Video and Multimedia

Learning Objective 2.1: Discuss U.S. policies of economic and territorial expansion in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Video

  • Manifest Destiny: A Rap
    • Summary: A short song about Manifest Destiny, the Trail of Tears, and the Mexican-American War.

Web Resources

  • Jefferson’s views of expansion
    • Summary: An article describing the roots of President Thomas Jefferson’s territorial ambitions for the United States as well as describing some of the philosophy of Jeffersonian Democracy.
  • Roosevelt Corollary
    • Summary: An opinion article in the New York Times describing and criticizing corollaries, or related principles, to the Monroe Doctrine of United States predominance in the western hemisphere.

 

Learning Objective 2.2: Explain how major shifts in the global balance of power led to two world wars and the rise of the United States.

Video

  • America First Committee
    • Summary: A video describing the foremost anti-war advocacy group in the year before Pearl Harbor. The video describes the group specifically as well as its place in a larger tradition of non-interventionism.

Web Resources

  • WWII Timeline
    • Summary: A short timeline describing some of the events before and during WWII.

 

Learning Objective 2.3: Describe the institutional foundations and conflicts representing U.S. foreign policy in the postwar period.

Video

  • Reagan’s speech at Berlin Wall
    • Summary: Ronald Reagan’s 1987 speech at the Berlin Wall, containing the well-known phrase, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Much of the speech is a summary of the United States’ role in Western Europe and the world in the time after WWII, in contrast to that of the Soviet Union.

Web Resources

  • George F. Kennan
    • Summary: An obituary and retrospective on the life and career of diplomat George Kennan, one of the architects of American Cold War policy.
  • Grand Strategy
    • Summary: An opinion article in Foreign Policy describing the history of United States grand strategy and advocating for a return to active global strategy in American diplomatic, economic, and military actions.
  • CIA: Truman and Eisenhower
    • Summary: An account of the development of the relationship between the president and the intelligence community as well as the intelligence briefings received by presidential candidates following their nominations.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis
    • Summary: An article describing how the popular narrative of the Cuban Missile Crisis feeds into myth regarding the efficacy of diplomacy.
  • Vietnam War
    • Summary: The website for the American Experience documentary on the Vietnam War.

 

Learning Objective 2.4: Identify the ideals and issues the United States has faced since the end of the Cold War.

Video

  • Colin Powell Iraq speech to UN
    • Summary: The first part of Secretary of State Colin Powell’s 2003 address to the United Nations concerning the United States motivations for war in Iraq. The address summarizes some of the intelligence and related justifications for military action.
  • Death of Osama bin Laden
    • Summary: President Barack Obama’s 2011 address to the country announcing success in the mission to kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Web Resources

  • NATO
    • Summary: The web homepage of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
  • New World Order
    • Summary: An article on the emergence of multilateralism and the failure of international institutions to ensure U.S. dominance on the global stage.
  • Ethnic cleansing
    • Summary: A report from Human Rights watch regarding the use of rape by the Yugoslav Army in the Kosovo War of 1999.
  • September 11th
    • Summary: A series of links to other websites regarding the 9/11 attacks.
  • National Intelligence Estimate
    • Summary: Portions of an intelligence assessment on the Iraqi program to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD’s) as included in the congressional record by Representative Peter King of New York.