Download the origins of the cold war

A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
1
THE ORIGINS OF THE
COLD WAR
(1945-50)
Definition: Martyn Walker calls it the “civil war of the human race”
about the balance of global power, with an ideological element. It was
the indirect conflict between the USA and USSR that went on from
1945-1991. And it was expressed in everything from an arms and
space race to chess tournaments - and even ice hockey matches.
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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The Long-Term Reasons
Many regard the Cold War as having roots going back decades before the end of
WWII in 1945.
Both sides did things that made the other mistrust them from the period
1917-1945.
Isolationism
During the 1920s and 1930s the
Anti-Communism
US pursued an isolationist policy
The US was a capitalist
with regard to Europe and Asia. To
nation with a fierce hated of
the Soviets this was not so much
not only Marxism but even
isolationism as pro-fascist. The US
socialism. The ideology of
would not recognize the USSR and
the USSR was seen as
establish diplomatic relations until
threatening fundamental
1933.
American values like ‘rugged
individualism’.
Delayed Second Front
The US and GB refused to
Russian Civil War
attack the Germans in France
The US along with other
until June 1944 (D-Day). To
western powers (like Japan,
the Soviets, the Americans
Poland, GB and France)
USA’s Actions
interfered in Russia’s Civil
and British were letting them
do the brunt of the fighting and
War in 1918-21. They were
dying. The Americans lost
intent on destroying the
300 000 young men; the
Bolshevik revolution and
Soviets maybe 27m citizens!
recovering tsarist debts,
which had been repudiated
by the communists.
Nazi-Soviet Pact
This shocking act saw Stalin
and Hitler divide up Poland and
Bolshevik Revolution
the Baltic States between
The Russian Revolution in 1917
them. It helped to trigger
was the world’s first successful
WWII, when Hitler invaded
communist takeover. In the
Poland in September 1939.
process the Bolsheviks
(communists) murdered and
starved millions including the
USSR’s Actions
royal family.
Japan
The Soviets never helped the
Americans fight the Japanese in
Poland
the Far East. They entered the war
Not only had Stalin carved Poland up with the Nazis, but he then
against them in the final days
allowed the Polish Home Army to be destroyed in 1944, as well as
merely to grab territory.
murdering thousands of Polish officers in the Katyn woods in 1940.
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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Ideological Differences
The Cold War has often been seen as an ideological struggle between two
mutually incompatible systems: capitalism and communism. Though this is a
vast over-simplification, ideology did play a role. Ambrose and Brinkley certainly
see its significance: “ideology cannot be ignored. Men like Truman, Harriman
and Kennan were appalled by Russian brutality and Communist denial of the
basic Western freedoms”.
USA
USSR
Leadership
Election System
Economy
Freedoms
1. Communist, command system of
2. Free & Fair Voting, in multi-party
production (the State decides what is
elections takes place on a regular
produced); where unemployment is not
basis
a problem
4. Capitalist system (where
the market decides);
3. People can say what they like & go
individuals are encouraged to
where they please
work hard and become
wealthy
5. No freedom of the press. Censorship &
oppression are commonplace.
7. People do as they are told
and are sent to gulags (prison)
if they protest
6. A dictatorship runs the
country, and a single man is
9. Elections are
appointed, not elected, to
neither free nor fair
8. People are not guaranteed a job or
even a home in a ‘dog eat dog’ society
power
10. Democratically elected president controls the military as well as the civil aspects
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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Note-Taking Exercise On ‘The Cold War – Beyond Ideology’ By Gregory Slysz
Read the article and makes notes on the following longer-term reasons for the Cold War.
Remember you must summarise as clearly and concisely as possible the arguments
employed by the various historians mentioned.
