World War History Lecture Notes PDF

Lecture 5 2024-10-01 7:12 PM The First World War (1914-18) Although the U.S. remained neutral for the first 3 years of the war, it was more closely aligned with Britain than Germany. In May 1915, U.S.-German relations deteriorated when a German submarine sank the passenger ship Lu...

Lecture 5 2024-10-01 7:12 PM The First World War (1914-18) Although the U.S. remained neutral for the first 3 years of the war, it was more closely aligned with Britain than Germany. In May 1915, U.S.-German relations deteriorated when a German submarine sank the passenger ship Lusitania, killing 128 Americans. In January 1917, the Germans introduced unrestricted submarine warfare, threatening to sink any enemy or neutral ship near Britain. The U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Germany on February 3, 1917. In February 1917, British intelligence provided the U.S. with the Zimmermann telegram, in which Germany proposed an alliance with Mexico. The Zimmermann telegram proposed that if Mexico formed an alliance with Germany and possibly Japan, Germany would help Mexico reclaim territory it lost during the Mexican- American War. In April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress declared war on Germany. But the U.S. Army consisted of only 130,000 soldiers, so a massive military build-up was needed. By the end of the war, 2 million American soldiers were in Europe. In January 1918, President Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points speech, describing an idealistic vision for the postwar world, including the creation of the League of Nations. This included openly-derived peace covenants, the removal of tariffs on trade, reductions in arms and military forces, the end of colonialism, and the creation of the League of Nations. The German general Paul von Hindenburg asked President Wilson for an armistice, hoping that a fair bargain would be struck between equals. The First World War ended on November 11, 1918 with over 116,000 U.S. troops killed (over 26 million killed in total). The Interwar Years The Versailles peace conference (1919) saw PM George Clemenceau (France) and PM David Lloyd George (UK) seek to punish and weaken Germany. The Treaty of Versailles created the Weimar Republic and assigned $33 billion in reparations to Germany and took their colonial possessions. The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in 1921 only after the League of Nations articles were dropped. ○ The German general Paul von Hindenburg asked President Wilson for an armistice, hoping that a fair bargain would be struck between equals. The U.S. intervened in Russia from 1918-20 to assist the anti-Bolshevik forces. ○ During the 1920s, the U.S. emphasized foreign trade and investment, and participated in arms control and disarmament efforts. The U.S. participated in the Washington Naval Conference (1921-22) to limit battleship construction for ten years. The Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) saw 62 nations renounce war as a policy instrument but lacked enforcement mechanisms. The U.S. occupied the Dominican Republic (1916-24), Nicaragua (1912-25, 1926-33), and Haiti (1915-34) to protect American interests. ○ After U.S withdrew, dictators took over International trade plummeted after the Great Depression began in 1929, and the U.S. implemented the Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930), triggering tariff wars. President Franklin D. Roosevelt slashed tariffs and recognized the Soviet Union in 1933. Roosevelt promoted the Good Neighbor Policy toward Latin America, resisting the use of force to protect U.S. business interests. But President Roosevelt supported the appeasement of Nazi Germany, which failed. After the Second World War began, the U.S. resorted to isolationism. Congress had passed a series of Neutrality Acts (1935-37) to keep the U.S. out of foreign conflicts. In the 1940s, the U.S. Navy enforced a 300-mile-wide neutrality zone along the coast of the Americas, excluding Canada. The Second World War (1939-45) The German invasion of France in June 1940 brought Britain and the U.S. closer together. In March 1941, Congress approved the Lend-Lease Program, allowing arms transfers to nations vital to U.S. security. Roosevelt introduced the first peacetime draft in American history in 1940. In August 1941, Roosevelt and British PM Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, outlining war objectives. In July 1941, Roosevelt halted trade with Japan after they sent forces to capture French Indochine, leading to Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Japanese replaced American oil imports by seizing the Dutch and British East Indies. The U.S. declared war on Japan the next day, and Germany declared war on the U.S. three days later. Throughout the Second World War, the U.S. pursued three objectives: 1. Maintain the Grand Alliance with Britain and the U.S.S.R.. 2. Win the war in Europe first. 