P24 Case Studies Flashcards
1
Q
VIETNAM
- Outline the key authorities on Vietnam (10)
A
- SCHULZINGER - Strictly a Cold War affair. US credibility major stickiness factor.
- ANDREW PRESTON - Advisors to blame - esp. McGeorge Bundy (NSA Advisor). 1961-1965, Bundy enlarged apparatus of National Security Council substantially, to effective cabinet position. Rostow, Bundy, Forrester - supporters of containment theory.
- ERNEST MAY: Advance of communsim on Korean peninsula = grave threat to US National Security.
- LONGEVALL: Kennedy must share some burden. Translated MACV into MAAG. 1962 military advisor influx.
- HALL: Failings come down to ignorance. Rolling thunder = unifying reference to collection of anti-American stakeholders. Confusing Vietnamese national struggle for cold war agenda.
- HESS: Vietnam broke the power-morality link.
- HALBERSTAM: Quagmire thesis.
- MCNAMARA: Escalation was ‘terribly wrong’ in retrospect.
- WESTMORELAND: CO USAA - Media and homefront lost battle.
- BERNARD FALL: “Dreaming different dreams than the French but walking in the same footsteps”.
2
Q
VIETNAM
Provide the revisionist perspectives on Vietnam
A
- Lost Cause - undermined by media and popular protest @ home.
- First Lost Victory - misapplication of power - never full-scale war.
- Necessary War - War important to national security (invented by FDR)
- Strategy for Defeat - Military limited by civilian leaders
- Hearts and Minds - Little effort invested in winning the people to America - Operation Cedar Falls, 1967.
3
Q
VIETNAM
What are the Orthodox positions on Vietnam?
A
- Unwinnable war - American forces were undermined by the forces of history.
- Rational disengagement - Post Tet offensive.
4
Q
VIETNAM
How did Asian minorities react to the Vietnam War?
A
Unlike many Americans in the anti-war movement, they viewed the war “not just as imperialist but specifically as anti-Asian.” Groups like the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA), the Bay Area Coalition Against the War (BAACAW), and the Asian Americans for Action made opposition to the war their main focus.
5
Q
COLD WAR
List and detail the authorities on the Cold War.
A
- LUNDESTAD - Empire by Invitation. Defence spending 4x post-WWII. Britain 70% in favour of Marshall Plan; 47% favour in France; 63% in Germany. Eroded by Third Force.
- KRAMER - Compared to Warsaw Pact, NATO was purely military venture. Economic success of Japan important to warding off communism in Asia. Commitment to Capitalism over Democracy - lack of Marshall Plan for Africa.
- DUDZIAK - Civil Rights failings in US undermined Cold War credibility. Impact of Little Rock reverberated internationally. Times of India - “Armed Men Cordon Off White School: Racial Desegregation in Arkansas Prevented”
- LEFFLER - Democracy was burden: Stalin could pursue agenda unihibited by democratic concerns. 27m Russians die in WWII. Compare trauma to Pearl Harbour. NSC-68 - containment policy document.
- ZUBOK & PLESHAKOV - USSR as imperial civilisation - needed expansionism.
- HERZOG - Religious endeavour - 1956 E pluribus unum changed to In God we Trust. Christian nation construct.
- WHITFIELD - Mass consumption of Red Scare - McArthyism.
- WESTAD - Global Cold War.
6
Q
COLD WAR FACTS
List some key facts about the Cold War
A
- STALIN - Traditionally, seen as wanting to destroy western interests. Practically limited - merely wanted German reparation - Russia bore the brunt of war. US as provocateur.
- US 1940s - Italian election, 1948 - US bankrolls centre parties through CIA. USSR - Czech coup.
- SPUTNIK - 1957
- ANGLOA - USA wanted to avoid another Vietnam, but did not want to see MPLA communist victory - bankrolled opposing FNLA and UNITA forces. Congress blocked funding after covert missions failed. Victory of MPLA and Vietcong showed willingness of the developing world to lean to communism
- DETENTE - 1970s (Helsinki Accord, 1975) - SALT
- First blow - Russians placing SS-20 missiles in Central Europe, 1976
- 1979 - AFGHAN INVASION
- GORBACHEV - Glasnost and Perestroika - opening of Russia - undermined.
7
Q
BECOMING A WORLD POWER - PRESIDENTS
Provide a timeline of presidential action
A
- Andrew Johnson - 65-9 -> Acquires Alaska. Senate prohibits acq. of Hawaii, Cuba, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico. Monroe main policy.
- Grant - 69-77 -> Encouraged guerillas in Cuba against Spain. Santo Domingo annex blocked by Congress. Alabama Claims - $15.5m from UK.
- Arthur - 81-5 -> Invests in Steel navy.
- Cleveland - 85-9 -> Twenty Inch Gun Missive - Opposition to Britain in Venezuala
- McKinley - 97-01 -> War with Spain - US obtains Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines. Cuba as protectorate.
