POLI/INTL 363: US Foreign Policy: Research Paper:

When we think of foreign policy we usually think of the President of the US. We think of the president on television making a speech announcing a major new initiative or bold change in policy (or apologizing for some major screw up). But the president never makes these decisions alone. In fact, often the real story of foreign policy making is the interaction between the president and congress. Your research assignment will be to examine how the president and congress worked together or failed to work together during the development of a specific foreign policy decision (or attempt at making a decision). Importantly, this is not an analysis of whether the decision was a good one or not. This is an examination of how the decision was made. Here’s a detailed look at what I mean.

First, you need to choose a decision. You can probably research issues going back to Wilson if you like. In the other direction, we are in the early days of the Obama years, so there is a lot of information on the current administration, but most of it is not very good. However, we are reading lots of research on GW Bush, so it is available as a place to look for topics. However, you will not be allowed to choose the decision making for the Iraq intervention since we are reading about it. When I say choose a decision, I’m looking for one specific issue in one single administration. To start picking a topic, think about a president who interests you, then choose some policy (an issue, a foreign nation) and focus on that. The class readings will give a general overview of each president’s policies so you may get an idea from that. See below for a list of possible ideas.

You’re working from a premise: The most basic design of our constitution means that we have checks and balances. The president and congress are partners and rivals at the same time. They share power and compete for it. The notion of “shared powers in separate institutions” is important here. So you are examining what has been called an “invitation to struggle.” Both the president and congress want control over policy. How did they work this battle out in the specific policy you chose? Let’s work with one example from the GW Bush administration (I’ll call him Bush 43 to distinguish George Walker Bush, the 43^rd President of the US, from his father George Herbert Walker Bush (Bush 41), the 41^st President of the US). We’ll consider the creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS).

Your paper could be divided up into several sections that answer several questions.

1. Who initiated the decision making process? Something happened in the world. Someone in the US decided it was important enough for the US to do something about it. Was this the president or congress? How did the president or congress make it known that this was important? Was the issue placed on the agenda publicly? Or was it done behind the scenes - quiet discussions outside of the headlines? Was the executive branch alone involved? Was congress alone involved? When did both branches become involved? And of course, answer the “why” question. Why did this happen in the way it happened? You may find several answers to the why question. In the case of the DHS, congress made the first moves. It had created the US Commission on National Security in the late 1990s. This Commission, known as the Hart-Rudman Commission (chaired by former senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman), had recommended a National Homeland Security Agency because, in their view, the US was going to be struck by terrorists on US soil. No one listened; no one cared. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US, Congress demanded that a new Dept. be created. Why did Congress want a new cabinet department? Bush had created White House-based institutions to deal with homeland security right after 9/11 (the Homeland Security Council (HSC), the Office of Homeland Security (OHS)) that were not under congressional jurisdiction entirely). Congress felt it was being shut out of the loop on the issue – no oversight, no control of the budget; no power to influence policy.

2. What was the response of the other institution to the policy? If the President makes the first move, how did congress respond? If congress made the first move, how did the president respond? In the case of the DHS, the president said “No, never, ever, ever. I will not create a cabinet department.” The president wanted control over homeland security policy and felt that the HSC and OHS, both under his direction, would give him that control. He argued that congress had input into the HSC because it has statutory authority over all the cabinet departments represented at the HSC. The HSC is a cabinet-level committee where the secretaries of various departments meet with the president to decide homeland security policy. Congress has oversight, budgetary control, and appointment power over all of those departments and agencies. But congress had no oversight of the OHS and is given information on the deliberations of the HSC only if the president wants to give that information to congress. This meant that the congressional constitutional role of oversight, investigations, budgetary approval, policy approval, and approval of officers was watered down (HSC) or non-existent (OHS). Congress was against that; the president was happy about it.

3. How did the initiating institution respond? Congress held hearings; Congress then sponsored bills; Senator Joe Lieberman, a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination of 2004 championed a bill to create a DHS and criticized Bush for not being serious about homeland security. Congress used its subpoena powers to threaten the White House when the president’s Homeland Security Adviser refused to testify before congress.

