Origins of the Cold War

"The Cold War was the greatest single force affecting American society during the decade and a half after World War II.”[1] The Cold War had far reaching effects for many countries after World War II. Typically, history books discuss the superpowers of the Cold War, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. However, there were many countries that played a role in the origins of the Cold War, including the other members of the Axis and Allied powers that had fought in the Second World War. The world was changing. Two atomic bombs had been dropped to end World War II, President Roosevelt had passed away and both communist and democratic nations wanted to be the top dog on the world stage. The Cold War may have been the single greatest force on the American people after World War II, but the origins go back further than just World War II. The origins of the Cold War lie within earlier nineteenth and twentieth century conflicts, the struggle between communism and capitalism, treaties, organizations and conferences and in the differences between western democracy and Soviet dictatorship.

The Cold War had origins that went back further than the twentieth century. During the 19^th century there were conflicts between Russia and the British empire. They were fighting to establish dominion over present day Afghanistan. The Crimean War also bread tension and animosity between Russia and capitalist English-speaking countries.[2] In a 1996 issue of the Harvard International Review, authors Richard Giragosian and Peter Pavilionis discuss the collapse of the Soviet Union that had taken place only a few years prior to the journal issue being published. In their article they discuss the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and how it meant reviving “the Great Game,” that took place between Russia and England in the nineteenth century. For the Russians and the British, they both wanted control of natural resources, land and the best access to trade routes in the East, that Afghanistan provided. these are the resources the world has seen war continue over since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., in 1991. One piece of the map that was hotly contested was present day Afghanistan. The Russian and British people wanted control over the resources that Afghanistan had to offer. Afghanistan was important to because of its many natural resources including gemstones, salt, natural gas, zinc, other minerals and most importantly oil.[3] During the Cold War, Afghanistan would be in the middle once again. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, in a war that would last for over nine years. The Soviet-Afghan War became the sixty-fifth proxy war to take place during the Cold War. Proxy Wars, within the context of the Cold War, can be defined as, “war between regional states that may be regarded as a substitute for direct confrontation between the superpowers.”[4] In total there were seventy-one proxy wars or conflicts that occurred during the Cold War. In a world where nuclear weapons existed, proxy wars helped to keep a nuclear winter at bay.

            Historians have concluded that, among other factors, the origins of the Cold War are deeply rooted in World War II. In his book, Consumed by War, Richard C. Hall states, “The origins of the settlement of the Second World War began during the actual fighting. This settlement is inseparable from the beginning of the Cold War, the third phase of the twentieth-century European conflict. The Cold War began as the Second World War concluded and prevented a formal resolution of that war for some time.”[5] His book breaks down twentieth-century European conflicts and argue that the third phase of the conflicts were created by the WWII and the issues that stemmed from the war. Hall was one of many historians who believed this. In 1967, Arthur Schlesinger also wrote about his belief that the Cold War was a direct result of WWII. He discusses his belief that the Cold War arose in direct response to the military blocs that the United States and Soviet Union had in place. He regards these blocs as “rigid and hostile,” and believes that this was the bedrock of the fear and antagonism that drove the Cold War.[6]

The Cold War was not born out of only nineteenth century conflict. The roots are apparent within the First and Second World Wars as well. As World War II was at its close, there were meetings that took place between the “big three.” This was the term given to Stalin, Churchill and Truman, and formerly Roosevelt. They met on multiple occasions and drafted treaties that would allow for the governing of Germany in a post-war capacity. At the Potsdam Conference, which took place in July and August of 1945, it was decided that they would put protocol in place for how best to handle Germany, in light of their May 1945 surrender. The conference was a meeting that took place between Stalin, Churchill and Truman, who had recently become president following the April 1945 death of Franklin Roosevelt. Prior to this, all the meetings had been carried out by the late president, and Truman was walking into whatever potential mess Roosevelt had left him. Truman had the opportunity to meet with Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav M. Molotov. They met at the White House to discuss issues that had risen out of the Yalta Conference, and the belief that the Soviet Union was not holding up their end of the agreement in Poland. When Molotov objected to this, it was said that Truman was very blunt, and when Molotov objected to being talked to in this way, Truman said, “Carry out your agreements and you won’t get talked to like that.”[7] Truman was establishing that he was not to be trifled with and that he would hold the Soviets accountable for their end of the deals struck with his predecessor at the Yalta conference earlier that year. The Yalta Conference had taken place in February and outlined the final stages of World War II in Germany, and how occupation would be handled. It was finally decided that Poland, and the other countries of eastern Europe would be subjected to “…interim governmental authorities broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population…and the earliest possible establishment through free elections of governments responsive to the will of the people.”[8] The Soviets advocated for a communist controlled government in Poland, and were ultimately granted a partial committee, with the promise to quickly include representatives of other political groups in the government. They failed to do this, and Truman was not happy. Several months later at the Potsdam Conference, it was decided that they needed to de-Nazify, demilitarize, decentralize and democratize Germany.[9] There were some objections made by Stalin, who was worried about the hold that the other nations would have, so they agreed to divide Germany. They decided that both Germany and Berlin needed to be divided into zones that would be under French, American, British and Soviet control and guidance.[10] The Soviets had the largest zone, and this was done to partially appease Stalin, who was worried about the capitalistic intent of his fellow conference attendees. R.A.C. Parker examines the relationship between Stalin and the other Allied leaders during WWII, and how this established the status quo during the war and after the war.[11] Stalin’s relationship to the allies was tenuous, which Parker believes that this may have led to the level of appeasement that was show to Stalin when settling the affairs of Germany after the war.  

