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Syllabus - 20th Century US Foreign Relations (Johnson)

History 3450: U.S. Foreign Relations (Fall 2010)

Tuesdays & Thursdays at 3.40pm

Prof. KC Johnson (Brooklyn College)

This course explores American foreign relations from the Progressive Era to the present day.

Requirements:

  • Exams—Midterm & final (50%)
  • NSC Group Participation (30%)
  • Quizzes [each class before midterm] (10%)
  • Participation (10%)

Lectures & PowerPoints

Presentation Links

Schedule:

All journal articles will be emailed. When the course website is complete, each class will also feature additional reading from primary sources. In-class handouts and in-class power-points will be posted on the website as the course proceeds.

August 26.  Introduction

August 31. Progressivism & Foreign Affairs (1902-1914)

  • Daniel Rodgers, “In Search of Progressivism,” Reviews in American History (1982)
  • Nancy Mitchell, “The Height of the German Challenge: The Venezuela Blockade, 1902–3,” Diplomatic History20 (1996), pp. 185-210.

September 2. World War I (1914-1918)

  • Ross A. Kennedy, “Woodrow Wilson, World War I, and American National Security,” Diplomatic History 25 (2001), pp. 1-32.
  • M.B. Biskupski, “The Diplomacy of Wartime Relief: The United States and Poland, 1914–1918,” Diplomatic History 19 (1995), pp. 431-452.

September 7. The League of Nations Controversy (1919-1920)

  • League-related documents & maps

September 9. No class–college closed

September 14. No class–conversion day (Friday classes)

September 16. The Peace Progressives & U.S. Foreign Policy (1921-1929)

  • B.J.C. McKercher, “’A Certain Irritation': The White House, the State Department, and the Desire for a Naval Settlement with Great Britain, 1927–1930,” Diplomatic History 31 (2007), pp. 829-863.
  • Jaime Aguila, “Mexican/U.S. Immigration Policy prior to the Great Depression,” Diplomatic History 31 (2007), pp. 207-225.

September 21. Great Depression and International Affairs (1929-1935)

  • William Walker III, “Crucible for Peace: Herbert Hoover, Modernization, and Economic Growth in Latin America,” Diplomatic History 30 (2006), pp. 83-117.

September 23. FDR & the Axis Threat (1935-1939)

  • Eric Paul Roorda, “Genocide Next Door: The Good Neighbor Policy, the Trujillo Regime, and the Haitian Massacres of 1937,” Diplomatic History 20, pp. 301-320.
  • Kevin Smith, “Reassessing Roosevelt’s View of Chamberlain after Munich: Ideological Affinity in the Geoffrey Thompson-Claude Bowers Correspondence,” Diplomatic History 33 (2009), pp. 839-64.

September 28. The United States and the World at War (1939-1941)

  • Noriko Kawamura, “Emperor Hirohito and Japan’s Decision to Go to War with the United States: Reexamined,” Diplomatic History 31 (2007), pp. 51-79.
  • Douglas M. Charles, “Informing FDR: FBI Political Surveillance and the Isolationist-Interventionist Foreign Policy Debate, 1939–1945 Diplomatic History 24 (2000), pp. 211-232.

September 30. World War II (1941-1945)

  • Sarah Ellen Graham, “American Propaganda, the Anglo-American Alliance, and the ‘Delicate Question’ of Indian Self-Determination,” Diplomatic History 33 (2009), pp. 223-259.
  • Geoffrey Roberts, “Stalin at the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam Conferences,” Journal of Cold War Studies 9 (2007), pp. 6-40.

October 5. The United States and the Origins of the Cold War (1945-1947)

  • Melvyn Leffler, “The American Conception of National Security and the Beginnings of the Cold War, 1945-48,” American Historical Review 89 (1984).
  • Marc Trachtenberg, “The United States and Eastern Europe in 1945: A Reassessment,” Journal of Cold War Studies 10, pp. 94-132.

