Origine De La Guerre Froide

[Xav]

je viens de lire cet article de Rothbard sur LewRockwell.com.

Je cite quelques passages qui ont trait à divers échanges sur l'origine de la guerre froide.

As to the origins of the Cold War, Barnes concluded that it was initiated by Truman and Churchill, largely for domestic political reasons, and since then has been used by each of the various governments to cement its rule over its subjects. At home, many classes became wedded to the Cold War: Democrats and Republicans, businessmen (oblivious of the “fact the cold … war is… bringing on drastic and rigorous military state capitalism with all its elaborate state controls over industry…”), intellectuals, and labor (“enjoying its ‘cut’ in… the Cold War and the… armament program”). Yet, concluded Barnes, it is vital for the United States to “return to neutrality… combined [with] every possible effort to limit warfare, and to encourage better international understanding…” Instead of scoffing at every Russian proposal for “peace, trade, or the adjustment of disputes,” we should “at least… put Russia on the spot each time she makes a peace proposal and compel her to demonstrate its authenticity and good faith….”

Turning specifically to Communism, Barnes cut straight to the heart of the matter: military attack by the Soviet Union on the United States was most unlikely (unless “provoked as a measure of preventive war”), because “the Soviet program for communizing the world is not based on a plan of military conquest. It is founded upon propaganda, infiltration, and intrigue.” Such ideological revolutions have never yet been extirpated by military force. The true answer to Communism, then, is to strengthen American ideology and institutions: to maintain American freedom and prosperity. Engaging in Cold War regimentation, suppression of liberty, huge military budgets and crippling taxation, is to do just the reverse – to undermine the very American liberty that distinguishes us from Communism. Here Barnes quoted from the brilliant pamphlet of F. A. Harper, In Search of Peace:

Russia is supposed to be the enemy. Why? We are told that it is because Russia is communistic…

But if it is necessary for us to embrace extensive socialist or communist measures in order to fight a nation which has adopted them why fight them?

Plus loi, on constate que la guerre froide, lancée par Truman et Churchill, renforce le pouvoir de Staline.

Stalin and his successors were content with the Cold War because war scares and the alleged threat of capitalistic attack enabled the Politburo to maintain unity and prevent any threat of civil war in Soviet Russia, despite much slave labor and low living standards….

The antagonism of the Western Powers and the Korean War aided [the Chinese Communists] in instituting a reign of terror at home and eliminating their enemies under the guise of the needs of defense and national security.

Barnes explique le pourquoi de l'annonce de la possession de la bombe à Postdam (cf. aussi la bio sur Staline et son premier cercle de Sebag Montefiore, Staline, la cour du Tsar rouge, p.530 et p.533 l'auteur rapporte les propos de Staline "La guerre est barbare maus utiliser la bombe A est d'une cruauté sans nom. Et ce n'était même pas nécessaire puisque le Japon était déjà vaincu! (…) Le chantage à la bombe A, voilà la politique de l'Amérique", plus tard il expliquera à une réunion à Kountsevo, réunissant Béria et des chercheurs russes: "Hiroshima a ébranlé le monde et mis fin à l'équilibre planétaire. Nous le tolérerons pas." Staline décida que la question de l'armement nucléaire était cruciale, lui donna le nom de code "Tâche numéro un". Staline expliqua aux chercheurs russes: "Demandez tout ce que vous voulez, vous l'aurez." Pour le politbura, la question de la bombe devint une question de survie ou de mort.)

Barnes also disclosed, for the first time, the personal testimony of Herbert Hoover that President Truman, by early May, 1945, informed him that he knew of the extensive Japanese peace offers and admitted then that further fighting with the Japanese was really unnecessary. But, Truman also disclosed to Hoover, he did not feel strong enough to challenge Secretary Stimson and the Pentagon. Yet neither of these confirmatory revelations have been picked up by Alperovitz and the other recent expositors of Hiroshima Revisionism. In his article, Barnes also supported the P. M. S. Blackett thesis, since adopted by Alperovitz, that the major reason for dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a sabre-rattling gesture to the Russians against whom we were already preparing the Cold War. Indeed, Barnes concludes that “many date the origins of the Cold War from the time he [stalin] received news of the [atom] bombing shortly after the Potsdam Conference.”