The United States since 1945
History 207.01

Return to Syllabus America and the Cold War: An Overview   I. Introduction A. Historians and the Cold War
  1. Orthodoxy
        a) the role of "realism"

2. Revisionism
        a) Liberal
        b) Radical

3. Post revisionism
 

 B. Origins of the Cold War
 
    1. WWII and the Collapse of the Old European World Order a) In Europe

    b) In the "colonial" or "third" world
     

         2. The Rise of American Power & the Vision of New
        American World Order
        3. The Challenge of the Soviet Union
                   -history, ideology, and leadership.
    4.  The Challenge of Third World Revolutions
   II. U.S. and the USSR: Background to Conflict, 1917-1945 A. Russian Revolution and U.S. Intervention, 1917-18

B. America, Europe and the Cordon Sanitaire

C. WWII: The Uneasy Alliance

1. Munich & the Nazi-Soviet Pact

2. The Second Front

3. Eastern Europe

4. Lend-Lease

5. Germany

  III. From Yalta (February, 1945) to Potsdam (July, 1945)   IV. The Cold War and the Atomic Bomb   V. U.S - Soviet Conflict, 1945-1946 A. Eastern Europe

B. Germany

C. Iran

D. Turkey

E. Far East

  VI. The Origins of the New Diplomacy A. George Kennanís "Long Telegram" (February, 1946)

B. Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech (February, 1946)

C. The Truman Doctrine (March, 1947)

D. The Marshall Plan (1948)

E. NAT0 (1949)

F. Summary: US, USSR and the Reciprocity of Cold War Escalation
 
 

 VII. The New Diplomacy and the Third World A. The Far East 1. China: The Consequences of Revolution

2. Korea: Limited War

3. Vietnam: The Origins of America's War
 

 B. The Middle East: Oil, Arab Nationalism and Israel

C. Latin America: The Monroe Doctrine Redivivius
 
 

 VIII. The Cold War at Home A. Creating Consensus 1. Conservative critics of the Cold War (Robert Taft, Herbert Hoover)

2. Left - Liberal critics (Henry Wallace)

3. The New Cold War Consensus
 

 B. Building the National Security State 1. National Security Act of 1947 a) Department of Defense

b) JCS

c) NSC

d) CIA

 2. The Debate over UMT; the Selective Service Act of 1948

3. Atomic Energy Act of 1946

4. NSC-68 (April 1950) and the Korean War Mobilization

5. NSA - 1952

6. "The Military Industrial Complex"
 
 

 C. The Politics of Loyalty ("McCarthyism") 1. The Republican Right and the Origins of McCarthyism

2. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism

3. McCarthy and McCarthyism

4. The Impact of the Cold War on U.S. Society and Culture (an incomplete survey):
 

a) Politics

b) Federal & Other Employment

c) The Labor Movement

d) Education

e) Media: Radio-TV, Motion Pictures, and Journalism

f) Literature

g) Social Thought (philosophy, history, the social sciences)

h)  Popular Culture

i) Social Relations: family life, the role of women, views of sexuality, etc.
 


RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
RETURN TO SYLLABUS