HI/IR465: America and the Cold War Fall 2021 HIS 304 Tuesdays 12:30PM - 3:15PM

HI/IR465: America and the Cold War
                                      Fall 2021
                         HIS 304 Tuesdays 12:30PM – 3:15PM
Professor David Shorten
226 Bay State Road, Rm 407
Email: dshorten@bu.edu
Office Hours: Thursday, 12-3PM, or by appointment.

COURSE OVERVIEW:

In the span of only a few years, America went from a nation wracked by economic depression
and confronted by enemies in Europe and the Pacific to being one of the most powerful nations
in the world and (albeit briefly) the sole nation possessing nuclear weapons. This transformed
not only U.S. relations abroad, but also how Americans interacted with the state and one another.
Over the course of the next four decades, American officials and the American public settled into
a new role on the international stage: leaders of the “free world” in an ideological and sometimes
literal battle with the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, international communism,
and other real and perceived threats to US national security.

This is an upper-level seminar. Over the course of this class, we will examine how Americans in
and out of government viewed the Cold War and America’s mission in the world. We will also
look at and how those views changed over the course of this conflict and the lasting legacies of
the Cold War on American politics and culture. At times, this course will step outside of a
strictly chronological framework to explore longer-range developments, including how the Cold
War shaped the Civil Rights Movement, militarization, and the development of white
supremacist movements at home.

REQUIREMENTS:

This is a writing and reading intensive course. While a lot is expected of you, the more you put
into this course the more you will get out of it. Much of this material is deeply engaging and well
written (we are far away from the realm of dry textbooks) and we will be looking at some of the
most discussed, and controversial, decisions in the history of US foreign policy.

A major portion of this course will be driven by in-class discussions, and class participation
forms 25% of your grade. Most weeks we’ll start off class by having two students run a mini-
discussion for about half the class (this will count for 10% of your grade). These students will
send out a series of discussion questions to the class no later than the Sunday night before they
present.

In addition to class participation, you will be asked to write a substantive (15 page minimum)
research paper on a topic of your choosing. In addition to writing this paper, you will give a
presentation to the class at the end of the semester. In the run-up to writing your paper, you will
also complete several smaller writing assignments that are designed to help you develop your
thesis and identify possible sources.

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The complete grade breakdown is as follows:

Discussion Requirements:
10%-Leading Class Discussion
25%-General Participation
5%-End of the Semester Presentation (Nov 30 or Dec 7)

Paper Requirements:
5%-Paper Pitch (1-2 pages, September 28)
10%-Paper Overview, Paper Outline, and Partial Bibliography (3-4 pages, October 19)
5%-Intro and first few pages (roughly 6 pages, for peer review, November 9)
40%-Final Paper (15 pages min., Dec 14)

Late Work Policy:
Late papers will be penalized one-third grade per day (example: a B paper that is one day late
becomes a B-).

Attendance:
This course is a seminar, which means that attendance is required and participation in discussion
is essential not only for your final grade but also for the class to function well as a whole.
However, wellness is crucial to a functioning mind, and students may select one wellness day
this semester where you would be excused for all reading assignments for the week. Any other
unexcused absences will lower your participation grade. If you are having issues with
attendance, please stay in communication with the instructor.

Collegiality: This course encourages everyone to speak their mind, especially those of you who
hold divergent views. But each of us must also respect one another at all times. Equally
important, we must be respectful of any views that we happen to disagree with. History as a field
of study sometimes touches on subjects that relate to our personal or political preferences. There
will be instances throughout the semester in which we explore complicated and difficult
questions, but they are not intended to offend or exclude anyone. We cannot shy away from
studying past events because they are politically sensitive. However, it is incumbent on each of
us to create, facilitate, and maintain a safe space for each and every student. If you have any
concerns about collegiality, please contact the instructor immediately.

PLAGIARISM:

It is your responsibility to read and understand the Boston University Academic Conduct Code
(available at www.bu.edu/academics/resources/academic-conduct-code) and to abide by its
provisions. Any suspected cases of plagiarism or unethical academic behavior will be referred to
the appropriate officials. Please note: remote learning and take-home assignments do not
excuse unethical behavior in the form of plagiarism.

“What is Plagiarism and Why is it Important?
In college courses, we are continually engaged with other people’s ideas: we read them in texts,
hear them in lecture, discuss them in class, and incorporate them into our own writing. As a

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result, it is very important that we give credit where it is due. Plagiarism is using others’ ideas
and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.

“How Can Students Avoid Plagiarism?”
To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use:
   • another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;
   • any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not common
       knowledge;
   • quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or
   • paraphrase of another person’s written or spoken words.

The above quotation is taken from a website of the Writing Tutorial Services of Indiana
University (available at www.bu.edu/academics/resources/academic-conduct-code).

