Foreign relations of the United States 1950. Vol. I: National security affairs: foreign economic policy, Foreign relations of the United States 1950. Vol. III: Western Europe, Foreign relations of the United States 1950. Vol. IV: Central and Eastern Europe: the Soviet Union, Foreign relations of the United States 1951. Vol. III: European security and the German question (in 2 parts) and Foreign relations of the United States 1952–1954. Vol. V: Western European security (in 2 parts)

This chapter explores the role and experience of Western Europe in the Cold War. It explains that Western Europe is not a precise political or geographical entity, and that its role in the Cold War can only be understood in the context of its changing internal dynamics and changing relationship with the United States, the Soviet Union, and countries of Eastern Europe. The chapter argues that Western Europe both shaped and was shaped by Cold War in a political, economic, military, cultural, and ideological sense, and also considers the German question, Franco-German rapprochement and European integration, and military aspects of the Western alliance.

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5. Soviet–American Relations: Avoiding Hot War and the Search for Stability

International Relations Since 1945 ◽

10.1093/hepl/9780198807612.003.0005 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 145-158

Author(s):

John W. Young ◽

John Kent

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Cold War ◽

Soviet Union ◽

Arms Control ◽

The United States ◽

The Soviet Union ◽

German Question ◽

The Cold War ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship

This chapter examines US–Soviet relations during the Cold War as well as the question of the genuineness of efforts by the United States and the Soviet Union to achieve disarmament and resolve troublesome disputes. It begins with a discussion of the German question, noting that Germany’s future position was vital to the future of Europe and a particular concern of the Soviets. It then considers the progress of arms control and peace efforts by the United States and the Soviet Union, before concluding with an analysis of the relationship of arms control to the use of armaments in hot war and to some aspects of fighting the Cold War.

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The Rise and Decline of NATO

Worldview ◽

10.1017/s008425590000512x ◽

1964 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 3-8

Author(s):

William Pfaff

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Soviet Union ◽

Western Europe ◽

The United States ◽

The Soviet Union

NATO was born of a crisis, and its trouble today results from the fact that the crisis is gone. The ruins of war have been cleared away. The drama of 1949—of a clash between Germany's conquerorshas faded. The ambition of the Soviet Union to dominate Western Europe undoubtedly still exists, but it is a passive threat, a latent threat which no longer has in it an immediacy and power sufficient to compel great measures of defense, The states of Western Europe are no longer the unconfldent nations they were in the last years of the 1940's; they no longer need rely upon the United States to defend them from the Soviet Union; and the Soviet Union is no longer quite the bizarre society it was in those years of menace.

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Response to “France and the German Question, 1945–1955,” by Michael Creswell and Marc Trachtenberg

Journal of Cold War Studies ◽

10.1162/jcws.2003.5.3.33 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 33-36

Author(s):

William I. Hitchcock

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Cold War ◽

Soviet Union ◽

The United States ◽

The Other ◽

Traditional View ◽

Main Thrust ◽

The Third ◽

The Soviet Union ◽

German Question

Three scholars offer separate responses to the article by Michael Creswell and Marc Trachtenberg. The responses include some common points, but they diverge sharply in other respects. The first two respondents generally agree with the conclusions reached by Creswell and Trachtenberg, but one of them believes that the article goes too far (in its contention that France's anxiety about the Soviet Union eclipsed its concerns about Germany), whereas the other argues that the article does not go far enough in showing how the United States adapted its policy to accommodate French leaders. The second respondent also questions whether Creswell and Trachtenberg have added anything new to the latest “revisionist” works on French-German relations in the first decade of Cold War. The third respondent, unlike the first two, rejects the main thrust of the article by Creswell and Trachtenberg and seeks to defend the traditional view that France was very reluctant to go along with U.S. and British policies on the German question. This respondent also questions whether Creswell and Trachtenberg have focused on the most appropriate sources of evidence.

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