The figure of communism and Us-USSR bilateral diplomatic relations during the cold war : a conflict analysis

Résumé du document

The Cold War is, together with the World Wars, probably the most important episode in Europe's and the United States XXth century diplomatic history. The conflict has an impressive amount of dimensions, motives and outcomes, most of which are probably still unknown. This being said, one still cannot help but raise the simple question: what was the Cold War all about? The conflict analyses are numerous but common knowledge tends to state that the Cold War was a conflict between the East and the West whose respective protagonists were the USSR and the United States. A fight for global influence without direct confrontation. We are going to get deeper into the fight for symbolic influence over the world, and this more specifically from the American point of view. We will analyze the meaning of the figure of Communism in American politics, official rhetorics and the domestic political climate during the Cold War. The aim of this paper is not to give general answers, but rather to raise questions about the significance of Communism in the US-USSR bilateral relations and the general outcome of the conflict. Is the picture of Communism a result of the bilateral climate? Is the bilateral climate submissive to the leaders views on ideology?

Extraits

[...] Gustave Duran, who was labeled as, I quote, notorious international communist," was made assistant secretary of state in charge of Latin American affairs. He was taken into the State Department from his job as a lieutenant colonel in the Communist International Brigade. Finally, after intense congressional pressure and criticism, he resigned in 1946 from the State Department and, ladies and gentlemen, where do you think he is now? He took over a high-salaried job as chief of Cultural Activities Section in the office of the assistant secretary-general of the United Nations . [...]

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[...] Is the picture of Communism a result of the bilateral climate? Is the bilateral climate submissive to the leaders' views on ideology? The figure of communism and american politics We will now go through the different phases of the Cold War from an American perspective, the parts divided by the evolution of the place taken by the figure of Communism in American rhetoric and political climate. The beginnings of containment By the end of World War the grand US-USSR alliance rapidly comes to an end as the Yalta and Potsdam decisions are neglected. [...]