1. What is Slysz’s basic argument?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
2. What is John Gaddis’ view on when the Cold War began?
______________________________________________________________
3. Give two actions by Stalin that suggest he was a ‘tricky customer’
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
4. What does John Lukacs basically say about Stalin’s attitude towards
ideology?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
5. What do Donaldson and Nogee argue was Stalin’s approach?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
6. What is Richard Pipes’ argument about Stalin?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
7. What did Suvorov and Weeks controversially argue about Stalin’s foreign
policy?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
8. What does Martin van Creveld suggest Stalin was always planning to do?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
9. What ‘glue’ disappeared to make the Wartime ‘Grand Alliance’ collapse?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
10. What arguments are there that ideology did not always play a major role, in
Cold War actions and alliances?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
11. What six reasons does Slysz ultimately give for the Cold War coming about?
___________________________
___________________________
___________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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The Wartime Conferences – Yalta & Potsdam, 1945
During 1941, the US president, Franklin D. _______ and the British Prime
Minister, Winston _______, met on a battleship in the middle of the Atlantic and
decided what type of world they were fighting for. This was known as the
Atlantic Charter. However, their democratic, free-trade views and hopes for
the future were not something likely to be held in common by the dictatorship
that was the _______.
In 1943, at the Teheran conference, the leader of the USSR, Josef _______
demanded that the British and _________ open a second front in Western
Europe to help ease the Soviet burden. He was very suspicious about the
western allies who had always been anti-__________.
Yalta - 'The Big Three'
Yalta
In
______________1945,
at
Yalta,
the
Big
Three
allied
leaders:_____________, _________and _________ met to discuss what to do
with _________after the war was won. At this stage Hitler was still alive and
the war was still to be won, and so relations were still amicable, though the
Soviets did want to be ________ with Germany than GB and the USA.
It was decided that:



Germany would be divided into _____ zones. Each one would be
occupied by one of the Allies: Britain, the USA, ______, and the USSR.
The USSR was not happy about this but Britain and Churchill wanted
________ to have a zone as well in order to balance out the Soviet and
American dominance of Europe;
The capital of Germany, ______ would also be divided into ______
sectors;
Germany would be forced to pay _________, half of which would go to
the USSR; and Germany would give land to Poland along the ________
-_________river line;
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010



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Countries that had been occupied by Germany, including Poland would be
free to _______ governments of their choice;
The USSR would declare war on ________ three months after the end of
the war against Germany;
The ___________, an organisation to discuss and settle world problems,
would be set up to replace the discredited __________.
Potsdam
Held in______/_____1945, this conference confirmed the decisions made at
Yalta in a number of areas.





Germany was divided into ______ zones, each occupied by one of the
four Allies - Britain, ______, the USA, and the USSR;
The capital ______ was also divided into ________ sectors, even though
it was inside the ______ zone; this would lead to enormous problems in
the future!
Germany would be run by a military ___________ and disarmed;
Nazi leaders would be put on trial for war crimes at the German city
of___________;
A policy of ______________would take place in Germany to get rid of its
fascist influences;
But there were disagreements and changes since Yalta and this made Potsdam
far more tense:





The war in _______ was over and so the allies no longer needed each
other so much;
There was a new British prime minister, Clement_______ who was not
used to dealing with Stalin;
The new US President Harry ________ was far more distrustful of the
Soviets ______ (and had announced that he was going to 'get tough with
the Russians.'). He tried to insist on _______ elections in the
________European countries that had been occupied by the USSR at the
end of the war. The ____ ___ had continued to occupy the countries
they had ‘liberated’ and refused to leave. The meeting broke up without
agreement being reached on this issue;
Stalin started going back on his promises at Yalta about allowing
____elections and he tried to grab more reparations and territory in
eastern Europe (he demanded more reparations from the western
sectors of Germany, for example);
The Americans had just exploded an ________ bomb and refused to
share its secrets with the Soviets; the US president only told the British
about it and not Stalin;
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

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When the Soviets did eventually attack ______in the Far East they did so
to grab territory from ________and ________ not to help the British and
Americans;
These differences led to:


A build-up of distrust and _______ between the USA and the USSR, and
even more distrust between Britain and the USSR; a British diplomat
later accused Stalin of “grabbing” territory and breaking his promises
made at _______;
The breakdown of the alliance that had existed between the allies during
the Second World War = the beginning of the ___________.