Plagiarism Will Not Be Tolerated at Boston University
Since plagiarism is a form of theft (in this case, theft of ideas or words), it is not tolerated in this
university and is punished very severely by the Dean’s Office of the College of Arts and
Sciences. Please be certain that you understand exactly what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.

Required Text
      John Lewis Gaddis, The Strategies of Containment (also available online via Mugar)

If You Want a Background Text on the Cold War…
       Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War: A World History [Long but covers everything]
       Campbell Craig and Frederick Logevall, America’s Cold War [Short but just about the
       US]

Schedule of Readings and Assignments

Week 1 September 7-Introduction to the Course
      Blackboard Readings
            George Kennan, American Diplomacy (1951) (excerpt)
            W.W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth (1960) (excerpt)
            Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism (1965)
                    (excerpt)

Week 2 September 14-The Start of the Cold War?
      Readings:
            John Lewis Gaddis, The Strategies of Containment, Chapters 2 and 3
      Blackboard Readings
            The Source of Soviet Conduct by “X”, Foreign Affairs, July 1947Secretary of
            Commerce Henry Wallace’s Speech at Madison Square Garden,
                   September 12, 1946
            Soviet Ambassador to the US Nikolia Novikov Telegram to Moscow, September
                   27, 1946

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Week 3 September 21-China and Korea
      Readings:
             John Lewis Gaddis, The Strategies of Containment, Chapter 4
      Blackboard Readings
             John Thompson, “The Geopolitical Vision: The Myth of the Outmatched USA” in
                    Uncertain Empire
             Robeson Taj Frazier, The East is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical
                    Imagination, pages 1-36 (available online via Mugar)
             Melvin Leffler, The Specter of Communism, Chapter 4
             NSC-68 [Excerpts]
      In Class: Discuss Initial Paper Ideas

Week 4 September 28-Enemies, Foreign and Domestic
      Blackboard Readings
            Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes, Chapter 1, 5, and 7
            David Johnson, The Lavender Scare, Chapter 6
            Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound, Chapter 1
      Due: Paper Pitch

Week 5 October 5-Learning to Love and Fear the Atom
      Blackboard Readings
            Fred Kaplan, The Bomb, Chapters 1-3
            Paul Boyer, Bomb’s Early Light, Chapters 10 and 26
            Selections from The New Yorker
                    Fallout
                    An Inquiry into Enoughness

Week 6 October 12-INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ DAY (NO CLASS)

Week 7 October 19-TOPICS WEEK Cold War Civil Rights
      Blackboard Readings
            Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights, intro, chps. 1, 3, 5 (available online via
                   Mugar)
            Sean Malloy, Out of Oakland: Black Panther Party Internationalism during the
                   Cold War, intro, chps. 1-4 (available online via Mugar)
            Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beyond Vietnam” (1967)
            Huey P. Newton, “Letter to the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam”

       IN CLASS: Sign Up for Meetings with Professor Shorten
       Due: Paper Overview, Outline, Partial Bibliography

Week 8 October 26- The Vietnam War
      Readings
            Gaddis, Strategies of Containment, chapter 8-9
      Blackboard Readings

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             LBJ, Peace Without Conquest [All]
             Brian VanDeMark, Road to Disaster, Chapter 3-4

Week 9 November 2 TOPICS WEEK Domestic Militarization and Race
      Blackboard Readings:
            Kathleen Belew, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and
                    Paramilitary America, intro, chps. 1, 3, 5
            Stuart Schrader, Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency
                    Transformed American Policing, chps. 1, 3, 8, 9

Week 10 November 9 Détente/Peer Editing
      Readings
            John Lewis Gaddis, The Strategies of Containment, Chapter 10
      Blackboard
            Jussi Hanhimaki, The Rise and Fall of Détente, Chapters 2-4; 6-7
            Jeanne Kirkpatrick, “Dictatorships and Double Standards”, Commentary

      In Class: Bring Intro, Outline, Partial Bibliography

Week 11 November 16 The 1980s and the End of the Cold War/Meetings with Students
      Readings
            John Lewis Gaddis, The Strategies of Containment, Chapter 11
      Blackboard Readings
            James Graham Wilson, The Triumph of Improvisation, Chapters 3-5

      DUE-Intro, Paper Overview, Outline, Partial Bibliography

Week 12 November 23-Post-Cold War Globalization
      Blackboard Readings
            Andrew Bacevich, Age of Illusions: How America Squandered its Cold War
            Victory
            Francis Fukuyama, “Have We Reached the End of History?”
            Thomas Friedman, “Manifesto for the Fast World,” New York Times

Week 13 November 30-Student Presentations
      Readings: None (work on paper)

Week 14 December 7-Student Presentations
      Readings: None (work on paper)

Final Paper Due: Thursday, Dec 14 by 3:15pm