WOODROW WILSON AND THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR: A Hundred Years Later and Still Relevant. (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Trani, Eugene P.; Davis, Donald E.
• Is Part Of: World affairs. Volume 180:Number 4(2017)
• Page Start: 25
• Page End: 46
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: International Relations -- the United States -- Cold War -- Woodrow Wilson -- Foreign Policy -- Security Policy -- USSR -- Russia -- Franklin D. Roosevelt -- FDR -- Putin -- NATO -- European Security -- Sanctions; Relaciones Internacionales -- Estados Unidos -- Guerra Fría -- Woodrow Wilson -- Política Exterior -- Política de Seguridad -- URSS -- Rusia -- Franklin D. Roosevelt -- FDR -- OTAN -- Seguridad Europea -- Sanciones; 国际关系 -- 美国 -- 冷战 -- 伍德罗·威尔逊 -- 外交政策 -- 安全政策 -- 苏联 -- 俄罗斯 -- 富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福 -- FDR -- 北大西洋公约组织（NATO） -- 欧洲安全 -- 制裁; International relations -- Periodicals; Peace -- Periodicals; Arbitration (International law) -- Periodicals; United States -- Foreign relations -- Periodicals; Arbitration (International law); International relations; Peace; United states; Foreign relations; Internationale politiek; Periodicals; 327.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0043820018762831
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0043-8200

Abstract

American-Russian relations have been troubled from Lenin to Putin, from Wilson to Trump. Woodrow Wilson insisted that no one power should dominate Europe. This detailed analysis shows that Wilson was the first "Cold War Warrior, " and his "quarantine" policy toward Russia was the precursor of the policy the United States has generally followed toward Russia since the end of World War II. Wilson tried to avoid taking sides in the Bolshevik Revolution but finally was drawn into it from relentless Allied pressure. Yet he kept intervention minimal. Afterward, he quarantined communism until FDR recognized Russia and, later, allied with Stalin against Hitler. Truman and his successors renewed "quarantine, " calling it "containment." With the USSR's collapse, the shape and stability of Wilson's Europe reappeared. The West has preserved that Europe through the EU, NATO, and sanctions against Putin's restoring a Soviet sphere. America should now be clear, as Wilson once was, in supporting European security.