Lecture #1 Essays - Cold War, Global Politics, Free Essays

Lecture #1 Essays - Cold War, Global Politics, Free Essays Lecture #1 Introduction: What is the Third World? Nations Unaligned with Either NATO or the Warsaw Pact Won't work; could include Yugoslavia and even the People's Republic of China The Decolonizing World Won't work; must include Egypt, Thailand, and other nations that were never colonies The Developing World Won't work; misleading in terms of power dynamics and ethnocentric The Global South Won't work; could include Australia and New Zealandand Antarctica! The "Dominoes" "Domino theory" coined by Eisenhower in 1954, anticipated by Acheson at the inception of the Cold War Presents the world as a zero-sum game in which any gain for communism constitutes a loss for democracy and free enterprise Two Phenomena Define the Second Half of the Twentieth Century: the Cold War and the Ascent of the Third World The Third World profoundly shapes how the communist and capitalist hegemons compete This competition alters the domestic environment in Third World nations Parallel struggles: the civil rights movement in the United States and Third-World struggles for autonomy Unfolding of the Cold War Conflict begins in Europe but sees its first fireworks in Asia The Middle East becomes an important theater, for strategic and economic reasons The East-West clash comes to Latin America and Africa later, but still exerts tremendous pressure on how states in those regions develop Lecture #2 "Like Apples in a Barrel . . .": Origins of the Cold War I) The Irresolvable Question of Poland The United States wants a democratic Poland, with representatives of the Polish government in exile ["London Poles"] included views Poland as an outpost of European civilization against communists The Soviet Union wants a pro-Soviet Poland, run by the puppet "Lublin Poles" views Poland as the route through which Germany has attacked Stalin breaks his promises at Yalta, clamps down on Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe Early Cold War Crises Truman takes a hard line on Poland, but ultimately has to back down Conflicting agendas at Potsdam Soviets retreat from Iran and Turkey "Support Free Peoples": Truman Sounds the Alarm Britain can no longer provide aid to the anti-communist governments in Greece and Turkey; America is Britain's obvious successor Truman portrays the struggle as one of good versus evil Congress coughs up the money; makes an historic commitment the U.S. intervenes, during a time of general peace, in the affairs of people outside North and South America "Two Halves of the Same Walnut": Truman's Guns and Marshall's Butter Economy of Western Europe seems on the verge of collapse Marshall invites the Europeans to draw up their own plan U.S. Congress opposes the Marshall Plan; Republicans don't want to give Truman a foreign policy triumph in an election year or encourage socialist schemes in Europe "A Shock through the Civilized World": The Coup in Czechoslovakia Prompts the Senate to endorse the Marshall Plan Truman drastically expands the power and discretion of the CIA Foreign Policy Setbacks of 1949 The Soviets explode an atomic bomb China falls to the communists America's Twin Responses to the Soviet A-Bomb and the "Loss" of China Truman approves development of the H-Bomb National Security Document 68 (NSC-68) Advocates a quadrupling of U.S. military spending Assumes the worst of Soviet foreign policy Demands a global U.S. response to the Soviet threat So drastic in its implications that implementation appears unlikelyuntil the Korean War breaks out Lecture #3 "The Greece of the Far East": Korea Roots of the Conflict The United States and the Soviet Union eject the Japanese from Korea in 1945, divide the peninsula at the 38th Parallel The Cold War hardens, obliterating the possibility for Korean unification Kim Il-sung heads the communist People's Democratic Republic of Korea in the North Syngman Rhee heads the anti-communist Republic of Korea (ROK) in the South Civil war rages in Korea from 1945 to 1950long before America's "Korean War" starts Why do the North Koreans invade the South on June 25, 1950? The communists are encouraged by Truman's "Europe-first" strategy and neglect of South Korea Acheson's "defense perimeter" speech also gives Kim reason to assume that the U.S. will not assist the South Stalin gives his assent to the invasion North Korea nearly overruns the South within days; the "Free World" faces a major setback Truman's "Police Action": The Inception of the Imperial Presidency Truman does not consult with members of Congress before ordering air and naval forces to South Koreaor before committing American troops to the land mass of Asia Few in Congress object, but a fatal precedent has been set Although termed a U.N. "police action," the conflict