cold war interpretations

• Why did USA and USSR become rivals during 1945-1949?

  • Traditionalists/Orthodox
  • Revisionists
  • Post Revisionists
  • Post-1991 school
• Traditionalist/Orthodox:

  • conflict with the US was inevitable, given the Soviet regime’s:
  • commitment to the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of class struggle
  • promotion of communist revolution on a global scale
  • fundamental hostility towards the capitalist states
• Traditionalist/Orthodox:

  • conflict with the US was inevitable
  • traditional view of American and British historians (particularly before 1960)
  • The Soviets were to blame for the Cold War (communist, expansionist, anti-capitalist)
  • it was a direct result of Stalin’s aggressive Soviet expansionism
  • led Soviets become aggressively expansionist to extend Communist power and undermine capitalism
  • US adopted policy of containment to prevent communism and defend capitalism and thus ‘freedom’
• Impact of the communist ideology on the development of the Cold War: (1945-1953)

  • ‘Stalinisation’ of Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania and East Germany (1945-1947)
  • communist coup in Czechoslovakia (1948)
  • The Berlin Blockade of 1948-1949
  • COMINFORM (1947) instrument to increase Soviet control over other Communist Parties
  • COMECON (1949) trading union **coordinated and controlled economic development in the Eastern Bloc
• Impact of the communist ideology on the development of the Cold War: (1945-1953)

  • French and Italian Communist Parties began a ‘destablisation’ campaign of strikes and demonstrations against the Marshall Plan (1947-1948)
  • USSR approved NK attack on SK (1950) and supplied them weapons and military advisors
• Revisionists:

  • not widely supported by historians
  • US were to blame for the Cold War
  • caused by the US for trying to keep countries capitalist for trade purposes
  • US deliberately intimidated the Soviets (eg. dropping atomic bomb)
  • served as a strong message to the Soviets
  • Truman had a more aggressive approach towards communism
  • US post-war capitalist aims:
  • US intended to impose a ‘Pax Americana’ as a global peace settlement
  • attemps to open sensitive areas to economic activity were bound to be resisted by the USSR
• Impact of the capitalist ideology on the development of the Cold War: (1945-1953)

  • US attempted to force USSR to accept ‘open-door’ policy in Eastern Europe
  • refused to agree on German reparation (1945)
  • tried to use nuclear monopoly as a negotiation tool (Potsdam)
  • ended reparation from the US German zone (1946)
  • US had post-war confidence to shape the world:
  • loss only 0.9% of population
  • industrial capacity increased by 90% (1940-1944)
• Post-revisionists:

  • Cold War was neither the US’s nor the USSR’s dault
  • caused by a mutual misunderstanding of each others motives
  • Cold War was an inevitable result as two superpowers were trying to settle the ‘German Question’
• Post-1991:

  • inspired by secret documents uncovered after the collapse of communism in Russia
  • Cold War was the result of the leaders’ personal faults and fanatical beliefs
  • Cold War was a Clash of Ideologies (capitalism and communism)