- Roosevelt - 1907 -> Great White Fleet Tour (infl. by Mahan on Navy)
8
Q
BECOMING A WORLD POWER
Orville Platt Quote
A
“A policy of isolation did well enough when we were an embryo nation, but today things are different… We are sixty-five million of people, the most advanced and powerful on earth, and regard our future welfare demands an abandonment of the doctrines of isolation”
9
Q
BECOMING A WORLD POWER - HISTORIANS
List the major historians commenting on the rise of America in the early 20th century
A
- Laderman - Expansion from below - Christian missionaries, reaction to the Armenian Massacre.
- Ninkovich - Roosevelt -> imperialism as natural outgrowth of US continental expansion
- Rosenburg - Ideology of liberal-developmentalism as motivating actions. Promotional State - US subservient to economic expansion demanded by farmers and industrialists. Dollar Diplomacy - Taft (1912).
- Zakaria - US was underexpansionist, as national interests were initially driven at a state rather than federal level.
10
Q
BECOMING A WORLD POWER - FACTS
Detail facts about US Growth
A
- 12 new states 1865-1900.
- 430 million acres occupied - more than previous 300 years.
- Population 36 million to 100 million.
- Productivity 2.5% growth per annum.
- Oil production - 5.2 million to 209.5 million.
11
Q
POLITICS AND THE STATE - HISTORIANS
List all of the relevant historians from politics and the state (US P24)
A
- JACOBS - US state power limited when it comes to tax. ZEILZER - tax increase only palatable during times of emergency.
- FISHER - De jure - congress cannot delegate power, de facto, SC allows CON to set a general agenda for other branches to fill in. Opposed in 1935.
- McGIRR - Sunbelt population - 130k in 1940, 1.5m in 1970. Due to military industrial complex. Orange Country - centre of military jobs.
- CARTER - CON power in 1994 - Contract with America (Gingrich) - transferred welfare from the undeserving poor to middle classes. 50% cut in capital gains tax, $500 per child tax credit, repeal of federal income tax marriage penalty.
- PATTERSON - Racism in the courts - 1984, Goetz, white, shoots 4 blacks. Acquitted on self-defence. 90% white support, 52% blacks oppose. Congress empowered after Watergate. Takes lead on legislation (aid to handicapped children, bilingual education etc.)
- DERTHICK - Social Security ‘crowning achievement’ of ND.
- O’BRIEN - Impartiality of the SC is a myth. Highly political. ‘Myth of the Robe’. “Public opinion serves to curb the Court when it threatens to go too far or too fast in its rulings”.
- KRUSE - 1962 Peyton panic saw 30,000 whites leave. 1960-1970: -60,000, 1970s: 100,000.
12
Q
POLITICS AND THE STATE - SUPREME COURT
O’Brien on Nixon and Supreme Court vs. Warren Court
A
- Nixon’s appointment of Burger, Blackmun, Powell, and Rehnquist, however, failed to turn the Court around to forge a constitutional counter revolution.
- 76% of Warren court rulings each term went in the direction of protecting and minorities against the government.
13
Q
APOLITICS AND THE STATE - SUPREME COURT
Roe vs Wade.
A
- Branded as the 20th Century’s Dred Scott Case - as it sought to “deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of the law”
- 1973 Roe v Wade
- 1983 City of Akron - reconsideration of Roe
- 1989 Webster - Further restrictions on abortion
- Life begins from conception - unborn children have protectable interest in life, health and wellbeing.
- Physicians to test foetus “gestational age, weight and lung capacity”
- Prohibits public employees and facilities from being used to perform abortions
- unlawful to use public funds employees and facilites for the purpose of encouraging an abortion
- 1992 Casey - Throws out Roe’s trimester
14
Q
FDR - HISTORIANS
List historians and points relevant to FDR and ND
A
- Badger - ND had little ideological coherence. See FDR commitment to forestry and shelterbelt project, at cost of low-cost housing. Driven by Brain’s Trust - Moley, Tugwell. Shifting constellation of actors.
- Kennedy - Roosevelt built…. A new [bloc of] capital-intensive industries, investment banks, and internationally oriented commercial banks.
- Brinkley - “a chaos of experimentation,” and being bereft of ideologies. Changing opinion on govt fiscal role made quantative easing possible.
- Jeffries - 3 ND phases. 33-4 - NRA and AAA. 2nd - Wagner, SSA, Tax; 3rd - attempted Keynesian fiscal policy.
- Dallek - Roosevelt flexible in 20s on FP front.
15
Q
ND
Evidence the power of the Senate and outside actors.
A
- Cohesive bloc of silver senators from the sparsely settled mountain states who often held the balance of power in the Senate
- 1933 - silver bought at 64.5 cents an ounce - 21 cents above market average. An industry employing ~5000 would wring the government of $1.5 billion dollars - more than spent on farming.
- CIO unions contributed the enormous sum of $770000 to the President’s campaign chest…$469000 of it came from the Lewis’ United Mine Workers. these contributions marked a historic shift in the financial base of theDemocratic party, as business sources dried up, the UMW’s donation made the union the party’s largest single benefactor
