22 - Odd Arne Westad. The Global Cold War

Summary

The euphoria that marked the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union (USSR) has long since vanished. We now know that there was no “end to history”, and that the Cold War rhetoric of capitalism versus communism masked deeper, more long-lasting problems. The opening of once closed archives and the publication of memoirs allow us to examine the course of the Cold War in great detail and to reach a clearer picture of how the Cold War began and how it was waged. Professor Westad, Director of the Cold War Studies Centre at the London School of Economics, concentrates on how the conflict was played out in the Third World, that rapidly disappearing term once used to cover all countries that were not a) superpowers – the USSR and the USA; or b) developed countries, such as most of Western Europe and Japan. He argues that the Cold War was essentially a conflict between the two superpowers, and that their historical experiences had much to do with the way this developed. Both were slaveowning empires until the 1860s. They were each convinced of their own righteousness and their obligation to bring enlightenment to the lesser breeds on their respective peripheries. Despite establishing huge empires in the adjacent lands, they both distinguished their actions from what they regarded as the more reprehensible imperial actions of countries such as Britain and France, and later Japan. The Americans opposed central power, or the power of the collective, both of which reminded them of the European past that they had rejected. The Russians, on the other hand, embraced collectivism as a means of incorporating their new subject peoples. In the 20th century, these positions became even more entrenched. Both championed freedom, but their concepts of freedom were very different, and positions that favoured their respective state interests were soon seen as the “right” way towards freedom for colonial or semi-colonial peoples. After 1917, on one side there was fear of communism, on the other fear of imperialism. Until 1945, little more than rhetoric marked these two positions, both the USSR and the USA retreating into relative isolation which intensified the fear of the unknown on both sides.

World War II changed all that.