This paper explores the experiences of William Benton, an American politician and publisher who travelled to the Soviet Union in 1955. The paper focuses on the development of Benton's interpretation of the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II to 1955, and how Benton built on an approach that separated the population of the Soviet Union from the perceived negatives of the Soviet government, and how that would impact the future of the relationship between the two countries moving past the war. In contrast to focusing on the developments in foreign policy through the lens of government policy and the means by which states interact with one another, this paper analyzes the shift through William Benton, and how the individuals that comprise these states perceive and understand the developments of the periods that they are living through, and how they attempt to exist and influence these developments. In the context of Benton, this approach looks at the disintegration of that relationship between the United States and Soviet Union in the aftermath of the war and how he personally attempted to use the influence that he gained through his work in publishing and in government to attempt to bolster the understanding that the populations of these two countries had towards one another, at the very least to ensure that the world would not fall back into conflict. Even as Benton witnesses this disintegration he remains committed to attempting to establish this connection with the Soviet population, leading him to make the decision to travel to the country himself for the first time in 1955 to meet with government officials and civilians to gain a personal understanding of the country and population that he could then bring back to the United States and the West to help in that process of developing mutual understanding between these two sides.
Zachary Shannon (Mon,) studied this question.