4. How was it resolved? The president created a small secret White House task force in April of 2002, which developed a plan for a new cabinet department and kept this info secret from everyone. Then in June of 2002, the president announced his plan to create a DHS. There was fighting over the bill and some of the particulars. The president played hardball here. His bill for a DHS stripped DHS employees of most of their civil service protections – the labor rights given to all federal employees. The president argued that homeland security was too important to allow labor issues to prevent senior officials from dismissing, transferring, or disciplining DHS staff. This placed the Democrats, traditional allies of labor in a rough position. They could support the president’s bill and be accused of betrayal by labor organizations or they could reject the president’s bill and be accused of not being serious enough about homeland security (Several democrats who had been co-sponsors of the original legislation voted against the president’s bill and were accused of treason in their next election, and lost!). But eventually the DHS was created when congress passed the legislation and the president signed the bill into law.

5. Important: Notice several important things I did in the summary.

a. I mentioned the party competition. Is this president vs. congress or Republicans vs. Democrats with the executive-legislative competition based on the party competition?

b. I mentioned specific legislative procedures and legal issues. Congress has oversight of spending and approval of officials. It has specific legal responsibilities in foreign policy and national security that the president cannot wish away. He can try to hide the policy (Iran-Contra anyone?), but there is a price to pay for that and congress eventually asks the president to pay. So reference to the constitution and relevant laws as you find them will be important. For example, in Iran-Contra, congress had passed laws that limited aid to the Contras. The president may not have liked them, but when congress passes a bill, it is the law. Period! Also in the Iran side, congress had passed laws limiting the amount of weapons that could be sold to foreign nations without congressional approval and banning arms sales to nations who sponsored terrorism. Again, these are laws and even the president must obey. That was what the whole problem was. Congress passed laws and the president ignored them. That violates the most basic premise of the constitution – shared power in separate institutions to prevent tyranny.

c. I mentioned the “why.” Why did the battle play out the way it did? Why did it get resolved? What were the political dimensions?

So ask questions. The sooner you get started the better!

An important note on choosing a topic

What you are looking for are essentially these types of situations:

1. A president wants to take an action, but he needs money to pay for it, so he has to negotiate with congress to get it (Ford’s attempts to get money for assistance to rebels in Angola, for example)

2. Congress wants to push the president toward a policy, but the president is reluctant to agree (Congressional support for a nuclear freeze during the Reagan administration, for example)

3. The president seeks to build a new weapons system and congress must approve the funding (Carter, Reagan and Bush efforts to build the MX missile for example, or Reagan seeking funding for SDI)

4. Presidential uses of force and the congressional reaction to it (arguments over whether the president needs congressional approval to use force and the debates in congress and between the executive and congress over the issue)

5. What kind of topics could you choose? See a very large list of potential topics at the end of this document.

Paper Requirements and Tips on Writing Good Papers

Below are several sections of instructions and guidelines. This is important. It tells you a lot of important things you can use for any research paper in any class. It also tells you what I expect. Use what follows and I guarantee that you will get a much better grade on your paper, and more importantly you will learn how to do research and write an organized paper. In particular, pay special attention to the section on sources (bibliographies and references). If you choose to ignore what follows, you do so at your own peril and risk everlasting doom. (Am I being subtle enough?)

Source requirements

· You must use at least ten sources.

· At least two of those sources must be from the web.

· One source must be from a journal that you found in the library, or on the web.

· None of the assigned readings for the class count as a source. You can use them, but they do not count as part of the ten sources required.

· You must use at least one book though I would recommend more. Books have knowledge; the internet has information. There is a difference. See below.

· Wikipedia cannot be used as one of the ten sources. It is an encyclopedia and encyclopedias were off limits as research sources when you were in High School.

