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Gaddis Cold War Summary

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Gaddis Cold War Summary
Gaddis re-examines the Cold War with new information from all around the globe, creating a “new” cold war history. Gaddis pinpoints the start of the Cold War as 1947 and notes “the regime, personality, and ideological explanations for the Cold War point to an underlying defensive motivation: the need to expand and assert control to save Stalin and the Soviet Union.” (Lebow, p.628) Gaddis also sustains that Stalin’s personality and paranoia influenced events. It seems the “new” cold war history is actually the same as the “old” cold war standpoint because Gaddis concluded: “who then was responsible [for the Cold War]? The answer, I think, is authoritarianism in general, and Stalin in particular.” (Gaddis, p.294)
Although this is a return to

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