U.S. Foreign Policy Authors Lafeber,

U.S. Foreign Policy

Authors LaFeber, Offner, Gaddis present revisionist ideas about the outbreak of Cold War in their works which are not widely recognized in the U.S.A. And Europe. According to their opinion, based on historical documents they provide, and conclusions made after analyzing those sources, the U.S.A. And Great Britain were also responsible for the outbreak of Cold War, as their strategy of foreign policy was short-eyed and in many respects lacked responsibility for future. LaFeber makes a clear point that the period of Cold War was a period of "Hot War" for third world countries, countries where ambitions and interests of both superpowers met. Starting from the war in Korea in 1950 and up to 1989 (the end of military campaign of Soviet Union in Afghanistan) the U.S.A. And the U.S.S.R. were involved in endless conflicts, which were fought by other nations but using their guns. For American tradition established since McCarthy "witch trials" of 1950's it's a common practice to state that Cold war was started by Joseph Stalin due to his ambitions to establish pro-Soviet regimes in Central and Southern Europe. But in reality it was also the fault of F. Roosevelt, H. Truman and W. Churchill who did nothing in order to prevent Stalin's ambitions. There were lots of premises for the outbreak of the Cold war and desire to establish pro-Soviet regimes in neighboring countries with the U.S.S.R., yet Allies paid little attention to this possible danger. Insurgent armies who fought against Nazis in Poland and Balkans were ideologically nationalist and were indifferent to ideas of communism, which meant that in case of liberation from fascism they didn't have a plan to establish communist regimes, but were going to return to pre-war democratic practices. Allies didn't provide any considerable assistance to these armies, even though there existed possibility that these states could be under the sphere of Soviet interests in after war years.

According to LaFeber one of the most serious premises which led to the outbreak of Cold War in after war years was concept of economic recovery for Western Europe, developed by administration of Harry Truman, known as Marshall's Plan. Such decision, contradicted with previous agreements with the U.S.S.R. As it was clear, that on the head with economic recovery, the U.S.A. would force West European countries for mutual military cooperation. Understandably, the potential of USA was higher than potential of the U.S.S.R. And economic potential of Western European countries was much higher than potential of satellite states of Soviet Union, which created imbalance. The situation was also aggravated by decision of Yugoslavian dictator Josip Bros Tito to join Marshall Plan, which considerably reduced influence of Soviet Union on Balkans, even though Tito's regime was communistic. Such measures made Stalin and Soviet government to revise Yalta agreements, which as a result led to outbreak of Cold war. Stalin from his side decided to expend Soviet influence in Asia. After the WWII was over, according to mutual agreements, the U.S.S.R. was ready to acknowledge any regime in China, either Mao's communism or Chiang Kai-shek's nationalism. Changing foreign policy of the U.S.A. towards Western Europe made Stalin to mobilize efforts in Asian region in order to create pro-communist regimes in former colonies of Indo China. Similar ambitions of Mao and Stalin to establish pro-communist Korean state, which was divided into two spheres of influences Soviet, with communist regime of Kim Il Sung and pro-American nationalist authoritarian regime of Syngman Rhee. But according to authors Offner and Gaddis we can say that the role played by North Korean authorities was the main in this conflict. The war started North Korean in 1950 was over three years later, yet no result was achieved. This conflict revealed bankruptcy of United Nations to solve major conflicts and in many respects defined the course of history for 40 more years. These authors which are called "revisionist" and whose ideas are widely criticized today make a clear point that neither USA nor its allies in Europe (mainly France and Great Britain) were ready for a chain reaction of nationalism spread in the third world after the end of WWII, which sympathized communist ideology. But their post colonial past and inability to accept new societies who were on their era of creating statehood also led to the growth of leftist socialist and communist ideas, which was masterly used by the U.S.S.R. up until its economic stagnation in late 1970's. The U.S.S.R. successfully used opportunity to establish close relations with nationalists such as Ho Chi Minh and later Fidel Castro, who got refusal from Eisenhower to establish diplomatic relations. According to the view point of these historians the U.S.A. war undervalued the significance of growth of nationalism in the Third world countries during a period of Cold, mainly relying on a postulate of Soviet direct influence, which in most of cases was false. From the other side, such policies of "internationalism" considerably shacked economy of Soviet Union, which had limited potential, due to its centralized nature and isolation from Western World which as a result led to collapse of Soviet Union.