The Late Cold War

Essential Questions

What events led to Richard Nixon's resignation as President in 1974?
What accounted for the changes in American attitudes during the 1970s?
What were the goals of American foreign policy during the Ford and Carter years, and how successful were Ford's and Carter's policies?
What spurred the rise of conservatism in the late 1970s and early 1980s?
What were the major characteristics of the conservative Reagan Revolution?
What were Reagan's foreign policies, and how did they contribute to the fall of communism in Europe?

Learning Objectives

You will learn:

How and why the Watergate burglary led to a cover up by President Richard Nixon and his staff, a Congressional investigation, and the first resignation of a United States president
How the foreign policy initiative of “détente” guided the international affairs of the Nixon administration during the Cold War
How an increase in oil prices and government spending during the Vietnam War led to “stagflation” and a national economic recession during the 1970s
How and why arguments over energy use and resources impacted domestic politics and policy
How the ‘Conservative/Reagan Revolution’ of the 1980’s and beyond addressed issues of social and racial injustice and how it impacted American political and economic systems
How and to what extent the policy of supply-side economics or “Reaganomics” worked and how it impacted the American economy at the end of the 20th Century
How and to what extent United States foreign policy has been guided by international human rights and the advancement of democracy since World War I
How Cold War polices of compromise and confrontation with the Soviet Union guided United States presidential administrations from John F. Kennedy to George H.W. Bush
How and to what extent the Reagan administration’s escalation of defense spending and use of anti-communist rhetoric contributed to the end of the Cold War
How and why the domestic ‘War on Drugs’ led to United States intervention in Columbia, Panama, and other Latin American nations in the late 20th century
How, why and to what extent the United States recognition and support of Israel since 1948 has influenced American foreign policy and relationships in the Middle East