Help Please - To what extent was the Cold War caused by Truman's policies?

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The question is: To what extent was the Cold War caused by Truman's policies?

 

Harry S. Truman became President of the United States on 12 April 1945, following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, amidst profound concern about his capacity for national or world leadership. Still today some blame him for starting the Cold War, while others say he had 'saved western civilisation' from Soviet aggression. This essay will discuss the evidence for the validity of the American Revisionist view of the Cold War and the elements proving that Truman policies were not the only explanation for the 46 year long conflict.

 

        Numerous Truman policies brought tensions between the US and USSR post World War II.

The Truman Doctrine was the first action that put distance between the two parties on paper. The contrasting language used by the President at the announcement of the doctrine drew the frontier between the “rule of the minority†and the “free peopleâ€. From this day, the US would “support free peoples who are resisting [...] pressures to control them†and put a very negative light on the “second way of lifeâ€. This put the discordance into practice: rather than trying to find a compromise, Truman imposes the policy of containment, making the US the “world policemanâ€.

Truman’s decision to take armament as a sign of superiority in 1945 was miscalculated. The US believed that the atomic bomb would establish their superiority and stop the USSR “expansionâ€. However, this created more competition between the two parties and pushed the USSR to state their superiority in turn. The USSR tested their first successful atomic bomb only 4 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Marshall Plan drew the line between the two parties economically. Williams states that Truman wanted to ensure US markets as to not see the 1930’s crisis repeat again: the Marshall plan clearly fulfils this desire, officially launching the “open door†policy. USSR was not ready to accept this in Eastern Europe, as it needed economic partners of similar ideology to recover from the Second World War and ensure their political domination. Although the Plan was said not to be “against any country or doctrineâ€, it was perceived as a mere extension of the Truman Doctrine and a smoke screen for US expansionism. The Plan gave another dimension to the Soviet suspicion and was responded to by the creation of Cominform.

Lastly, merging France’s and the UK’s German territory with his own in 1947, Truman puts Stalin under the impression that the East is merging against the USSR. This sense of opposition was underlined by the creation of the Deutsche Mark, making trade between the two Germanys more difficult. This was the spark that started the Berlin Blockade in the same month, and officially physicalized the Cold War.

 

Although Truman is often accused of having destroyed the status quo built by Roosevelt, according to Dallek, Roosevelt had started to change the tone with Soviets before his death. The concrete ideology of Stalin clashed with Roosevelt’s idealistic ones created a climate in which actions of the other were interpreted in the light of their own priorities, further increasing suspicion and tensions. Roosevelt’s death still greatly worsened US diplomatic relations. Stalin became even more suspicious of the US, as he had respect for Roosevelt, which made fruitful discussions between the two antonyms easier. Truman had no experience with foreign policy and was advised by American politicians who didn’t believe in the status quo established by Roosevelt.

        Stalin’s vision of post war Germany, crave for security and his paranoia greatly contributed to the outbreak of the cold war. After Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Stalin stopped trusting anyone, both in and outside the USSR. This was show by many decisions on his part, including speech. Stalin expressed his apathy for capitalism, his suspicion for the US and said a clash between the two parties was inevitable, all prior to any official US plans made against the USSR.

He also misunderstood the liberal democratic systems, seeing officials’ inability to commit themselves directly as a lack of trust from western government. The different understanding of democracy led to the Salami tactics, ensuring a USSR buffer zone from 1945. This proved the extent to which Stalin could act to have control and power, opposing the two spheres of influences before Truman was in office.

Besides, it is arguable that the USSR opposition to Truman’s policies wasn’t necessary. Even though the USSR needed economic aid from the Marshall Plan, Molotov refused any discussions on how the money should be spent on a European scale in a conference between the UK and France. The acceptance of this aid could have improved the country’s economical state faster and would have opened discussions between the two sides without “enslaving†the USSR, as the plan was destined not to be against “any ideologyâ€. The refusal to join the ILF, OECD or WTO and non-cooperation in the United Nations only contributed to tensions and closed the doors to peaceful coexistence and economic partners for the USSR.

 

Although Truman’s policies had a great impact on the US-USSR rivalry, they were not the sole reasons for the Cold War. Stalin’s mistrust and misunderstanding of the US and the USSR’s refusal to see a world reshaped by the US would lead to a superpower clash. After the death of Stalin, Khrushchev attempted a peaceful coexistence of the two parties the « only one way out ». However, the Cuban missile crisis proved that the historical antagonism and crucial differences could only lead to the destruction of one or the other.