What is “to deter”?
To dissuade (ontmoedigen) trough fear
What is contaiment policy?
The US practiced containment, a specific policy of surrounding the SU with US allies and US bases and of promoting a liberal economic and political world order outside of the Soviet sphere of influence. There are different forms: offensive and defensive.
What is the causation view of the cold war trough the eyes of a traditionalist?
•Who started? Josef Stalin and the SU. At the end of WWII US diplomacy was defensive whereas the Soviets were aggressive and expansive.
- The US was proposing a universal world order and collective security through the United Nations (UN)
- SU did not take UN seriously because it wanted to expand and dominate its own sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. After the war, US demobilized but SU left large armies in Eastern Europe.
- In 1945 in Yalta, US went out of its way to accommodate Soviet interests. Stalin however did not live up to his agreements, particularly by not allowing free elections in Poland.
- SU was slow to remove its troops from northern Iran after the war. Eventually they were removed but only under pressure.
- SU blockaded Berlin in 1948 and 1949, trying to squeeze the western governments out.
- In 1950, communist North Korea’s armies invaded South Korea
- These events gradually awakened US to the threat of communist’s expansionism.
What is the causation view of the cold war trough the eyes of a revisionist ?
• Cold War was caused by American rather than Soviet expansionism. At the end of WWII, the world was not really bipolar.
- The Soviets were much weaker than the US, which was strengthened by war and had nuclear weapons, the Soviets did not.
- Stalin’s postwar period was quite moderate: allowed noncommunist governments, tried to restrain Greek communists in civil war and tried to restrain Moa Zedong’s communists from taking power.
- Level 1 revisionists: stress the importance of individuals. Roosevelts death in 1945 was a critical event because policy towards the SU became harsher under Truman. In may 1945 US so abruptly cut of lend-lease program of wartime aid that ships had to turn around. At the Potsdam Conference in July 27 1945, Truman tried intimidate Stalin with an atomic bomb. In 1948 Truman fired his secretary of defense, who was a strong anticommunist. These personnel changes explain why US became anti-Soviet.
- Level 2 revisionists: problem is the nature of US capitalism. US economy required expansionism and the US planned to make the world safe not for democracy but for capitalism. American economic hegemony could not tolerate any country that might try to organize an autonomous economic area. The Marshall Plan was simply a way to expand the US economy. The Soviets were correct to reject is as a threat to their sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.
What is the causation view of the cold war trough the eyes of a postrevisionist ?
• Focusses on the structural level, no one was to blame for starting the Cold War
- It was inevitable because of the bipolar structure of postwar balance of power.
- In 1939, there was a multipolar world with seven major powers, but after the destruction from WWII only two were left. The bipolarity plus the postwar weakness of the European states created a power vacuum, they were bound to come into conflict. It’s pointless to look for blame.
- US and SU had different goals at the end of the war. SU was more concerned with securing control of territory and the US was primarily interested in setting up a liberal, rule-governed international order. The US benefited from the UN and with a majority of its allies voting was not very constrained by it. Because of that it also had an influence in the Western Hemisphere and Western Europe whereas the Soviets did not.
- US and SU were both bound to expand because of the old-age security dilemma of states in an anarchic system. Neither could allow the other one to dominate Europe more.
- Hard lines in one country bred hard lines in the other. As perceptions became more rigid, the Cold War deepened
What were the policies of Roosevelt
- Wanted to avoid mistakes of WWI, so he demanded Germany’s unconditional surrender.
- Wanted a liberal trade system to avoid the protectionism that damaged the world economy in 1930. It would join a new and stronger form of the League of Nations, in the form of the UN with a powerful security council.
- He needed to maintain bipartisan domestic support for his international position, externally he needed to ensure Stalin that SU security needs would be met by joining the UN. Placed too much faith on the UN, overestimated likelihood of American isolationism and most importantly misunderstood Stalin. His mistakes were thinking that Stalin saw the word the same way, that he understood American politics.
What were the policies of Stalin?
His immediate postwar plans were to tighten domestic control. Germany’s invasion seriously weakened Stalin’s control. He had to increase his appeals to Russian nationalism since the communist ideology was insufficient to motivate his people. 28 He preferred some cooperation, especially if it helped him pursue his goals in Eastern Europe and brought him some economic assistance from the US. In foreign policy, he wanted to protect himself as well as maintain the gains the SU had made in Eastern Europe from the 1939 pact with Hitler
Was the Cold war inevitable?
Depends,
The bipolar structure made a power vacuum in Europe highly likely. The intense ideological climate hampered the working of the UN, restricted clear communication and contributed to the immoderate process of the international system. Postrevisionist view relies too heavily on systemic explanation, perhaps CW was inevitable, its depth was not. The revisionists are right to focus on domestic questions, but wrong to focus so strongly on economic determinism. More important was the role of ideology (Stalin) and exaggeration in domestic politics (Truman).
What are indivudial causes for the Cold war?
