Origins of the Cold War: New Evidence
Conservative Western historians have been hustling to the press with scoops drawing upon privileged, selective, and purchased access to the archives and spymasters of the former Soviet Union. Not surprisingly, the greatest notoriety has gone to "smoking guns" that purportedly corroborate the basic cold war dogma of the U.S. right, particularly the McCarthyite spymania. But there is other recently available material from the Eastern archives given little or no attention. These documents call into question a fundamental premise of the Official American History of the second half of the twentieth century: Soviet responsibility for the origins of the Cold War. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.