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Assignment One	Assignment Two	Assignment Three	Assignment Four	Assignment Five
Assignment Six	Assignment Seven	Assignment Eight	Assignment Nine	Assignment Ten

About the Assignments: Much of this course is organized around ten written assignments. These assignments are designed not only to help you increase your understanding of critical issues in the history of the Cold War, but to increase your ability to interpret the documentary record on which that understanding is based. Moreover, the assignments are collaborative.  Collectively, they will account for 50% of  your overall grade for the course.

For each assignment you will usually be asked to a) "post" an essay to be read by the other members of your group; and b) post a comment on each of the essays prepared by the other members of your group.

1.  Each assignment is keyed to the assigned readings for the course and to other print and web based resources.  There are suggestions for additional readings in the books you have been assigned, as well as links to lists of  recently published studies.  You should also visit the web sites listed in A Guide to Cold War Web Resources.

3. You are then asked to prepare a brief,  essay based on the assigned readings.  For details on each assignment, see below.

4.  In preparing your essay, be sure to cite the sources from which you are drawing.  For our purposes, you may use parentheses, with a brief, informal citation.  For example,  cite David Painter's The Cold War: An International History as (Painter, p. 25.)  When citing a document from Major Problems, cite a shortened version of its title as it appears in the book, along with the page citation. e.g., (Truman's Advisors Discuss the Atomic Bomb, Major Problems, p.51.)  In citing an article from Major Problems, cite the author's name and the page number.  e.g., (Feis, Major Problems, p. 68.)  Do not cite the editor's name (Griffith), unless you are drawing on introductory materials of which he is the author.  Remember, when you use language that is not your own you must use quotation marks and cite the source from which you have drawn.  Failure to do so is plagiarism, one of the most serious violation's of the University's Academic Integrity Code.

5.  Submitting your Essay:  With the exception of the very first essay, your essays must be posted to your Team's Lotus Discussion Database.   For information about the Lotus Discussion Groups and how to use them, click on Using the Lotus Notes Discussion Databases.

6.   It is absolutely critical that you post your analysis by the scheduled deadline, which in most cases will be 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, two days before the scheduled discussion. This is to provide time for your team mates to read and submit comments on what you have posted before the class meets. Essays or comments posted after the deadline will not receive full credit.

7.  Finally, each of you will be expected to review and comment upon the essays posted by all the members of  your team before the scheduled class discussion.

8.  You will be graded on both your analysis and comments.  Each assignment will count 5% of your grade for the course.  For details, see Assessment.

Assignment One:  The Atomic Bombing of  Japan:

Part One:  Read carefully the assigned readings. By Friday, September 1, prepare a list of the five most important questions we might ask about the dropping of the Atomic bomb. Normally, I would have you post your list to your Lotus Group Discussion Database.  However, for the first assignment I am asking you to e-mail both Part One and Part Two directly to me at bgriff@american.edu.

Part Two:  By Monday, September 4, each of you should post a brief 300-500 word essay in response to one of the questions you have raised.  Be especially careful to support the arguments you make in your essay by references to the assigned readings and/or to recommended readings and web based resources.  Again, mail your essay directly to me at  bgriff@american.edu.

Assignment Two: The Origins of the Cold War

Write on one of the following questions.  Be sure to check with your teammates to minimize duplication.

Essay One: Based on readings in Painter, as well as in Major Problems, Chapters 1 and 3, prepare a 300-500 word essay on the impact of World War II in creating the Cold War.  Be sure to identify your sources.

Essay Two:  What are the most important factors driving Great Power conflict:  Geopolitics - the desire by a nation to ensure its physical security?  Economics - the desire of a nation (or powerful actors within it) to secure access to markets and resources beyond its own borders?  Ideology and Culture - the desire to extend one's own ideas and institutions?  Some combination of the three?   Prepare a 300-500 word essay assessing how each of these factors figured into the actions of the United States.  In preparing your essay, be sure to draw from the documents presented in Major Problems, Chapter 3, and from the readings in Painter.  Be sure to identify your sources.

Essay Three:  Prepare an essay assessing how each of the above factors -- geopolitics, economics, ideology & culture -- figured into the actions of the Soviet Union.     In preparing your essay, be sure to draw from the documents presented in Major Problems, Chapter 3, and from the readings in Painter. Be sure to identify your sources.

Essay Four:  Focusing on the Report to the President by Clark Clifford and the Letter to the President from Henry Wallace (in Major Problems, Chapter 3), prepare an essay discussing  the debate that emerged in 1946 over U.S. policy toward the USSR.   Identify both men and summarize the arguments they made to the president. What was the outcome of the debate in which they (and others) were engaged?    Be sure to identify your sources.

Assignment Three: The Cold War in Asia.

To what extent was the Cold War in Asia the result of  the "disintegration of colonial and informal empires" and the emergence off nationalist and revolutionary movements throughout what would come to be called "the third world"?  (Paterson, On Every Front: The Making of the Cold War.) How did these nations come to be the sites of Cold War rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States?

Prepare an 300-500 word response to the above questions by examining events in one of the following countries:  China, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia.  Be sure to talk with your team mates to minimize duplication.

Please note: This assignment will require additional research and reading on your part.   Use the Library's WRLC Catalogue to look up books; and its various databases (JSTOR, Project Muse, Periodical Abstracts, etc.) to look up articles. You may also make use of the www links listed in the Guide to Cold War Web Resources and in the article Un-Tangling the Web of Cold War Studies.

