Chapter 5: The Cold War Context: Lessons and Legacies

Video Exercises

Détente

This video is news coverage of Nixon’s secret meeting with Mao

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/meeting-chariman-mao/6rx7uk3?from=sharepermalink

1. What is détente and what led to both its rise and its fall?

2. How did both the Soviets and the Americans attempt to use relations with China as leverage in great-power politics?

3. In this clip, Nixon mentions Principles and Peace. What was the importance of Nixon's meeting with Mao in terms of each of the 4 Ps: Peace, Power, Principles, and Prosperity?

4. How did Nixon's reputation make it possible for him to be the president that would open U.S. relations with China?

Vietnam

This is original news footage of a self-assured McNamara giving a presentation about U.S. progress in Vietnam in 1965 in which he said that the United States was causing a "heavy drain" on Vietcong resources

This is the video trailer from Fog of War, an Oscar-winning documentary that provides insight into the thinking of Robert McNamara

5. What are some of the reasons McNamara later gave for the U.S. failure in Vietnam?

6. Describe the policy debate over how to proceed in Vietnam. What were some alternatives to the actions chosen by McNamara and Presidents Kennedy and Johnson?

End of the Cold War

This video provides footage from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and gives a good sense of the atmosphere of euphoria surrounding the event. At 1:05, note the man walking through the gap that has been created in the wall to shake hands with someone on the other side

7. Why do many people point to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 as the end of the Cold War?

8. Why did the Cold War end when it did and as peacefully as it did?

9. Relate the origins and the end of the Cold War to American principles.

1970s OPEC Crisis

This is local coverage from California that deals with the system of getting gas by odd-even license plate number during the OPEC oil crisis. It shows long lines at gas stations and how the crisis caused decreases in traffic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2KrxmpPJ-o

10. What were the domestic and international reasons for the gasoline shortages?

11. Could you imagine policies such as the odd-even license plate system being implemented today?

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American Foreign Policy, 4e StudySpace

Chapter 5