War & Peace in a Dangerous World
  Monday, September 15, 2003

Course Syllabus

Course Rationale:

At the conclusion of World War II the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as global superpowers competing for influence and even dominance over 3rd world nations emerging from 19th century colonialism in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Southern Asia and elsewhere. This competition redefined America's role in the world by forcing the United States to abandon isolationism as a cornerstone of foreign policy in favor of internationalism and interventionism throughout the period of the Cold War. To defeat the Soviet Union in this global conflict the United States attempted to contain the spread of communist ideology while projecting democratic values in areas of the world largely unfamiliar with traditions of self government. While the United States and the Soviet Union never engaged directly in warfare against one another, hot wars were fought by the United States in Korea and in Vietnam killing millions of human beings. The Soviet Union engaged in a long and costly war in Afghanistan. The world came closest to self-annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when American and Soviet interests clashed over the form of government in Cuba and Soviet attempts to establish a forward military base in the Western Hemisphere ninety miles from the American mainland. Since the end of the Cold War the United States has struggled to redefine its role in the world as the last remaining economic and military superpower with varying degrees of success. Throughout the entire post World War II period the United States has labored with decisions determinative of conditions of war and peace in a dangerous world. By studying those decisions and placing their ramifications in human terms students may gain an understanding and develop a lifelong interest in the affairs of state that play directly upon success or failure in the maintenance of conditions of world order and world peace.

Course Objectives:

" To trace the evolution of American Foreign Policy with particular emphasis upon the transitions since the end of World War II.
" To examine the idea of war itself as a means by which nation-states resolve their differences in contemporary times.
" To foster an understanding of the human dimensions of military conflict from the standpoint of the warrior called upon to fight and the victim caught in the crossfire.
" To study the premises used by American leaders to justify military action in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in order to explore the issues of responsibility and accountability that flow from such decisions.
" To create a level of interest in American Foreign Policy that will stimulate students to continue their study at the college level and beyond and to become active participants in the democratic process.

Teaching Strategies:

A multi-media approach to instruction is widely utilized in this course. Students will read works of both fiction and non-fiction. A standard historical text, Hook and Spanier, described fully in the required reading section, will be followed generally but students will also read personal memoirs, poetry, novels and primary source documents. Participation in class discussions is essential to the experiential nature of this course. Wide use is made of documentary films which will be presented on an interactive Smart Board accompanied by relevant topical bullets and notes. Films such as Platoon and We Were Soldiers will be viewed and deconstructed in discussions and in writing assignments. Because post World War II American experience in foreign policy is so defined and influenced by the Vietnam era, a study of the Vietnam War and its aftermath will occupy approximately fifty percent of the academic year. Topics examined in some detail throughout the year will include but not be limited to the following:

" The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw's compilation of personal memoirs by those who fought in World War II.
" Hiroshima and Nagasaki: the decision to drop the bomb
" George Kennan and the Strategy of Containment
" The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
" The Berlin Crisis of 1948.
" The Communist Revolution in China
" McCarthyism in America
" Stalinism
" The Korean War: not the "forgotten war" in this course.
" The Marines of Autumn, a novel of the Korean War by James Brady
" Eisenhower and the Strategy of Deterrence
" JFK and the Strategy of Flexible Response
" Crises of the Kennedy years: Berlin, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam
" LBJ and the Americanization of the Vietnam War
" The Things They Carried. Tim O'Brien's unique discussion of the Vietnam War presented as both memoir and fiction.
" Civil disobedience and the anti-war movement in the United States
" Nixon's policy of Vietnamization and the widening of the war into Cambodia and Laos.
" Kent State and its aftermath.
" The Fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War.
" Cambodian Genocide
" The aftermath of the Vietnam War and its effect upon American Foreign Policy
" The Iranian Hostage Crisis and America's role in the Middle East.
" Ronald Reagan and "The Evil Empire."
" The Iran-Contra Scandal
" The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
" George H.W. Bush and the New World Order
" The Persian Gulf War
" Clinton and intervention in Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia and Haiti.
" George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism
" War in Iraq and the New National Security Strategy of the United States.
" Contemporary problems associated with America's role in the world: Unilateralism versus Multi-nationalism. The U.S. and the U.N.

Evaluative Methods:

All students are responsible for all information presented in class or assigned as homework. Students must keep detailed notebooks for purposes of preparing for periodic examinations and quizzes. All handouts should be retained as source material for the course. For many of the documentary films presented on Smart Board, detailed notes can be found on my website which can be accessed through the school's webpage or by going directly to www.stjohnsprep.org/teachers and selecting my name. While these notes are a valuable source of information for exam preparation they do not relieve students of responsibility for information presented in class and not contained in such notes. Grades will be determined as the result of performance on midterm and quarterly examinations, academic papers and/or technology related or art related projects, periodic quizzes both announced and unannounced, written homework assignments and a final examination which is cumulative in accordance with St. John's Prep school policy. Requirements for the various levels are outlined as follows:
Accelerated Grading per Quarter
" One mid-quarter and one quarterly examination 50%
" Written homework and periodic quizzes 25%
" Quarterly research paper-five page minimum 25%

Honors Grading per Quarter
" One mid-quarter and one quarterly examination 50%
" Written homework and periodic quizzes 25%
" Quarterly research paper-seven page minimum 25%

Note:
As this is a full year course the grade for each quarter will comprise 20% of the grade and the final examination will also count for 20%. Students maintaining a 90% average for the four quarters will be final exam exempt. See school policy in the student handbook for details. Students may take the course at any either level but once a commitment is made to a level it cannot thereafter be changed. Honors students will be held to progressively higher standards of evaluation on all work submitted. These students will be required to answer additional essay questions or multiple-choice questions on each examination at the discretion of the instructor. In addition to the research papers mentioned above, honors students must submit an additional paper based upon an approved outside reading to be discussed with the instructor. This paper will be submitted at the beginning of the fourth quarter. All students will be afforded the opportunity to substitute a special project which may be based upon technology or artistic expression in place of a research paper in any of the first three quarters. These projects must be
Required Reading:
Spanier, Robert and Steven W. Hook, American Foreign Policy Since World War II. Washington D.C.:C.Q.Press, Fifteenth or Sixteenth Edition. This is the textbook for the course.

The Marines of Autumn by James Brady. Any edition is acceptable. This is a novel of the Korean War.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Any edition is acceptable. This is a personal memoir of the Vietnam War which includes stories that are both fictional and autobiographical.

The Moon Reflected Fire by Doug Anderson. Any edition is acceptable. This is a book of poems based upon the personal combat experiences of the author.

Young, Marilyn B., John J. Fitzgerald and A. Tom Grunfeld, The Vietnam War, A History in Documents. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1st Edition, 2002. This is a compilation of primary source materials related to the Vietnam War.
Recommended Reading:

Dispatches, Michael Herr

A Rumor of War, Phil Caputo

The Nightingale's Song, Robert Timberg

The Cat from Hue, John Laurence

Fields of Fire, James Webb

In Pharaoh's Army, Tobias Wolfe

Kennedy's Wars, Lawrence Freedman

In Retrospect, Robert McNamara

War as a Force That Gives us meaning, Chris Hedges

Wilson’s Ghost, Robert McNamara and James Blight

Note:  The annotated bibliography of most Cold War related books contained in the St. John's Prep library collection can be found by going to my website and selecting "Library Resources."
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