Unit Four:When is the Use of Force justified?

The “War” unit

Closing of the Frontier

• 1890: The western frontier is declared “closed” so U.S. looks elsewhere for land.

Spanish-American War

• Spain and the US mutually declare war on one another after US involvement in Cuba.

World War One

• US stays out of the five-year war for the first 3 ½ years but then enters under President Wilson’s watch.

World War Two: Hitler in Europe

• Hitler invades Poland in 1939 after duping European leaders including British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. US remains a spectator.

World War Two: Pearl Harbor

• Attack on US soil draws the US into the war, immediately declaring retaliation against Japan.

World War Two: Atomic Bomb

• Decision to use atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a means to end the war.

Vietnam: Getting in

• US gets involved in a bid to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia.

Vietnam: Getting out

• Over ten years later, and tens of thousands dead, the US wrestles with how to end its involvement.

Iraq: Weapons of Mass Destruction

• Under the George W. Bush administration, the US enters Iraq in 2003 under the pretext of stopping Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction.

Afghanistan: September 11 and the hunt for Osama bin Laden

• US invades Afghanistan in fall 2001 in order to find Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.