- Stalin’s paranoia -> exaggerated rhetoric
- Truman’s fear of US isolationism
What are domestic casues for the Cold war?
- SU weakened by war -> tighter ideological controls
- Two very different countries
What are systemic causes for the Cold war?
- WWII à bipolarity
- Reduced communication; ideological process
- Small states under close rein
- Few alliance shifts and less uncertainty
What where the goals for the SU in the cold war?
• Stalin had clear objectives at Yalta: Poland and Germany
Soviets were often accused of being expansionist, of being a revolutionary power rather than a status quo power, but the post-revisionist view is more subtle and accurate: the SU was, in fact, more interested in tangible or possession goals, whereas the US tended to want more intangible or milieu goals. These differences become clear when looking at Yalta
What where the goals of the USA in the Cold war
Roosevelt wanted the UN and an open international economic system
Why is the Soviet expansionism different than the one from Hitler?
- It was not bellicist: The Soviets did not want war
- SU was cautiously optimistic, not recklessly adventuresome
SU was expansionist during CW, but cautiously and opportunistically so.
What are the two ambiguities of contaiment policy by the US?
(1) The question of ends: contain SU or communism and (2) question of means: spend recourses to prevent ant expansion of Soviet power or just in certain key areas that seemed critical for the balance of power.
Ends and means of containment were heavily debated. Kennan (minister buitenlandse zaken) dissented from the rather expansive version of containment that Truman proclaimed. Kennan’s ideas were akin to classic diplomacy. It involved fewer military means and was more selective.
What is the domino theory?
After France loses Dien Bien Phu, US interferes -> “domino theory” US feared that a defeat might weaken the credibility of its global military commitments and thus containment in other parts of the world. US saw Vietnam conflict in CW terms as aggression by a communist government against a noncommunist government. It feared other communist governments in Asia would topple
What is detente?
The easing of hostility or strained relations, especially between countries
Why did the cold war end?
- Containment worked: US military power kept the SU on its heels and the soft power of American culture, values and ideas eroded communist ideology.
- “imperial overstretch”: more than a fourth of SU economy was devoted to defense and foreign affairs.
- US military buildup in 1980s forced the Soviets to surrender in the Cold War. Quite simply because they could not keep up
What is the precipitating (neerslaande) cause the cold war ended?
Mikhail Gorbachev
- Wanted to reform communism, not replace it. The reform snowballed into a revolution. Glasnost and Perestroika = restructuring and democratization or open discussions.
- He unleashed the disintegration of SU
- His foreign policy, “new thinking” also contributed to the end of CW: (1) changing ideas that constructivists emphasize, cooperation was key and (2) expansionism is usually more costly than beneficial.
- By summer 1989 Eastern Europeans were allowed more freedom.
- Why 1989? Gorbachev was an accident of history. (Berlin wall)
What are the immediate causes the cold war ended?
•Soft power of liberal ideas, emphasized in constructivist explanations -Growth of transnational communications and contacts pierced iron curtain
-Demonstrated effect of western economic effects
• imperial overstretch, emphasized by realists
-Enormous Soviet defense budget -> healthcare declined, morality rate increased.
Deep causes why the cold war ended?
•Decline of communist ideology (constructivist explanation)
- Soviet soft power was progressively undercut by de-Stalinization in 1956, which exposed his crimes, repression of political reforms in Hungary and Czechoslovakia and the growing transnational communication of liberal ideas.
- Lenin maintained domestic power through a brutal state security system -> loss of faith in the system because of repressive measures.
•Failure of Soviet economy (realist explanation)
- Diminished ability of the Soviet central planning system to respond to change in the world economy.
- Soviets were behind on technology
- Growing economic role of information, Soviets were inept (klungelig) at handling information
Deep causes why the cold war ended?
•Decline of communist ideology (constructivist explanation)
- Soviet soft power was progressively undercut by de-Stalinization in 1956, which exposed his crimes, repression of political reforms in Hungary and Czechoslovakia and the growing transnational communication of liberal ideas.
- Lenin maintained domestic power through a brutal state security system -> loss of faith in the system because of repressive measures.
•Failure of Soviet economy (realist explanation)
- Diminished ability of the Soviet central planning system to respond to change in the world economy.
- Soviets were behind on technology
- Growing economic role of information, Soviets were inept (klungelig) at handling information
Why did Kennedy not tun an attack on SU’s missile sites at Cuba?
He was not willing to run the risk of one or even two Soviet missiles escaping destruction and being fired at an US city. US sectaries didn’t rate the risk of nuclear war high, but the risks of losing control weighed heavily on Kennedy, who took a very cautious position. A little nuclear deterrence can go a long way = finite or existential deterrence.
What are the three reasons Khrushchev backed down in the Cuba missile crisis?
- The US had more nuclear weapons than the SU
- Cuba was in the US’s vital sphere of interest, but far from SU.
- Cuba’s proximity to the US meant that the Americans could bring overwhelming conventional forces to bear if the crisis were to escalate to a shooting war.