After the German affairs had been settled by the former Allies, there were several alliances created including NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact. These were alliance created by the United States and Soviet Union, respectively, to ensure that there were allies to support their goals, the spread of communism, or the opposition to the spread of communism.[12] NATO was established in 1949 after several years of conferences between the United States and the western European powers. The Warsaw Pact was created in 1955 in response to the formation of NATO. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact were created with mutual defense agreements.[13] They made up what would be called the western and eastern blocs, which were divided by the “iron curtain.” Throughout the Cold War, these two organizations became important in prevention of nuclear warfare, because if one was attacked, it meant all the countries who had signed the treaty were attacked.

In 1946, following the end of World War II and the rise of communism in eastern Europe, Winston Churchill delivered a speech that would ultimately coined the term, “iron curtain,” which referred to the imaginary boarder between east and west, prior to the Berlin Wall’s construction in 1961.[14] His speech has been regarded as an “opening volley,” at the beginning of the Cold War.[15] He delivered this speech while in Missouri. Despite losing re-election in Great Britain, he was still beloved by the Americans, who were also very well aware of the need to ally with the British, to maintain the status quo in Europe, but also aware that the power of England was on the decline, while the power of the Soviet Union and the United States was on the rise. One year later, in September 1947, Andrei(y) Vyshinsky, a spokesman to the United Nations on behalf of the Soviet Union, delivered a speech as well. In his speech, Vyshinsky responded to the call for aid in the war-torn European nations. His remarks would later earn him the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs under Joseph Stalin. Vyshinsky had served as an official during the Russian Civil War and went on to serve as the Procurater General, as a Soviet law theorist and a wartime diplomat all prior to giving his speech before the United Nations.[16] In his speech, he conveyed his dismay that by allowing the Marshall plan to move forward, the United Nations was allowing Europe to be placed under the control of the United States politically and economically, because they would become dependant on the United States for supplies.[17] Historians have not regarded this as a surprise, because we now have access to declassified Central Intelligence Agency documents that prove the intent the Soviet Union to pull eastern European nations under their control, and to help them by setting them up economically, improving communications and by providing them with leadership and training in order to assure a pro-Soviet attitude following the devestation of World War II.[18]

Historians believe that the origins of the Cold War, aside from being rooted in WWII, were rooted in the struggle between communism and capitalism and the issues between East and West. The Manifesto of the Communist Party was written and published by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in the 1800s. They discuss the key elements to communism and how it could influence politics and the economy. The manifesto outlines the belief that all of history has been a history of class struggles. Marx and Engels wrote, “Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.”[19] These class struggles are the basis for the communist ideology. Communism is defined as, “a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed,” or “a theory advocating elimination of private property.”[20] The principles and ideals expressed in the Manifesto were the basis for communism as it was enacted in the 1917 Communist Revolution. The goal was that private property would be eliminated, as would any sense of elitism, which was associated with the extravagance of the capitalist west.

Many historians have analyzed the communist aspect and dimension in the origins of the Cold War. In 1969, at the height of the Cold War, Joseph Starobin published an article in Foreign Affairs, a magazine that examines international relations. In his article, he looked at the origins of the Cold War. It offers a unique perspective, as it was written during the Cold War itself. He begins by stating the irony that came with younger American historians making headway in their reinterpretation of the Cold War, considering the recent overwhelming of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Historians were just beginning to place responsibility on, “…the mistakes, delusions and imperatives of United States policy…” when the Soviets surprised the world with their invasion.[21] The invasion itself was in reaction to the “Prague Spring” that had taken place in Czechoslovakia. This refers to a brief period where the people of Czechoslovakia experienced a liberalization within a communist country overseen by the Soviet Union. This period was short lived when the Soviet Union deployed around 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops, in the largest show of military force in Europe since World War II.[22] This was a significant clash of democracy and communism in a country that had turned communist by force under Joseph Stalin. John Lukacs analyzes the choices and the effects of world leaders, such as Stalin, in regards to communism and democracy after World War II. He believes that the differences in communist ideology paired with World War II were the origins of the Cold War.[23] In his book, he also discusses the different views of the Cold War from Europe. Some people saw it as a “European Civil War,” but historians seem to have debunked this idea by discussing the importance of the United States in a war against communism, rather than just European nations at war.[24] In doing this Lukacs examines not only other the views of historians, but what could be considered a more public view of the Cold War.

