Managing the Transition from Ally to Adversary: Reflections on an Earlier Era of U.S.-Russian Relations
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). Center for Global Security Research (CGSR)
At the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union transformed from allies into adversaries and the Cold War began—a grim confrontation that lasted nearly half a century. After the Cold War, the U.S.–Russian relationship was by no means an alliance, but was relatively cooperative until the past few years. Under Russian president Vladimir Putin, a new chill has descended, and today there is talk that we are entering another Cold War. This essay examines an earlier era in U.S.–Russian affairs, when presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman managed America’s relationship with the Soviet Union, which essentially meant dealing with the Soviet premier, Joseph Stalin. The contents of that relationship—how it evolved, how it disintegrated, and how American leaders—reacted is the subject of this essay. Given the unsettled state of U.S.–Russian relations today and the many subplots that shape current policy, this paper makes no attempt to apply historical lessons to the management of contemporary problems; these are left for the reader to infer. Rather, we examine an earlier, though not necessarily simpler, era in which the U.S.– Russian relationship underwent dramatic change.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344
- OSTI ID:
- 1424602
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-TR-744757
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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