Assignment Four: Cold War Politics

Who created "McCarthyism"?  Based on a close reading of the text and accompanying documents in Ellen Shrecker's The Age of McCarthyism, prepare an essay examining the role of one of the following groups in helping to create McCarthyism:  1) the Soviet Union and its leaders; 2)  American Communists and other radical and left wing elements; 3)  right wing Republicans and their allies; 4)  the Truman Administration and its allies.  Among the questions you might consider are these: Were international or domestic forces the most important?  Were U.S. leaders or ordinary Americans more influential in creating and sustaining McCarthyism?  What were the consequences of McCarthyism for individuals?  For the nation as a whole?

As before, check with your team mates to minimize duplication.  And be sure to cite references from the readings to support the points you make in your essay.

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Assignment Five:  Cold War Culture:

Read Elaine Tyler May's book Homeward Bound.  Then, find a primary document (article, advertisement, song, movie clip, etc.) that illustrates some important point that May makes about the impact of the Cold War on American families.  For example:  You might browse 1950s magazines in Bender Library for photographs, advertisements or articles; or, you might memoirs by women and men who lived in the 1950s.  You might examine the lyrics of a popular song or review a movie.  Or, you might go on line and check out some of the web sites on 1950s culture (See Guide to Cold War Web Resources).  You may also find some clues in the footnotes and illustrations in May's book. Be creative.  Have fun.

For your essay, post a brief 300-500 word essay describing the "document" you have discovered and explaining how it relates to what May has written.  Does it illustrate a point that she has made?  Does it modify or even contradict one of her arguments?

 If at all possible, reproduce the article, photograph, advertisement, etc. by Xeroxing it, scanning it into a file or creating a link.  Bring the document to class on Tuesday evening.

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Assignment Six: First Draft of Contribution to Web Project

By 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 15, you should post a draft of the text of your individual contribution to the Team Project on the Lotus Discussion Database.  Before class on Tuesday evening, October 17, you should read and comment on the materials posted by your team mates.  You will have time to further discuss both individual contributions and the project as a whole during the first half of Tuesday evening's class.

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Assignment Seven: The Cold War in Latin America

Carefully read Nick Cullather, Secret History, and chapter six in Griffith, Major Problems. You should also survey the materials available on the world wide web (see Guide to Cold War Resources).  Then prepare a brief essay on one of the following topics:

Essay One:  Briefly summarize U.S. actions in Guatemala?  Were these actions part of a historic pattern of U.S. intervention in Latin America or a response to the Cold War?  How accurate were U.S. perceptions of what was going on in Guatemala?  Do you believe U.S. actions were justified or not?

Essay Two:  Prepare a brief essay summarizing events that took place in Guatemala in 1954 and in Cuba (at the Bay of Pigs) in 1961.  Were their connections between these two events?  What were they?

Essays Three-Four-Five:  Write an essay describing the background and motivation of one of the key participants in the Cuban Missile Crisis: Kennedy, Khrushchev or Castro.

Again, check with your team mates to minimize duplication.  In your essay you should on be sure to draw on the readings and relevant documents in Major Problems and on Cullather's Secret History.  Be sure to cite your sources, whether from primary documents, articles by historians (Paterson, Garthoff), or web sources.

Assignment Eight: The United States and Vietnam

Carefully read Robert Buzzanco, Vietnam and the Transformation of American Life, and chapter nine in Griffith, Major Problems.  Then prepare an essay on one of the following topics:

Essay one:  What was the role of  nationalism, anti colonialism and communism in shaping the history of Vietnam in the years before U.S. involvement.

Essay two:  Trace the growing U.S. involvement in Vietnam under the Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations.  To what degree was U.S. involvement the product of  images, ideas and policies first adopted in the early Cold War years.

Essay three:  Discuss Lyndon Johnson's decision to escalate the Vietnam War in 1964-65.  In preparing this essay, you may find it helpful to read some of the reviews and ensuing discussion of Frederik Logevall's new book, Choosing War (1999).  The discussion begins with an Introduction by Lloyd Gardner, continues with reviews by several other prominent historians, followed by a response by Logevall himself.  The discussion continues for several months with other historians joining the conversation.  (Subsequent "round tables" focus on David Kaiser's new book on the Kennedy Administration and Jeffrey Kimball's new book on the Nixon years.)

Essay four:   Discuss the origins and impact of the anti-war movement.

Essay five:  Discuss how the war in Vietnam changed the United States.

Assignment Nine: The Cold War Revival

Carefully read the assigned pages in Painter, The Cold War, and Griffith, Major Problems. You may need to do additional readings as well, depending on your topic. Then prepare an essay on one of the following examples of the Cold War revival of the 1980s:

1)  United States policy in Central America. (More than one of you could write on this topic, focusing on Nicaragua, or El Salvador, or Guatemala.)
2) U.S. relations with Iran (including Iran-Contra).
3) Star Wars.
4) The revival of "patriotic" and cold war rhetoric by Ronald Reagan and other conservatives.
5) "Culture Wars," including debates over Vietnam, the 1960s, and the Enola Gay controversy.

Assignment Ten:  From Cold War to New World Order:
 

  Prepare a brief essay comparing and contrasting the Cold War years with the "New Global Era."   In writing your essay, you may wish to focus on one of the following themes:

1) how the U.S. employs armed force abroad;
2) whether or not the world is safer following the Cold War;
3) whether or not the world is better off following the Cold War;
4) whether or not America is an "empire";
5) whether or not national governments (including the U.S.) are becoming less significant.

As before, be sure to communicate with your team mates in order to avoid duplication.  Be sure to identify the sources of your information and interpretations.

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