Nixon/Kissinger foreign policy.
Remember that your goal is to demonstrate your understanding of what you have studied not your ability to find more information. Telling what happened is not the same as explaining why the events support your interpretation of the “so what.” The “so what” should be your primary focus. Your first concern should be that you answer the question that is asked. Second is showing you understand that everything is more complicated than the simplified story you got in U.S. history class in high school. Things are never as black-and-white as people want you to think. Take your time to prepare before you begin to write. Plan your argument. Think through what you are going to say and the best way to organize it. Make sure that you include everything you need to make your case and that you exclude anything that does not help directly. Related is not the same as relevant! Including ideas and examples that are not really relevant or failing to make clear why your examples are relevant are indications that you do not really understand the topic you are writingabout. These are complex tasks that will require the use of your “Spock brain,” so move slowly, read the questions and directions carefully, and plan your answer before you begin to write. Try to allow enough time to let your first draft “cool” before going back to revise (in the sense of “resee”) as if you were reading it for the first time. Remember that I can evaluate your essay only on the basis of what you put on the page, not on what understand but don’t say. So make your argument clear and complete and explain your reasoning. For any of these questions “what happened” is not a sufficient answer. Selectively choose the events that can really help convince the reader that your position is correct and explain how those selected events support your position. A. Some people refer to the Nixon/Kissinger foreign policy as a “return to Kennan realism,” but one historian added that “Kennan’s realism focused on the circumstances of Soviet power at the end of World War II; Nixon/Kissinger realism focused on the circumstances of American power at the end of the Vietnam War.” It was still realism, but the reality had changed. Examine that interpretation, explain what it means, and then give your assessment of its accuracy. Focus on the part of the quote that follows the semicolon. How had the reality changed?