Who or what started and perpetuated the Cold War?

Student ID: 7522740

The end of World War Two had many implications upon the states not only involved in the conflict of the buried war, but also upon states who had little integrity within it. Relationships now between different states were at most importance and international politics was at its pinnacle of consideration.

“Cold War” was a term that was coined by US journalist H.B Swope and popularised by Walter Lippman. The phrase “Cold War” was used to describe the state of tension, hostility and rivalry that developed between the Western (non-communist) and Eastern (communist) blocs after 1945. Also the war was “Cold” was because it displayed the structural features of great power rivalry but stops short of actual combat, however this does not rule out the conflict between the superpowers and the states aligned with the other superpowers; conflict between the proxies of the superpowers or armed intervention by one of the superpowers.

The U.S and the Soviet Union were allies against Nazi Germany during World War Two; however there was always ever present tension between America and Western Europe and the Soviet Union. Many analysts argued that the U.S and the USSR were natural enemies and that during WW2 it was a marriage of convenience that would fundamentally clash. “The common concerns that had united the former allies (namely the fight against fascism and Nazi Germany) disappeared leaving only two radically different political, social, economic and ideological systems”. The quote from Donette Murray really summarises the situation that the superpowers faced, also we must consider that the Soviet Union was a Communist state and the U.S a democratic state to some extent a capitalist state.

The tensions during the war and after it were quite great between Stalin and the other leaders of the allied forces. Stalin was angry that Britain and America kept delaying D-Day, he believed it was a plot to aloe Germany to weaken the Soviet Union.

When WW2 was over the control of Berlin and other European countries (which were in the past under Nazi control) had to be split between the dominant states: America, Britain, Soviet Union and France. Many conferences were held, especially between the ‘Big Three’ (Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt). During the Tehran Conference (1943) Stalin and Churchill clashed over how much control Stalin would have over the countries of Eastern Europe. However the two leaders patched up their differences after knowing the importance of staying allied until the end of the war. As the war came near to an end more and more cracks began to appear and the once allies became enemies soon after.

There were signs of mutual commitment to co-operation with many conferences being held (Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam). The ‘spheres of influence’ that carved up Europe, Korea, etc. to reflect where each of the superpowers was dominant was also a deal between Churchill and Stalin. Realists argue that this was a sign of pure realism they say Realism in the context of the cold war was a plea for statesmen, and above all, US and Soviet leaders and British leaders to coexist in a world of opposing interests and conflict. They also argued that security can never be guaranteed; only really approximated through a fragile balance of power and mutual compromises (i.e. the Percentages Agreement, Moscow 1944) that might resolve or at least defuse any regional conflicts that may become escalatory.()()

During all this the US also mentioned that a ‘New World Order’ was emerging and that it required some governing principles and institutions (signs of Liberal Reformism or at least great power responsibility?)

“Tension was growing even at the Yalta Conference (Feb 1945). On the surface, the conference seemed successful. But afterwards, Churchill wrote to Roosevelt that ‘The Soviet Union has become a danger to the free world.’ At the Potsdam Conference (July 1945), the arguments came out into the open. In March 1945, Stalin had arrested the non-Communist Polish leaders. Also America’s new president, Truman, ...

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Stalin during 1946-47 made sure that that Communist governments came to power in all countries of Eastern Europe. He used ‘Salami Tactics’, which is a divide and conquer process of threats and alliances used to overcome opposition. With it the an aggressor in this case Stalin could influence and then eventually dominate any of the Eastern European countries, typically piece by piece. As Stalin did this to bring in power communist powers of the European Countries for example Hungary.

On March 5th March 1946, Winston Churchill, on seeing the way Stalin broke many agreements of the past conferences gave his Fulton speech. Here it is where he said famously that the countries of Eastern Europe were being cut off by ‘an iron curtain’ and were ‘subject to Soviet influence …totalitarian control and police governments’.()()

Russia’s reply was that Churchill had declared war on them; it was certainly open acknowledgement of a rift.

The Americans got involved into the conflict when Truman (now the US president after the death of Roosevelt in 1945) paid British soldiers to keep in Greece to fight the communists.

It was really Truman who officially declared ‘cold war’ on the Soviet Union. It was in the ‘The Truman Doctrine’ a special message to congress in which he indirectly condemned communism and said it had to be contained. The speech also justified why he had to help Greece to fight communism. “The very existence of the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by Communists, who defy the government's authority at a number of points, particularly along the northern boundaries.” It was clear that the Truman was fighting communism and really it was the difference in ideologies that fuelled the Cold War. As the US was really the only superpower not to be completely affected financially by WW2, they were quite a financial power. The aspect of this threatened the Soviet rule to some degree. What the US wanted to achieve financially was also outlined in the Truman Doctrine: “I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes”.

The Economic and military of the US was increasingly apparent during the late 1940s it was the first signs of American hegemony, by the 1947 the US had embarked upon building of a global Institutionalised liberal, capitalist world order.

It was not just that the two ideologies were conflicting – they were militant and expansionist. The US found that communism was a threat to them and to the global politics as voiced by Truman. On the other hand the communist USSR was threatened by the power of the US.

In June 1947, the American general George Marshall went to Europe; He said that every country in Europe was in such a weak state that in danger in turning Communist! This did not at all go down well with the Soviet Union. The US further flexed their financial muscles by introducing ‘The Marshall Plan’. In stated that as the eastern Europeans countries was heavily influenced by communist rule they stressed the importance of a joined western force in the financial markets, so the US pumped $13 billion of aid into European countries including West Germany.