A note on the internet: I don't think I need to tell you much about the web. In college I wrote papers on a manual typewriter and I took my SATs on stone tablets. But if you do have any questions about it let me know. The following is important. What is crucial about any webpage is that you and I know who the source of the information is. All information on the web is not equal. Before you trust any information on the web you must know who runs the websites. Who is the source of the information? The US Nazi Party has many websites. Their information is probably not a source you want to use for research on Israeli foreign policy, for example. Also, if you find a website that deals with human rights in China, you need to know if it is run by the Chinese government; its views will be a bit biased. So you need to know who runs the site, and you need to tell me that in the notation. In your bibliography you must cite internet information properly!!!! There are several established formats. Here’s one that I use:

A government document:

George W. Bush. The National Security Strategy of the United States of America. September 2002. Available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf. Accessed October 2, 2002.

A newspaper article

Stephen Farrell. “Palestinian Bomb Attack Threatens Hopes for Peace.” Times On Line. January 13, 2005. Available at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-1437764,00.html Accessed January 13, 2005.

For a document/article you found on the web (This doesn’t have an author, so start with the title, but if it does have an author start with that.

“What Can the US Do In Iraq?” Middle East Report No. 34. International Crisis Group. 22 December 2004. Available at http://www.crisisweb.org/home/index.cfm?id=3196&l=1 Accessed January 13, 2005.

So, you must include the following: author (if identified); title of article, essay, database, document; organization that sponsors the posting of the information; web address (use this form: Available at http://whatever); and date accessed (because information on the internet is updated and frequently reedited or eliminated). If you have questions about this, ask me. But, if you don’t ask me and you simply give me the web address, I will take points off your paper.

There are excellent journals that you can use that deal with the range of issues we’ll address in class. We have on line access to a lot of great journals and there are hard copies of many as well on the second floor of the library. Use the Public Affairs Information Service or ABC POL SCI indexes. Those are the hard copy indexes, both located in the library reference section. You may use the on line ones instead. PAIS is also online. Ask a reference librarian to help you find these indexes. Of course, the on line library data bases are great as well. On any of them you can search under several keywords (George Bush and Department of Homeland Security for the example above) or under a subject and a journal title (to get the works on a given subject from a specific journal that you have found useful, for example GHW Bush and Asian Survey to get info on GHW Bush policy toward China). If you have problems getting the journals on line, let me know. Look up either a country or an issue and you will find excellent lists of articles.

Use books too! For this assignment, books are your best resource. The web is nice, but again, it includes information, not knowledge. The difference is simple. Information is up to the minute data, piles and piles of facts and figures. Knowledge is data plus perspective, plus analysis. What does the data mean in the context of history, of theories about the issue you are studying, of the developments in that nation and the world? The internet does not contain books yet, and therefore it will tell you what happened yesterday, but not if what happened yesterday is typical, unusual, or fits a pattern that goes back 10,000 years. Everything on the internet is new and it has the perspective of newness – everything is happening for the first time. That is simply not true. The internet is also generally not peer reviewed. This means that what you see on the internet is generally not reviewed by anyone. I can post an essay on how to do brain surgery. It will sound very authentic (Dr. William W. Newmann), but I have a Ph.D. in Public Policy. I can tell the difference between a brain and a lung, but that’s not really enough to perform brain surgery. So if you like conspiracy theories, particularly about 9/11, notice how very few of the Professors who preach conspiracy theories are Professors of Political Science or International Relations. It tells you something, doesn’t it (I’m part of the conspiracy!). So, use books or journals. The answers may be there. Books and journals are reviewed by scholars before they are ever published, reviewed and reviewed and reviewed, so that every word and fact is checked and double checked. This is why it takes forever to publish books and journals, but they get the facts right and they ideas and examined. Sometimes this is not true these days. There are publishing house that specialize in right wing or left wing books, so they publish propaganda, not scholarship. Check to see who the person is. Is it a scholar attached to a university or a journalist attached to a newspaper? Those are generally good sources. Or is it a pundit, someone linked to a political party, whose job is to write books that use junk scholarship and junk science to perpetuate a political ideology.

Requirements

This paper should be 8-10 pages of text, with references (footnotes, endnotes, parenthetical references) and a bibliography. The bibliography does not count as a page in the 8-10 page requirement.

