What is History?

1. What is History? Democratic Vista TAH project December 2009

2. History is what we do to the past in the present. • History is the stories we tell about the past. • History is the imaginative recreation of the past in the present. • History is argument, argument comes from evidence, evidence comes from the “text.”

3. Today . . . • Where history of American foreign relations is moving • Some thoughts on teaching the Cold War • Vietnam Wars • End of the Cold War • US and the Middle East • History and memory of America’s interactions with the world

4. Diplomatic History v. History of American Foreign Relations • “diplomatic” = state to state • “International History” is too broad • American Foreign Relations: just right • Governments, peoples, NGO’s, economies, cultures, international groups

5. Three strands of the Cold War • Ideological • Economic • Strategic • Cold War Lenses

6. Just as important . . . • The Cold War was fought at home • Leffler’s book • And domestic politics influenced how it was fought abroad

7. Our Five Questions 1. Why did the Cold War start? - Could it have been prevented? Can we assign “blame” for the Cold War? 2. Why did it last so long? - Were the times when leaders could have lessened tensions or ended it earlier? 3. Why did it influence so many aspects of America’s culture and politics? - What made the Cold War resonate with Americans? 4. Why did it end when and how it did? - How do we explain the end of the Cold War? 5. What lessons and meanings can and should we take from the Cold War? - Is it possible to learn and apply these lessons to today’s world?

8. Sen. Joseph McCarthy Republican from Wisconsin Manifestation of public feeling Big Lie Blacklists Army-McCarthy Hearings (1954) McCarthyism

9. Influence of Cold War on Culture

10. Movies

11. Cold War resources • Movie • Cartoon • Duck and Cover • Music

12. Shaping the Cold War narrative • Civil Rights reform was in part a product of the Cold War • Problems created by the lack of rights • Perception of problems what motivated policymakers • NARRATIVE: democracy made the achievement of justice possible

13. October 1957 NASA (1958) Crisis of confidence Sputnik

14. Berlin NATO & Warsaw Pact China Korea Key Areas of Early Conflict

15. National Security Act of 1947 Atomic Weapons NSC 68 The importance of 1949 Mobilization for the Postwar World

16. “Fall” of China • China complicating US policy in Asia • Consequences of Chinese Civil War • No recognition • Fueled domestic hard-liners • Renewed interest in Asia

17. The Korean War, 1950-1953 MacArthur (far right) visits the front in the Korean War.

18. 2 Questions • What were the Soviet and Chinese roles in the decision to invade? • Why did the US defend Korea?

19. Cold War Policy and Nationalism • Independence in a bi-polar world • Iran • Guatemala • Cuba

20. The Vietnam War

22. 2-minute writing • What do you know about the Vietnam War and how did you “learn” it? • (gets to issues of history v. memory)

23. Vietnam Historiography • Extraordinary passions and influence of war • Several key issues: • Origins: necessary or a terrible mistake? • Outcome: why unable to preserve South Vietnam? Unwinnable? • Meaning and lessons: what are they?

24. Two main camps • Critical - Vietnam a bad war - the “Standard Interpretation” • Legitimate endeavor that could have been won

25. The “Standard Interpretation” • Critics dominated the early literature • Reversal of other war histories • Journalists and former officials start • The Bitter Heritage 1967 - Arthur Schlesinger Jr. - “quagmire” • “Quagmire” challenged by Pentagon Papers revelations • Presidents knew their actions might fail

26. Revisionist Challenge • (Argue vehemently against anyone who says “trying to rewrite history”) • Started to appear at end of 1970s • Part of growing conservative rise and fueled by postwar conditions in Vietnam

27. Revisionists seek to justify war on either or both of these grounds: • Vietnamese Communists a part of a larger threat of Communism that was a real threat to U.S. • Moral reasons: to save the South from the ravages of Communism

28. Revisionists also seek to argue that war was winnable • U.S. Grant Sharp Strategy for Defeat: Vietnam in Retrospect 1978 • But, two opposing views of how it could have been won • More conventional • More counter-insurgency • (each position claims the actual war was fought in the opposite manner)

29. Recent Scholarship • Standard interpretation still holds for most historians • What is being written now: • Broader in scope: Congress, other nations’ views • Archives from China and former USSR • Vietnamese side

30. LBJ’s Doubts Gulf of Tonkin Resolution August 1964 Pleiku February 1965 U.S. Combat Troops 1965 LBJ and the War Phone Conversation with Sen. Russell, May 1964

31. LBJ’s View U.S. Strategy Attrition Pacification Relocation Technology Strategies and Attitudes

32. North Vietnam and Vietcong Strategy Guerilla warfare Ho Chi Minh Trail Social Revolution Nationalism Survival Strategies and Attitudes

33. End of Cold War: Reagan as ultimate hero • Argument of John Lewis Gaddis • Strong rhetoric, but practical • R. saw opportunity and seized it • R. pursued policy of strength

34. Flaws in Gaddis argument • Fails to see full picture of 1980s U.S., USSR, Eastern Europe, and World • Fails to see power of containment over the long haul

35. 1980s • US • USSR • Gorbachev • Eastern Europe • World

36. U.S. in the Middle Eastsince 1945

37. War and Cold War bring the U.S. to the Middle East • Overall Goal: • Stability that allows U.S. access to oil

38. Suggested Gameplan: • Stability, Nationalism, Revolution • Arab-Israeli Conflict & U.S. • The Persian Gulf since 1980

39. HISTORY: History is what we do to the past in the present History is argument, arguments come from evidence, evidence comes from the “text” MEMORY: Individual v. Collective memory (“body of beliefs about the past”) Collective memory provides “lessons” History and Memory