Historiography on the Origins of the Cold War

Using your textbooks, notes and the internet, research each of the historiographical schools listed below to complete the table.
Try to summarise their main arguments and who the key historians are. Then try to add examples from the events you have
studied that could be used to support each of the viewpoints:
School of
Historiography

Key Historians and their Views (Names,

Publications & Quotes)

Orthodox/Traditional

the Russian leaders a view of the world according to

which all societies were inexorably destined to proceed
along appointed roads by appointed stages until they
achieved the classless nirvana. Moreover, given the
resistance of the Capitalists to this development, the
existence of any non-Communist state was by
definition a threat to the Soviet Union. ... An Analysis of
the origins of the Cold War which leaves out these
factors the intransigence of Leninist ideology, the
sinister dynamics of a totalitarian society and the
madness of Stalin is obviously incomplete (Arthur M.
Schlesinger, Jr, 'Origins of the Cold War', Foreign
Affairs, October 1967, pp. 4950)

Revisionist

Arthur M. Schlesinger Marxism-Leninism gave

Their Views on Key Events

USSR responsible for CW. Expansionist,

suspicious of West
Marxist ideology advocated world revolution.
USSR couldnt be trusted Stalin mad,
Totalitarian
Stalin violated Yalta/Potsdam, occupied
Eastern Europe
COMINFORM, plotting spread of communism
USA had to act defensively TD and MPlan
and NATO

George Kennan American Diplomacy 19001950 USSR was a ruthless aggressor

Herbert Feis Soviet aggression responsible,
Roosevelt was too soft and surrendered to Soviet
demands at Yalta, paved the way for aggression
and destabilised the balance of power in Europe.

William Appleman Williams The Tragedy

of American Diplomacy - Dollar Diplomacy,
Americans had always been an empire
building people.

USA responsible for CW. Needs of capitalism

Containment need to secure markets and
free trade
Follows from US Open Door Policy of 19th

Post-Revisionist
Combined both
schools, focused on
policies and
individuals, clear
Stalin was
aggressive
misconceptions and
fears on both sides

Gabriel and Joyce Kolko US policy

reflexively anti-Communist and

counterrevolutionary US was fighting any
rival, not necessarily Soviets (The Limits of
Power: The World and US Foreign Policy, 1945-
1954, 1972)
Thomas Patterson coercion characterised
United States reconstruction diplomacy.
Gar Alperovitz Atomic Bomb first move of
Cold War, Japan already defeated, intimidate
the Soviets (Atomic Diplomacy, Hiroshima and
Potsdam 1965)

John Lewis Gaddis The Cold War grew out of a

complicated interaction of external and internal
developments inside both the United States and the
Soviet Union. The external situation circumstances
beyond the control of either power left Americans
and Russians facing one another across prostrated
Europe at the end of World War Two. Internal
influences in the Soviet Union the search for
security, the role of ideology, massive post-war
reconstruction needs, the personality of Stalin
together with those in the United States the need
for self-determination, fear of Communism, the
illusion of omnipotence fostered by American
economic strength and the atomic bomb made the
resulting confrontation a hostile one. Leaders of both
superpowers south peace, but in doing so yielded to
considerations, which, while they did not precipitate

century
Stalin was pragmatic, would have made
concessions if USA more willing to take USSR
security concerns more seriously
USSR was very weak after WW2, USA had
nuclear monopoly until 1949 so why USA
scared?

Misconceptions played an important part at

the start
Overestimated the strength and threat of the
other
Tension in 1940s a result of action and
reaction both sides improvising rather than
following a strict plan of action
West did not fully recognise Soviet need for
security USSR not deterred by strong
Western stance
USA not as aggressive as constrained by
domestic politics Stalin was not. He was in a
much better position to compromise
considering the power he had.
Truman was constrained by Red Scare to not

war, made resolution of differences impossible."

(John Lewis Gaddis, The United States and the Origins
of the Cold War 194147 (Columbia University Press,
1972), pp. 35961)
Gaddis Geography, demography, and tradition
contributed to this outcome but did not determine it.
It took men, responding unpredictably to
circumstances, to forge the chain of causation; and it
took [Stalin] in particular, responding predictably to
his own authoritarian, paranoid, and narcissistic
predisposition, to lock it into place. (We now know,
Rethinking the Cold War History, 1997, p. 25)

Walter LaFeber - "The two powers did not initially

come into conflict because one was Communist and
the other Capitalist. Rather, they first confronted one
another on the plains of Asia in the late nineteenth
century. That meeting climaxed a century in which
Americans had expanded westward over half the
globe and Russians had moved eastward across
Asia." (America, Russia and the Cold War 1945-84, 5 th
ed, Knopf, 1985, p. 1)

Henry Kissinger USSR motives not based on

ideology but a continuum of the long history of
Tsarist empire building.

compromise.

John Lewis Gaddis as long as Stalin was

running the Soviet Union, a Cold War was
unavoidable. (We now know: Rethinking Cold
War History, OUP: 1998, p. 292).

New Historians
Benefit from Soviet
archives, move
beyond blame, look
at long-term factors,
third world
viewpoints

Odd Arne Westad (Cambridge History of the

Cold War 2010) Very few of our contributors
believe that a "definitive" history of the Cold War is
possible (or indeed that it should be possible). But a
heterogeneous approach creates a strong need for
contextualization [] First and foremost we need to
situate the Cold War within the wider history of the
twentieth century in a global perspective. We need to
indicate how Cold War conflicts connect to broader
trends in social, economic, and intellectual history as
well as to the political and military developments of
the longer term of which it forms a part.

More focus on the role of individuals Stalin

Stalins policies combined with Soviet
totalitarian government drew the West into
escalation
Other leaders not as
expansionist/aggressive/paranoid
Origins of Korean War and Berlin Crisis 1961
reveal this