The Cold War

 The paragraph above would support the Orthodox view, but the Atlantic Charter and the Truman Doctrine characterize the aims of the United States and other western nations. The Atlantic Charter unified democratic nations against fascist rule. While Western nations accepted this charter, Soviet Russia did not. President Truman addressed Congress on  March 12, 1947, “One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms. I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures” (Avalon). The first “way of life” is democracy, and the second is communism. Truman is saying that it is the United States’ duty to help those oppressed by Communism and to control the spread of it. This is an obvious threat to the USSR to not spread its control any more than it already has. The Atlantic Charter and Truman Doctrine could be used to support the Revisionist viewpoint. Both nations had differing aims and views, which is support for the Post-Revisionist view that both nations were responsible for the Cold War. 

The United States and Soviet Russia acted on these aims differently. Stalin and the USSR wanted to expand its communist influence. With their troops in much of Europe, this goal was relatively easy to attain. Stalin also wanted to annex Germany and expand into Asia. He tried to do this by instigating strikes and social unrest in those areas (McCauley 9-11). Given this, the USSR’s most important goal was to create a buffer zone between them and Western Europe. They installed communist governments controlled by Soviet troops in Eastern Europe and also in Asia and the Pacific. Examples include the Soviets role in the Chinese Civil War by supporting the Communist Party, which directly opposed America who was supporting the Nationalist Party (Warren 51-66). The USSR also supported the Communists in North Korea during the Korean War, fighting once again against the Americans (Warren 67-80).

The United States also acted upon its aims. America’s Marshall Plan was a proposal that was issued on June 5, 1947 stating, “it is logical to expect that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economical health in the world” (Halsall). As a result of this plan, the United States sent money to central and eastern European countries in order to improve conditions and stimulate economic growth in order to lessen Communism’s appeal. Each country worked towards their aims with the full awareness that the other country was doing the opposite. Thus, both countries were responsible for the Cold War, supporting the Post-Revisionist view.

Finally, Soviet Russia and America had differing ideological views. Solely on their different forms of government, tensions rose. America’s democracy wanted to attain security in a way that opposed violence, while Stalin wanted to achieve security by threats and intimidation (Gaddis). The governments were also quite different. The USSR’s was a communist republic and autocracy while the United States was a capitalist democracy. Both countries adhered very strictly to their government’s principles leading to further tensions, supporting the Post-Revisionist thesis.

With a plethora of evidence supporting both the Orthodox and the Revisionist views, the only thesis that still holds true is the Post-Revisionist. Both the Soviet Union and the United States purposely aggravated each other. Though during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, it was not easy to decide if one or both countries were responsible for the war, it is easy to conclude now that both the United States and Soviet Russia were to blame for starting the Cold War.