Raymond Aron, the United States, and the Early Cold War, 1945-1953

Abstract

Almost simultaneously with the advent of the Cold War in 1947, Raymond Aron postponed a promising academic career to become a front-page columnist for the influential Parisian daily, Le Figaro. His regular editorials, along with the publication of a constant stream of essays and books, made him the most influential Atlanticist voice in France. Among the 'orthodox' historians of the early Cold War Aron enjoyed a reputation as a champion of US containment policy in Europe and, more generally, as a voice sympathetic to America in a French environment increasingly hostile to both US policies and American culture. By the 1970s, with the emergence of 'revisionist' histories of the Cold War, Aron's stock had fallen precipitously, especially after it was revealed that the Congress for Cultural Freedom–an organization with which he had been closely associated–had been funded by the Central Intelligence Agency. However, a close examination of Aron's extensive writings during the early Cold War reveals that neither orthodox nor revisionist frameworks fully capture the nuances of his evolving positions regarding the early Cold War. His commentary on the emerging Cold War reveals a stubborn independence of mind that resists easy categorization.