Unit Five – America Exercises Power (1941-present)

During this time, the United States emerges from its traditional policy of Isolationism to exercising its military and economic resources as the champion of the “free world.” You will note the change in American foreign policy beginning with the bombing of Pearl Harbour. We will examine not only the course of the war in Europe and Asia, but its conduct. With the development and use of the atomic bomb, America becomes the world’s first nuclear superpower with all the responsibility inherent. By the war’s end, relations between the United States and its Soviet ally begin to rupture. We will examine the clash of ideologies reflected in such policies as the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine and Eisenhower’s Domino Theory as they contribute to the Cold War. They also examine some prominent Cold War issues, such as the growth of the CIA, involvement in international security organizations such as NATO, NORAD and the United Nations, the Korean War, the Suez Canal Crisis, emerging nationalism in Africa, the conflict of American economic interests with Latin and South American independence movements, the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, the arms and a space race, and Perestroika. The impact of the Cold War on American domestic policy is examined more closely in Unit 6. With the subsiding of Cold War tensions, we examine how the United States continued to shape world policy The essay and tutorial assignments are introduced and developed in this unit and continue in the next unit.

Culminating Activity:  Unit Test

MAY/JUNE - U.S. HISTORY

American-History