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  3. Emotions are the gifts of our ancestors. We have them, and so do other animals. We must never forget this. Where does histor

Emotions are the gifts of our ancestors. We have them, and so do other animals. We must never forget this. Where does histor

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问题     Emotions are the gifts of our ancestors. We have them, and so do other animals. We must never forget this.
    Where does history end and current affairs begin? John Lewis Gaddis, who is often described as the dean of cold-war historians, has no doubts about his own special subject.【F1】To his students at Yale University, many of whom were still children when the confrontation with the Soviets ended in 1989. he-writes, the cold war is "history: not all that different from the Peloponnesian War". With a mixture of wistfulness and wonderment, Mr. Gaddis notes: "When I talk about Stalin and Truman, even Reagan and Gorbachev, it could as easily be Napoleon, Caesar or Alexander the Great. "
    It is partly in deference to a new generation that Mr. Gaddis has decided to write a fresh and admirably concise history of the cold war. With disarming frankness, he also admits that his agent had spotted a gap in the market. But Mr. Gaddis’ latest work avoids the obvious trap of simply being a summary of his earlier writings, the historian’s equivalent of a "Greatest Hits" album.【F2】While the books that made Mr. Gaddis’ reputation, in particular his 1982 classic, " Strategies of Containment", necessarily concentrated on the American perspective, his latest work provides a much more rounded picture by drawing on the flood of information that has come out from the Soviet side since the end of the cold war. Mr. Gaddis recounts not only what Truman. Kennedy and Reagan were thinking, but also how Stalin, Khrushchev and Mikhail Gorbachev responded to the same events.
    The reader learns, for example, how close the Americans came to winning the Korean war and creating a united, pro-western Korea. At one point Stalin seemed resigned to the defeat of North Korea. Mr. Gaddis quotes him as "wearily" remarking: "So what. Let it be. Let the Americans be our neighbours. " The pro-western tide was turned only when Mao persuaded his own advisers that China must intervene, and sent 300,000 troops to support Kim II Sung.
    The American side of the cold war has been familiar for a long time. But even here Mr. Gaddis’ mastery of the material, his fluent style and eye for the telling anecdote make his new work a pleasure.【F3】The reader comes across plain speaking Harry Truman worrying privately about the need for a complete change in human nature if the nuclear age was not to be succeeded by the "insect age or an atmosphereless planet". There is also the sleepless Richard Nixon leaving the White House in the early hours of the morning to argue with anti-Vietnam-war demonstrators gathered under the Lincoln Memorial.
    【F4】As one of America’s leading historians, Mr. Gaddis has been consulted by President George Bush on several occasions -notably just before Mr. Bush made his second inaugural speech in which he pledged to "end tyranny" around the world. The admiration is mutual. Unusually for an Ivy League eminence, Mr. Gaddis hacked the Iraq war and praised the Bush administration for the boldness and vision of its foreign policy.【F5】And while he is too conscientious an historian to allow his political views to intrude upon his narrative of the cold war, a few minor passages hint at his real feelings: a trace of irritation in his account of General de Gaulle’s anti-Americanism and an obvious admiration for the clarity and simplicity of the ideas of Ronald Reagan.
【F1】
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答案他写道，对耶鲁大学他的学生来说，冷战“已成历史，与伯罗奔尼撒战争史没什么区别”。他的这些学生中有很多人在1989年结束和前苏联的对抗时还只不过是孩子。
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