I have read these materials, and do not need to be reminded of what I have read already. Do not summarize the authors' arguments, but rather integrate, analyze, and critique them. Be prepared to discuss each essay topic on the due date, whether or not you have chosen to write about that particular topic. Each student should also keep a video journal, writing a couple of pages on your thoughts and feelings about the in-class and assigned videos. Be sure to relate the videos to concepts from the class.
Video journals are due the last day of class.
Discuss and evaluate the evidence from the readings and videos that supports, and that which undermines, both Barber and Janis in their analysis of John Kennedy. A rational action for the United States with regard to Vietnam might well have been either to avoid deep military involvement in the first place, or to cut our loses and pull out during the mid-1960s. Yet the Johnson Administration opted to pursue a policy that was clearly failing. Contrast and evaluate Khong's, Janis's, and Barber's theoretical explanations of why the Administration apparently acted irrationally, or at least ineffectively, in pursuing the policy it did. Arguably, the Iranian Hostage Crisis brought down the Carter presidency and opened the door for Ronald Reagan's ascendancy.