October 7. The United States and the Militarization of the Cold War (1947-1952)

  • Steven Casey, “Selling NSC-68: The Truman Administration, Public Opinion, and the Politics of Mobilization, 1950–51,” Diplomatic History (2005).
  • Robert Frazier, “Kennan, ‘Universalism,’ and the Truman Doctrine,” Journal of Cold War Studies, Volume 11, pp. 3-34.

October 12. The New Look (1953-1960)

  • Matthew Connelly, “Taking off the Cold War Lens: Visions of North-South Conflict During the Algerian War for Independence,” The American Historical Review 105 (June 2000), pp. 739-769.
  • Jeremi Suri, “America’s Search for a Technological Solution to the Arms Race: The Surprise Attack Conference of 1958 and a Challenge for “Eisenhower Revisionists’,” Diplomatic History (1997).

October 14. Kennedy, Khrushchev, & the Cold War (1961-1963)

  • David Coleman, “The Missiles of November, December, January, February . . . : The Problem of Acceptable Risk in the Cuban Missile Crisis Settlement,” Journal of Cold War Studies 9.3 (2007), pp. 5-48.
  • Noam Kochavi, “Limited Accommodation, Perpetuated Conflict: Kennedy, China, and the Laos Crisis, 1961 – 1963,” Diplomatic History (2002).

October 19. Foreign Policy and the 1964 Election–No quiz

  • Andrew Johns, “Opening Pandora’s Box: The Genesis and Evolution of the 1964 Congressional Resolution on Vietnam,” Journal of American-East Asian Relations (1997), pp. 175-206.

October 21. Midterm

October 26. Vietnam & the Cold War (1965-1968)

  • Francis M. Bator, “No Good Choices: LBJ and the Vietnam/Great Society Connection,” Diplomatic History 32 (2008).
  • Mitchell Lerner, “A Failure of Perception: Lyndon Johnson, North Korean Ideology, and the Pueblo Incident,”Diplomatic History 25 (2001).

October 28. Nixon, Kissinger, & Reorienting the Cold War (1969-1973)

  • Evelyn Goh, “Nixon, Kissinger, and the ‘Soviet Card’ in the U.S. Opening to China, 1971–1974,” Diplomatic History (2005).
  • Kyle Longley, “Target Number One: The Nixon Administration and Foreign Policy Issues in the Efforts to Unseat Senator Albert Gore, Sr. in 1970,” Diplomatic History (2004).

November 2. The Rise & Fall of Human Rights Diplomacy (1974-1978)

November 4. Crisis Diplomacy (1979-1985)

  • Rose McDermott, “Belief-Systems and Policy Choices,” Journal of Cold War Studies 4.4 (2002), pp. 29-59.
  • John A. Soares Jr., “Strategy, Ideology, and Human Rights: Jimmy Carter Confronts the Left in Central America, 1979–1981,” Journal of Cold War Studies 8.4 (2006), pp. 57-91.

November 9. The United States and the End of the Cold War (1985-1989)

  • Mark Kramer, “The Collapse of East European Communism and the Repercussions within the Soviet Union (Part 1),” Journal of Cold War Studies, 5.4 (2003), pp. 178-256.
  • Mark Kramer, “The Collapse of East European Communism and the Repercussions within the Soviet Union (Part 2),” Journal of Cold War Studies 6.4 (2004) 3-64.

November 11. No class–schedule change

November 16. The New World Order (1989-1992)

  • Jeremi Suri, Journal of Cold War Studies 4.4 (2002), pp. 60-92.

November 18. From Clinton through 9/11

  • Melvyn Leffler, “9/11 and American Foreign Policy,” Diplomatic History 29 (2005), pp. 395-413.
  • 9/11 Commission, Strategic Recommendations

November 23. Group Presentation I

November 30: Group Presentation II

December 2. Group Presentation III

December 7. Group Presentation IV

December 9. Review

December 16, 3.30-5.30pm: Final Exam

 

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