For proper style of notes and bibliography see Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers or the MLA Handbook or some other recognized resource on style, or copy the style used by one of the books you used for your research. Pay attention t this! You must learn how to reference information properly, and how to write a bibliography with the correct and complete information. This is easy to do, but more important than you think. Whether you go into academia or business you will be judged on the quality of your information, and that means people will want to know where you found your information. They will judge you at first, before they read your text, on your bibliography and citations (footnotes/endnotes/parenthetical references). So make sure you include all the important information in both notes and bibliography. Since I have instructed you to pay attention to notation and bibliographic style, and have provided you with a specific place to look for the proper styles, I will take points off of your paper if you do not do this in the correct manner. This is simple. If you do not do it correctly it means one or both of the following: 1) you are not taking the assignment seriously or are too lazy to do the paper correctly; and/or 2) you are doing the paper at the last minute. Both of these are good reasons why you will not get the grade you are able to earn. Most importantly, you need to get used to doing things the proper way. In college I will take points off if you do something the wrong way or don’t try to find out the proper way to do something. In the business world your boss will simply fire you. This is particularly true about finding information. In the business world you will be judged on the quality of your knowledge, the information that you can provide to potential clients or your boss. Everyone needs to be able to judge the quality of your in formation and they can only do that if they know the source of the information. Get used to this.

Also, I realize that in many cases instructors in ENGL 200 are telling you to include reference material in the text of the paper. That is the journalistic style. However, this is exactly the wrong way to reference in social science. What I mean is the following. Don’t do this:

Gabriel Weimann, a Professor of Communications at Haifa University, states in his book Terror on the Internet that the internet enhances terrorist power to organize and recruit.

Instead do this:

Weimann states that the internet enhances terrorist power to organize and recruit. (add footnote or endnote or parenthetical reference here.)

Also, for references, you must include the page number where you found the information, if available.

Nitpicks

Papers should be doubled-spaced with one-inch margins, and reasonable sized font (11 or 12 point preferred, but no larger). Shorter pages with wide margins and large print size font will be penalized.

Quotes: Do not include long quotes!!! You can quote actual participants in an event, but do this sparingly if you feel it is necessary. You can use lots of quotes if you are examining candidate rhetoric for example, but then your paper must be longer than 8-10 pages, and that’s not the subject of this paper. I’m looking for 8-10 pages of your work. So don’t quote general information that you found in a scholarly article and don’t quote the conclusions of other scholars. Paraphrase the information or the idea in your own words and then cite the source. So, for example, if noted terrorist scholar Reed Richards says in his book that “Al-Qaeda probably only consists of 10,000 people world wide.” Do not give me a sentence in your paper that reads: Reed Richards says that “Al-Qaeda probably only consists of 10,000 people world wide.” Give me something that says: One scholar estimates that al-Qaeda only has 10,000 active members globally. (Richards, 2003, p. 27). The book doesn’t actually exist, but in the example, I’ve used a parenthetical reference, which gives the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number. You can use footnotes or endnotes too. The full bibliographic information will be in the bibliography at the end of the paper. Or if Ben Grimm concludes in his book (not a real book) that: “Al-Qaeda’s growth depends on economic reform in the Middle East. Elimination of poverty is not the biggest problem. Rather it is the ability of the middle class to gain social and economic mobility.” Don’t quote that, but say: Grimm’s conclusions suggest that economic reforms designed to allow the middle class to grow and prosper will be the key to battling al-Qaeda in the future. (Grimm, 2004, p. 235). A good quote is this: According to Osama bin-Laden, “for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.” (Bin-Laden, 1998). This is an excerpt from the 1998 fatwa of OBL. Bin-Laden is a participant, a historical figure. His exact words are important.

Make a copy of the paper for yourself before you hand it in to me. There are two reasons for this. If you have a copy, you don't have to worry about me losing a copy. I have never lost anyone's paper, but just in case you should always make sure that you have a copy of your paper with you, in any class, not just this one.

WHEN YOU TYPE YOUR PAPER ON A COMPUTER MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP DISK WITH THE PAPER ON IT. AS YOU TYPE THE PAPER SAVE THE FILE TO THE BACKUP DISK EVERY TEN MINUTES OR SO. This is especially important if you type on the university computers. Putting your paper on the hard drive in the computer lab is useless if they sweep the hard drives of files at night. Keep a backup copy for yourself. I have several backup copies of anything I write. You don't ever want to lose work because you didn't back it up.

