CDV of the Week: #14 Freedom of Religion Unit 7: New World Essential Question: What effect did the Cold War have on the US's domestic and foreign policy? As we wind down the semester, we will look at the past 40 years of U.S. History. As both the Civil Rights Movement and the Cold War wound down, changes emerged in America’s domestic affairs. The purpose of this unit will be to evaluate the factors that led to the end of the cold war including détente, policies of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. and their leaders (President Reagan and Premier Gorbachev), the political breakup of the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact. This unit will also attempt to explore the role of the United States as a super-power in the post-Cold War world, including advantages, disadvantages, and new challenges (e.g., military missions in Lebanon, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Gulf War). Then as we read chapter 33, we will look at the politics of the 1980s under President Reagan’s administration. Since the U.S. politics of the late 20th and early 21st centuries reflected a global trend toward conservatism, these policies were both economic and social. Conservative policies were viewed by many as an antidote to the “liberal excesses of the 1960s and 1970s” and a reaction against the policies of both Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. Intense partisanship, regional differences, and conservative and evangelical movements were part of that trend. Finally with chapter 34, we will examine the past 20 years of America history by looking at both foreign (Lebanon, Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Gulf War) and domestic policies (welfare, technology boom and bust). |