George Quester wrote about the origins of the Cold War by examining the public view. The public formed opinions about the Cold War, and expressed them in many ways, and even more so in the wake of the Vietnam War. The public made a shift after the Vietnam War, they were becoming less supportive of the agenda. The public was beginning to believe that the Cold War itself was equally as senseless as the policies that had been written in 1945. After losing so many of their sons to the Vietnam War and witnessing the effect it had, the American public began to see the Cold War as senseless and “…needlessly combative toward Communist-governed nations.”[25] As the 1970s and 1980s progressed, the American public became more impatient with the American government, and less supportive of the anti-Communist agenda. In his article, “The Origins of the Cold War,” Thomas Paterson elaborates on the changing views the American public had about the war. He says that, “This generally accepted view of the origins of the Cold War, then, depicted a United States forced into an activist international role by external forces, especially by the Soviet threat.”[26] This statement suggests that origins of the war were rooted in a need to play hero and activist against the Soviet threat of communism. Paterson goes on to say that the views changed over time, in light of the decline of McCarthyism, the Vietnam War and the declassification of early Cold War documents.[27] The many different documents included speeches, diaries, memoranda, briefings, telegrams and more from the highest levels of government. The examination of these documents allowed for scholars to form more educated opinions and to inform public opinion and answers to the question of the origins of the Cold War.

It is also important to remember that the way that the Cold War is taught in schools today can be from a slanted prospective. This is also true of books and other writings about the Cold War from the American perspective. In his 1995 article in The Journal of American History, Samuel Walker discusses how the Cold War origins are taught in United States history classes and textbooks. He states, “How college survey textbooks treat the origins of the Cold War is a good indicator of what students learn, or at least what they are told, about the causes and consequences of the American-Soviet conflict. The issues of what caused the Cold War and how Americans perceived Soviet behavior are keys to understanding what followed, because in the early years of Harry S. Truman’s administration, policies, programs, attitudes, and assumptions that lasted for a generation were established.”[28] Keeping this in mind can be a useful tool when writing about the history of the Cold War and its origins, which is something that Arthur Schlesinger also warns about. He says that, “With the passing of old issues and the emergence of new conflicts and contestants, there is a natural tendency, especially on the part of the generation which grew up during the Cold War, to take a fresh look at the causes of the great contention between Russia and America.”[29] It is important to consider that there are multiple historical perspectives that have been applied to the history and origins of the Cold War. Michael Leigh touches on the different schools as they apply to the writing of Cold War history, and in his conclusion, he talks about new modes of research that can be applied, including how political science is influencing the writings and discussion about Cold War history. He expects that it will continue to change the way people understand the Cold War, but warns it could lead to a potential distortion of history.[30] Writing about the Cold War with this perspective has been enlightening to some, but the warning is clear, it can cause issues if there is too much revision made, which can happen if people who lived through the Cold War use a modern perspective to write about the past.

In conclusion, there were many factors and origins that led to the Cold War period that lasted from 1945 until 1991. The causes are rooted further back than World War II, but in reading the history of the Cold War, it is hard to overlook the importance of World War II and the role it played in the Cold War and relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. There is plenty of historical evidence that shows the roots of the Cold War in imperialism and government relations in the nineteenth century between Russia and England, which would be a mantle later picked up by the United States in their desire to prevent the spread of communism. The fights over control of land and resources date back further back than the divisions of Germany following World War II, that took place at the Potsdam conference. The divisions in Germany created the perfect environment for the Cold War. On one side, you had the capitalist democracies of the West and on the other, the communist Soviet dictatorship. The conferences and divisions of land were supposed to keep both sides happy. Stalin could have the east and the west would still fall under the purview of western democracy. There has been a lot of speculation, as well as informed opinion, made by Cold War historians, as well as the public, as to the origins of the Cold War and this examination has just been the tip of the iceberg. The Cold War period did not end until the 1990s. Nearly a half of century after the end of World War II. The two superpower countries of the United States and the Soviet Union would finally come to an agreement that would allow them to co-exist, despite all circumstances and issues that had transpired. Whatever the origins of the Cold War, the end of the Cold War came with a goal. The goal was peace, and the hope was that this peacetime would prevent any potential nuclear winter. Nearly thirty years after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, a tenuous peace remains. 