Make sure you have a subject and verb in every sentence. (You would be surprised how many important journals and books allow non-sentence sentences). This is non-fiction, not fiction. So you need to observe the basic rules of grammar. A long sentence is not necessarily a better sentence -- each sentence should express only one thought. Don't be afraid to break up a long sentence into two or three shorter ones. It will usually flow better that way.

As always, ask me questions, early and often.

LATE PAPERS: I will mark late papers down ONE GRADE for each day late. That means that an almost perfect paper -- one that I would give 98 points to -- becomes an 88 if one day late, 78 if two days late, etc,... all the way down to 8 points if nine days late, and zero points if ten days late. Talk to me if you are having some family or personal problems. If there is a serious need to get an extension on the paper, I will give you an extension.  I do realize that there are more important things in life than this class and this assignment.  So if you run into a problem, talk to me. Computer problems do not count as a problem that warrants an extension.  If you are writing your paper at the last minute and you have a problem, the moral of the story is that you should not have been writing your paper at the last minute.  If you have a printer problem, no problem, give me your disk and I will print up the paper, or come to my office hours and we'll print up the paper at my office.  If you have some kind of computer problem, and you are not writing your paper at the last minute, let me know.  Maybe I can help.

On Writing a Good Introductory Paragraph

This is the key to writing a good paper so I am providing detailed instruction on this. What I’m looking for here is a solid introductory section for your paper. The paragraph should include the following:

• your topic; or the question you are answering if you set up the issue that way
• how you will answer the question
• what are the basic answers to the questions regarding your issue -- your conclusions

In other words, the introduction should provide your reader with a "road map" that explains exactly what you will say during the paper. This is not as difficult as it sounds. Basically, what you need to do is write the outline you have for your paper in sentences in the first few paragraphs of the paper. Your opening paragraph (or couple of opening paragraphs) should also give the reader some reason to be interested in your topic and in your argument. Tell the reader why this subject is important. Here is an example of an opening paragraph: (I’ll use a topic that won’t overlap with anyone’s potential topic.)

This paper will analyze the origins, objectives, and doctrines of al-Qaeda (AQ). AQ is currently the world’s largest and most active terrorist organization – global in activity, recruitment, and mission. It is a curious mixture of 21^st century technology and medieval ideology. (That’s the topic.) Its origins date back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 when militants from all over the Middle East and Asia came to Afghanistan to fight the “infidel” invaders. Its goals are diverse, but call for the alteration of the political landscape of the Middle East and an end to US influence in that region. The doctrines are a mixture of radical Islamic ideas (indeed in many ways very un-Islamic) and Arab nationalism. (That’s how you will explain your issue—by discussing three sub-topics: 1) initial origins; 2) its goals; and 3) doctrines.) Overall, the goals don’t sound very realistic, or very negotiable. While AQ can launch terrorist activities around the world, its ability to actually control territory or capture a nation state is limited. However, it may have the ability to harass, damage, and attack the targets for decades to come. (Those are your conclusions.)

You can use lots of topic headings and subheadings to correspond to the points on your "road map" -- they'll help you organize your thoughts, and they'll help your reader clearly identify where he is on the "road map." The above paper might have five main sections:

1. Introduction:
2. Origins of AQ
3. Objectives
4. Doctrines
5. Conclusions (Analysis)

Or another example:

The George W. Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq can best be described as a collegial decision making process, in which the president relied on all his advisors to give him options and evaluations of options. However, the final decision was made by Bush himself after close consultation with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who appears to have been a “first-among-equals” adviser for Bush. (There's the topic and conclusion). During the deliberations in 2002 and 2003 all senior advisers participated in the decision making process. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell, a known supporter of continued sanctions against Iraq was always allowed to air his views in the National Security Council. While divisions did exist between the Dept. of Defense and Vice Presidents office (supporters of intervention) and the Dept. of State (supporter of sanctions) and the White House and NSC staff (less committed supporters of intervention) no views were left out of the debate (the specific argument and your evidence). This decision making process will be illustrated and analyzed through a focus on the intra-administration debate between January of 2002 and March of 2003, with a brief introduction on pre-September 11, Bush policy on Iraq. The narrative of the decision will be followed by an analysis of the decision process in the context of the presidential management models. (your road map).

