Learning goals By the end of this lecture you should be able to Identify and describe the major consequences of the Versailles Treaty 1 1 Sanctions and punishment against Germany a Germany was forced to pay war reparations They blamed Germany for the war altogether and wanted them to pay damages Also the allies completely gutted Germany s military They limited the number of soldiers to 100 000 and did not allow any kind of tanks or weaponry 2 A league of nations with no teeth a The League of Nations was created to create peace within Europe made up of the different democracies within Europe However Wilson never signed onto the League of Nations although it was his idea Second of all Germany and Russia were excluded from it because they were considered to be the pariahs of Europe Third of all the League of Nations had no enforcement power and was essentially an organization that made a lot of demands and did not have anything to back them up 2 Describe the orthodox explanation for Chamberlain s decision at Munich The Orthodox explanation for Chamberlain s decision at Munich is simply that Hitler duped Chamberlain Chamberlain should not have been so willing to get up the Sudetenland but he was simply afraid that Hitler actually would follow through and go to war On top of this Britain felt sympathy towards Germany Orthodox people believe that Chamberlain should have gone to war with Germany instead of backing down like it did and Chamberlain should have refused to give up the Sudentland 3 Describe the revisionist explanation for Chamberlain s decision at Munich The revisionist explanation for Chamberlain s decision at Munich was that Chamberlain simply did not have a choice in the matter Essentially Chamberlain mistrusted Hitler but Britain did not have the ability to go to war at that time Chamberlain mistrusted Hitler but was attempting to buy time in order to prepare his troops The revisionist view is that Chamberlain should have done nothing Britain could not have won in 1938 Public was antiwar and the country would have gotten smashed had it attempted to pick a war with Hitler s Germany 4 Define the following key concepts and illustrate each with an example appeasement justice motive trust and mistrust Munich analogy Appeasement a policy offering concessions to adversaries on the hope that they will be satisfied and not ask for anymore At the Munich conference the Sudetenland was given to Hitler s Germany hoping that this would solve the problem and not make any more disturbances However Hitler was a revisionist not a status quo actor therefore he was not satisfied with simply receiving the Sudetenland He wanted to get more land and continue his progress Justice motive argument that people often fight to correct what they feel are injustices Therefore when people think that what they deserve exceeds what they possess they get angry Trust a feeling of optimism about the goodwill and competence of others Mistrust A feeling of pessimism about the goodwill and competence of others Munich analogy Do not appease dictators because dictators will never ever be satisfied However they should have taken away that appease status quo dictators because they will stop once they get what they want Do not appease revisionist dictators because they will continue to take Learning goals by the end of this lecture you should be able to 1 Describe the three key pieces of Kennan s containment strategy Strong point defense a Not all parts of the world were equally important and you must understand the hierarchy of interests within the system There are central military and industrial centers that will remain core interests to the US but then there are peripheral interests that the US should not take the time to worry about Encourage communist split a Do not put all the communist states in one category and oppose all equally but instead remember that national identities come before political ideology so therefore you must appeal to national interest and this will help the world balance against the Soviet Union Patience a All empires eventually collapse and the Soviet Union is an overreaching empire that cannot sustain the length of area it as attempted to take over On top of this USSR is economically backward and politically oppressive so don t necessarily worry about them but just contain them and time will take care of the rest 2 Describe the Berlin Crisis The Berlin Crisis started after the WWII victors decided to splice Germany into a British zone American zone and a Soviet zone Berlin was part of West Germany but very far out and probably should have been part of East Germany In order to prevent the creation of West Germany Stalin cuts off access to Berlin using brinksmanship Truman eventually decided that the best option in this scenario was to do an airlift where the US flies from British occupied Germany over West Berlin and drops supposed to resupply This put the ball in Stalin s court and rather than escalating Stalin decided to back down because it was well known that Truman had loaded his planes with atomic bombs 3 Describe a game of chicken and two tactics to win the game The game of chicken is the classic game of brinksmanship where you must convince the other side that you are completely in it to win it You must therefore convince the other side that you will do anything to win and you will not back down Rationality of irrationality first way to win o Convince others than you are crazy they might believe that the commitments you make are more credible Irrevocable commitment second way to win o Make a commitment that it is literally impossible to back down from 4 Describe two realist explanations for the US intervention in Korea and critiques Balance of Power o Korea was an important material asset for the US when it came to balancing and maintaining balance of power against the Soviets Critique In 1950 Korea actually was not a huge economic or military asset to the US but was instead a peripheral interest In a bipolar system states balance within their internal capabilities so the two superpowers actually did not need to go to war to defend its allies Reputation o The US believes that its reputation for resolve was on the line in Korea Intervention in Korea was meant to show that we would not put up with any encroachment on US interests Did not want to appear irresolute and weak Critique Not a good available critique Although we probably shouldn t have been concerned with our