HIST 4496 U.S. Foreign Policy II, 1945-Present

Fulfills the US History requirement for History MajorsThis course surveys the history of United States foreign relations from the end of World War I to the present. It traces how the United States moved, in a very short time, from isolation in Fortress America to a policy of global interventionism that projected American power into every time zone and every inhabited latitude. We begin with an analysis of why Americans largely turned their backs on foreign affairs in the 1920s and 1930s and stood aloof from the terrifying collapse of international order under the onslaught of a worldwide economic depression. We continue with the rise of fascism and national socialism in Europe and Asia, and examine how Americans ultimately shouldered arms in a conflictWorld War IIthat wreaked worldwide destruction, ushered in the nuclear age, and forever changed the United Statess relationship to the rest of the world. We will pay considerable attention to the origins of the Soviet-American confrontation and its extension from the central arena in Europe to the periphery in the so-called Third Worldespecially East Asia and the Middle East. We will address Americas longest and most divisive war in Vietnam, analyzing the reasons for Americas intervention, the nature of its involvement, and the causes and consequences of its failure. As the course moves towards its conclusion, we will explore the rise and fall of dtente in the 1970s, examine how imperial overreach strained both the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1980s, and reflect upon what victory in the Cold War has meant for Americans. Finally, we will assess the impact of the attacks of 11 September 2001 upon U.S. foreign policy. Did 9/11 inaugurate a change as profound as that brought forth by the Pearl Harbor attacks sixty years earlier? Or will American policymakers continue to act in much the same way and for many of the same reasons as the new millennium unfolds?