| The basic research question this dissertation asks is: did social and cultural factors play any significant role in the origins and development of Sino-American confrontations in the post-World War II era? In more specific terms, this study aims to understand what is implicitly assumed in advocating one policy over another. What are the social and cultural contexts of underlying basic assumptions? And what role did conflicting social-cultural assumptions play in the Sino-American antagonism during this period?; This dissertation is the first attempt to combine both historical case studies and the discipline of cultural sociology to pin down the connection between more substantive social and cultural values or fundamental perceptions of the world on the one hand, and crucial policy decisions on the other, in the critical moments of the origins and development of Sino-American antagonism between 1945 and 1959.; This study is mainly based on primary sources in the archives, such as the National Archives, the Eisenhower and the Truman Libraries, and the Chinese Archives. |