3. Achieve complete victory with unconditional surrender. The Grand Alliance became strained as Britain and the U.S. repeatedly delayed their plans to invade Europe across the English Channel, upsetting the Soviets. The war in Europe ended with Germany’s unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945. Japan surrendered unconditionally on August 14, 1945 after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). Around 418,500 Americans were killed in the Second World War (over 70 million deaths in total). Lecture 6 2024-10-01 7:12 PM The 1940s American foreign policy became realist, interventionist, and multilateralist during World War II. During the war, the Allies held several conferences to plan the postwar order. At the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created. In 1945, 51 states signed the United Nations Charter in San Francisco. From 1945 till 1948, international military tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo tried the German and Japanese war criminals. In 1949, Britain, France, and the U.S. merged their occupation zones to create West Germany. Both West Germany and Japan were disarmed, and democratic institutions were imposed on them by the victors. But the Allies could not reach an agreement on the political future of Eastern Europe. Following confrontations with the U.S.S.R. over Iran and Turkey and the Greek communist insurgency, the Truman Doctrine (1947) was issued: the U.S. would support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or external actors. Beginning in 1948, the Marshall Plan provided European states with billions of dollars for reconstruction. President Truman adopted a containment policy toward the U.S.S.R. to force a change in Soviet policies or break up the Soviet Union. When the U.S.S.R. blockaded West Berlin (1948-49), the U.S. supplied West Berlin for one year through an airlift. In 1949, the communists won the Chinese civil war, and the U.S.S.R. developed nuclear weapons. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in 1949. The Korean War (1950-53) After North Korea invaded South Korea, a United Nations intervention was authorized. U.S. soldiers successfully drove out North Korean forces. But China intervened militarily when the U.S. invaded North Korea. More than 34,000 U.S. troops were killed. The 1950s The Dwight Eisenhower administration created several regional alliances to contain the U.S.S.R.. Summit meetings between Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev improved relations until an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the U.S.S.R. in 1960. Cuba The John F. Kennedy administration authorized the failed Bay of Pigs invasion (1961) by Cuban exiles. In 1962, the U.S. implemented an embargo on Cuba after the Fidel Castro regime failed to offer adequate compensation for American assets it nationalized. The Cuban Missile Crisis In October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted when American intelligence flights discovered Soviet intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy invoked the Monroe Doctrine, placed a naval blockade on Cuba, and warned the Soviets to withdraw their missiles. For 13 days, the world hovered on the brink of nuclear war. The crisis was resolved when the Soviets withdrew the missiles in exchange for the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey and an American pledge not to invade Cuba. Vietnam The U.S. was involved in Vietnam since the Truman administration, providing economic and military aid to the French. The Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations sent military advisers to South Vietnam. In the Gulf of Tonkin incident (1964), North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly attacked 2 U.S. destroyers. The Lyndon Johnson administration retaliated with a massive aerial bombing of North Vietnam and deployed ground forces. By 1968, there were 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam. The Richard Nixon administration’s strategy was to withdraw U.S. forces while training the South Vietnamese military for combat. The Nixon Doctrine recommended that the U.S. avoid future entanglements like Vietnam by limiting its support to economic and military aid rather than active combat participation. The U.S. withdrew its last combat troops from Vietnam in 1973. The war ended in April 1975 when Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces. The Vietnam War killed more than 58,000 U.S. soldiers. Détente (1970s) The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. participated in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). Arms control agreements included the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972). Nixon’s biggest foreign policy achievement was the normalization of relations with China (1972). Jimmy Carter Administration (1977-1981) Human rights became part of U.S. foreign policy. But only weak allies (Argentina, Guatemala) had foreign aid terminated, while strategically important states were not criticized (South Korea, Iran, China, U.S.S.R.). Carter’s biggest foreign policy accomplishment was the Camp David Accords (1978), establishing peace between Egypt and Israel. In 1979, Carter recognized the Communist Chinese government as the sole legitimate government of China. November 1979: The Iran Hostage Crisis began and lasted for 444 days. A U.S. military rescue attempt failed. December 1979: The U.S.S.R. invaded Afghanistan. Carter then changed foreign policy from détente back to containment. Ronald Reagan Administration (1981-1989) Trillions of dollars were spent on defense, putting the U.S. heavily in debt. The Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) attempted to derive a missile- shield. The Reagan administration used military force in Grenada, Iran, Lebanon, and Libya. Under the Reagan Doctrine, the U.S. supported right-wing authoritarian regimes and guerrillas to contain or reverse communism. The scandalous Iran-Contra affair became public in 1987. Whether Reagan knew it or not, the administration used the National Security Council to run a secret operation that sold weapons to Iran and diverted the funds to the Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua.  