Historiographical Blog #5: Historiography Essay
Written By: Hayden Look
Throughout most of the post-WWII 20th century, the two superpowers of the United
States and the Soviet Union were locked in an intense diplomatic standoff. This standoff, known
as the Cold War, began after WWII due to the nuclear presence that each nation held over the
other. The tensions that arose from this nuclear standoff reached its peak during 1962 when the
Soviet Union secretly moved nuclear missiles into Cuba in response to the placement of nuclear
warheads in Turkey by the United States. The Cuban Missile Crisis led to a massive diplomatic
standoff between the two superpowers, as any sudden move could in turn lead to World War III.
After both sides resolved to remove their nuclear weapons from both Cuba and Turkey, tensions
within the Cold War still remained high between the two sides. The events of the Cuban Missile
Crisis specifically lead to political instability within the Soviet political field and in turn lead
many Americans to resent the fear that America instilled towards its Soviet opponent. The events
of the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis often get thrown into two different viewpoints
within American society. The historiography of the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis can be
broken down into Orthodox and Revisionism. Orthodox thinkers blame Soviet expansion and
encroachment on democracy as the main reasons for the Cuban Missile Crisis. Revisionist
thinkers tend to blame the US fear of Soviet threats and the misguided idea of U.S. containment
as the cause of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The first ideology that many Western thinkers take in regards to the Cold War and Cuban
Missile Crisis is that of the Orthodox thinkers. Orthodox philosophers hold the view that the
Soviet Union bears the responsibility of the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis. Philosophers
argue that the Soviet Union encroached on the idea of American democracy and were displeased
with the threat democracy held to the political structure of the Soviet Union. In turn, Orthodox
view this paranoia as a direct reason to the placement of warheads in Cuba by the Soviet Union,
as they wanted to hold a direct threat to the American homeland. In addition, Orthodox thinkers
believe that the diplomatic victory of the United States in regards to the Cuban Missile Crisis,
dealt a major blow to the power that the Soviet Union held on the world. One prominent
Orthodox thinker is American historian, Graham Allison. In his piece, “The Cuban Missile Crisis
at 50”, Allison analyzes the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis from a very pro-American
standpoint. Within his piece, Allison praises many of the decisions made by John F. Kennedy
and his administration and plays out the Soviet Union as the antagonist within the entire debacle.
This is a viewpoint held by many Orthodox thinkers, whom view American policy as the chief
protagonist within the Cuban Missile Crisis, while the Soviet’s communist agenda and threats as
the antagonist throughout the Cold War. Many Orthodox thinkers view Kennedy in such a grand
sense within their descriptions and viewpoints of the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis, which
can in turn lead to other important components being left out of their accounts.
On the other spectrum in American politics, there sits the viewpoints and ideologies of
Revisionist thinkers. Not necessarily pro-Soviet, Revisionist thinkers still place most of the
blame for the events of the Cold War on American policies and political agendas. Revisionists
believe that it was the fear amongst American diplomats of any communist agendas that in turn
led to the placement of missiles within Turkey. The fact that the Soviet Union’s placement of
missiles within Cuba was a direct response to the placement of American missiles in Turkey is a
point that many Revisionists use to emphasize the fear of American society to the ideas of
communism. Although the Revisionist movement began prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis, both
the events of Cuba and American involvement within Vietnam only empowered the ideas of
these thinkers who viewed American paranoia as the chief cause of the Cold War. In addition,
Revisionists often couple the American fear of communism as a threat to not only democracy,
but to the capitalist system America thrived upon. The primary philosopher and in turn, founder,
of such Revisionist ideologies was American William Appleman Williams. Williams often
argued that it was really the system of capitalism, not democracy, which fueled the conflict
within the United States against the Soviet Union. Instead of blaming the events of the Cold War
upon Soviet encroachment, Williams and other Revisionist thinkers blame the foreign policies of
the United States and the egocentrism America placed upon its own national image.
The ideas of Orthodox and Revisionist thinkers can both be utilized to accurately depict
and describe the events of the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis, yet both viewpoints take
opposing ideas. On one hand, the Orthodox thinkers view the Soviet Union as the primary
antagonists, while the United States plays the part of the protagonist within the Cold War.
However, on the other hand, Revisionists thinkers place the role of the antagonist upon the
United States and the capitalist system that drove their diplomacy. Although both sides offer
valid points, they are simply utilizing facts that exist, and shaping them to match their argument.
What either side fails to acknowledge, or even suggest, is the possibility that both sides were to
blame for the events of the Cold War. Instead of separating the ideas of the Orthodox and
Revisionist thinkers, by combining the viewpoints of these viewpoints, history can be properly
represented within its proper context. Another observation within these viewpoints is how they
relate to just the specific diplomacy between the United States and Soviet Union, while it never
takes into account how the populations of these countries were affected by such transgressions.
In other words, both Orthodox and Revisionist thinkers tend to embrace a more anti-Marxist
viewpoint over the historical events of the Cold War. Despite all the differences within their
specific views on the events of the Cold War, Orthodox and Revisionist thinkers are simply
offering two different reasons for the tensions between the two world superpowers without
conceding the validity of the other’s viewpoint.
The historiography of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Cold War ultimately exists between
the pro-American Orthodox thinkers and the anti-American Revisionist thinkers. While the
Orthodox thinkers blame the Soviet system of communism for the tensions, Revisionists tend to
foot the blame upon the capitalist agenda of American diplomats whom feared the threat of
communism within American allies. Both viewpoints are simply two facts that both accurately
led to the beginning of the Cold War and the events that followed, such as the Cuban Missile
Crisis. However, neither side concedes to the others argument for fear that such an acceptance
would threaten the validity of their own point of view. Essentially, the arguments held between
Orthodox and Revisionist thinkers are for no one’s sake, but that of arguing.