Scholars who study the origins of the Cold War fall into three camps: traditionalists argue that Soviet expansion precipitated the Cold War; revisionists claim that U.S. hostility toward communism led to the Cold War; and post-revisionists maintain that mutual misperceptions led to shared responsibility for the Cold War. Although Dale C. Copeland, professor of foreign affairs at the University of Virginia, agrees with the post- revisionist view that both the United States and the Soviet Union share responsibility for the Cold War, in the following viewpoint he argues that the United States was the first to adopt hard-line policies against its adversary and is therefore largely responsible for initiating the war. In Copeland’s view the Soviet Union shifted to a policy of confrontation only when...