|
[[ਤਸਵੀਰ:Peacekeeper missile.jpg|right|thumb|250px|]]
[[ਤਸਵੀਰ:Coldwarmap.gif|thumb|200px|]]
== ਇਤਹਾਸ ==
[[ਤਸਵੀਰ:Coldwarmap.gif|thumb|200px|This map shows two essential global spheres during the Cold War in [[1959]]. Blue nations indicate the U.S. and its allies, lighter blue nations indicate nations receiving aid from the U.S. Red nations are the Soviet Union and its allies. Green nations represent European colonies, and white nations signify [[non-aligned nations]].]]
There have been three distinct periods in the western study of the Cold War. For more than a decade after the end of [[World War II]], few American historians saw any reason to challenge the conventional interpretation of the beginning of the Cold War: that the breakdown of relations was a direct result of [[Stalin]]'s violation of the accords of the [[Yalta conference]], the imposition of Soviet-dominated governments on an unwilling Eastern Europe, Soviet intransigence, and aggressive Soviet expansionism.
However, later historians, especially [[William Appleman Williams]] in his [[1959]] ''The Tragedy of American Diplomacy'' and [[Walter LaFeber]] in his [[1967]] ''America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-1968'', articulated an overriding concern: U.S. commitment to maintaining an "open door" for American trade in world markets. Some [[revisionist]] historians have argued that U.S. policy of containment as expressed in the Truman Doctrine were at least equally to blame, if not more so. Some date the onset of the Cold War to the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]], regarding the U.S. use of nuclear weapons as a warning to the Soviet Union, which was about to join the war against the nearly defeated Japan. In short, historians have disagreed as to who was responsible for the breakdown of U.S.-Soviet relations and whether the conflict between the two superpowers was inevitable. This revisionist approach reached its height during the [[Vietnam War]] when many began to view the U.S. and U.S.S.R. as morally comparable empires.
In the later years of the Cold War, there were attempts to forge a post-revisionist [[synthesis]] by historians, and since the end of the Cold War, the post-revisionist school has come to dominate. Prominent post-revisionist historians include [[John Lewis Gaddis]] and [[Robert Grogin]]. Rather than attributing the beginning of the Cold War to either superpower, post-revisionist historians focused on mutual misperception, mutual reactivity, and shared responsibility between the superpowers. Borrowing from the [[realist]] school of international relations, the post-revisionists essentially accepted U.S. European policy in Europe, such as aid to Greece in 1947 and the [[Marshall Plan]].
According to this synthesis, "Communist activity" was not the root of the difficulties of Europe, but rather it was a consequence of the disruptive effects of the war on the economic, political, and social structure of Europe. In addition, the Marshall Plan rebuilt a functioning Western [[economic system]], thwarting the political appeal of the radical left.
For Western Europe, economic aid ended the dollar shortage and stimulated private investment for postwar reconstruction. For the United States, the plan spared it from a crisis of [[over-production]] and maintained demand for American exports. The NATO alliance would serve to integrate Western Europe into the system of mutual defense pacts, thus providing safeguards against subversion or neutrality in the bloc. Rejecting the assumption that communism was an international monolith with aggressive designs on the "free world", the post-revisionist school nevertheless accepts U.S. policy in Europe as a necessary reaction to cope with instability in Europe, which threatened to drastically alter the [[balance of power]] in a manner favorable to the U.S.S.R. and devastate the Western economic and political system.
For the Eastern European satellites of the Soviet Union, little money was invested in civilian infrastructure, but they did receive substantial military assistance in the form of funds, materiel, and advisors. As a result of the military oriented economy of the Soviet Union, most Eastern European states are still trying to recover from the destruction of their economic, political, and social structures during WWII.
== ਖਾਸ ਦਸਤਾਵੇਜ਼ ==
|
