上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 ON THE CAUSES OF THE COLD WAR Abstract: The Cold War,led by the Communist Camp of the Soviet and the Capitalist Camp of the US was once a nightmare to the human race.The origin of the Cold War was complicate.This paper would concentrate on the ideology,nuclear weapon and international security to discuss the outbreak of the War. Key words: the Cold War;the United State;the Soviet Union;ideology;nuclear weapon;international security Well as the saying puts it,1,000 Hamlets of 1,000 readers is especially.When it comes to the causes of the Cold War,opinions vary from school to school.So far,with the development of the study of the history of the Cold War,it have witnessed four major opinions on the origin of the Cold War,they are,the orthodox opinions in the 1950s,the revisionists'opinions in the 1960s, the post-revisionists during late 1970s and early 1980s and the internationalists in early 1990s. Before I come to introduce my opinions,I would like to present short introductions on each of these major opinions of different times. The orthodox,as they had studied the Cold War at the beginning,they believed that it was Stalin and the Soviet's unreasonable expansionism in Eastern Europe which provoked the reasonable counterattack of the US that led to the outbreak of the Cold War.Later,the Revisionists came out and started to attack the opinions of the orthodox.What the Revisionists believed was that Truman and his Governments,which appealed the nature of the capitalism, had pushed the weaker Soviet into this war.Apparently,both these opinions were parochial, which led to the outcome of the post-revisionists.In their perspectives,in an ideological bipolar world,a state would use its military forces to impose societies similar to its own in order to ensure its security.1 With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union,many documents during the Cold War period had been declassified,which led to the study of the"new" Cold War,and the opinions of the internationalists.One representative of the internationalist is John Lewis Gaddis,whose opinions gave more emphasis on the interaction of nation-states,and based more on the declassified documents of Russia and the Eastern Europe Countries. I have been studied several materials of the Cold War,and combing with the acknowledge I acquire from the book A Panoramic History of American Civilization for Colleges2 and the course I have attended this semester Contemporary Diplomacies of China3,I eventually come to drew my conclusions on the causes of the Cold War. First and foremost,the confrontation of ideology is the foundation of outbreak the Cold War. During the Second World War,even though the social systems and ideology differed from 1 Based on US declassified documents on US diplomacy,military and national security at the beginning of CW 2 Written by Matthew Wei,Peking University Press,2008. 3 Presented by Zheng Hua from School of International Policies and Affairs 1上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 1 ON THE CAUSES OF THE COLD WAR Abstract: The Cold War, led by the Communist Camp of the Soviet and the Capitalist Camp of the US was once a nightmare to the human race. The origin of the Cold War was complicate. This paper would concentrate on the ideology, nuclear weapon and international security to discuss the outbreak of the War. Key words: the Cold War; the United State; the Soviet Union; ideology; nuclear weapon; international security Well as the saying puts it, 1,000 Hamlets of 1,000 readers is especially. When it comes to the causes of the Cold War, opinions vary from school to school. So far, with the development of the study of the history of the Cold War, it have witnessed four major opinions on the origin of the Cold War, they are, the orthodox opinions in the 1950s, the revisionists’ opinions in the 1960s, the post-revisionists during late 1970s and early 1980s and the internationalists in early 1990s. Before I come to introduce my opinions, I would like to present short introductions on each of these major opinions of different times. The orthodox, as they had studied the Cold War at the beginning, they believed that it was Stalin and the Soviet’s unreasonable expansionism in Eastern Europe which provoked the reasonable counterattack of the US that led to the outbreak of the Cold War. Later, the Revisionists came out and started to attack the opinions of the orthodox. What the Revisionists believed was that Truman and his Governments, which appealed the nature of the capitalism, had pushed the weaker Soviet into this war. Apparently, both these opinions were parochial, which led to the outcome of the post-revisionists. In their perspectives, in an ideological bipolar world, a state would use its military forces to impose societies similar to its own in order to ensure its security.1 With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, many documents during the Cold War period had been declassified, which led to the study of the “new” Cold War, and the opinions of the internationalists. One representative of the internationalist is John Lewis Gaddis, whose opinions gave more emphasis on the interaction of nation-states, and based more on the declassified documents of Russia and the Eastern Europe Countries. I have been studied several materials of the Cold War, and combing with the acknowledge I acquire from the book A Panoramic History of American Civilization for Colleges 2 and the course I have attended this semester Contemporary Diplomacies of China 3 , I eventually come to drew my conclusions on the causes of the Cold War. First and foremost, the confrontation of ideology is the foundation of outbreak the Cold War.During the Second World War, even though the social systems and ideology differed from 1 Based on US declassified documents on US diplomacy, military and national security at the beginning of CW 2 Written by Matthew Wei, Peking University Press,2008. 3 Presented by Zheng Hua from School of International Policies and Affairs