Alternatives To Violence: The Cold War
Alternatives to Violence
History 12
“Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”
John F. Kennedy
September 25, 1961
The Cold War, which took place between 1945 and 1989, has been the event in which the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union directly threatened each other with nuclear weapons, almost bringing “an end to mankind”. All those that offered explanations during and after the Cold War have been classified into two groups: the traditionalists and the revisionists. The traditionalist point of view was focused on the idea that if there was somebody to be blamed for the outbreak of the Cold War, the Soviet Union deserved …show more content…
The Chinese maintained the Korean stalemate along the 38th parallel knowing media coverage of mounting US casualties would disintegrate public support. In the 90s scholars began to portray the Korean War as a civil conflict, rejecting the traditional interpretation of the war as an example of Soviet-inspired, external aggression. Kathryn Weathersby concluded that the war origins “lie primarily with the division of Korea in 1945 and the polarization of Korean politics that resulted from . . . the policies of the two occupying powers…The Soviet Union played a key role in the outbreak of the war, but it was as facilitator, not as originator." President Harry S. Truman firmly believed that North Korea was a puppet of the Soviet Union. Many historians wrote that the Unites States had to act against Soviet-inspired aggression or risk irreparable damage to American credibility and prestige. On the contrary, other historians applauded the Truman Administration for rejecting MacArthur’s proposals of widening the war. At first, Korea escaped reinterpretation at the hands of the revisionists. In particular, Richard J. Barnet accepted the traditional view that North Korea initiated the Korean War. Nevertheless, early studies of the Korean War blamed the United States for the North Korean attack, stating that the Truman …show more content…
3 (Summer 1989), 7.
Herbert Feis, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin. The War they Waged and the Peace They Sought, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1957, p. 655.
Kathryn Weathersby, "The Soviet Role in the Early Phase of the Korean War," The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 2 (Winter 1993), 432.
Review Essay. James I. Matray: Korea’s Partition: Soviet-American Pursuit of Reunification, 1945-1948. © 1998 James I. Matray
Studies on East Asia: The Korean War in History. Edited by James Cotton & Ian Neary. Hak-Joon Kim: China’s Non-Involvement in the Origins of the Korean War: A Critical Reassessment of the Traditionalist and Revisionist Literature
History 122. Michael O’Malley: The Vietnam War and the Tragedy of Containment. http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/vietnam/lecture.html
Modern American Poetry. Robert J. McMahon: Changing Interpretations of the Vietnam War. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/interpretations.htm
Maj Earl H. Tilford, Jr., USAF - The Right Reaction: A Consideration of Three Revisionists.
History 12
“Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”
John F. Kennedy
September 25, 1961
The Cold War, which took place between 1945 and 1989, has been the event in which the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union directly threatened each other with nuclear weapons, almost bringing “an end to mankind”. All those that offered explanations during and after the Cold War have been classified into two groups: the traditionalists and the revisionists. The traditionalist point of view was focused on the idea that if there was somebody to be blamed for the outbreak of the Cold War, the Soviet Union deserved …show more content…
The Chinese maintained the Korean stalemate along the 38th parallel knowing media coverage of mounting US casualties would disintegrate public support. In the 90s scholars began to portray the Korean War as a civil conflict, rejecting the traditional interpretation of the war as an example of Soviet-inspired, external aggression. Kathryn Weathersby concluded that the war origins “lie primarily with the division of Korea in 1945 and the polarization of Korean politics that resulted from . . . the policies of the two occupying powers…The Soviet Union played a key role in the outbreak of the war, but it was as facilitator, not as originator." President Harry S. Truman firmly believed that North Korea was a puppet of the Soviet Union. Many historians wrote that the Unites States had to act against Soviet-inspired aggression or risk irreparable damage to American credibility and prestige. On the contrary, other historians applauded the Truman Administration for rejecting MacArthur’s proposals of widening the war. At first, Korea escaped reinterpretation at the hands of the revisionists. In particular, Richard J. Barnet accepted the traditional view that North Korea initiated the Korean War. Nevertheless, early studies of the Korean War blamed the United States for the North Korean attack, stating that the Truman …show more content…
3 (Summer 1989), 7.
Herbert Feis, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin. The War they Waged and the Peace They Sought, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1957, p. 655.
Kathryn Weathersby, "The Soviet Role in the Early Phase of the Korean War," The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 2 (Winter 1993), 432.
Review Essay. James I. Matray: Korea’s Partition: Soviet-American Pursuit of Reunification, 1945-1948. © 1998 James I. Matray
Studies on East Asia: The Korean War in History. Edited by James Cotton & Ian Neary. Hak-Joon Kim: China’s Non-Involvement in the Origins of the Korean War: A Critical Reassessment of the Traditionalist and Revisionist Literature
History 122. Michael O’Malley: The Vietnam War and the Tragedy of Containment. http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/vietnam/lecture.html
Modern American Poetry. Robert J. McMahon: Changing Interpretations of the Vietnam War. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/interpretations.htm
Maj Earl H. Tilford, Jr., USAF - The Right Reaction: A Consideration of Three Revisionists.