According to some scholars there is a Soviet version of the Long Telegram: a cable sent to Moscow from Washington in September 1946 by the recently appointed Soviet ambassador to the United States, Nikolai Novikov. Trained in the early 1930s at Leningrad State University in Middle Eastern economics and languages, Novikov abandoned plans for an academic career when he was drafted into the Foreign Service because of his knowledge of the Middle East. In 1941 he was named ambassador to Egypt, where he also served as liaison to the Yugoslav and Greek governments in exile, both of which were located in Cairo. Early in 1945 he was named deputy chief of the Soviet mission in Washington D.C.; in April he became Soviet ambassador to the United States. He resigned from the Foreign Service in 1947 and returned to the Soviet Union, where he lived in obscurity. He published a memoir of his Foreign Service career in 1989.We have little information about the background of Novikov’s telegram, which was unknown to scholars until a Soviet official revealed it to a group of Soviet and U.S. historians attending a meeting on the origins of the Cold War in Washington in 1990. According to Novikov’s memoir, while he and the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov were attending the Paris foreign ministers’ conference in August 1946, Molotov requested that he write an analysis of U.S. foreign policy goals. Also according to Novikov, Molotov examined an early outline of the document in Paris and made several suggestions about improvements. This information lends credence to the theory that Molotov, who favored a hard line against the West, wanted Novikov’s report to present a dark and perhaps exaggerated picture of U.S. foreign policy goals to strengthen his hand against rivals who favored caution and compromise.
We know that Molotov read Novikov’s completed cable. The passages underlined in the excerpt from the cable I would like you read (you can read it by clicking here) were passages that Molotov himself underlined on the original document. What happened next is unclear. Did Molotov show the telegram to Stalin and other high-ranking officials? Did Novikov’s telegram contribute to the atmosphere of confrontation building in 1946? The answer to both questions is probably yes, but until historians gain access to Soviet archives, no one will know exactly how important Novikov’s telegram was in the Cold War’s murky beginnings.
After reading excerpts from Novikov’s telegram, I would like you all to consider and discuss the following: What specific evidence does Novikov cite to prove his assertion that the goal of U.S. foreign policy is now world domination? In his view, how does the United States propose to achieve its goal? What is his evaluation of U.S. strengths and weaknesses? How does he view the prospects of Anglo-American cooperation? Is this something the Soviet Union should fear? Why or why not? How does Novikov’s analysis compare with Kennan’s description in the Long Telegram of the “Postwar Soviet Outlook, as Put Forward by Official Propaganda Machine?” What insights does your answer provide about the reasons Novikov’s memorandum was written? Your thoughts…
6 comments:
He mentions the build up of United States Military and Navy in terms of people, budget, and building of bases out side of the United States as evidence the United States wants to attain a neo-imperialistic presence in the world economy and politics. He also feels like cooperation between the United States and Great Britain would mean a push towards an Anti-Soviet war over influence of territory gained after WWII.
The telegram tells of U.S. presence in China, how we're growing into other countries, military bases. How we are spending money on these bases, and it shows we are copying exactly what Europe did. We are spending billions of dollars on our armies and navies, when before we never even paid even one billion to it, even including the factor of inflation in there, we are getting a little imperialistic, yes.
Novikov gives several examples of the United States trying to establish world dominance. He mentions that this was supposed to be a time to try and create peace while the U.S. is increasing spending on the military and increasing personnel. He states that the British navy is now pale in comparison to the U.S. He makes a couple of references to a third world war because he clearly sees the actions of the U.S. as trying to set up a war against the rival Soviets. He is also concerned with the talk of another alliance between Great Britain. He fears that the U.S. is trying to get all the support they need in case a war were to break out.
SOme of the evidence for world domination is the Americans understanding with English concern with the partial division of the world by mutual concessions. The American policy in China is striving for economic and political submission of China to the control of the American capital. Also the Americans are building up their military with money, training, and weapons that beat out even the British. The U.S. propose to achieve its goals in a militaristic way in order to get submission. From what i read, the Anglo- AMerican cooperation shouldnt be a huge threat since the possibility of an alliance for joint world domination isnt supported by Truman or Bymes.
Novikov uses the agreemant of "mutual concessions" with England, American air bases in China, U.S. military build-up in peacetime, and its "offensive nature of strategic concepts" by placing American bases on Atlantic and Paific islands, and the "democricization of Gremany" to prove that their goal is global domination, geared against Communist-Soviets. Novikov points out that the conflicts between capitalist societies can be taken advantage of by improving Soviet industry and military. The alliances between western states is a threat to Soviet rule. This is best seen in the Berlin situation. The "democricization of Germany" would supposedly allow for the "revival of imperial Germany". Novikov and Kennan provided two opposite sides of the same conflict in which each side views the other as a threat. Kennan refers to the Russians as people who have always had "archaic rule". Kennan states that the Russians adopted Communism because it allowed them to justify "their instinctive fear of outside world". The main focus of Novikov's telegram is American military buildup and expansion into the Atlantic and Pacific, Germany, Japan, and China. Kennan focusses on the expansion of Russia into Eastern Europe, the nature of Communism, and the ways to prevent all-out war while protecting American interest.
Soviet ambassador, Novikov talks about the US presence in China and Japan, and the fact that the US hasn't helped India to become independent. He thinks there is some secret agreement going on with Great Britain in the US. He says that the US is expanding their army and making more air bases in other parts of the world. They say that the US congress passed a law that made a peacetime army not just made up of volunteers. He doesn't think that the US and Great Britain will work together, mainly because of conflict in the middle east.
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