Yalta and Potsdam really saw the start of the Cold War. Agreements over Poland
were meaningless if both sides had different concepts of the term “democracy”.
Plus Poland had been a corridor for invasion of Russia throughout its history (by
the Swedes, Poles, French and Germans). This was something Stalin stressed
and the West seemed, at best, indifferent to. France’s inclusion as one of the
occupying powers as been regarded as insulting by Stalin, given how quickly
France had folded and even collaborated with the Nazis.
The conferences helped to destroy American illusions and naivety. Averill
Harriman, the US ambassador in Moscow, warned Truman of a new ‘barbarian
(Soviet) invasion of Europe’. The US, literally, ‘losing’ a Soviet request for $6
billion loan deepened the mistrust. When it came to money though, the US was
also not above back-stabbing the British! The A-Bomb not only damaged
Soviet-US relations, but also Anglo-American ones, as Washington refused to
share its secrets with their closest ally. The Bomb also meant the USSR’s help
was not needed against Japan and allowed them to exclude the Soviets from
Tokyo and the occupation of Japan itself.
George F. Kennan, author of containment
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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Truman – Cold War originator?
However, Walker points out Truman had not completely abandoned FDR’s
traditions of trust. He:


De-mobilized the US army at a rate of 15 000 men a day; so a army that had
been 8 million strong in 1945, was by 1948 only 550 000 in number; the
Soviet Red Army also shrank dramatically, but was still 3m strong by 1948;
He was also prepared to share some atomic secrets (though not on how to
manufacture a weapon) and set up the first international atomic agency, in
1946; this meant atom bombs outside the US were under the new Atomic
Energy Commission’s control;
But the fact remains that Truman was the first Cold War president.



He sacked his conciliatory Vice President Henry Wallace;
To Ambrose and Brinkley Truman saw the USSR as a “barbaric nation bent
on world conquest”;
His military drew up a strategic plan to nuke twenty Soviet targets, of which
Walker says:
“The importance of the ‘Strategic vulnerability’ paper should not be overrated,
but the fact remains that just ten weeks after the end of WWII, US military
planners were contemplating the targets of World War Three”.
The liberal, left-leaning Walker though still believes that neither Stalin nor
Truman is to blame for the Cold War. He seems to want to put it down to the
consequence of events and circumstances, and “2 mutually uncomprehending
camps”. He even implies that had FDR lived (and circumstances been different)
there might have been no Cold War in the first place.
Early US-Soviet responsibility for the Cold War 1945-6
Truman’s Actions
Stalin’s Actions
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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The Iron Curtain Speech
Winston Churchill made a speech in Fulton, Missouri, in March, 1946 claiming
that Stalin was controlling and imprisoning all the old capitals of central and
eastern Europe behind a communist ‘iron curtain’. He went on to talk also of an
ideological threat. He was, in effect, speaking the language of US officialdom.
This highly dramatic speech, from a great orator, had a profound effect in the US.
Initially, it was criticized by liberals as un-necessarily antagonistic. Truman, who
had read the speech beforehand and fully approved of it, denied that he knew
what was in it! However, Churchill had not been the first to bring the State
Department’s attention to the Soviet threat. As early as 1944, Averill Harriman
and George F. Kennan, US diplomats in Moscow, had pointed out the need for a
policy of containment, and the threat the USSR posed.
In many ways Churchill’s speech was just a British echo of George F. Kennan’s
famous ‘Long Telegram’ of 1946, which had warned in explicit terms about
Stalin and his intentions, and was, according to Walker an invitation to a life and
death struggle between East and West. As early as January, 1946, Truman had
written he was “tired of babying the Soviets”. So, in many ways, official
American reaction to Churchill’s speech was disingenuous.
Stalin, of course, saw it all very differently. He pointed out that ‘spheres of
influence’ had been agreed upon at conferences in 1944 and 1945. The USSR
would watch over Eastern Europe; GB could have Greece and the Mediterranean.
The Balkans would be shared. He also pointed out that Prague (the capital of
Czechoslovakia) far from being in Soviet hands had an independent government.
