korea,
  Vietnam
• 6. Détente under Brezhnev til 1975
• 7. Glasnost under Gorbachev until 1991 when end
  came for USSR

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Setting the Scene

• POST WWI
• W. Wilson wanted no spheres of influence, or
  balance of power struggles.
• Wanted League of Nations to discuss legitimate
  needs to be met by moral authority.
• Open door to economy, no obstacles to free flow
  of capital and good,
• a liberal capitalist vision of future based on
  civil liberties and universal freedoms based on
  Western values

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Bolshevik Revolution 1917

• Bolsheviks rejected Western/Wilson values
  completely
• Wanted centralization of planning
• Collectivization of property
• No market economy at all
• Soviet interest paramount over all others
• No individual or group needs considered
• No self-determination, only rhetoric
• Power to working class, upper class vilified
• Hostility to capitalism and international economy

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Wilsonian Response

• Soviet Russia not recognized as legitimate rule
  until 1933.
• US appalled at Soviet approach to business and
  government

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1922 Riga Axioms

• Diplomats gathered in Riga, Latvia to study and
  discuss approach to USSR and USSR goals.
• George Kennan, (major American diplomat later and
  author of containment long telegram) in this
  group.
• Axioms stated that Russia leaders had world
  revolution as goal and they advised against our
  allying with Russia. This became working
  hypothesis and directive.

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Great Depression

• Great Depression of 1930s caused the West to
  reevaluate value of planned v. capitalist free
  market economy. Free Market did not look so
  great in 1930s.
• Time to re-think.

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1933 Mission to Moscow

• FDR sent William Bullitt as ambassador to Moscow
  to evaluate.
• Saw purges, murder of Kirov, many others
• Consolidation of Stalin power
• Old leaders known to US had been murdered
• US verbally abused by leadership

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Disagreements on Russia

• Davies, US Ambassador 1937 wrote Mission to
  Moscow made into movie which said everything was
  great in Russia
• Ambassador to Britain Joseph Kennedy though
  Russia worse than Hitler so wanted to appease
  Germany and oppose Stalin.
• Churchill knew both were terrible but felt after
  German invasion 1941 of Russia that Stalin would
  be better ally of the West . If Hitler invaded
  Hell I would make at least a favorable reference
  to the Devil in the House of Commons. So allies
  bet on cooperation with Russia and hoped for the
  best after the war

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US View of Russia during WWII

• Russia would eventually need economic help. US
  had the bomb. Rapprochement would come after war
  since Russia would not want world divided into
  blocs. We thought.
• Tehran conference 1943 Stalin reasonable, wanted
  no new territory he said
• Yalta Conference 1945 changed, open breach,
  wanted friendly government in eastern Europe, not
  free elections.
• Cold War looms, Riga Axioms look right after all.

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COLD WAR BEGINS THREE VIEWS

• View 1 Traditionalist or orthodox -it was all
  Russias fault
• View 2 Revisionist- it was all US fault
• View 3 Post Revisionist- It was probably mostly
  Russias fault. There are various versions of
  post revisionist

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TRADITIONAL/ORTHODOX

• 1946 US diplomat George Kennan Long Telegram to
  Truman adopted as gospel of Cold War.
  Marxism-Leninism is class struggle leading to
  world revolution started in 1918-20.
• Opposed to capitalist states, trying to undermine
  US and destroy us, to expand, to draw all of
  Germany into Soviet orbit.

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Kennan Main points

• There can be no resolution of differences
• There is no external threat to Soviets, this is
  myth and excuse. Germany devastated
• USSR needs demon to survive internally now that
  war is over so US is it.
• Stalin cannot be won over by trust and diplomacy
• Stalin cannot be moved by world opinion he care
  nothing for opinion.

