Misjudgement and Misinterpretation during the Cold War
- Created by: Georgie Robinson
- Created on: 16-11-14 13:01
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- Misjudgements and misperceptions
- USA
- Had no neighbouring enemy and had not been invaded for centuries, so found it hard to sympathise with USSR insecurity
- US mistakenly assumed Stalin had engineered the Korean War
- Marshall Plan: the USSR were unable to offer similar help so felt threatened as their economic weakness was exposed
- US perceived that Stalin was trying to Bolshevise Eastern Europe
- Interpretted that his actions were aggressive and expansionist
- US foreign policy assumed that communist ideology and not national security was the driving force behind USSR foreign policy
- Ignored evidence to suggest otherwise
- Truman Doctrine exaggerated global communist threat to persuade congress to support the policy of substantial aid
- Had no neighbouring enemy and had not been invaded for centuries, so found it hard to sympathise with USSR insecurity
- USSR
- Stalin's 1946 speech warned of a possible future war against capitalism
- USA interpreted this as a threat of war. His speech lacked clarity and his goals were ambiguous
- From the 1930s, Stalin showed signs of paranoid and became intensely suspicious
- He interpreted many legitimate US policies as deliberate attempts to weaken the USSR
- Marshall Plan interpreted as a calculated attempt to weaken soviet security interests
- USSR responded with COMECON, seen by the US as an attempt to spread the soviet economic model
- Stalin had been given unspoken approval for a buffer zone. He therefore felt that the USA were shifting their position unfairly
- USA's military superiority convinced Stalin that they would attack.
- Triggered the arms race
- However the USA didn't see the USA as a likely threat
- Stalin's 1946 speech warned of a possible future war against capitalism
- USA
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