The Red Army had also liberated these nations from the Nazis, dying in their
millions doing so. He accused Churchill of Nazi-like tendencies and a racist,
Anglo-Saxon bias. He re-iterated the argument that the Soviets were merely
seeking security, a buffer zone of friendly states.
Churchill and Truman could point out that Stalin was going back on his promises
at Yalta of establishing free and fair elections in the liberated countries. But to
Stalin ‘democracy’ meant something completely different to the West’s
definitions.
The Soviets though had effectively taken over Poland, Bulgaria and Romania by
the end of 1946. By 1947 they would have Hungary. By 1948, Czechoslovakia
had fallen (its leader, Jan Masaryk, quite literally – out of a window). In 1949,
they created the GDR. They were putting pressure on Turkey to allow passage
through the Dardanelles Straits, and in 1946 were occupying Northern Iran.
An essentially bankrupt GB could not continue to support Greece and Turkey’s
struggle against communism and the Americans stepped in to help.
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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The Iron Curtain Speech Crossword
1.
3.
8.
5.
6.
4.
2.
9.
7.
Across
1. “From……..in the Baltic [7]
2. The US president …… liked what Churchill said in the Iron Curtain…. [6]
4. …………..[6]
5. Czech capital not under Soviet control until 1948 [6]
7. Country not really behind the Soviet iron curtain either [10]
9. US worried this Black Sea country might go Communist [6]
Down
1.
3.
4.
6.
8.
9.
The Iron Curtain speech was made in nineteen forty-_______? [3]
to …… in the Adriatic…” [7]
The Soviet leader….. was furious with Churchill’s speech[6]
Soviet occupying force [7]
One of the countries definitely behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ ![8]
Anti-Soviet but still communist leader of 7 across [4]
Churchill at Fulton–preaching to the converted?
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
Greece and Turkey
11
The USSR
The
Black Sea
The Dardanelles Straits – gave access from
the Black Sea into the Mediterranean
Effectively the first battlegrounds of the Cold War were these strategically vital
Black Sea and Mediterranean nations.
If they could be controlled by friendly communist regimes, Stalin’s fleets could
gain easy access to the Mediterranean. The US was determined otherwise.
The Greek Civil War was fought from 1944-49. The communists were backed
by the Bulgarians, Albanians and Yugoslavians, effectively Stalin’s proxies. The
anti-communist, royalist forces were supplied first by the British, then by the
Americans, and by 1950 had secured a hold over the Aegean nation. However,
this government was never popular nor effective - but it was not Marxist.
To resist such Soviet infiltration and because it was feared it would then spread
(the first rumblings of the ‘domino theory’) Truman made a provocative speech
in March 1947 that effectively declared ideological and strategic war on the
USSR. It became known as the Truman Doctrine. In it, Truman made no direct
reference to the USSR, but his words were easily (and correctly) interpreted as
an attack on Soviet communism. The language was emotional and included
phrases like: “I believe it must be the policy of the US to support free peoples
who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
pressures”. In increasingly simplistic US strategic thinking, the world was
divisible into the free and the enslaved. Its terms included $400 million in aid to
Greece and Turkey. From the Truman Doctrine, would come the Marshall Plan
three months later, the practical implementation of Truman’s stance.
George C. Marshall
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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The Marshall Plan
Find the labels and put them into the correct box.
Social
Economic
Political
US MOTIVES
Socio-Economic
EUROPEAN MOTIVES
Political
Political
Economic
SOVIET REACTIONS
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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The Impact of Marshall Aid
According to Walker, Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister, was initially serious
about accepting Marshall Aid. He later realised the Plan would effectively split
Europe into two economic halves and railed against US capitalism and its ‘open
door’ globally capitalist policies. But, I would argue, the Soviet Union never had
any intention of accepting US aid. It would be too humiliating and whatever
strings were attached they would be completely unacceptable.
The Soviets instead forced the iron curtain nations to reject the aid packages.