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Kennan continued

• Negotiations with Soviets should continue only to
  press our demands or to show Soviet intransigence
  and our seriousness
• US should pursue own national interest instead of
  trying to restructure world order
• US should maintain equilibrium so no single
  country could dominate world
• US should concentrate on important parts or
  world US, UK, Germany, Central Europe, USSR,
  Japan

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Keenan finish

• US should foster European Federation to protect
  small states from RUSSIA
• Send economic aid to Europe, restore their self
  confidence
• Reintegrate Germany asap
• Rehab Japan asap
• Use word Totalitarian not Communist when
  describing threats. This will force self
  incrimination by Russians. Truman doctrine
  supported free peoples who are resisting
  attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by
  outside pressures.

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SOLUTION

• 1. Containment and Marshall Plan to save Europe
  to Communist takeover as East Europe had already
  been. Mistake had been made i.e. letting Russia
  take East Germany and Berlin and Poland etc.
  They never gave anything back. These lost, now
  must contain them where they were.
• 2. Offered Marshall help to Russia, Turned down.
  Russia took everything from East Germany and
  moved into Russia, gutted country of all
  factories etc.. Tried to force West out of
  Berlin. Failed. Berlin Airlift.

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Solution II

• NATO, OEEC, troops in Germany, fight expansion of
  USSR and worldwide Communism

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REVISIONIST VIEWS

• Henry Wallace, William Williams of 1940s
• Gabriel Kolko, New Left of late 60s and early 70s
• Soviet motives were pure, defensive, not
  aggressive or confrontational.
• Cold War was fault of the West not USSR

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Soviet Motives and Goals

• Security after the war and invasion by Germany
• Economic strength in face of prosperous US

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Causes of the confrontations?

• 1. Liberal capitalist US economy needed
  increasing trade and investment opportunities to
  overcome endemic weaknesses, this implied
• 2. expansion of American political influence
  which produced
• 3. the open door policy which looked like equal
  opportunity for all markets but really benefited
  the leading economic power, the US, and increased
  US domination over world. So

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US WAS BAD

• 4. US only wanted open markets to help itself.
  Only wanted peace so markets could prosper,
  Wanted British/Mid East oil and to replace
  British power with US power in world
• 5. US only fought the war because Germany and
  Japan were becoming autarkic empires
• 6. All US policies were really anti-Communist
  policies. i.e. US could not make big unsecured
  loan to USSR in 1945. i.e. US would not sanction
  USSR getting Big reparations from West Germany,
  US had the bomb and would not share it. Marshall
  Plan was anti-communist

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REALLY BAD

• US created whole myth about SOVIET EXPANSIONISM
  to justify US actions like Truman Doctrine, NATO,
  Berlin Airlift, Korea, etc.
• Russia had to forcefully create Peoples
  democracies to combat this. But USSR always hoped
  that rapprochement could occur down the road.

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POST REVISIONIST 1

• Situation was complex-- so hard to generalize on
  blame.
• Traditionalists do not account for real needs of
  Soviet security
• Revisionists ignore Soviet behavior (purges, mass
  murders, collectivism, gulags, etc) which causes
  US reaction.

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POST REVISION 2

• John Lewis Gaddis-major modern historian who used
  to be a revisionist but now post-revisionist with
  knowledge from Soviet archives.
• A long term patient, but firm and vigilant
  containment of Russian expansive tendencies was
  needed.
• US tried to do this but failed. Russia had to be
  strong and supported during the war but Russia
  did not abide by values for which the war was
  fought (by us). Containment by US did not work.
• Problem US did not have military policy in
  place after the war. Won war, lost peace.
  Bullitt agreed. Churchill wanted US troops in
  Eastern Europe during the war, we did not. Let
  Russians have it.

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Post Revisionist continued

• US believed that Russia would need our help after
  the war to rebuild and that this would provide
  leverage for US. FDR thought he could charm and
  work with Stalin after war. FDR died.
• Truman not privy to plans. Let Russians have
  Eastern Europe, Did not need them to defeat
  Japan. They cared nothing for opinion of world
  on actions so leverage was non existent.

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Other post-revisionists views

• Other views can be read in the reading in cold
  war handout.
• Dobson and Marsh British historians see chapter
  from cold war handout.
• See ppt Dobson and Marsh US Foreign Policy