The Cold War and America and the Soviet Union

Walter LaFeber's book consists of a comprehensive history

of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union

during the Cold War. This is a revisionist history of uneven

reliability. LaFeber often arranges his "facts" and uses

inadequate citations to support his biased conclusions. LaFeber

finds serious fault with the foreign policy leadership of both

superpowers. To him, the Cold War represented a senseless,

spiraling arms race and a waste of human and material resources

on a colossal scale. For the United States, "it has not been the

most satisfying chapter in American diplomatic history" (1) When

the Cold War was over, "no one could conclude . . . that the

world had become a safer place in which to live" (335).

The book begins with a grossly oversimplified treatment of

the origins of the Cold War. According to LaFeber, the World

War II partnership between the United States and the Soviet

Union was a "shot gun marriage forced upon them" (7) by Hitler

which "climaxed half a century of enmity" (6 7). That

partnership broke down after the war, allegedly because of an

American failure to reconcile contradictions in its policy

toward the Soviet Union. The United States had to choose between

good relations with the Soviet Union and conflict over Soviet

imposition of its system in Eastern Europe. American policy

. . .
rs close to a Marxist interpretation as to how and why the Cold War began. Henry Wallace said all this in 1948. The Cold War Intensifies (1949 1953) LaFeber correctly points out that the Korean War led to a massive increase in American defense expenditures and in American military commitments in Western Europe and in East Asia. In his view, America intervened in a civil war in Korea, which is a simplistic view of the matter. The facts are that the North invaded the South, Stalin miscalculated the likely American response and substantial American interests in Japan and elsewhere were threatened. LaFeber is on more solid ground when he criticizes the American decision to cross the 38th parallel in disregard of Chinese warnings. LaFeber's speculations on the motivations of Stalin and Mao in Korea and Mao later in the Formosa Straits are interesting but are unsupported by any real evidence (100 101 and 200). The Middle Period (1953 1975) LaFeber is critical of the American refusal to take up various Soviet offers to negotiate over a demilitarized Germany. There were others, such as Churchill and Kennan, who were anxious in the 1950's to probe Soviet i
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Approximate Word count = 1318
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)