Week 3 (lec 5,6) 2024-10-01 7:07 PM U.S. Shift from Non-Interventionism to Imperialism at the Turn of the Century Spanish-American War (1898): The key turning point where the U.S. transitioned from non- interventionism to imperialism. This was America's first major foreign conflict, signaling a shift from George Washington’s policy of non-intervention. Acquisition of Territories: After the war, the U.S. took control of Spanish territories, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, marking the start of an imperialist phase. Imperialist Leaders: Figures like Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley, and Henry Cabot Lodge advocated for engaging in global politics to increase U.S. power and influence, breaking away from Washington’s tradition. "Large Policy": Promoted by imperialists, this policy encouraged America’s expansion into global affairs as a necessary step to becoming a world power. Arguments For and Against U.S. Involvement in the Spanish-American War and Imperial Actions For Involvement: ○ Expansionists' Vision: Leaders like McKinley, Roosevelt, and Lodge supported a "large policy" that saw expansion as a way to grow America’s influence and secure strategic and economic interests. ○ Civilizing Mission: Proponents argued that it was America's duty to "civilize" and uplift places like the Philippines, framing imperialism as a benevolent act. Against Involvement: ○ Betrayal of Founding Principles: Critics like William Graham Sumner and members of the Anti- Imperialist League believed that imperialism contradicted America’s founding values of freedom and non-intervention. ○ Concerns of Militarism and Debt: Opponents warned that imperialism would lead to militarism, increased national debt, and higher taxes, threatening the republic's democratic foundation. World War I and U.S. Emergence as a Global Power Woodrow Wilson's Leadership: Under President Woodrow Wilson, the U.S. took on the role of a global leader, promoting democracy and self-determination worldwide. Wilson saw it as America's responsibility to guide other nations toward freedom. America’s Role in World War I: U.S. participation in World War I marked a decisive moment in shifting from non-interventionism to a more active and interventionist foreign policy. The war solidified the U.S.'s position as a global power and leader on the world stage, ending its historical detachment from European conflicts. In-Depth Notes on "Dateline: Venezuela" and Related U.S. Foreign Policy Challenges 1. Context: U.S. Involvement in the Venezuela Crisis (2019) Trump's Ultimatum to Venezuelan Military (Feb 18, 2019): ○ Speaking in Miami, President Trump warned the Venezuelan military to abandon President Nicolás Maduro and support opposition leader Juan Guaidó within days, or face severe consequences. ○ Threats included no safe harbor or exit for those loyal to Maduro. ○ This marked a critical moment in the Venezuelan political crisis, linked to a broader humanitarian crisis. Humanitarian Aid as a Political Tool: ○ U.S. Aid to Venezuela: § The U.S. promised $20 million in aid, including food for thousands, medical supplies, wheelchairs, and hygiene kits. § Aid deliveries were blocked by Maduro’s government at the border, seen as part of a U.S.-orchestrated coup attempt. ○ Military Loyalty: Despite Trump's deadline, the Venezuelan military remained loyal to Maduro, and only limited aid entered Venezuela. 2. Venezuela's Historical Background Past Prosperity and Oil Economy: ○ Venezuela was one of the richest countries in the world due to its vast oil reserves. It had economic ties with the U.S. and a high GDP per capita. ○ By 2019, Venezuela faced an economic collapse: § Oil production: Dropped to the lowest levels in 30 years. § Hyperinflation: Reached one million percent per year. § Health and Hunger Crises: Half the population experienced weight loss due to hunger; a malaria epidemic struck due to a healthcare system collapse. 3. Maduro and Chavez’s Legacy Hugo Chavez’s Impact (1998–2013): ○ A socialist leader inspired by the Cuban revolution, Chavez attempted a failed coup in 1992 but was elected president in 1998. ○ During his presidency, political relations with the U.S. deteriorated despite strong economic ties. Chavez strongly opposed U.S. policies, especially the Iraq War, and claimed U.S. efforts to destabilize Venezuela. ○ Maduro’s Rise: After Chavez’s death in 2013, Maduro was elected in a contested race and re-elected in 2019 amidst challenges from Guaidó. International Support: ○ For Maduro: Russia and China backed Maduro, and Mexico remained neutral. ○ For Guaidó: Trump and around 50 countries recognized Juan Guaidó as the interim president. 4. U.S.-Venezuela Relations Under Trump Tensions and Sanctions: ○ Trump saw Venezuela as a failed socialist state and began applying pressure through economic sanctions, especially targeting the oil sector. ○ Military intervention was suggested as a possibility, although it was not executed. Sanctions and Aid Post-Border Crisis: ○ After failed attempts to remove Maduro through a border aid crisis, the Trump administration doubled down on economic sanctions, including sanctions on Venezuelan officials and financial institutions tied to Russia. ○ Aid to Guaidó’s opposition increased, signaling U.S. efforts to support regime change via economic means rather than direct military involvement. 5. Broader U.S. Foreign Policy Lessons Historical Misjudgments: ○ The Trump administration misread the likelihood of a military defection from Maduro, failing to fully grasp the strength of Maduro’s loyalist factions and the deep ties within the Venezuelan military. ○ Overconfidence: No clear plans were laid for how aid would reach Venezuelans or for post-Maduro recovery, showing a failure to anticipate outcomes. 