To The Marshall Plan Stalin Retaliated. He forbade Communist countries to ask for money. Instead, In October 1947, he set up Cominform. Every Communist party in Europe joined. It allowed Stalin control of the Communists in Europe. The American Congress at first did not want to go ahead with the Marshall Aid. In 1948 Communists took power over Czechoslovakia, consequently this lead to the US to vote for the aid package, thus marking the beginning of the Cold War.

It was debated if Stalin had a master plan to control Europe through communist rule and also what were his motivations. The US however further built its power by funding Japan to build its economy and forming NATO to respond to Soviet military superiority in Europe, this was all seen as preparation for ‘hot war’.

The first major confrontation of the cold war took place was over Berlin in 1948, as the USSR was excluded from the conference in response Stalin took extreme action. He severed communication by surface and restricted personal in and out of the capital, it required the west to provide those inside by airlift. It was policy that failed and after nearly a year the communication block was brought down.

It was the events after the Berlin Blockade which brought the world closet to nuclear warfare. The crises saw deployment of American long range bombers in Britain, described officially as ‘atomic capable’, though none were armed.

The Cuban missile crises in 1962 was also a major factor in the Cold War as the US had photographic evidence of ballistic missiles built in Cuba by the Soviet. This lead to a quarantine imposed by the US over Cuba. This event made every one believe nuclear warfare was inevitable. However the crisis was quelled when Kennedy agreed to move all missiles from Italy and Turkey in exchange for the missiles in Cuba to be removed.

Now we must answer the question of who did start the Cold War. Even though each part took many actions from each side there is still no clear answer on who was to blame. There is however the main views form the four groups below:

Russian historians blamed Churchill (the British Prime Minster) and Truman (the American president, 1945-1953). They said Truman and Churchill wanted to destroy the USSR, which was just defending itself.
Orthodox View – Soviet Expansion created US insecurity. This view tends to depict that the aggressive USSR expansion justified what the US did in defence of its core liberal values. This view was also found in more realist version, which the USSR was a threat to US national security. This view is more widely accepted in the west however I believe it does not point out the wrongdoings of the US especially with nuclear arming and its hot wars with aligned states of the USSR.
The revisionists view – US commitment to expansion of capitalism created Soviet insecurity. The revisionists argue the Soviet merely reacted defensively to an aggressive US containment policy. I also reject this view as the Berlin crises clearly show that Stalin did not only act defensive bur also provocative and that breaking the agreements of Yalta was not really a defensive strategy.
The post revisionist views(s) – This view rejects the simplistic ascription of responsibility to one side or the other. The view sees the Cold War as a product of security – orientated ‘power politics’, suggesting the Cold War was inevitable (you could say this is a realist/neorealist type of view). Others within the view see that the manipulation of ideology by elites on both sides, misperception and domestic politics all causes. The view also states that the Cold War was a key stage of US dominance and favoured the US greatly but Stalin was still blamed as well.

The final view is one that I accept I believe both was at fault and really the Cold War was inevitable, when there was no single axis the allies would become bored of each other and turn on each other at some point. However the policy making by both groups were mostly done out of perceptions and fear, which propelled the Cold War in my opinion.

Bibliography

Calhoun, Craig (2002). . Dictionary of the Social Sciences. Oxford University Press.
Boot, Max (November 2003). .
Bullock, Alan, edited by Alan Bullock and Oliver Stallybrass , Harper & Row, 1977
Donette Murray, To What Extent was the Cold War a Struggle between Irreconcilable Ideologies? (1999) (Donette Murray was a lecturer at the University of Ulster.)
Herz, J. (1950), ‘Idealist Internationalism and the Security Dilemma’
Jhon Baylis et al. The Globalization of World Politics, An Introduction to International relations 4thE, Oxford 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-929777-
http://www.johndclare.net/EC1.htm
Marfleet, B. Gregory. "The Operational Code of John F. Kennedy During the Cuban Missile Crisis: A Comparison of Public and Private Rhetoric".
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/uneasy-allies.html
Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, Steve Smith. Intenational Relations Theories, Discipline and Diversity 2nd Edition, , Oxford 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-954886-6
Trueman Doctrine, March 12, 1947
=
Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov. Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War, From Stalin to Khrushchev, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England 1996.
Winston Churchill, Sinews of Peace (5th March 1946), Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri.

Causes of the Cold War

Donette Murray, To What Extent was the Cold War a Struggle between Irreconcilable Ideologies? (1999) (Donette Murray was a lecturer at the University of Ulster.)

Causes of the Cold War

Intenational Relations Theories, Discipline and Diversity 2nd Edition, Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, Steve Smith, Oxford 2007, Classical Realism, page 69. ISBN 978-0-19-954886-6

Herz, J. (1950), ‘Idealist Internationalism and the Security Dilemma’, World Politics 2/12: 157-80

Describe the events between 1945 and 1948 which plunged Britain and the USA into a Cold War with the USSR.

Bullock, Alan, edited by Alan Bullock and Oliver Stallybrass , Harper & Row, 1977

Winston Churchill, Sinews of Peace (5th March 1946), Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri.

http://www.johndclare.net/EC1.htm

= Trueman Doctrine, March 12, 1947

http://www.johndclare.net/EC1.htm

The Globalization of World Politics, An Introduction to International relations 4thE, Jhon Baylis et al. Oxford 2008, page 60 - Cold War, ISBN 978-0-19-929777-1

Marfleet, B. Gregory. "The Operational Code of John F. Kennedy During the Cuban Missile Crisis: A Comparison of Public and Private Rhetoric". Political Psychology 21 (3): 545

Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War, From Stalin to Khrushchev, Authors Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England 1996.

Calhoun, Craig (2002). . Dictionary of the Social Sciences. Oxford University Press. .