Opponents like the Czech Jan Masaryk were murdered. COMINFORM was
created in 1946 as a result of the Plan. COMINFORM’s first meeting saw an
explicit denunciation of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan. The French and
Italian Communist party representatives were encouraged to go home and
foment dissent and protest. As a result, there were riots and strikes, which
failed, ironically because the Marshall Plan saw an influx of American and
Canadian food. When communist Yugoslavia, under the nationalist Marshall Tito,
accepted US aid, it was ejected from COMINFORM by an enraged Stalin.
The Europeans created the OEEC (a fore-runner fro the alter EU) to implement
the Marshall Plan in 1948. In 1949 the Soviets responded with COMECON, a
body designed to exploit its iron curtain nations. Thus Poland was forced to sell
its coal to the USSR, at only 1/10th its true market value!
The newly-created (1947) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National
Security Council (NSC) were already embarking on undermining communism
in Western Europe politically, as well as economically. The Americans could be
accused of using methods not dissimilar to those of the Soviets:






Propaganda and disinformation were spread;
Secret payments were made to non-communist parties like the Christian
Democrats in Italy;
Public threats about with-holding aid from a communist government were
made in order to sway voters;
Special training and equipment was supplied to the Italian armed forces;
Former Nazi intelligence agents and their skills were utilized;
Military intervention in Italy was even recommended by Kennan - if the
Communists won the elections!
German Occupation Zones
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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The Berlin Blockade 1948-49
The Blockade (or Airlift) was perhaps the zenith of the early Cold War era.
Causes
 The West was being provocative. The British and Americans had merged
their two zones in 1946 to form Bizonia. They then introduced a new
currency (the Deutschmark) first into western Germany and then in
June into West Berlin. This made the eastern sectors look poor. It also
went against the terms of Yalta. The West seemed to be re-building
Germany, a nation that had invaded the USSR twice in the last 30 years.
 Stalin was hardly innocent in all this. He had never been happy at the
presence of western forces behind the iron curtain (see map). As early
as 1946, the Soviets had tried to force the allies out of Berlin altogether.
Now Stalin closed all land, water and rail routes into the western sectors
of the city. The problem was also that the west seemed much more
attractive to east Germans, many of whom fled to the allied zones. This
made communism look bad and, moreover, deprived the Soviets and
their zone of much needed skills and expertise.
Nature
 The allies in response to the Blockade launched an airlift of food and fuel
supplies that lasted nearly a year, and kept two million Berliners alive.
Planes flew into Berlin’s airports at a rate of one every three minutes.
The allies were helped by a mild winter.
 Stalin, however, was not prepared to shoot down these planes. To do so
would mean war and only the Americans had nuclear weapons at this
stage. The Americans had also ostentatiously flown 50 B-29 nuclear
bombers to Britain to help intimidate the Soviets.
Consequences
 The Blockade massively increased tensions in some ways.
 It led to the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) by
the West in September, 1949; they also created a new “Free University”
because the old University of Berlin was now in the Soviet sector. The
Russians responded with the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in
the tit for tat fashion so typical of the Cold War (Walker likens it to a
tennis match);
 The airlift increased the popularity of the Americans, especially in
Germany, and showed their commitment to Europe.
 In April, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was
created. NATO, in effect, saw the division of Europe now into two armed
camps, to match the economic divide. An attack on one member would
be regarded as an attack on all. In 1954, the FRG was allowed into NATO.
In 1955, tactical nuclear weapons were stationed on its soil.
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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REASONS FOR THE BERLIN BLOCKADE AND AIRLIFT –
WHO WOULD SAY WHAT?
US Diplomat
West Berliner
Soviet Diplomat
West German
1. “We cut off all land communications to the Western sectors of Berlin, because the
West was being provocative. They were re-building Germany and reforming its
currency. We needed to show who was boss in Berlin, especially as the city lay in our
sector of Germany”
2. “If the Soviets take control over the whole of Berlin
who will be next? I have heard dreadful stories from
Berliners fleeing to us. They say there is no freedom
in the eastern sectors and if the USSR takes over the
whole of Berlin we might be next on their target list”
3. “The Soviets are determined to push us and our allies out
of Berlin.
