Historiography on the Origins of the Cold War
Using your textbooks, notes and the internet, research each of the historiographical schools listed below to complete the table. Try to summarise their main
arguments and who the key historians are. Then try to add examples from the events you have studied that could be used to support each of the viewpoints:
School of Historiography
Key Historians and their Views (Names, Publications & Quotes)
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Arthur M. Schlesinger – ‘Marxism-Leninism gave the Russian
leaders a view of the world according to which all societies were
inexorably destined to proceed along appointed roads by appointed
stages until they achieved the classless nirvana. Moreover, given the
resistance of the Capitalists to this development, 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
obviously incomplete’ (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr, 'Origins of the Cold
War', Foreign Affairs, October 1967, pp. 49−50)
Orthodox/Traditional
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Revisionist
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Their Views on Key Events
USSR responsible for CW. Expansionist, suspicious of West
Marxist ideology advocated world revolution.
USSR couldn’t be trusted – Stalin mad, Totalitarian
Stalin violated Yalta/Potsdam, occupied Eastern Europe
COMINFORM, plotting spread of communism
USA had to act defensively – TD and MPlan and NATO
George Kennan – American Diplomacy 1900-1950 – USSR
was a ruthless aggressor
Herbert Feis – Soviet aggression responsible, Roosevelt was too
soft and surrendered to Soviet demands at Yalta, paved the
way for aggression and destabilised the balance of power in
Europe.
William Appleman Williams – The Tragedy of American
Diplomacy - Dollar Diplomacy, Americans had always
been an empire building people.
Gabriel and Joyce Kolko – US policy reflexively antiCommunist and counterrevolutionary – US was fighting any
rival, not necessarily Soviets (The Limits of Power: The
World and US Foreign Policy, 1945-1954, 1972)
Thomas Patterson – ‘coercion characterised United States
reconstruction diplomacy.’
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USA responsible for CW. Needs of capitalism
Containment – need to secure markets and free trade
Follows from US ‘Open Door Policy’ of 19th century
Stalin was pragmatic, would have made concessions if USA
more willing to take USSR security concerns more seriously
USSR was very weak after WW2, USA had nuclear
monopoly until 1949 so why USA scared?
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Gar Alperovitz – Atomic Bomb first move of Cold War,
Japan already defeated, intimidate the Soviets (Atomic
Diplomacy, Hiroshima and Potsdam 1965)
John Lewis Gaddis – ‘The Cold War grew out of a complicated
Post-Revisionist
Combined both schools,
focused on policies and
individuals, clear Stalin
was aggressive –
misconceptions and fears
on both sides
interaction of external and internal developments inside both the
United States and the Soviet Union. The external situation −
circumstances beyond the control of either power − left Americans and
Russians facing one another across prostrated Europe at the end of
World War Two. 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 − made the resulting confrontation a hostile one.
Leaders of both superpowers south peace, but in doing so yielded to
considerations, which, while they did not precipitate war, made
resolution of differences impossible."
(John Lewis Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold
War 1941−47 (Columbia University Press, 1972), pp. 359−61)
Gaddis – ‘Geography, demography, and tradition contributed to
this outcome but did not determine it. It took men, responding
unpredictably to circumstances, to forge the chain of causation;
and it took [Stalin] in particular, responding predictably to his own
authoritarian, paranoid, and narcissistic predisposition, to lock it
into place.’ (We now know, Rethinking the Cold War History, 1997,
p. 25)
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Misconceptions played an important part at the start
Overestimated the strength and threat of the other
Tension in 1940s a result of ‘action and reaction’ – both
sides ‘improvising’ rather than following a strict plan of
action
West did not fully recognise Soviet need for security –
USSR not deterred by strong Western stance
USA not as aggressive as constrained by domestic politics
– Stalin was not. He was in a much better position to
compromise considering the power he had.
Truman was constrained by Red Scare to not compromise.
Walter LaFeber - "The two powers did not initially come into conflict
because one was Communist and the other Capitalist. Rather, they first
confronted one another on the plains of Asia in the late nineteenth
century. That meeting climaxed a century in which Americans had
expanded westward over half the globe and Russians had moved
eastward across Asia." (America, Russia and the Cold War 1945-84,
5th ed, Knopf, 1985, p. 1)
Henry Kissinger – USSR motives not based on ideology but a
continuum of the long history of Tsarist empire building.
John Lewis Gaddis – ‘as long as Stalin was running the Soviet
Union, a Cold War was unavoidable.’ (We now know:
Rethinking Cold War History, OUP: 1998, p. 292).
‘New’ Historians
Benefit from Soviet
archives, move beyond
blame, look at long-term
factors, third world
viewpoints
Odd Arne Westad (Cambridge History of the Cold War
2010) – ‘Very few of our contributors believe that a "definitive"
history of the Cold War is possible (or indeed that it should be
possible). But a heterogeneous approach creates a strong need for
contextualization […] First and foremost we need to situate the Cold
War within the wider history of the twentieth century in a global
perspective. We need to indicate how Cold War conflicts connect to
broader trends in social, economic, and intellectual history as well as
to the political and military developments of the longer term of which
it forms a part.’
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More focus on the role of individuals – Stalin
Stalin’s policies combined with Soviet totalitarian
government drew the West into escalation
Other leaders not as expansionist/aggressive/paranoid
Origins of Korean War and Berlin Crisis 1961 reveal this