COLD WAR IN THE AMERICAS
Readings Smith, Talons, chs. 5-8
CHRONOLOGY OF COLD WAR World War II (Europe and Asia) 1946Churchill speech on “iron curtain” 1947Truman Doctrine 1948Berlin airlift 1949Soviet atomic bomb, Communist victory in China Korean War Vietnam War 1962Cuban missile crisis 1989Collapse of Berlin Wall Implosion of Soviet Union
The U.S. and the Cold War Credos and Rules of the Game 1. Bipolar conflict 2. Arms race and “mutual assured destruction” (MAD) 3. The need for “containment” of Soviet expansion 4. Geopolitics, dominoes, and the Third World 5. Marxism and the developing world
Joseph Stalin,
Allied leaders meeting at Yalta, 1945
Harry S. Truman, 1948
Mao Zedong, 1966
Shaping U.S. Policy 1. Monroe redux: cordoning off the Americas 2. Economic aid: the Alliance for Progress 3. Purging the body politic 4. Containing revolution: Guatemala (1954) Bay of Pigs (1961) Dominican Republic (1965) Chile (1973) Grenada (1983) Central America (1980s)
The Kennedy White House: John Jr. advising his father
Ronald Reagan ( )
Reflections 1. Reality vs. ideology 2. Imagining alternatives (?) 3. On the language of “war”