2.3 cold war interpretations Flashcards
interpretation 1: the US orthodox view (late 1940s-early 1960s)
to the US, it was clear that stalin and the soviet union were to be blamed for the cold war
- bailey: argued that the USSR wanted world revolution. the soviet union caused it by their actions in eastern europe after WW2
- kennan: argued that stalin needed a threatening enemy to convince the people in the soviet union that they needed his dictatorship to protect them - meaning that stalin deliberately took actions to provoke the USA
- feis: argued that the USSR was trying to spread communism across the world and that the USA had been provoked to respond with the truman doctrine and the marshall plan
was the US orthodox view popular?
- most americans believed that their own foreign policy wasn’t driven by self-interest but rather by a desire to improve the world
- they believed that the USSR intended to export communism across the world by force if necessary and it was the USA’s job to stop this
what is the context for US orthodox view?
- the red scare (1940s-1950s) - there were fears that there were soviet spies in the US government. many intellectuals were accused of being communist sympathisers which led to many historians censoring their works especially if they were researching an interpretation that contradicted the USSR being responsible - William Appleman Williams
- personal experience: many historians who wrote the the orthodox accounts at the start of the war had actually been involved in the events they were writing about. eg. george kennan had been a senior US government official and a key figure in the development of the containment policy + herbert feis had been an advisor to the US government
- lack of sources:
quotes for the US orthodox view: for/against
thomas bailey: “a fanatical communist ideology”, “soviets pursue their own world-conquering objectives”
joseph: “in their opinion, american imperialism was the cause of the cold war” -> summarised the soviet view
what was the impact of the US orthodox view?
- widely accepted by historians and politicians during the cold war
- accepted by the majority of the US public
- promoted by hollywood in films that were funded by the US gov
what were the challenges against the US orthodox view?
soviet viewpoint:
- patriotism: many soviet historians were just as patriotic as the americans, and wanted to defend the rep. of their country especially in the years after WW2
- censorship: soviet historians had to deal with censorship and suspicion. accounts of the war that didn’t follow official lines were at risk of losing their jobs
- lack of sources: soviet historians could not access soviet or US sources
US viewpoint:
- william appleman williams argued that that cold war was instigated by the US and that soviet action was purely defensive
- E.H carr blamed the cold war on US policies
interpretation 2: US revisionist view (mid 1960s-mid 1970s)
- many US historians became critical of the orthodox view as they believe that they had overstated soviet threat and mainly justifying US policy in the years after WW2
- they argued that the US provoked the cold war by trying to achieve to economic dominance in europe and asia - argued that the marshall plan was to prevent post war economic depression which would’ve harmed trade with the US —> this is why they only helped countries that agreed to US style democracies + capitalism - DOLLAR IMPERIALISM
- truman’s aggressive attitude made the soviets feel threatened
what was the context for the US revisionist view?
- the cuban revolution: william appleman williams (1959). he studied US actions in cuba -> claimed that US behaved aggressively, more like an empire-building force just to stop the soviet union developing their own empire - was not widely accepted
- the vietnam war: (1960) the US had supported a corrupt regime in vietnam, killed thousands of civilians and used chemical weapons. this impacted the trust of the US public in their government
what was the impact of the US revisionist view?
- stirred discussion among historians
- politicians were less receptive to this view
- popular opinion was divided: old people were uncomfortable with this view because they were more patriotic but the youth strongly agreed with the view
what were some challenges against the US revisionist view?
- many traditionalists were assured that there were no circumstances in which america would instigate such a war and that everyone supporting this view was an apologiser
quotes for the US revisionist view
- joyce and gabriel: “american foreign policy was a drive to expand american capitalism”
what is the post-revisionist view: early 1970s-1989?
john lewis gaddis
- rejected the views of revisionists that the cold war was solely caused by US aggression and expansionism
- he argued that a substantial proportion of the responsibility for the cold war lay with the beliefs and actions of the USSR, and of stalin in particular
- but he also did accept that US policy was based on a misunderstanding and exaggeration of soviet strength and soviet intentions, causing the USSR to overreact
- gaddis didn’t believe that the cold war was inevitable but saw it as a result of fear, confusion and misunderstanding on both sides
what is the context for the post-revisionist view?
- historical debate: historians were keen to find changing interpretations so everyone was challenging previous views
- thawing of the cold war: early 1970s, following the failure of the vietnam, richard nixon began a process of detente- trying to build better relations with china and the USSR. they agreed to the strategic arms limitation treaty (1972) -> influenced historians to think less about blame
what was the impact of the post-revisionist view?
- had a huge impact among historians
- many felt more comfortable with the post-revisionist view because it was more complex and rounded
what were the challenges to the post-revisionist view?
- it dominated the thinking of a lot of people for a long time
- some criticised it for being too close to the orthodox view