So, this paragraph tells me what you think, summarizes why you think that is true, and explains how you will illustrate your point.

You can use lots of topic headings and subheadings to correspond to the points on your "road map" -- they'll help you organize your thoughts, and they'll help your reader clearly identify where he is on the "road map." The above paper might have five main sections:

• Introduction: Your intro paragraph(s)
• Pre-9/11 Policy on Iraq
• Divisions within the Administration on Intervention
• Key Meetings
• Analysis: Collegial Decision Making
• Conclusion:

Here’s another example that uses GW Bush and the creation of the DHS:

The creation of the Department of Homeland Security reveals a classic struggle between the president and congress over control of governmental policy. Following the September 11 attacks both the president and congress saw the need for new administrative arrangements for organizing the new counterterrorism and homeland security agenda. Not surprisingly, the president created White House-based institutions in the fall of 2001 (Homeland Security Council – HSC – and Office of Homeland Security –OHS), while congress argued for a new cabinet department over which it would have oversight and spending control (that explains how the face off between congress and the administration began and what the two positions were). Bipartisan congressional legislation creating and Department of Homeland Security that had been proposed in the House and Senate in 2002 gained public support, but the president opposed any such Department until late spring of 2002, surprising congress and many in his own administration with a proposal for a new department, designed by a secret task force (this identifies congressional and presidential actions). Three key issues seem to have changed the president’s mind: 1) Joe Lieberman, a frontrunner for the 2004 democratic nomination sponsored the bill and was gaining popularity from his support of a DHS; 2) public approval for the idea was very strong; and 3) the development of a plan to use a DHS bill to counter democratic gains by placing anti-union amendments in the legislation, forcing democrats to choose between union support and support of the DHS (there’s the analysis).

Again, you can have subheadings, easy in this case:

1. The Bush Administration Organizational Changes: HSC and OHS
2. The Congressional Support for a New Department
3. The June Surprise
4. Conclusions: Why the DHS was Created

As you make the points that support your argument, you'll probably be aware of the places in which your argument is controversial or in which a reasonable person might disagree with you. Preempt those controversies in your text. Point out what those opposing arguments might be, and why you think your point of view is more accurate or reasonable.

The VCU honor system covers plagiarism. It is not a fine line. Either ideas are yours, or they are not. But just because someone else has already written an idea that you agree with 100% doesn't mean you can't discuss it in your paper. Just point out whose idea it is; paraphrase it in your own words, cite the source of the idea, and expand upon it. Generally, that is how Political Science works. 90% of all Political Science articles and books do the following (I give you another example that is not topically relevant to the class):

There are various explanations for the Moscow coup in August 1991. Stan says the military instigated the overthrow (Stan 1994, 1-34). Kyle disagreed, saying the military prevented the coup from being successful (Kyle 1997, 17-29). Cartman says the coup failed because its leaders were inept (Cartman 2000, 307-332). However, all three authors understate the impact of public opinion; the coup really failed because of the Russian people's yearning for Democracy.

The article would then outline the theories of Stan, Kyle, and Cartman, criticize each one, and then develop the fourth theory. There is no problem as long as Stan, Kyle, and Cartman get credited with developing their theories, and the fourth theory is yours. If the fourth theory belongs to a fourth author (Kenny? Timmy? Professor Chaos?), the reader must be told that the fourth theory is Kenny's and your article will show why his theory is superior to the other three. The point here is that you may find sources which have different opinions on an issue. For example, one source may say that Hizbullah has ties to Syria and another may say it doesn’t. You need to decide who’s right. State that there are differences of opinions. Cite the sources. Who says there are ties? Who says there aren’t? Then you can, if you want, suggest what you think based on your research. Or you can simply say that a dispute exists and leave it at that.

