In addition to this, the Soviets were seen to expand their communist ideology to secure their Soviet-Communist-style government even in Czechoslovakia, the only semblance of democracy left in Eastern Europe. In February 1948, Stain had organized a form of pressure on the Czech government as is shown when twelve non-Communist members were forced to resign. Subsequently, President Benes of Czech was threatened to form a Communist-led government by the leader of the Communist Party. An increase in the internal disruption of Czechoslovakia such as the suspicious death of Czech Foreign Minister had exacerbated the fear and defensive movement of the West. The fear of war between the Soviets and the West reached a high point after the coup. This is confirmed by the immediate approval of the Congress for the financing of US Marshall Plan which was previously on hold due to the hesitation over the huge amount of investment required.
More importantly, Stalin had instituted the Berlin Blockade which, according to traditionalist historians, had been responsible for the further development of the Cold War. Berlin Blockade was a Soviet’s response to the introduction of the new currency into the Western sectors of Berlin. The blockade was mainly through transport restrictions such as roads, railway tracks and waterways. Likewise, the supply of electricity from East to West was also cut. Food, materials and supplies to West Berlin were prevented from entering Soviet’s zone of occupation. Their aim was to force the Western powers to allow the Soviet zone to start supplying Berlin with food and fuel, thereby giving the Soviets practical control over the entire city. Direct military confrontation was a high possibility of happening as this was the first Cold War crisis. In spite of this, the West in response had organized the Berlin Airlift to carry the supplies to the citizens of West Berlin. The airlift was made possible by aircrafts flying along the three flight paths allocated to the Western Allies by the Soviets in 1945. This contributed to the clear disagreement between the two sides and was a significant impact on the progress of the Cold War.
Now to consider the revisionist view, they have an alternative perspective as to who was responsible for the outbreak and development of Cold War. Revisionists state that the US was deemed accountable for the proxy war as they believe that the U.S. policymakers shared an overarching concern with maintaining the market system and democracy. In order to achieve that objective, they pursued an “open door” policy abroad, aimed at increasing access to foreign markets for U.S. business and agriculture. Illustrations of this were through the Containment policy, dropping of the atomic bomb, Kennan’s Long Telegram, Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech, The Truman Doctrine, and the Marshall Plan. The containment policy was US method of preventing the spread of communism. It was a response to the series of moves from the Soviets to enlarge communist’s sphere of influence. A different interpretation of this was, the US needed to stop the domino effect of communist to secure their economy strength and portrayed as starting “Dollar Imperialism”.
Both Kennan’s Long Telegram and Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech had further triggered the hostility between USSR and USA. Kennan’s Telegram or also known as his ‘logic of force’ helped to harden attitudes in the USA. It contained the US diplomat’s point of view of the Soviets. The main points were that the Soviets’ system was incited by paranoia for security, that they were extremely hostile to the West and mostly the regime of Soviets were one of cruelty and repressive. This telegram was among the key role in the development of the US policy of containment which eventually led to the outbreak of the Cold War. Adding to that, former British Prime Minister’s famous Iron Curtain speech had sparked the outrage of the Soviet leadership. A criticism of this speech was one of being racist and as a call to war. The importance of this event was Churchill had defined publicly a formation of a new war and further hardening of opinions on both sides. On top of this were the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan which was a radical change in policy of the US, far from being isolationist. It was Truman’s response to unstable conditions in Turkey and Greece to support them from subjugation. To the USSR, it was an evidence of US desire to expand their sphere of influence. To put it more simply, it was an ideological shield to rebuild the Western political and economic system and counter the radical left, the Soviets. The Marshall Plan was an economic extension of the Truman Doctrine. Soviets felt that this was the US way of Dollar Imperialism by establishing a European empire.
On the whole, the responsibility on the outbreak and development of the Cold War was mostly a traditional balance of power conflict based on the balance of the arguments. The growing tension between the two superpowers was a result of both sides improving their course of action impulsively rather than thinking it through practically. For example, after the Red Army occupation, the Telegram, the Iron Curtain Speech, Truman Doctrine, The Marshall Plan, The Czech Coup and The Berlin Blockade. It was more of a pattern of ‘action and reaction’ between the two countries that triggered the Cold War.
by
prinie (student)
