Crisis of Authority: Defeat in Indochina
The North Vietnamese launch a full-scale offensive against the South in March of 1975. Thieu appeals to Washington for assistance. As the North Vietnamese offensive gathers momentum in March and April of 1975, Ford breaks with Kissinger and announce...
Collapse of Peace, The: Truman Gets Tough with Soviets Leading to Potsdam
Roosevelt is dying and leaves his successor Truman uninformed and poorly prepared. Truman berates foreign minister Molotov for Russia's not keeping its bargain at Yalta, but in reality there is little the U.S. can do to compel the Soviet Union to li...
Crisis of Authority: Vietnamization and Escalation
Nixon begins his presidency by turning over more of the war to the Vietnamese so the U.S. can withdraw troops and undermine anti-war rhetoric. While there is a visible attempt to set up negotiations, Kissinger is engaged in private diplomacy. By the...
Crisis of Authority: Vietnam--Peace with Honor?
As the 1972 election approaches, the Nixon administration steps up its efforts to end the carnage in Vietnam. Kissinger continues negotiations. In order to pressure North Vietnam, Nixon unleashes B-52 bombs at Christmas, an act that is condemned int...
Crisis of Authority: Relations with Superpowers
President Nixon believes the world is safer if the strength of the super powers is balanced. Nixon and Kissinger seize on the economic vulnerability of the Soviet Union to establish trade relationships with the USSR, treating it as a "normal state i...
Crisis of Authority: Middle Eastern Conflict and Shuttle Diplomacy
The situation in the Middle East has become more volatile since the Six Day War in 1967. On Yom Kippur, October of 1973, Egypt and Syria coordinate an attack on Israel. As Henry Kissinger, now Secretary of State, attempts to orchestrate a settlement...
Collapse of Peace, The: Wartime Diplomacy
Allied leaders periodically hold strategy talks during World War II, but the relationship is more a marriage of convenience. Stalin agrees to enter the Pacific conflict once the war in Europe is over. In turn Roosevelt promises to launch the long-aw...
To End All Wars?: Search for a New World Order
German military leaders seek immediate cease fire rather than risk an invasion and destruction of their homeland. Lenin challenges the Allies to make their war aims clear instead of negotiating secret territorial exchanges. Wilson proposes Fourteen ...
To End All Wars?: Paris Peace Conference, The
President Woodrow Wilson's vision clashes with the hard realities of international politics at the Paris Peace Conference. He compromises territorial settlements in the Far East and Poland in order to save the idea of the League of Nations.
Imperial Ambition: Diplomacy of Imperialism, The
As a newcomer to the diplomacy of imperialism, the United States finds itself welcomed by some countries and rejected by others. It is the United State's proposed open-door policy toward China that particularly angers some European powers, Russia, a...