Introduction In his 1962 essay, "Canada's Long Term Strategic Situation," Dr. R. J. Sutherland took the unusually bold step of predicting the stable foundations of Canadian defense policy for the next four decades, even though he was writing at the height of Cold War tensions and amid revolution...

During the Cold War, the United States of America was determined to act as the superior nation in the world. They believed that every country was inferior to them in regards to military power, economic stability and moral beliefs. After the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, the Vice...

In the years following the end of the Cold War, many historians and social scientists have written accounts of what were some of the causes and effects of this period when the threat of war was almost always present. One such person was Melvyn Leffler and his work, The Specter of Communism, whic...

The Cold War was an extremely long war that last from 1945 until 1990. It did not clearly start until 1945, but strained relations remained between the United States and the Soviet Union since 1917. The ending of WWII and the struggle between Communism and Capitalism, led to this unique war. This...

The Monroe Doctrine The nineteenth century was an exciting and vibrant era that not only dramatically altered the physical face of our nation due to the rapid development of large cities and manufacturing facilities, but also helped modify and shape the values that have come to define our Amer...

Preface: How has the ninth edition been updated? In this updated edition, certain chapters have in added in light of the attacks of September 11, 2001. There was a chapter added on the foreign policies of Clinton and Yelstin-Putin also, an introduction to the beginnings of George W. Bush's...

Broadcast journalism has been used throughout recent history to shape popular opinion about how governments deal with international issues. If we look at major historical events related to American foreign policy such as the Vietnam war, the Persian Gulf War, the war in the former Yugoslavia, or th...

The victorious forces at the end of the war divided Germany into four zones. They also divided Berlin into four zones. Each of the victorious nations controlled one zone and one sector of Berlin. The Allies (Britain, America and France) ran their zones differently to the areas controlled by Russia...

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been a silent partner on the world stage for more than half of the century and the most successful political-military alliance in history. The United Nations and their peacekeeping efforts have had the spotlight for the past few years. However the driving...

A country's foreign policy is only partly the result of decisions made by its government: it is mainly imposed by circumstances. Introduction Australia, during the last fifty years, has been a country unsure of its place in the world. She has been bouncing from ally to ally, beg...

The 1960's proved to be a period of both social and political upheaval, whereby hippies, college students and the average American attempted to regain some control through their demonstrations. It was a time where the Government seized the rights of the people to maintain some stability in a period ...

With all of the changes going on within America, and the prosperity and production that came with the industrial revolution, the temptation to stray from the foreign policy that Washington set out a hundred years before was very great. The Americans now entered a time where they were in a position...

The Vietnam War – no other war in America's history has caused discord among our society. With over 50,000 dead, the memories of this war far away in the Asian continent redefined our culture in the years to come. Even the way war-making policies related to the Middle Eastern conflicts of...

As WWII ended, the world remained in total disarray. Actual battles on land, sea and air transposed into a new type of war and with new players. USSR ruler Joseph Stalin depicted the globe as a ball cut in half: imperialist and capitalist regimes on one side and the Communist and progressive wor...

Cuba: The Plight of a Nation and its Revolution While the isle of Cuba was initially discovered on October 27, 1492 during one of Columbus' first voyages, it wasn't actually claimed by Spain until the sixteenth century. However, it's tumultuous beginnings as a Spanish sugar colony provides an...

It has been a 'splendid little war' wrote John Hay to Theodore Roosevelt after the fall of Santiago. Little, the Spanish-American War was; it was over in barely four months. Splendid? Maybe for those at home, reading the headline about its lucky victories. But for those men who fo...

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE AFTER WORLD WAR II Even while World War II war still being fought, leaders of the Allied powers began thinking about how to reconstruct Europe after the war. Winston Churchill of Britain, Franklin Roosevelt of the United States, and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union a...

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg The outcome of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg trial for espionage in 1951 and their subsequent execution in 1953 was directly related to the political climate at that time. The government's evidence against the Rosenbergs was not overwhelming, but due to a...

In the wake of the temporary partitioning of Vietnam at the Geneva Conference of 1954, the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration was determined to do what it could to ensure that South Vietnam remained out of the hands of Communists. Eisenhower suggested in a 1954 speech that if the Communists wer...

Dominique Tappy 7F - 04 October 2000 The Origins of the Cold War The Cold War was a struggle between conflicting universal values. In the West, the concepts of a market economy and a multi-party democracy were cherished as necessity. In the East, single party statism and a command administrativ...

It began in the desert of New Mexico on July 16, 1945, with the first U.S. atomic test called Trinity. The device was comprised of 19,300 tons of TNT explosive. There was an intense light that brightened the distant mountains, a sudden wave of heat, and then a tremendous roar as the shock wave ec...