Foreign Economic Policy
What is Protectionism?
A trade strategy in which a state imposes tariffs on the goods imported from another state, usually to protect a domestic industry from foreign competition or as a bargaining tool to achieve better treatment of exports to the foreign state.
Who are the Vietcong?
A derogatory informal nickname for members of the National Liberation Front (NLF), the communist guerilla movement in South Vietnam fighting the South Vietnamese government, with support, and often direction from, North Vietnam.
What is the significance of Covert Operations? What are some examples?
The US engaged in multiple covert action operations in which it secretly assisted in overthrowing governments that were perceived as a threat to US national interests. Some examples are: Iran 1953 when the CIA instigated a coup against the elected Mossadeq regime, Guatemala 1954 with a CIA instigated coup against the elected leftist Arbenz, Congo 1960 when the US CIA abetted the murder of Patrice Lumumba, and Chile 1970-1973 when CIA operations overthrew the elected leftist Allende regime.
Who was Ho Chi Minh?
Communist North Vietnamese leader from 1945 to 1969, in various positions. He was instrumental in the North Vietnamese independence movement and the Vietnam War.
What is a trade deficit?
An economic condition in which a state imports more goods from another state than it exports to that state.
What was the Sino-Soviet Split? What is its significance to Vietnam?
The diplomatic divide between the Soviet Union and China that emerged in the early 1960s due to ideological differences, leading both states to compete with each other militarily and diplomatically, and contributing to a series of border clashes between Soviet and Chinese forces. The split impacted the Vietnam War because both states sought to demonstrate their superior leadership of global communism by providing more and better aid to North Vietnam, which took advantage of this dynamic to gain more aid from both powers.
What was the Bay of Pigs?
An April 1961 failed US covert action campaign against Cuba using Cuban exiles who opposed the Fidel Castro government. The operation was originally planned by the CIA under the Eisenhower administration, and then inherited by the Kennedy administration who significantly changed the plan. The operation was a failure for US foreign policy and worsened US-Cuban relations
What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
A Cold War Crisis that occurred on October 16 to 28, 1962. The US learned that the Soviet Union had secretly deployed nuclear-capable missiles with nuclear warheads to Cuba, just 90 miles from the U.S. US President John F Kennedy had to determine how to respond: whether to invade Cuba or launch a preventive strike or attempt to de-escalate tensions. Kennedy ended the crisis by secretly agreeing to withdraw US Jupiter missiles from Turkey if the Soviets would withdraw their missiles from Cuba, and the world averted nuclear war.
What is the policy role of Sanctions?
They are an economic policy tool in which a state criminalizes certain types of economic transactions with either specific individuals or economic sectors in another country. For example, the United States has placed sanctions on Iran’s oil industry, banning US companies from doing business with the Iranian oil industry.
What was the Tet Offensive?
A military offensive launched by the NLF and the North Vietnamese Army at the end of January 1968, with the objective of triggering a nationwide uprising against the South Vietnamese government. This military effort failed to overthrow the government and cost heavy casualties, but it convinced the American public that the war could not be won and created significantly stronger pressure for the United States to withdraw.
What is Mogadishu?
The capital of Somalia where President George H W Bush intervened and President Bill Clinton remained involved in intervention from 1992 to 1993 due to a civil war and famine in Somalia. US forces suffered heavy losses in Mogadishu, which potentially impacted Clinton’s future willingness to take risks on possible interventions with ground forces, like the Rwandan genocide.
What is Responsibility to Protect?
A global political commitment which was endorsed by all member states of the United Nations at the 2005 World Summit in order to address its four key concerns to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. R2P has been deployed as a justification for humanitarian intervention.
How would you describe Free Trade versus Mercantilism?
These are competing theories of how states achieve prosperity in their trade policy; free trade proponents argue that states maximize their prosperity through unrestricted trade in goods and services with other states, while proponents of mercantilism argue that prosperity is achieved by achieving a trade surplus, that is by exporting more goods than are imported, and is achieved through protectionism and state subsidies.
Who was Henry Kissinger?
National security adviser for President Nixon from 1969-1974, and Secretary of State from 1973-1977. Played a key role in negotiating the Paris Peace Accords with North Vietnamese representative Le Duc Tho, as well as planning and helping carry out a variety of Vietnam War policies, including the secret bombing of Cambodia, the US-South Vietnamese ground invasion of Cambodia, and US negotiations to lessen Cold War tensions with China and the Soviet Union.
What happened in Kosovo in 1999?
A US-led intervention of NATO forces in the Balkan country of Kosovo, a part of former Yugoslavia. NATO forces intervened on the side of Kosovars to prevent ethnic cleansing by Serbian forces. The NATO operation relied heavily on the use of air power to change Serbian behavior.
Who is David Ricardo?
A classical liberal economist and thinker who proposed the theory of Comparative Advantage, which suggests that free trade benefits different societies because it incentivizes them to focus on producing the good or service which they are best able and equipped to produce for export, and to import the good or service which they do not produce as well from foreign states which do produce it.
What is the Helms-Burton Act?
A sanctions law that targeted the Castro government in Cuba with a series of restrictions on both American and international companies doing business in Cuba, and that also restricted companies that engaged in business transactions with Cuban entities that “trafficked” in property expropriated by the state from American citizens.
What was the My Lai Massacre?
A mass killing of South Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai by members of the US Army during 1968. The incident was initially covered up but eventually was publicized, resulting in a high profile trial of one of the officers implicated. The massacre further undermined both international and domestic support for the US presence in Vietnam.
What was the Spanish-American Filipino War?
A conflict between the United States and Filipino insurrectionists against Spain, and then between the United States and those same Filipino rebels from 1898 to 1901. After defeating Spain and annexing the Philippines, the United States fought the Filipino rebels in order to establish control over the islands.
What was Able Archer?
A 1983 nuclear war scare where Soviet leaders misinterpreted a NATO nuclear exercise as a pretense for war, and consider initiating a conflict because of an atmosphere of heightened fears about US counterforce capability. Soviet intelligence focused on the possibility of a surprise NATO attack in Operation RYAN.