Assessment Guidelines for assigning main letter grades: A, B, C,D, and F.

A:  Work of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensiveknowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course.

B:  This is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.

There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.

C:  This is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.

D:  This level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.

Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.

F: This work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.

Requirements:

1. Mid-term examination.
2. A research paper of 10 pages due on the last day of class before final exam week begins.   The subject of the paper will be the following:  “What was at stake during the Cold War.”   Sources for the paper will be the texts that are available in the library.
3. A film review essay of 3 pages covering a film from the attached list that is due on the last day of class before final exam week begins. 
4. Oral report.  Each student will participate in a two-member team presentation of a fifteen minute oral report.  The topic selection will be made during the third week of class and will come from the attached oral report subject list.
5. An End Quiz covering the content of the core text by D’Agata and Gray and lectures since the mid-term exam. It will be held on the last regularly scheduled day of class before final week.
6. A book review essay of 3 pages due on the last day of class before final exam week begins.   Students must select a book from those included on the Book Review List.
7. At least one tutorial will be held with each student during the term to discuss progress in reading and writing assignments.  
8. There will be no final exam.

Lessons 1 and 2:  Introduction.  The “American National Style” as seen historically in foreign policy. (REQUIRED READING:  Chapter 1: “The Roots of American Foreign Policy” pp. 5 – 40 in Walter LaFeber, The American Age;  Chapters 1 – 2 pp. 11 – 94 in James M. O’Toole, The Faithful; Chapter 1: “The American Foreign Policy Tradition” pp. 3 – 30 and Chapter 2: “The Kaleidoscope of American Foreign Policy” pp. 30 – 56 in Walter Russell Mead, Special Providence. American Foreign Policy and How it Changed the World; Chapter 1: “Introduction: The American Dream” pp. 3 – 14 in Emily S. Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream. SUGGESTED READING:  Chapter 1: Theory, History and Grand Strategy” pp. 15 – 39 in Christopher Layne, The Peace of Illusions;  Chapter 1:  “Setting the Stage for Understanding US Foreign Policy”, pp. 1-29 in Joyce P. Kaufman, A Concise History of US Foreign Policy and Chapter 1: “The American Approach to Foreign Policy”, pp. 1-22 in Steven W. Hook and John Spanier, American Foreign Policy Since World War II.)

Lessons 3 and 4:  Isolationism in American history.  The Monroe Doctrine. The Open Door Policy.  (REQUIRED READING:  Chapter 3: “The First, the Last:  John Quincy Adams and the Monroe Doctrine 1815-1828” pp. 71 – 94 in LaFeber, The American Age ;  Chapter 3: “Changing the Paradigms” pp. 56 – 99 and Chapter 4: “ The Serpent and the Dove: the Hamiltonian Way” pp. 99 – 132 in Mead, Special Providence; Chapter 2: “Capitalists, Christians, Cowboys” pp. 14 – 38 and Chapter 3: “ The Promotional State” p. 38 – 63 in Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream; SUGGESTED READING:   Chapter 2:  “Unilateralism to Engagement:  The Founding to the End of World War I”, pp. 29-55 in Kaufman, A Concise History of US Foreign Policy.)

Lessons 5 and 6: The relative quiet of the inter-war years. Pearl Harbor and World War II. The genesis of US intelligence organizations for the war effort.  (REQUIRED READING:  Chapter One:  “That Man in the White House” pp. 11 – 17 and Chapter Four: “That Man as Commander-in-Chief” pp. 75 – 111 in Robert H. Jackson, That Man. An Insider’s Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt;  Chapter 1 pp. 1 – 101 in Alan Brinkley, Franklin Delano Roosevelt;  Part One: “The Internationalist as Nationalist, 1932-1934” pp. 23 – 101 and Part Two: “The Internationalist as Isolationist 1935 – 1938” pp. 101 – 171 in Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy 1932- 1945;  Chapter 12: “FDR and the Entry into World War II” pp. 369 – 413 and Chapter 13: World War II: The Rise and Fall of the Grand Alliance” pp. 413 – 457 in LaFeber, The American Age;   Chapter 11: “The Rise and Fall of the American Structure for World Order 1920-1933” pp. 334 – 369 in LaFeber, The American Age; SUGGESTED READING: Chapter 2: “World War II and the Foundations of American Global Hegemony” pp. 39 – 51 in Layne, The Peace of Illusions; Section 1: “World War”, pp. 9 – 75 in