We will not leave! We must protect the people
of Berlin and keep a careful eye on what goes on behind the
iron curtain.
Sure, we’re re-building Germany, but not to
threaten the Soviets, simply to ensure they stand on their
own two feet and don’t become prey to communists”
4. “My friends and relatives in the eastern sectors complain all the time about conditions
there. I know most will leave soon and come here. The Soviets are determined to get
us out of our city so they do not have that option. Every east Berliner that leaves
weakens their economy and shows their system to be the mess it is”
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE BERLIN
BLOCKADE (1948-49)
MAJOR IMPACT
MANY PLANES CRASHED FLYING IN SUPPLIES, AND HUNDREDS OF
AIRMEN WERE KILLED SUPPLYING BERLIN WITH FOOD & FUEL
IT ESTABLSIHED A PATTERN FOR THE COLD
MANY WEST BERLINERS LEFT THE
WAR OF INTIMIDATION, SUSPICION &
CITY DUE TO THE ENORMOUS
PROPAGANDA, BUT ALSO A TENSE BALANCE IN
SHORTAGES
BERLIN ITSELF
BERLIN BECAME THE CENTRE OF
COLD WAR CONFRONTATION
AND A POTENTIAL FLASHPOINT
STALIN HAD
LOST FACE AS A
RESULT OF HIS
DEFEAT
NATO WAS ESTABLISHED AS A MILITARY
DEFENCE STRUCTURE IN 1949. EUROPE
WAS NOW DIVIDED MILITARILY AS WELL
AS POLITICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY
THE COLD WAR BECAME FROSTIER
THE WEST FORMALLY SET UP
AS BOTH SIDES BECAME EVEN MORE
THE FRG AND THE SOVIETS
STUBBORN
RESPONDED WITH THE GDR
LESS IMPACT
US AND WESTERN EUROPE DEVELOPED
CLOSER POLITICAL TIES
LEGEND
= ECONOMIC
= POLITICAL
= MILITARY
= SOCIAL
German exhibition poster
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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Tit For Tat – Typical Cold War Acts
Match up the action on the left with the appropriate response on the right.
Place them in chronological order from first to last. Then say who instigated
the original action: USA or USSR?
Initial Act
Response
1. Takeover of Poland
a. A-Bomb (1949)
2. Marshall Aid
b. GDR
3. A-Bomb (1945)
c. Aid given to Greece & Turkey
4. Iron Curtain
d. Berlin Airlift
5. FRG
e. Free University of Berlin
6. NATO
f. Iron Curtain Speech & Truman Doctrine
7. H-Bomb (Jan. 1953)
g. COMINFORM created
8. Berlin Blockade
h. COMECON created
9. University of Berlin
i. H-Bomb (August, 1953)
10. OEEC
j. Warsaw Pact
Initial Act
Response
The Cold War – a bit like a tennis match?
Culprit
Culprit
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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The Historiography on the Origins of the Cold War
Gabriel Kolko - naïve?
The good news is that there is a lot of historiography on the Cold War; the bad
news is that there is a lot of historiography on the Cold War!
The traditional approach is to blame the Soviets if you are an American - and
the Americans if you are Russian! Michael H. Hart claims it was all Stalin and his
successors’ fault and that the US was merely acting defensively (Wolhforth, Feis,
Schlesinger and Nyquist are amongst the other Americans who argue this). In
contrast, Vladisav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, in 1997, argued Stalin was
sincere in his desire to avoid confrontation with the USA.
The revisionist (or New Left) historian Ger Alperovitz in his 1965 book ‘Atomic
Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam’, argued that the Americans caused the
Cold War by using the atomic bomb to intimidate the USSR, which he contends
was the main reason why it was dropped on Japan. Certainly, Churchill at
Potsdam recorded that Truman had a certain arrogant swagger after the
explosions. Equally, the extremist revisionist Gabriel Kolko is adamant about
blaming the US for the Cold War, even arguing, in his 1972 book, that Truman
should have shared the secrets of the A-bomb with Stalin, in 1945. He also
claims the USSR treated Poland well in 1945 and blamed South Korea for the
Korean War! While another revisionist approach is that of William Appleman
Williams who argued, in 1959, that the US was determined to maintain an ‘open
door’ policy for US trade and so ensure nations stayed capitalist.
