The University of Texas at Austin UGS 302 Fall 2016 MAI 220D M W 3:30-5:00 Professor Robert Hutchings LBJ School, SRH 3.230 rhutchings@austin.utexas.edu Office Hours: W 1:00-2:30 Undergraduate Assistant: The Cold War and Its Legacy The Cold War influences our lives in more ways than we may realize. The institutions that govern our world today, from domestic national security structures to international organizations like the UN, NATO and even the international financial institutions, were largely shaped by the Cold War. Our ways of understanding international relations were likewise shaped by the omnipresence of military threats, real or imagined, to our security and well- being, which may help explain the over- militarized U.S. response to contemporary foreign policy challenges. Undergraduates today experienced none of this history, and studied it through texts that often gave only cursory coverage to the creation, evolution, and eventual collapse of the Soviet empire. The instructor of this seminar, by contrast, spent a diplomatic career focusing on East- West affairs and culminating as Director for European Affairs at the White House during the East European revolutions of 1989, the unification of Germany, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Together in this seminar, we will look back on this period with the benefit of hindsight and with access to new archival material that allows us to understand what was happening behind the scenes in Washington, Moscow and other capitals. The assignments will come at or topic from different angles that will help us recapture the spirit of the times via novels set in the Cold War, contemporaneous journalistic accounts of key events in Cold War history, and audio and video material now available, including the 24- part CNN television documentary series on the Cold War. We hope to do so with a degree of perspective as well, so that we can transcend the Cold War s legacy and prepare ourselves for the new and very different challenges that lie ahead. Assignments Students will write three short papers and one longer research paper. Grades will be weighted roughly as follows: 35% for the four short papers, 35% for the research paper, and 30% for contributions to class discussions. There will be no exams. 1
Short Papers (35%) 1) How, when, and most importantly, why did the Cold War begin? Might it have been averted? Address these questions in a very short essay of between 500 and 1,000 words. The essay is due September 21. (10%) 2) In a short paper of no more than 1,000 words, give an account of a Cold War event or episode from the list at the Annex to this syllabus. Your account is to be based entirely on contemporaneous material newspapers and journals of the time, radio and television broadcasts (including at least one of the installments of the CNN series), speeches and other official statements, declassified official documents from the period, and memoir literature. Your task is not to analyze the event of episode itself but rather to assess the nature of the coverage at the time, and what that reveals about the Cold War. A first draft is due October 3; a final draft, incorporating the comments to your initial draft, is due October 17. (15%) 3) In a short essay of no more than 1,000 words, assess the Cold War experience of one country other than the United States or the Soviet Union. You may focus primarily on a single episode such as the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, so long as you use this to explicate the broader issue of your country s experience in the Cold War. The essay is due November 14. (10%) Research Paper (35%) Students will write a research paper of no more than 3,000 words on an aspect of the Cold War other than the topics of your short papers. Your paper must combine traditional secondary sources with some of the primary source material especially journalistic accounts, memoir literature, and declassified official documents described above for the second short paper assignment. A brief, 2- page concept paper previewing the topic and the approach you plan to take, along with a preliminary bibliography, is due October 31. The paper itself is due December 7. Oral Contributions (30%) As we will devote at least half of each session to discussion, the quality of each student s participation will be an important component of the final grade. Students are expected to have read and studied all the assigned readings, with the exception of the readings from Hanhimaki and Westad s Cold War reader, which students should see as a supplementary resource to be scanned and read selectively. Required Books Robert J. McMahon, The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World (New York and London: Penguin Classics, 2007; first published in 1919) Melvyn P. Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and The Cold War (New York: Hill and Wang, 2007) Jussi M. Hanhimaki and Odd Arne Westad, eds., The Cold War: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003 2