As always, ask me questions, early and often.

What kind of topics could you choose? You could choose, for example:

· Wilson’s decision to intervene in WW I

· Wilson’s attempt to get the US Senate to pass the Treaty of Versailles

· FDR and lend-lease

· FDR and policy toward Japan before Pearl Harbor

· Truman and the Marshall Plan

· Truman and the Berlin Airlift

· Truman and Defense Spending (NSC-68)

· Truman policy toward China

· Truman and the creation of NATO

· Eisenhower and US policy in Viet Nam

· Eisenhower and US policy toward China or Lebanon, or the rearmament of Germany

· Eisenhower and US nuclear weapons policy

· Eisenhower and the US Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Program

· Kennedy and the increase in US assistance and activity in Viet Nam

· Kennedy and US escapades in Cuba

· Kennedy and the Berlin Crisis of 1961

· Kennedy and nuclear weapons policy

· Kennedy and the development of Flexible Response (NATO strategy)

· Kennedy and the creation of US Special Forces

· Johnson and several specific Viet Nam decisions (raising troop levels in 1965; troop deployments in 1966, or 1967 or 1968)

· Johnson and the Dominican Republic invasion

· Johnson and US aid to India

· Johnson and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia

· Nixon and Vietnamization

· Nixon and the Cooper-Church Amendment

· Nixon and the invasion of Cambodia

· Nixon and the opening to China

· Nixon and the India-Pakistan war

· Nixon and the US actions in Middle East

· Nixon and the pressure on Chile and ultimately the overthrow of Salvador Allende

· Nixon and the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

· Nixon and the development of the ABM

· Nixon and the development of the MIRV

· Nixon and the War Powers Act

· The Church Committee

· The Jackson-Vanik amendment

· Ford and US near-intervention in Angola (Clark Amendment in particular)

· Ford and the Mayaquez Incident

· Ford and SALT II

· Carter and US policy on Human Rights

· Carter and Shaba crisis in Zaire

· Carter and the Ogaden War (Ethiopia and Somalia)

· Carter and the peace negotiations in the Middle East that led to the Camp David Accords

· Carter and the SALT II Treaty

· Carter and the Panama Canal Treaty

· Carter and the Intermediate Nuclear Force, INF, decision (also called the NATO Two-Track Decision)

· Carter and the Neutron bomb decision

· Carter and the MX Missile

· Carter and recognition of China

· The Taiwan Relations Act

· Reagan and the creation of the Contras in Nicaragua

· Reagan and selling weapons to Iran

· Reagan and arms negotiations with the USSR

· Reagan and the sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia

· Reagan and US assistance to rebels in Afghanistan

· Reagan and the INF Deployment

· Reagan and the INF Treaty

· Reagan and resumption of aid to rebels in Angola

· Reagan and the MX missile

· Reagan and the Strategic Defense Initiative

· Reagan and defense spending

· Reagan and the sanctions against South Africa

· Reagan and the nuclear freeze movement

· Bush 41 and the first Gulf War

· Bush 41 and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)

· Bush 41 and the aftermath of Tiananmen Square (China), (Most Favored Nation status)

· Bush 41 and trade tensions with Japan

· Bush 41 and the US intervention in Somalia

· Bush 41 and the breakup of Yugoslavia; Clinton and the US intervention in Somalia

· Clinton and the US intervention in Bosnia

· Clinton and the US intervention in Kosovo

· Clinton and the decision on Most Favored Nation status for China

· Clinton and the US intervention in Haiti

· Clinton and trade tensions with Japan; Clinton and NAFTA

· Clinton and the bailout of Mexico

· Clinton and the bailout of Russia

· Clinton and the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

· Bush 43 and the Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty

· Bush 43 and Decisions on Guantanamo Bay Detention

· Bush 43 and the Enemy Combatant Decisions

· Bush 43 and the US Invasion of Afghanistan

This is not an exhaustive list (though I got pretty tired typing it). Of course, choose something not on the list, if you like. This list is just a sample of all the different things that are possible topics. You will not run out of topics.