| Cordell Hull is one of the most important statesmen in the history of American foreign policy, whose diplomatic thoughts have the extremely rich contents, including the idea of free trade, the idea of anti-fascist, the idea of collective security and the idea of Good Neighbor. With the guidance of Hull's diplomatic thoughts, the United States recovered gradually from the Great Depression, won the anti-fascist war, built the international security system after the war and got the world hegemony in the post-war world.Hull's diplomatic thoughts are the result of various factors, such as his growth experiences, social background and the international environment, politics between the partisan, and so on. The fair idea of his thoughts was from the background of his family and the environment he had grown, the Spanish-American War, World War I and the world economic crisis expanded his view, long-term work in Parliament gave him more political experience. His idea of free trade required a lower level tariff to achieve free trade, eliminated international trade barriers. It was not only adapted to the needs of the world economy, but also reduced the possibility of international conflict which was caused by trade friction, it also pointed out the direction to build a more standard world trading system. His idea of anti-fascist understood the nature of fascist, which is called aggression and expansion, and this idea encouraged the people who were struggling with the fascist countries. To a certain extent, it deterred the activities of fascist aggression. It also gave the suggestion to transform the fascist states after the war. He thought that it is feasible to establish the international security system under the idea of the collective security. The United States broke the shackle of isolationism, established the Pan American collective security system to protect the security of the Western Hemisphere, and established the United Nations to protect the security of the whole world. It ensured the allies'victory of anti-fascist war, and made a great contribution to the world peace after the war. Through his Good Neighbor Policy in Latin America, the economic relationship between Latin American countries and the United States became close. It was helpful in recovering the economy of Latin America and improving the people's living standards there. The U.S.'armed intervention in Latin America reduced, and the diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and Latin American countries improved, the status of the United States consolidated in the Western Hemisphere.In succession to previous studies, through the analysis about Hull's thoughts and practice, this article summarizes the characteristics of Hull's diplomatic thoughts: The idea of free trade is the soul of his diplomatic thoughts, the realization of free trade is the starting point and ultimate goal of his diplomatic activities. The idea of collective security and Good Neighbor were the methodology to maintain peace respectively toward the world and the Western Hemisphere. The idea of anti-fascist existed as a banner to guide the United States against fascism in the war and transform the countries after the war which had been defeated. We should realize Hull's positive achievements as an internationalist for world peace and economic prosperity, and we should also realize the historical limitation of his thoughts, including: He did not realize the complexity which was from the contradictions and conflicts between countries, his global vision did not include less-developed countries and regions. He did not put forward his own solutions toward the unconditional surrender of fascist state. Hegemony and power politics still existed in the collective security system, and the ideological differences still existed between the West and the Soviet Union. The implementation of the reciprocal trade agreements in Latin America, damaged the tariff autonomy of these countries, the national industry of these countries were hard to survive, and so on.
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