Revisionists view on 1945-53 🇺🇸 🔫🇷 🇺

What is the Revisionist theory? Emerged in the 1960s during the Vietnam War. Argued that the United States and the Soviet Union were both responsible for starting the Cold War. However, it places much of the blame on America’s determination to protect its economic interests.

1945 Operation Trinity Historians such as William A. William emphasise the importance of the decision to play a major world role after the Second World War as a key factor in the emergence of the Cold War. Operation trinity led to the bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Truman's actions not to tell Stalin about the decision of the bombing just a few days earlier at the Potsdam meeting was viewed as suspicious by the USSR. This meant that the Revisionists would pursue the view that Truman was trying to act above the USSR and that the USSR was slightly threatened by the US interests in Asia demonstrated by the bombings, therefore allowing for the growth of superpower tensions.

1945 US Cancellation of Lend-Lease assistance to the USSR Not only did Truman highly criticise USSR policy in Poland, on May 11 1945 he suddenly ended Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union. Revisionists would therefore argue this sudden violation of the policy to uphold the post-war cooperation deeply upset the Soviet Union and created grounds in which distrust could arise as a result of the actions of the US.

1946 Kennan’s Long Telegram Baruch Plan According to Phillips (p. 133), the Kennan Telegram exacerbated US fears that the Soviet Union posed a threat to America’s sphere of influence. In this sense, revisionists believe that America’s hostile and confrontational approach towards the Soviet Union was influenced by the false belief that the they were preparing for world domination. Baruch Plan The Baruch Plan was rejected by the Soviets, this shows that US interests of attempting to attempting to prohibit the Soviets from obtaining the Atomic Bomb was seen by revisionists as the cause of growing tensions regarding the Cold War. This is because the Americans interests appeared to the rest of the World - especially the Soviets as expansionist and as US attempting to dominate Global affairs.

1947 The Truman Doctrine Marshall Plan Revisionists argue that the Truman Doctrine was an aggressive policy designed to undermine the influence of the Soviet Union, as it sought to prevent the installation of communist governments in capitalist countries such as Greece. Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan promised generous financial aid to assist the recovery of Europe but the SU declined participation, the result was confrontation between US and USSR. The Marshall plan was argued by Revisionists as a ploy to buy Europe and that it was a vein manoeuvre by the Americans in order to improve their markets - which was instantly noticed by the Soviets, hence their rejection to participate in the Marshall plan.

1947 The Creation of Bizonia Establishment of Cominform In 1947, Britain and the US joined their zones to create “Bizonia.” Revisionists would argue this angered the USSR as they saw this as an attempt to build up Western Germany’s economy and a consequential threat to USSR plans. Stalin also saw the creation of Bizonia as a breach of policies made at Potsdam, furthering the USSR’s distrust of the USA. Establishment of Cominform After World War II, the Soviet Union established a communist bloc made up of satellite countries in Eastern Europe. Revisionists would argue Stalin wanted to control them so that the Soviet Union could direct the spread of communism and so they could serve as a reliable buffer against the West and protect the bloc from suspicious Western policies. In order to gain more power over these countries and to make them stronger as a bloc, he established Cominform to increase Soviet political control.

1948 The Communist coup, Czechoslovakia - Revisionists would argue that the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia was a primarily defensive move, as a non-aligned government within the Soviet sphere of influence would have given the US scope to move in and further threaten the Soviet Union. Currency reform in West Germany As mentioned in ‘The Cold War’ by Steven Phillips - “the new Deutsche Mark would, it was hoped, provide economic stability and aid recovery. For Stalin this was the last straw”. The Revisionists view of the Currency Reform would blame the US economic interests for growing tensions between the two superpowers suggesting that the viewpoint of revisionists put blame on the economic interests of the US as the cause of Cold War tensions to rise.

1948 The Berlin Blockade The West introduced the Deutschmark and an obvious plan to build up the economy of West Germany - once again Stalin saw this as a threat. Stalin wanted to crush the German economy so as to cripple them from making another attack - Revisionists would argue that once seeing the West were trying to prevent Stalin from achieving this, it only forcified distrust.

1949 The formation of NATO - Phillips (p. 134) argued that the formation of NATO reflected America’s commitment to military retaliation against any Soviet attempts to push their sphere of influence westwards. However, according to revisionists the Soviet Union had no intentions of doing so. The establishment of the People’s Republic of China - The US saw the establishment of Communist China and Stalin’s collaboration with Mao as evidence of the Soviet Union’s desire for world domination. However, revisionists argue that Stalin and Mao were forced into an alliance due to the West’s refusal to cooperate with communist countries.

1949 continued The creation of Comecon Comecon is commonly referred to as ‘the USSR’s version of the Marshall Plan’. Typically, Revisionists argue that the creation of Comecon provoked increased conflict between the superpowers as the US saw the USSR’s role as hypocritical (due to denying involvement in the Marshall Plan prior), placing blame on the Soviets in this case for the Cold War. This shows the Revisionists as flexible in their blame, in this case, the Soviets appeared to be challenging the US by the revisionists, hence why they are blamed for growing conflicts.

1949 The Detonation of the USSR Atomic Bomb One can argue that the development and detonation of the Soviet Atomic Bomb wasa security measure - After the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings, the USSR knew the US possessed the most powerful weapon known to man. This would have undoubtedly come as an extreme threat that the Soviets would have felt the need to contain, as a result leading to them developing weapons of the same magnitude.

1950-53 The Korean War Bruce Cumings stated that the North Koreans started the war and “essentially saw the war in 1950 as a way to settle the hash of the top command of the South Korean army, nearly all of whom had served the Japanese.” This means the revisionist view of the Korean war was that blame was placed on North Korea for invading, this therefore also placed blame onto Stalin for his alliance with the North Koreans during this period.

Thank you for listening... By Nathan, Jamie & Jess 😆