American Foreign Policy

Using these two books and ONLY these two books answer each of these questions with 3 page paper per topic. Each topic is its own essay question and must use detail analysis from the reading and only the reading to answer.

1. America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1946-2006
Walter Lafeber ISBN: 978-0-07-353466-4
2.Killing Hope U.S Military and C.I.A Interventions since World War II
William Blum ISBN: 978-1-56751-252-6

1. Prominent scholars of the Cold War have argued that the U.S. would have pursued many of the same foreign policies, such as the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine and the policy strategy outlined in NSC-68, even if the Soviet Union had never existed. Using lecture notes, Lafeber and Blum, analyze the extent to which this statement is true or false.

2. Many scholars have argued that the Vietnam War was the most important war in Cold War history. Why? In your answer, consider the various motivations for the US military escalation in Vietnam, and the effects of the war on the “Cold War Consensus” among US foreign policy elites. Use lecture notes, Lafeber and Blum in your answer.

3. Under the Nixon and Ford Administrations, and through the first two years of the Carter Presidency, the US adopted a set of policies known as “détente.” What were these policies, why were they adopted by US policymakers, and why did they collapse by the end of 1979? Use lecture notes, Lafeber and Blum in your answer.

4. What were the policies associated with the “Second Cold War” of the Reagan Administration, and why were they adopted? In your answer, make sure you address how these policies represented a “militarization” of US foreign policy. Why did the cold war eventually come to an end by 1989? Use lecture notes, Lafeber and Blum in your answer.