6. U.S. and Historical Precedents Chavez and U.S. Relations: ○ Chavez had deep distrust toward U.S. intentions, especially after the 2002 coup attempt against him, which he believed was U.S.-backed. ○ Obama’s Approach: Relations did not improve under Obama, who enacted sanctions in response to human rights violations but did not sever oil trade ties. 7. Lessons for Policymakers: Policy Continuity and Change: ○ Policy makers often fail to learn from past events due to a lack of consideration for historical context, a focus on short-term goals, and over-reliance on outdated assumptions. ○ Examples: § Comparisons to Vietnam, Iraq, and Cold War tensions illustrate how U.S. foreign policy often repeats similar mistakes by misinterpreting local dynamics or relying too heavily on military might without addressing deeper social and political fractures. 8. U.S.-Cuban Relations as a Parallel: Long History of U.S. Intervention: ○ U.S. involvement in Cuba (similar to Venezuela) shows a pattern of failed attempts at regime change and misunderstanding of local political contexts. ○ Bay of Pigs (1961): A failed U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba serves as a lesson in the dangers of underestimating nationalist sentiment and the limits of military intervention for regime change. 9. Concluding Analysis Foreign Policy Missteps: ○ Trump’s handling of Venezuela exemplifies how policymakers sometimes misjudge both the loyalty of military forces and the effectiveness of sanctions or aid as tools for regime change. ○ Learning from History: Failure to understand the broader historical, social, and political contexts often leads to miscalculations in policy decisions, as seen in the U.S.’s handling of Venezuela in 2019. Key Takeaways: Venezuela’s Crisis: A complex humanitarian, economic, and political collapse, exacerbated by U.S. foreign policy pressures and international divides. U.S. Miscalculations: Misreading local dynamics, overconfidence in economic and military tools, and failure to plan for long-term recovery. Historical Analogies: Similar patterns of U.S. foreign policy missteps can be seen in historical cases like Vietnam, Iraq, and U.S.-Cuba relations. CRITICAL THINKING ANSWERS AND QUESTIONS 1. Most Important Lesson from U.S. Experience in Vietnam: Misjudging Local Political Dynamics: U.S. policymakers failed to understand the local context, particularly the nationalist motivations behind Ho Chi Minh's movement. ○ Vietnam was viewed through a Cold War lens, primarily as a fight against communism, which obscured the nationalist and anti-colonial dimensions of the conflict. ○ The U.S. did not fully appreciate that Vietnam was a civil war for independence rather than purely an ideological struggle between capitalism and communism. Lesson: Successful foreign intervention requires a deep understanding of the local political, cultural, and historical context rather than imposing broad ideological frameworks (e.g., the Cold War containment strategy). ○ Why Important: Misreading the nature of a conflict can lead to inappropriate strategies, such as the escalation of military intervention, which worsened the situation instead of resolving it. 2. Lessons from Iraq for Involvement in Afghanistan: Political and Military Disconnect: In Iraq, the U.S. faced difficulties in transitioning from military victory to political stability (Phase IV operations). ○ Lesson for Afghanistan: The military success in Afghanistan would need to be followed by a carefully planned political strategy that fosters local governance, peace, and stability. Local Dynamics and Sectarian Divides: Iraq's internal sectarian conflicts (Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish tensions) complicated the post-war reconstruction and peace efforts. ○ Lesson for Afghanistan: Similar tribal and ethnic divisions in Afghanistan (Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras) necessitate a nuanced understanding to avoid fueling further conflict. Counterinsurgency (COIN) Strategy: Iraq taught that COIN operations must focus on political legitimacy and not just military dominance. ○ Lesson for Afghanistan: Counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan should focus on winning hearts and minds, not just defeating insurgents militarily. 3. Dangers of Looking to the Past for Lessons on Current Foreign Policy: Oversimplification of Historical Analogies: ○ Past events are often oversimplified, leading policymakers to misapply historical lessons to current situations without considering key differences (e.g., comparing Vietnam to Iraq or Afghanistan). ○ Danger: Each conflict has unique political, cultural, and historical contexts; reliance on outdated analogies may lead to incorrect strategies. Tunnel Vision and Cognitive Bias: ○ Policymakers may focus on dramatic, highly visible past events (like Vietnam or Iraq) and overlook important non-events or subtler lessons (e.g., successful diplomatic efforts). ○ Danger: This leads to a form of "tunnel vision," where past failures or successes are applied rigidly, without adapting to the new realities of the present. Overgeneralization: ○ Lessons from the past can be overgeneralized, leading to strategies that don't fit the current situation (e.g., assuming all insurgencies are alike or that military intervention is always the solution). ○ Danger: Policies developed under different geopolitical, social, or technological conditions may not apply to current conflicts, leading to failure.