East — West Relations after 1945
Definition: ‘cold war´ describes the conflict between the USSR and the ‘Western Powers´ in the period following WWII / Period of tension characterized by conflict at diplomatic, economic and all levels short of actual armed conflict between the principals on either side.
Origins:
breakdown of wartime co-operation between the Allies (Obvious at Yalta and Potsdam conferences) possible to trace as far back as 1917 when the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia led to the creation of the world´s first communist state (in conflict with the west)
Didn´t emerge until after WWII b/c the USSR and USA were both isolated after WWI and USSR could not put into practive the ideal of exporting revolution.
Factors which contributed to the outbreak of the Cold War
Mutual suspicion
Nature of the official ideology of the USSR: stated the inevitability of conflict with western capitalist states à contributed to suspicions from the west / not certain that Stalin was motivated by this Marxist-Leninist ideology
Liberal-democratic system of the West was not well understood by Stalin: the allies were unable to commit themselves ‘on the spot´ but had to refer to their parliament or congress, this was evidence for Stalin of lack of faith.
Conflict btw fundamental aims of Stalin and Roosevelt:
Roosevelt had idealistic aims (‘four freedoms´: f. from want, f. of speech, f. of religious belief and f. from fear)
Stalin had more concrete aims (regaining of Russian territory lost in WWI, control over E.E. …)
Tendency to interpret the actions of the other in the light of their own priorities.
Nature of Stalin´s regime: dictatorship of USSR was only justified if external forces threatened the security of USSR, therefore to prevent the danger of being overthrown from within, Stalin had to have external enemies.
Death of Roosevelt: Stalin had a great deal of respect for him / Truman was far less of an internationalist + far less willing to extent