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[1] Gary B. Nash, Allen F. Davis, Peter J. Frederick, John R. Howe, Julie Roy Jeffrey and Allan M. Winkler. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. Los Angeles: Pearson Education Incorporated, 2004.

[2] Pavilionis, Richard Giragosian and Peter. "The Great Game: Pipeline Politics in Central Asia." Harvard International Review, 1996: 24-27; 62-65.

[3] Afghanistan Investment Support Agency. "Market Prospects: A Country Abundantly Rich in Natural Resources." Afghanistan Investment Support Agency. February 22, 2016. http://www.aisa.org.af/Content/Media/Documents/Mining17112014133916625553325325.pdf (accessed August 5, 2019).

[4] Bar-Siman-Tov, Yaacov. "The Strategy of War by Proxy." Cooperation and Conflict, 1984: 263-273

[5] Hall, Richard C. "Origins of the Cold War." In Consumed by War: European Conflict in the 20th Century, by Richard C. Hall, 190-207. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2010.

[6] Jr., Arthur Schlesinger. "Origins of the Cold War." Foreign Affairs, 1967: 22-52.

[7] Maddox, Robert James. "Truman, Poland, and the Origins of the Cold War." Presidential Studies Quarterly, 1987: 29-41.

[8] Yalta Conference. January 30, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/event/Yalta-Conference (accessed August 14, 2019).

[9] Government Printing Office. "Potsdam Agreement Protocol of the Proceedings, August l, 1945." North Atlantic Treaty Organization. August 1, 1945. https://www.nato.int/ebookshop/video/declassified/doc_files/Potsdam%20Agreement.pdf (accessed August 5, 2019).

[10] Ibid.

[11] Parker, R.A.C. The Second World War A Short History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

[12] NATO. What is NATO? n.d. https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html (accessed August 15, 2019).

[13] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Warsaw Pact (Europe 1955-1991). April 9, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/event/Warsaw-Pact (accessed August 16, 2019).

[14] Churchill, Winston. Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech. March 5, 1946. https://www.historywiz.com/primarysources/ironcurtainspeech.html (accessed August 5, 2019).

[15] History.com Editors. Churchill Delivers Iron Curtain Speech. July 27, 2019. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/churchill-delivers-iron-curtain-speech (accessed August 12, 2019).

[16] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Andrey Vyshinsky Soviet Statesman. December 6, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrey-Vyshinsky (accessed August 15, 2019).

[17] Vyshinsky, Andrei. Andrei Vyshinsky, Soviet spokesman, at the United Nations. September 18, 1947. https://www.historywiz.com/primarysources/vyshinsky.html (accessed August 5, 2019).

[18] Central Intelligence Agency . Weekly Summary Excerpt, 23 August 1946, Soviet Military Policy in Eastern Europe. August 23, 1946. https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/assessing-the-soviet-threat-the-early-cold-war-years/5563bod1.pdf (accessed August 14, 2019).

[19] Engels, Karl Marx and Frederick. "Manifesto of the Communist Party." Marxist's Internet Archive . February 1848. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf (accessed August 5, 2019).

[20] Merriam-Webster. Communism. 1840. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/communism (accessed August 15, 2019).

[21] Starobin, Joseph R. "Origins of the Cold War: The Communist Dimension." Foreign Affairs, 1969: 681-696.

[22] Office of the Historian. Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968. n.d. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/soviet-invasion-czechoslavkia (accessed August 15, 2019).

[23] Lukacs, John. "The Second World War and the Origins of the Cold War." In The Legacy of the Second World War, by John Lukacs, 161-191. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.

[24] Ibid.

[25] Quester, George H. "Origins of the Cold War: Some Clues from Public Opinion." Political Science Quarterly, 1978: 647-663.

[26] Paterson, Thomas G. "The Origins of the Cold War." OAH Magazine of History, 1986: 5-9, 18.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Walker, J. Samuel. "The Origins of the Cold War in United States History Textbooks." The Journal of American History, 1995: 1652-1661.

[29] Jr., Arthur Schlesinger. "Origins of the Cold War." Foreign Affairs, 1967: 22-52.

[30] Leigh, Michael. "Is There a Revisionist Thesis on the Origins of the Cold War?" Political Science Quarterly, 1974: 101-116.