Mar 29, 2024  
2018-19 Graduate Catalog 
    
2018-19 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HS 588 Embattled World: From the Cold War to the War on Terror


This course examines the origins, course and demise of the Cold War.  We discuss the beginnings of the Cold War in Europe, its global expansion with the outbreak of the Korean War, the political paranoia of the 1950s (McCarthyism, etc.), the near outbreak of nuclear war over the Cuban Missiles Crisis, the global interventions of the US in the name of anti-communism (peaking with the Vietnam War), the superpowers’ attempts to normalize relations (detente), the resurgence of the Cold War under President Reagan, and the stunningly sudden and unexpected end of the Cold War with the demise of communism in Europe and the Soviet Union. We will then discuss the 9/11 attackers, the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; the War on Terror, and controversies over government deception, torture and civil liberties.