David Reynolds, From World War to Cold War;  Chapter 3:  “The Interwar Years Through World War II”, pp. 55-75 in Kaufman, A Concise History of US Foreign Policy.)

Lessons 7 and 8:  Onset of the Cold War. The creation of the Central Intelligence Agency.  The Truman Doctrine.  The Marshall Plan.  NATO.  The Fall of China.  The Korean War. Intelligence strategies and foreign policy during the Cold War (REQUIRED READING: Chapters 2 – 7 pp. 18 – 135 in Norman Stone, The Atlantic and Its Enemies; Part 1: “The Origins of the Cold War” pp. 11 – 84 in Melvyn Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind;  Chapter 1 “The Dynamics of Postwar Politics Before the Cold War” pp. 1 – 46 in Jonathan Bell, The Liberal State on Trial; Chapter 1: “Into the Fray Against John Foster Dulles” pp. 6 – 38  in Douglas Brinkley, Dean Acheson. The Cold War Years 1953-71;   Chapters 3 – 8 pp. 100 – 361 in Melvyn P. Leffler, A Preponderance of Power; Chapter 1:  “Searching for a Creative Peace” pp. 26 – 54 in Michael Hogan, The Marshall Plan;  Chapters 2 – 5 pp. 31 – 115 in Nicolaus Mills, Winning the Peace; Chapter 9: “The Origins of NATO” pp. 267 – 297 in Stewart Patrick, The Best Laid Plans;  Chapter 14: “The Cold War, or the Renewal of US-Russian Rivalry” pp. 457 – 502 in LaFeber, The American Age.  SUGGESTED READING:   Part 1 “The Genesis” and Part 2 “The Plan In Action” pp. 7 – 328 in Greg Behrman, The Most Noble Adventure;  “Section 5: “Cold War”, pp. 235 – 291 in Reynolds, From World War to Cold War; Chapter 1: “The Origins of the Cold War, 1945-1948:  Stalin and Truman” pp. 11 – 84 in Melvyn Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind. The United States, The Soviet Union, and The Cold War;  Chapter 4:  “The Cold  War”  pp. 75-115 in Kaufman, A Concise History of US Foreign Policy;  Chapter 2:  “From World War to Cold War” pp. 23-49 and Chapter 3:  “Containment:  From Theory to Practice” pp. 50-79 in Hook and Spanier, American Foreign Policy Since World War II.)

Lesson 9:   Rollback and brinkmanship:  the style of the 1950s. The Suez crisis.  Sputnik diplomacy.  The United States and colonialism.  The Good Neighbor Policy. Cuba.  (REQUIRED READING:  Chapter 15: “The Big Turn:  The Era of the Korean War” pp. 502 – 536 in LaFeber, The American Age; Chapter 1:  “Politicizing Culture:  Suspicious Minds” pp. 1 – 27 in Stephen Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War;  Part IV:  “The White House Years”, pp. 637 – 725 in Michael Korda, Ike. An American Hero;  Chapters 1 – 3 pp. 1 – 87 in Walter L. Hixson, Parting the Curtain; Chapter 7: “Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright” pp. 218 – 264 in Mead, Special Providence; Chapter 3: “The Changing Political Climate in Europe 1957-60” pp. 75 – 108 in Brinkley, Dean Acheson;  Part 1: “Honeymoon” pp. 11 – 39 and Part 5: “It Could Have Been Worse” pp. 313 – 405 in Jim Rasenberger, The Brilliant Disaster;  Part 1: “The Players” pp. 3 – 129 in Frederick Kempe, Berlin 1961;  SUGGESTED READING: Chapter 5: The Containment of Europe:  American Hegemony and European Responses” pp. 94 – 118 in Layne, The Peace of Illusions;  Chapter 2: “The Chance for Peace, 1953-1954: Malenkov and Eisenhower” pp. 84 - 151 in  Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind. The United States, the Soviet Union, and The Cold War;  Chapter 4:  “Developing Countries in the Crossfire” pp. 80-109 in Hook and Spanier, American Foreign Policy Since World War II.)