Useful Links: CNN Cold War Series: http://www.cnn.com/specials/coldwar/ Cold War International History Project: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/program/cold- war- international- history- project National Security Archive: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ Parallel History Project: http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nsaebb/nsaebb31/press.html Vanderbilt University Television News Archives: http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/ The Harvard Project on Cold War Studies: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/documents.htm Cold War Studies Project (LSE): http://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/projects/cwsp/cwsp.aspx Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Reports: http://www.readex.com/content/foreign- broadcast- information- service- fbis- daily- reports- 1941-1996 Academic Integrity I expect students to understand and observe the University s standards regarding Academic Honesty. I assume that you are honest; it would be disrespectful for me to suggest otherwise. Yet students sometimes get into trouble through insufficient understanding of the standards governing academic integrity, or under time pressure they may make careless choices they would not normally make. You owe it to yourself, your fellow students, and the institution to familiarize yourself with these standards and observe them. You can find a discussion of academic integrity, including definitions of plagiarism and unauthorized collaboration, as well as information on citations, note taking, and paraphrasing, at the Office of the Dean of Students web page: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/acint_student.php. August 24: Introduction to the Course Course Outline Robert McMahon, The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction, Chapters 1-3 (pages 1-55) August 29: Overview of the Cold War McMahon, The Cold War, Chapters 4-6 (pages 56-121) August 31: Exploring Cold War History Hanhimaki and Westad, eds., The Cold War, Introduction (ix- xvii) Klaus Larres and Anne Lane, eds., The Cold War: The Essential Readings (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001), pages 1-16 and 231-38 Michael J. Hogan, ed., The End of the Cold War (Cambridge, 1992), pages 1-19 and 103-26 (September 5: Labor Day No Class) 3
September 7: Revolutionary Currents Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1972; first published, 1940), Chapters 8 and 9 (pages 165-190) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848), Parts I and II (14 pages). Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, The State and Revolution, Chapter 5 (16 pages). John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World, Introduction, Preface, Chapter 1 (through page 41) Note: Reed s classic, first- hand account of the Bolshevik Revolution, still in print after all these years, was written by an idealistic young American journalist who became intoxicated by the Communist experiment (and died before he had to witness where the revolution would lead). The names and places are confusing, especially at the beginning, but do not be deterred! You are not expected to remember the details. After the first 40 pages or so, it becomes a much easier read. (In that respect, it is like one of those English novels in which you are introduced to so many earls and countesses that you can hardly keep track.) Read it quickly, as you would a thriller, and focus not on the details but on some big questions. What does a revolution feel like? Why did the Tsarist regime collapse? Why did the Bolsheviks prevail, when there were so many other, less violent alternatives in the middle and on the more moderate Left? September 12: The Bolshevik Revolution Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World, Chapters 2-5 (pages 42-144) September 14: The Bolshevik Revolution, cont. Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World, Chapters 6-12 (pages 145-271) September 19: Between the Wars George Kennan, Russia and the West Under Lenin and Stalin (New York and Toronto: Mentor Book, 1960), Chapters 13, 17 and 25 (pages 170-87, 228-45, and 361-72) September 21: Origins of the Cold War: Standard and Revisionist Narratives Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind, Introduction (pages 3-10) Hanhimaki and Westad, Chapters 1 and 2 Larres and Lane, pages 17-40 Ø First paper due September 26: Origins of the Cold War: Key Documents George F. Kennan, The Sources of Soviet Conduct, Foreign Affairs [The X Article] Walter Lippmann s critique of the X article in Foreign Affairs (1947): The Novikov Telegram, in Kenneth Jensen, ed., Origins of the Cold War (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 1991), pages 3-16. Ernest R. May, American Cold War Strategy: Interpreting NSC- 68 (St. Martins, 1993), pages 1-19 4
September 28: The Cold War in Europe - Origins Leffler, Chapter 1 (pages 11-83) Hanhimaki and Westad, Chapter 3 October 3: The Cold War in Europe Institutionalizing the Cold War Hanhimaki and Westad, Chapter 4 Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation (New York: Norton, 1969), pages 254-90 and 371-81 George Kennan, Memoirs 1925-1950 (New York: Bantam Books), pages 419-37 and 474-96 [Pages 342-72, on the Marshall Plan, are recommended but not required.] Ø First draft of second paper due October 5: A Missed Chance for Peace? Leffler, Chapter 2 (pages 84-150) October 10: The Cold War in Asia - Origins Hanhimaki and Westad, Chapter 5 Chen Jian, Mao s China and the Cold War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), Chapters 1 and 2 (pages 17-48) October 12: The Cold War in Asia The Sino- Soviet Split Hanhimaki and Westad, Chapter 6 Chen Jian, Mao s China and the Cold War, Chapter 3 (pages 49-84) Vladimir Zubok and Vladimir Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin s Cold War (Harvard University Press, 1996), Chapter 7 (pages 210-35) October 17: The Nuclear Arms Race Leffler, Chapter 3 (pages 151-233) Hanhimaki and Westad, Chapter 9 Ø Final draft of second paper due October 19: The Nuclear Arms Race: The Cuban Missile Crisis Ernest May and Philip Zelikow, The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: W.W. Norton, 2002), pages 1-76, 189-203, 472-518, and 630-37 Note: The number of pages is higher than our norm, but these transcripts make for a quick read. October 24: Pizza and a movie (time and location TBD): Dr. Strangelove 5
