The European Colonial Empires, 1900-1945
Multiple Choice Questions
Exam Questions
Discussion Questions
Why was there a period of détente in Cold War relations from the early 1960s?
How did the Cuban Missile Crisis contribute to early détente?
How did the superpowers manage the risks of nuclear war? Compare and contrast actions before and after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Why did French interests diverge from those of the United States in the 1960s?
What did West Germany hope to accomplish through Ostpolitik?
Why did Sino-Soviet relations decline in the 1960s?
Explore how American, Soviet, and Chinese diplomats attempted to leverage the interests of one another in promoting their own goals.
What were the concrete results of détente in the 1960s and 1970s?
How did missteps by east and west contribute to the breakdown of détente?
When did détente end? Are there different events that could be seen as the symbolic end of détente?
Exam Questions
How did détente indicate the limits of superpower capacities?
Détente was more a result of tensions within the eastern and western blocs than a result of a fundamental change in perceptions of the other side. Discuss.
Détente could only have been a phase in a longer confrontation, as the root causes of the Cold War were never addressed. Discuss.
Weblinks
http://filestore.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pdfs/small/cab-128-43-cc-68-31-31.pdf – text of British Cabinet discussions of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1962-cuba-un1.asp – text of US Cuban Missile Crisis discussions 1962
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB38/document10.pdf – text of US planning document on nuclear policy shift 1963
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/cuban_missile_crisis.htm – text and audio of JFK statement during Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/ich_bin_ein_berliner.htm – text and audio of JFK speech on division of Berlin 1963
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/cuban-crisis-1/query/cuban+missile+crisis – newsreel footage of Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114514 – 1962 Soviet report on US plans to invade Cuba
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/115082 – text of November 1962 Chinese report on concerns about US imperialist actions in Cuba
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=94 – aerial photographs of Cuban missile sites in 1962
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/msc_cuba047.asp – text of US National Security Council deliberations during Cuban Missile Crisis October 1962
Bibliography
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Eastwood, Mark, “Anti-Nuclear Activism and Electoral Politics in the 1963 Test Ban Treaty”, Diplomatic History 44:1 (2020) 133-156.
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