Lesson 10:  Mid-Term Examination

Lessons 11 and 12:  NATO and nuclear sharing.  Dilemma in the Middle East.  Containment in Asia. Vietnam.  (REQUIRED READING: Chapters 4 – 17 pp. 46 – 203 in Seymour Hersh, The Price of Power. Kissinger in the Nixon White House; Chapter 1: “Kennedy” pp. 1 – 23 and Chapter 2: “The Cold War” pp. 23 – 67 in W. J. Rorabaugh, Kennedy and the Promise of the Sixties; Introduction and Part 1 pp. 15 – 53 in Robert M. Gates, From the Shadows; Chapter 16: The Era of Eisenhower:  The Good Old Days” pp. 536 – 580 and Chapter 17: “JFK and LBJ: From the New Frontier through the Great Society to Vietnam” pp. 580 – 633 in LaFeber, The American Age; Chapter 4: “JFK, NATO Review, and the Berlin Crisis of 1961” pp. 108 – 154 and Chapter 5: “The Cuban Missile Crisis” pp. 154 – 175 in Brinkley, Dean Acheson.  SUGGESTED READING:  Chapter 3: “Retreat From Armageddon, 1962-1965: Kruschev, Kennedy and Johnson” pp. 151 – 254 in Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind. The United States, The Soviet Union, and The Cold War;  Chapter 5:  “Vietnam and the Cost of Containment” pp. 110-135 in Hook and Spanier, American Foreign Policy Since World War II.)

Lessons 13 and 14:  Lessons from Vietnam.  The “Vietnam Syndrome”.  Post-Vietnam interventions.  (REQUIRED READING:  Part I “Why Did It Start” pp. 11 – 81 and Part II “Why Did It Last So Long” pp. 81 – 243 in Gordon S. Barrass, The Great Cold War;  Chapter 8: The Vietnam War” pp. 237 – 263 in Brinkley, Dean Acheson; Chapter 8: “The Rise and Retreat of the New  World Order” pp. 264 – 310 in Mead, Special Providence.  SUGGESTED READING: Chapter 6:  “Détente and World Order Politics” pp. 136-165 in Hook and Spanier, American Foreign Policy Since World War II.)

Lesson 15:  A “Unipolar World”?  America alone? The shifting priorities of American power. (REQUIRED READING: Chapter 9: “The Future of American Foreign Policy” pp. 310 – 335 in Mead, Special Providence; Chapter 18: “Coming to Terms with History” pp. 633 – 680 in LaFeber, The American Age;  Part 1: “9/11 and War” pp. 3 – 109 in Ahmed Rashid, Descent Into Chaos;   SUGGESTED READING: Chapter 7:  “The End of the Unipolar Era” pp. 134 – 159 in Layne, The Peace of Illusions;  Section VI:  “Perspectives” pp. 291 – 352 in Reynolds, From World War to Cold War; Chapter 5:  “Beyond the Cold War” pp. 115-144 and Chapter 6:  “What Next for US Foreign Policy” in Kaufman, A Concise History of US Foreign Policy;  Chapter 8:  “The End of the Cold War”  pp. 193-218 and Chapter 9:  “America’s Unipolar World” pp. 219-245 and Chapter 10:  “Old Tensions in a New Order” pp. 246-271 in Hook and Spanier, American Foreign Policy Since World War II.)

Lessons 16 and 17 and 18:  Student Oral Reports.  

Lesson 19:  Review

Lesson 20:  Quiz