October 26: The Culture of the Cold War Hanhimaki and Westad, Chapter 13 Andrew Hammond, ed., Cold War Literature (New York: Routledge, 2005), Introduction and Chapter 4 (pages 1-14 and 63-77) Stephen J. Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), pages 205-18 and 231-41 Readings on McCarthyism TBD October 31: The Culture of the Cold War literary excerpts Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon (New York: Modern Library, 1941), pages 3-19, 57-100, 167-71, and 243-67. (Students are encouraged to read Koestler s classic in its entirety.) Milan Kundera, The Joke (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), Author s Preface, vii- xii Ludvík Vaculík, A Cup of Coffee with My Interrogator (London: Reader s International, 1986), pages 26-35 Ø Concept paper (two pages) for research paper due November 2: The Global Cold War Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War (Cambridge, 2007), Chapter 8 and Conclusion (pages 288-330 and 396-400) Hanhimaki and Westad, Chapter 12 November 7: The Thaw: Détente and Ostpolitik Hanhimaki and Westad, Chapters 15 and 16 Jeremi Suri, From Isolation to Engagement: American Diplomacy and the Opening to China, 1969-72, in Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy, ed. Robert Hutchings and Jeremi Suri (Oxford University Press, 2015), Chapter 5 (pp. 101-20) Helga Haftendorn, ed., The Strategic Triangle: France, Germany, and the United States in the Shaping of the New Europe (Washington and Baltimore: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and the Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), Chapters 9 and 10 (pages 209-70) November 9: The Erosion of Détente Leffler, Chapter 4 (pages 234-337) Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless, in Václav Havel, Open Letters: Selected Writings, 1965-1990 (New York: Knopf, 1993), pages 127-71 (of a very long essay) November 14: The Failing Empire Ø Leffler, Chapter 5 (pages 338-402) 6
Ø Robert Hutchings, Gorbachev and Eastern Europe (preface to the paperback edition), Robert L. Hutchings, Soviet- East European Relations: Consolidation and Conflict (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), xv- xxvii Ø Third paper due November 16: End of the Cold War Leffler, Chapter 5, cont. (pages 403-450) Robert Hutchings, American Diplomacy and the End of the Cold War: An Insider s Account of U.S. Policy in Europe, 1989-92 (Washington and Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), Introduction and Chapter 2 (pages 48-89) Robert Hutchings, American Diplomacy and the End of the Cold War in Europe, in Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy, ed. Robert Hutchings and Jeremi Suri (Oxford University Press, 2015), Chapter 7 (pages 148-72) November 21: Toward a Post- Cold War Order Hanhimaki and Westad, Chapter 18 (pp. 590-628) Hutchings, American Diplomacy, Chapter 4 (excerpts), Chapter 5 (excerpts), and Chapter 8 (pages 143-64, 174-90, and 301-38) (November 23: Thanksgiving No Class) November 28: Cold War Legacies Leffler, Conclusion (pages 451-66) G. John Ikenberry, After Victory (Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 215-18 and 246-56 Hanhimaki and Westad, Chapters 14 and 19 Hogan, ed., End of the Cold War, pp. 207-28 Robert Hutchings, X + 9/11, Foreign Policy, July/August 2004 December 5: A New Cold War? Readings TBD Ø December 7: Final paper due 7
Annex: Selected Cold War Events, 1948-91 Prague coup, February 1948 Yugoslavia splits from the Soviet camp, June 1948 Berlin Blockade, July 1948- May 1949 Communist victory in China, February 1949 Creation of NATO, April 1949 Soviet atomic bomb test, September 1949 Schuman Declaration on a united Europe, May 1950 Start of Korean War, June 1950 Signing of ANZUS (Australia- N.Z.- U.S.) Treaty, September 1951 Creation of SEATO (SE Asian Treaty Organization), September 1954 Creation of the Warsaw Pact, May 1955 Hungarian Revolution, October 1956 Suez crisis, October 1956 Launching of Sputnik, October 1957 Cuban revolution, January 1959 Shooting down of U.S. U- 2 spy plane, May 1960 Sino- Soviet split breaks into open, June 1960 CIA- backed Bay of Pigs invasion, April 1961 Construction of the Berlin Wall, August 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962 U.S. Gulf of Tonkin resolution (Vietnam), August 1964 Chinese atomic bomb test, October 1964 6- day war between Egypt and Israel, June 1967 Soviet- led invasion of Czechoslovakia, August 1968 Soviet- Chinese border clashes, March 1969 Nuclear non- proliferation treaty signed, March 1970 Four Power agreement on Berlin, September 1971 Nixon visit to China, February 1972 SALT I agreement limiting strategic arms, May 1972 Chilean coup d'etat deposing Salvador Allende, September 1973 Yom Kippur war, October 1973 Iranian revolution, January 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, December 1979 Creation of Solidarity trade union in Poland, August 1980 Declaration of martial law in Poland, December 1981 Shoot- down of Korean Air Flight 007 by Soviet jets, September 1983 Reykjavik Summit, October 1986 Gorbachev announces glasnost and perestroika reforms, June 1987 Tiananmen Square massacre, May 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall, November 1989 Romanian Revolution, December 1989 Unification of Germany, October 1990 Dissolution of the USSR, December 1991 8