Observers of current conflict in the former Yugoslavia might not be surprised by a pragmatic secret agreement worked out by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Marshal Josef Stalin in Moscow in 1944.
Churchill wrote on a half-sheet of paper how Rumania, Greece, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Bulgaria might be divided between the East and West after the war. Stalin looked on, waiting for the translation, then took out his blue pencil, and placed a tick on the paper.
The future partition of a significant section of Europe had been settled in no more time than it took Churchill to write it down, according to a new University of Queensland study. Its aftermath is still felt today.
Associate Professor Joseph Siracusa of the History Department said his book, based on 25 years' research and teaching, was the first Australian study of the Cold War since its end in 1991. Most Cold War scholarship resulted during the period, rather than after it, he said.
Into the Dark House: American Diplomacy and the Ideological Origins of the Cold War (Regina Press, Claremont, California, $27.50), focuses on the early Cold War to 1951.
'The Cold War lasted from 1944 to 1991. It was a protracted conflict between Soviet and Western worlds that fell short of ?hot' war but nonetheless, involved a comprehensive military, political and ideological rivalry,' Dr Siracusa said.
'The Cold War determined the second half of the 20th century and was the central feature of our times in which the three sections of the world - the Soviet, the Western powers and the Third World - had to define themselves.
'It had an important impact on all aspects of society, from the space race, to warfare and changing ideological values.'
Dr Siracusa said the Cold War traced from October 4, 1944 when American president Franklin D. Roosevelt informed Stalin that the United States reserved the right to have a voice equal to the other Big Three powers (the Soviet Union and Britain) in decisions on all international problems - including those in south-eastern Europe - while denying the Soviet Union the same right in Western spheres.
Dr Siracusa said his 273-page study delineated the constellation of ideas, beliefs and assumptions that informed American diplomacy in the period from the last stages of the Grand Alliance to the Korean War. The period covers from Franklin D. Roosevelt's shift in foreign policy in the autumn of 1944 in the wake of the Warsaw uprising, to the resumption of the Korean armistice talks in late 1951.
'The American diplomats and decisionmakers of this period laid the basis of the alliance diplomacy and conventional and nuclear deterrence that would ultimately win the Cold War with the Soviets in 1991, 74 years after Lenin's coup d'etat,' he said.
The study also sought to provide students of the early Cold War with an opportunity to confront some of the major historical documents that were the bases of historical interpretations during the past 50 years. Each chapter is tied to key documents shaping the early phases of the Cold War, such as Churchill/Stalin's Anglo-Soviet agreement.
Dr Siracusa has dedicated his book to his University of Queensland students of the past 25 years, saying 'they gave as much as they got.'
'This book is also a reflection of the strength of American history studies at the University of Queensland,' he said.
'There are more students of American history - 250 to 300 undergraduates a year - on this campus than any other in Australia; and more people - 80 to 100 a year - are studying U.S. foreign policy, advanced diplomacy and nuclear policy than elsewhere in the country.
'We also have a high retention rate to the postgraduate area. Currently I have eight PhDs studying American diplomacy and the Cold War.
'This book has been student-driven. I think people are interested in the period because it is near enough to get their hands on it, and far enough to get some distance.'
One chapter examines the impact of the Cold War on Australian-American relations. Dr Siracusa said Australia entered the Cold War on the side of its American ally, but was far from a subservient junior partner.
'The two Pacific nations customarily have been as one on major ideological and strategic issues,' he said.
'Their relationship in other areas justly could be called turbulent, particularly during the tense and frustrating years of developing East-West confrontation immediately after the defeat of the Axis.'
Dr Siracusa postulates that the recurring collisions between Canberra and Washington in the early Cold War period did not reflect any real ideological difference between the Australian Labor government and the American Truman administration.
'The main source of contention was the bipartisan determination of Australian leaders to establish a binding security relationship between their country and the United States and the equally firm and bipartisan revolve of American policymakers not to embark upon anything of the kind in the existing circumstances,' Dr Siracusa said.
'Australian wanted an alliance; the United States wanted co-operation; and neither got exactly what it wanted.'
Dr Siracusa researched the book at the Soviet archives in Washington, and libraries including the U.S. Presidential Libraries, Library of Congress, Harvard University, the Public Record Office (London) and the Australian Archives in Canberra.
The author of 10 books and numerous papers, he is known internationally for his writings on U.S. foreign policy and Australian-American security relations, particularly the Cold War period. He has lectured extensively in Australia and the U.S., including the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Harvard University and Pennsylvania State University.
The title of his current work relates to a quote by former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt: 'There is not one among us in whom a devil does not dwell; at some time, on some point, that devil masters each of us; he who has never failed has not been tempted; but the man who does in the end conquer, who does painfully retrace the steps of his slipping shows that he has been tried in the fire and not found wanting. It is not having been in the Dark House, but having left it, that counts...'
For further information, contact Dr Siracusa, telephone 07 3365 6402.
