U.S. DIPLOMACY

Essay =100 points. Write a Seven (7) page, DOUBLE-SPACED essay on ONE (1) of the numbered topics below relating to the subject matter of this course: American diplomacy/foreign affairs/foreign policy. Demonstrate your level of understanding of this important field. Use only sources or references included in this course from your readings, PowerPoint, Lectures and provided Blackboard documents:do not go to outside sources (Google, Wikipedia, AOL, or any other sources of that kind). Write a standard, university level essay: introduction, body, conclusion, using any format related to your discipline/field of study. Use text notes to identify your sources. Make certain that all text that is in someone else’s words or ideas as well as any significant/controversial information is property attributed (textnote, footnote, or endnote). Use your Grammatik and Spellchecker function on your computer. PROOFREAD and REWRITE your essay as necessary to produce the best possible product. This is basically a research paper utilizing BlackBoard-classroom proceedings, WEEKLY MODULES, COURSE TEXTS, POWERPOINT LECTURES, and any other books or materials consulted specifically for this course.

1.  Explain the period of the late 1800s into the early 1900s as America transitioned to a world power. Cover Blaine’s State Department, America’s widening role in the Asia Pacific, the road to the Spanish-American war and the follow-on war for independence (the “insurrection”) in the Philippines as well as America’s emergence as a great power.

2.  Relate the period of America’s diplomacy from President Teddy Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” foreign policy to President Wilson’s “New Diplomacy” including Wilson’s initial policy of

“waging neutrality”, the nation’s road to war in WWI, the Versailles treaty episode, and the interwar years leading up to WWII.

3.  Examine the period (about 1929 to 1953) of American diplomacy leading up to WWII, the war years, and the aftermath Korean War. Explain America’s economic foreign policy, the encounters with Japan, the road to Pearl Harbor, WWII, the UN, and Korea. Outline the general role of the world’s dictators (Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese Imperial nation) in bringing the world to war.  Briefly define the Marshall Plan, the opening of the nuclear age, and the TRUCE in Korea.

4.  Frame the period of American diplomacy beginning with the Cold War, the rise of world Communism, America’s Vietnam War, and beyond. Address such issues as Nuclearism, superpower competition, the slippery slope from JFK’s “advisors”, thru LBJ’s “ordeal” of the Vietnam War, to Nixon & Kissinger, China, and the aftermath.

5.  Summarize the period of American diplomacy from the end of the Vietnam War, into the end of the Cold War and beyond, with a brief overview of the administrations of Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, and Trump to the present day.