LG211: America and the Wider World Lecture 9: From ‘bearing any burden’ to the ‘end of history’

WWII and the end of the Allies A marriage of convenience? Strains in the relationship: Ideological and Personal Who started the Cold War? Orthodox view: Stalin Revisionist: US also played a role “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line … all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in some cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow.” Churchill 1946

The Origins of Containment The ‘Long Telegram’ 1946, George Kennan “patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies” (Kennan, 1947) Truman Doctrine – “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 pressure” (1947) Emerged as the cornerstone of US policy until at least the 1970’s NSC-68 – Globalization of containment, militarization, h- bomb

Deterrence The nuclear age changed the nature of deterrence Basic Idea: Nuclear war could not be won MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

Containment in Action: Korea “Communism was acting in Korea just as Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese had acted 10,15, and 20 years earlier” Truman 1950 Korean War Ended in stalemate (more or less) Truman replaced by Eisenhower in 1952

Containment in Action: Vietnam 1954 – Vietnamese defeated French Two states emerged – North & South 1963 – Diem overthrown LBJ replaces Kennedy Escalation “If we are driven from the field in Vietnam then no nation can ever again have the same confidence in American Protection” (Johnson, 1965)

Vietnam and the end of containment Support for the Vietnam war ebbed away Large anti-war protests Nixon ran for the Presidency on call to bring the war to the end Fall of Saigon, 1975 End of Cold War Consensus

A new departure: Détente Heavily influenced by Kissinger – Balance of Power “No nation or bloc of nations can impose its narrow interests without tearing the fabric of international co-operation. Whatever our ideological belief or social structure we are part of a single international system…Our common destiny is not a slogan, it is an unmistakeable reality” (Kissinger, 1974) An effort to normalise relations between USA & USSR

Détente 1972 – Basic Principles of Relations signed by Nixon and Brezhnev 1972 – Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty I Normalisation of relations with Communist China Chile 1979 – SALT II – Carter/Brezhnev – withdrawn from Senate due to Soviet invasion of Afghanistan Détente criticise by both conservatives and liberals “We are blind to reality if we refuse to recognise that détente’s usefulness to the Soviets is only cover for their traditional and basic strategy of aggression” Reagan, 1980

Assessing the First Cold War Driven by a combination of Idealism and Realism But also a degree of misperception: On relative strength Problems: Vietnam ABC’s (Anything But Communists)