Other historians have tended to share the blame between the two superpowers
or absolved them both. These are often known as post-revisionists. John
Lewis Gaddis, in 1972, claimed the conflict was the result of mutual
misunderstanding on both sides, with the USA failing, for example, to
understand Stalin’s fears and need for security. Views that would also be
supported by Martyn Walker. Ambrose and Brinkley also seem to emphasise
mutual miscomprehension. Marc Trachtenberg (1999) claims it was all about
settling the German question in the post-WWII world. In contrast, Martin P.
Leffler (1992) has maintained that both sides were to blame, as they were both
seeking world domination. Timothy White, also effectively blames both by
stressing the ideological aspect of the conflict. It is interesting to note though
that with the opening of the Soviet archives, some like Gaddis have taken a
more critical view of the Soviets. They have found evidence implicating the
Soviets in all sorts of malfeasance. It is sometimes called post-post revisionism.
A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010
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Discussion of Historiography
1. Why is it important to know the nationality of the historian behind the
theories?
2. How does the date of the argument matter?
3. How do you think the historiographical debate changed after 1991, with the
collapse of the USSR and the opening of the Soviet archives?
You will need examples of Cold War events, actions and personalities to back up
each of the three historiographical viewpoints.
Fill in the table. I have included one example in each to get you going.
Traditionalists/Orthodox
Revisionists
Post-Revisionists
Stalin was bent on European or
even world domination and the
spread of Communism; he was
an evil dictator who was
rightfully opposed by the free
world.
The US was at fault for refusing to
share its A-bomb secrets, causing
an arms race and making the USSR
understandably nervous.
Point out that Poland can be
seen as the USSR seeking
genuine security, and the US
misunderstanding this
defensiveness as aggressive
expansionism.
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Useful Websites
Look at the following links to supplement your notes and understanding of the
causes of the Cold War. Also use the school library!
My notes are helpful, but you also need to produce your own. This is essential to
deepen your knowledge and understanding. The more you read and write the
better your English will become.
While, of course, examiners award evidence of original thought, ideas and
historiography.
www.sparknotes
www.schoolhistory.co.uk
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
www.history-wiz.com
www.learningcurve.gov.uk/coldwar
www.trumanlibrary.org
www.winstonchurchill.org
www.history-timelines.org.uk
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Essay Writing Techniques
Knowledge is one thing, the ability to apply it another. You must learn how to use
what you know in the best way to produce a coherent argument.
Introductions
Designed to perform a number of functions:
 To state your theme and ideas - to say what you are going to say
 How you are going to state it
 To challenge the question (if possible)
 To grab the examiner’s attention (if possible)
Conclusions
They also meet certain common criteria
 To summarise your main ideas
 To perhaps look chronologically ahead
 Utilising some historiography, which you perhaps think surmises your whole
argument
Main Points
Your essay must be tightly and coherently argued and structured. There are
various ways to do this.
 Using the conceptual approach: political, social, economic, military, cultural,
religious, environmental, etc.
 Using a chronological approach: dates, short term/long term, etc.
 Using a thematic approach e.g. character, background, etc.
 Using a pros and cons approach–successes and failures, positives and
negatives, etc.
 Using the question itself to structure an answer
Your essay must also contain:
 Facts to back up your analysis e.g. dates, names, places, etc.
 Historiography to show understanding of various ideas and approaches
You should also briefly plan an answer before composing it. This can take the
form of a table, list or spider diagram(s).
Remember also to look at the key words in the question e.g. ‘evaluate’, ‘discuss’,
‘assess’, ‘How far’, etc.
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Essay Practice
We shall practice with a number of actual Cold War questions below.
1. ‘The Marshall Plan caused the division of Europe and thus the Cold War.’
