The Cold War - USA vs. USSR - Who's to blame?

A detailed Summary of The Cold War - USA vs. USSR - Who's to blame?

Though few issues in the course of history are clear-cut, even the most consequential of topics are often diligently pasteurized when presented to young minds and the 'common' public. Consequently, it is not surprising that the overwhelming majority of the public would see no need for pause when considering the protagonist of the Cold War to be the United States and the antagonist to be the Soviet Union. As a result, it is refreshing to read the essays of two scholars strongly debating the placement of cause with the USA or the USSR.

The first essay, by Barton Bernstein, proposes that it was in fact the United States' aggressive and belligerent actions that ignited the war, and that the actions of the Soviet Union were largely defensive and occurred in response to the actions of the US. The US not only attempted to coerce the Eastern European countries into a democratic (read: anti-soviet) 'American Bloc,' but also failed to appreciate a threat to Soviet national security, used nuclear might in the place of traditional diplomacy, and directly instigated the war by handicapping the Soviets' reconstruction efforts after the war. In Bernstein's own words, America was pursuing the task of "reshaping much of the world according to

Truman's political handicapping, as the revisionists evince with the Poland debacle, was actually of little concern to the US, says Richardson. Cites Richardson, "From Washington and London there emerged a chorus of assurances that the two governments accepted Russia's need for friendly regimes on its borders." Thus, the USSR did not actually perceive any great threat to its national security, and did not fear the emergence of an 'American bloc' in Eastern Europe. Richardson continues to cite a variety of American papers prepared for the Yalta and Potsdam meetings that describe the general American goal in dealing with communism. "It was not a question of challenging the Soviet position but of seeking a modicum of influence within its framework."

Central to Bernstein's argument is the assertion that President Truman held a lasting contempt for the Soviet Union, dating long before the start of the Cold War. Bernstein cites a wartime quote of then-Senator Truman, "If we see that Germany is winning the war, we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany and in that way kill as many as possible." Bernstein implies that the largest contributor to the appropriate and ill-advised actions on the part of the United States in the Cold War was the death of Roosevelt and the ascendancy of Truman, who proceeded to (maliciously) reverse the policies of Roosevelt, citing them as too accommodating.

Richardson also explains Truman's economic policies toward the USSR. Firstly, the promised-then-withdrawn foreign aid to Russia was revoked not because of Truman's personal grudge, as the revisionists intimate, but because of the US's underlying concern over how the money would be spent. The US was not comfortable offering an unconditional loan to the Soviets, but felt that a conditi

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Approximate Word count = 1222
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History