After reading Smoke's book on National Security and the Nuclear Dilemma, I was shocked by the misunderstanding that caused the Cold war between the Western and Eastern political systems. Even with similar intentions of keeping the world peace, the two super powers keep probing and blaming each other for their own conduct during the Cold War.
We are going to deep dive into three events that have major influences in the cold war era. One is the military occupation of Eastern Europe by USSR and then Marshall plan, which is economic support from U.S to the recovery of Europe. The third event that foster the development is the USSR's blockage of western Berlin.
From all events, we can find a common theme that the peaceful intentions from both sides are misinterpreted by both parties. Why would such misunderstandings happen? We have to look at the difference between two political systems at their own historical background.
To understand U.S actions and strategies during at the early stage of Cold war, between 1945 to 1949, we need to keep in mind U.S interests in the post-WWII setting. There are two things that U.S was seeking for. First, as a country that is not particularly hostile and aggressive in foreign invasions, U.S was looking to maintain the peaceful settings by collaborate efforts. The establishment of United Nation was its first step to "collective security". Also, U.S was providing aids to European countries out of good wills. The other main goal for U.S is to prevent any threats of insecurity, mainly totalitarian dictatorship, because it resembles high similarity to the early career of Nazi Germany.
On the other hand, USSR was having a much simpler objective on its agenda, which is to defend itself from potential invasions. If we take a closer look at Soviet Union's history, Soviet Union has always been extremely insecure in the past. During the Middle Ages, barbarian invaders from central Asia was repeatedly seen in Russian cities and towns. After that, France went all across Europe and deep into Russian, even beyond Moscow. Poland had conquered and ruled much of Russian and burned down Moscow. After the Poles were ejected, new threats emerged from Prussian, Sweden and the Austrian Empire. Then Napoleon invaded in early nineteenth century. Russian suffered tragically from WWI as well. Because of its long history of wars and injuries, Stalin was determined to stay away from wars and kept its surrounding countries as allies by imposing communist government and total control. However, this defensive strategy was misinterpreted by the Western world as a sign of endless invasion and a relentless forward match.
(To be continued)
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