Discuss this assertion. [N. 2003]
2. How far do you agree that the Cold War broke out in Europe because the USA
and the USSR disagreed fundamentally about how they should treat the
shattered European economy? [M. 2003]
The Markscheme Q. 1
The Marshall Plan forced the USSR to choose between maintaining allied
co-operation or bringing it to an end. The formation of the OEEC by the states
of Western Europe in April 1948 to implement the Marshall Plan was followed
within a year by the formation of Comecon. Thus Europe became formally
divided, thereby institutionalising the Cold War. Until this time, there was
always a chance that frosty relations between East and West might prove short
lived. (The parallel military alliances took longer to be established, the Warsaw
Pact not being set up until 1955, six years after NATO.)
However it could be argued that the Marshall Plan was a symptom of the Cold
War rather than its immediate cause. The Plan symbolized the wide differences
of interest which were the main reasons for the outbreak of the Cold War. The
two superpowers had different plans for Europe. The USA wanted a Europe of
capitalist liberal democracies where the USSR’s preferred model was of
one-party socialist states. Both saw the other as expansionist – at least
according to the post-revisionist model. And no doubt candidates will find the
opportunity to describe the traditional and revisionist models as well. Ideally,
they should also evaluate them.
How Marshall Plan
Caused Cold War
How Marshall Plan
Did Not
Cause Cold War
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Q2. Markscheme
The disagreement was twofold: firstly, whether the allies should take action at
all; secondly, if so, whether the German economy should be brought back to life
to stimulate the surrounding economies. In each case, the West said yes, the
USSR said no. Both required the injection of large amounts of American money,
in the form of the Marshall Plan. The revival of the German economy also
required the restoration of a single German currency. On this the Allies could not
agree; the Soviets particularly wanted to help themselves to German industrial
equipment. Thus the Berlin Blockade occurred. This direct confrontation
widened East-West divisions and led to the formation of NATO. By 1948-9 the
Cold War had clearly begun. The reasons for disagreement over economic policy
could be the basis for a discussion about the different explanations for the
outbreak of the Cold War. Did the USSR oppose economic reconstruction
because it wanted to strengthen its hold on central Europe – perhaps with an
eye to expanding further westwards – as the traditionalists would argue? Or did
the USA force the pace in 1947-8 in order to further its economic interests and
political ambitions, which is what revisionist historians believe? Finally, was the
disagreement and division more the result of misunderstanding and mistrust,
the line which is taken by post-revisionists? This discussion could bring in other
factors, such as Kennan's Long Telegram and the Greek Civil War.
Disagreements Over
What Other Factors
European Economy
Created Tensions
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Glossary of Essential Terms
Use your general knowledge of current affairs and historical knowledge to match
up the correct term with the correct definition. Extra spaces allow you to add
extra words to create your own glossary.
Term
Explanation
Superpowers
a. The economic system of the West; individual market forces and consumer
demand influenced what was produced
Marxism
b. Anti-Orthodox assessment of an historical event or epoch, often resulting
in radical new ideas and approaches
Ideology
c. The two strongest and most influential nations in the world between
1945-91 were the USA and USSR
Capitalism
d. A synonym for Communism. The belief that individual ownership is
wrong; that the working class should govern the state; that history is one
long story of class struggle (dialectical materialism)
Democracy
e. A set of beliefs and ideas; some historians believed it played a vital role in
the Cold War
Revisionism
f. The definition of this word was quite different in the West to what it meant
in the East (USSR and China)
Term
Explanation
Superpowers
Marxism
Ideology
Capitalism
Democracy
Revisionism
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1. Nations, like GB, were
desperate to re-build their
economies & infrastructure
2. There was a genuine
desire to help the people of
Europe recover from WWII
3. They regarded Marshall
Aid as a means of
“dollar imperialism”
4. Having just recovered
from a Depression & owed
billions of dollars, they
were determined to keep
Europe capitalist - and so
ensure customers
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5. Worried about their
growing Communist
parties, and desire not to
repeat mistakes of WWI
6. Saw the Aid as part of a
US plot to isolate them
7. Part of the doctrine of
‘containment’
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