Disscusion 3

1. Why did Iranian militants hold Americans hostage in Iran in 1979-1980? How was this crisis perceived in the U.S.? How and why did this hurt Carter’s changes for reelection in 1980?

2. How and why did President Reagan escalate the Cold War and the arms race with the Soviet Union during his first term? What were the effects of this militarization?

3. What characterized U.S. intervention in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America during the Reagan administration? What did the U.S. aid rebel forces in Afghanistan? Who were these people?

4. What factors explain the Iran-Contra Affair? Why and how did this scandal involve serious misconduct by the Reagan administration?

5. How and why did Mikhail Gorbachev initiate major changes in Soviet policies in the mid-1980s? Why and how did Reagan respond to these initiatives?

6. Why did communist governments collapse in Eastern Europe in 1989-1990? Why was the demolition of the Berlin Wall important?

7. Why did the Soviet Union dissolve? What had the Cold War ended? What were the costs and benefits of the Cold War?

8. Why and how did President George H. W. Bush and his administration counter Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990-1991? What were the results of the Persian Gulf War?

9. Why did the Clinton administration authorize U.S. interventions in Haiti and Kosovo? What explains the decision not to intervene in Rwanda?

10. What successes did Clinton have in his attempts to broker peace in the Middle East? What was the Palestinian-Israeli conflict so difficult? Why did the Middle East remain an area of concern for the U.S.?

11. In summary, how and why was the relationship between the U.S. and the rest of the world transformed between 1977-2000? What challenges existed for the U.S. at the beginning of the 21st Century?