| Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, the revitalization of the "Coordinating Committee" (COCOM), an international organization on export controls in strategic items against Communist countries, has become a major issue in the United States. It is well known that COCOM and the China Committee, another international committee on export controls, were formed under US initiative in the winter of 1949/50 and in 1952 respectively. And yet, as their operations have been kept highly secret, not until the recent declassification of primary sources in the United States and Britain could we learn their activities in detail. This dissertation, first of all, presents newly-uncovered facts by using these declassified materials. Finding an origin of US postwar controls against Communist countries back in 1945, it traces the development of the international export control network up to 1952.;The other elements of emphasis in this dissertation include (1) the link between US export controls and US aid policies; (2) the link between US export controls and US reconstruction policies; (3) the role of crisis diplomacy; (4) the continuity of US attitudes toward Communism and the Soviet Union before and after World War II; (5) the necessity for further studies on the relationship between the United States and US allies in the lates 1940s and early 50s; and (6) the limits of US power--a major reason for the US failure in tightening the control network as much as she wanted, ironically enough, came from the US need to maintain a healthy economy and unity in the "free world.";Besides numerous uncovered facts, this dissertation provides several strands of thoughts on the studies of the Cold War and export controls. So far, the main concern of scholars on the subject of export controls has been the US national interest, i.e., whether the current US export control policy was advantageous or disadvantageous to the United States. This dissertation argues that we need to study the subject from still another viewpoint, i.e., as an important element of the economic basis of the US "empire" after World War II. When we take this angle, we find, throughout the development of the control network, US "imposition" of the US standard of export control levels on her aid recipients. Indeed, despite John Gaddis' emphasis on "invitation" as a reason for the rise of the US "empire" in his recent article in Diplomatic History (vol.7, no.3, summer 1983), US export control policy clearly shows that "imposition" was also a factor which we cannot neglect. |
