“Marxism-Leninism gave the Russian leaders a view of the world according to which all societies were inexorably destined to proceed along appointed roads by appointed stages until they achieved the classless nirvana. “The orthodox American view, as originally set forth by the American government and reaffirmed until recently by most American scholars, has been that the Cold War was the brave and essential response of free men to communist aggression.” He also accuses Revisionists of underestimating Joseph Stalin and treating the Soviet leader “as just another Realpolitik statesman”, when in Schlesinger’s assessment he was dictatorial, paranoid and quite mad. He condemns them for equating the US with the Soviet Union which “was not a traditional nation-state” but “a totalitarian state… with an all-explanatory, all-consuming ideology”. Schlesinger was strongly critical of Revisionist historians, particularly his nemesis, William Appleman Williams.
Schlesinger criticises “universalists” who sought an international consensus that included the Soviets when Moscow’s only interest was in expanding and establishing spheres of influence. American policies were “the brave and essential response of free men to communist aggression”. The Soviet Union, he argued, was founded upon an ideology that preached revolution and worldwide expansion. Schlesinger was a strident anti-communist who believed the origins of the Cold War were found in Marxist-Leninism. Schlesinger’s first book on the Cold War, published in 1967, placed him firmly in the Orthodox camp. After Kennedy’s assassination, Schlesinger authored perhaps the best-known account of his presidency, titled A Thousand Days.
Schlesinger became friends with Kennedy, who appointed him as a special advisor to the president after his inauguration in 1961. He also became involved in politics, working as a speechwriter for Democratic presidential candidates Adlai Stevenson and John F. During World War II he worked in intelligence with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency.Īfter the war, Schlesinger took up a professorship at Harvard. The younger Schlesinger attended Harvard, where he graduated with honours in 1938. Born in Ohio, he was the eldest son of Arthur Schlesinger Snr, a prominent historian of colonial and revolutionary America. Arthur Schlesinger Jnr was an American historian, writer and advisor to US president John F.
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