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Government
Unit #5
The Executive Branch
Crisis Scenarios
CRISIS #1 – THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
Ever since the end of World War II in 1945, feelings of distrust had been growing
between the United States and the Soviet Union. Each side feared an armed attack by
the other and had embarked on a buildup of military strength: an “arms race” against
each other. Each had highly skilled scientists, atomic and hydrogen bombs, ships,
planes, and missiles, and by the early 1950s, each country had
the power to kill most of the people in the other country. Indeed, if war came between
the two countries, most of the people of the world would be killed also.
Part of this buildup of military strength involved building bases for launching missiles.
In addition to missile bases on land, each country had aircraft and submarines to carry
missiles with nuclear warheads aimed at the other country. Since missiles of this era
did not travel as far as those we have today, establishing bases on land became
important for security. The United States made agreements with friendly European
nations to put missile bases in those countries to surround the Soviet Union. Among
other places, we had bases with nuclear missiles in Turkey, just across the Soviet
Union’s southern border, aimed and ready to fire at important Russian cities and
bases. At first it was hard for the Soviet Union to place missile bases close to the
United States, but then Fidel
Castro set up a Communist government in Cuba in 1959, ninety miles off the coast of
Florida. In l961, with authorization from President John Kennedy, the United States
provided training, equipment, and logistical support to Cuban exiles bent on
recapturing their country. The invasion at the Bay of Pigs failed miserably, and as a
result, Cuba turned to the Soviet Union and its leader,
Nikita Khrushchev, for help.
In October, 1962, photos taken by an American U-2 spy plane revealed Soviet missile
bases under construction at several sites in Cuba. President Kennedy was informed
that within a week or less, the missiles might be operational, and that they were not
defensive weapons meant to shoot down enemy aircraft flying over Cuba, but were
offensive nuclear missiles that could reach most of the
cities in the United States.
Kennedy knew he had to act quickly to force the Russians to remove the missiles from
Cuba. An advantage he had was that the Soviets did not know he knew about the
missiles. In fact, they were assuring him that they were not giving Cuba any military aid
at all other than the kind to defend that country against attack. Kennedy called together
key advisors to recommend a solution to this
dangerous problem. He wanted the missiles out of Cuba, but he knew one wrong step
by either side could plunge the world into nuclear war.
What would you advise President Kennedy to do?
Crisis Scenarios
CRISIS #2 – DRUGS AND THE DICTATOR
Manuel Noriega became Panama’s military leader in 1983. For a while, he was paid by
the CIA to be an informant on communist activities in neighboring countries and he
was also on the payroll of the United States Army from 1955 to 1986. Accusations of
brutality and illegal drug trafficking surfaced in
the early 1980s. Relations grew strained between the U.S. and Panama. In l987 the
U.S. Senate passed a resolution urging Panama to adopt a civilian government;
Panama replied by accusing the U.S. of violating the Panama Canal Treaty. The
Senate then called for cutting military and economic aid to the country, but with some
35,000 Americans in the area, this would also hurt them. Panama attempted to restrict
U.S. military presence in the country. In February of 1988, Noriega was indicted in a
U.S. court on drug-related charges, but he was not arrested.
The U.S. military stepped up its presence in Panama to provide security for U.S.
military operations, as well as the many U.S. civilians who worked there. Officers of
Panama’s Defense Force attempted a coup against Noriega, but failed, and his
specially-created Dignity Battalions began to enforce his power. The U.S. began to
bring home military dependents and civilian diplomats in wake of the
unrest. Elections were held in May of 1989, but when the results were not to Noriega’s
liking, the Dignity Battalions assaulted opposition candidates and crowds at victory
parties. Noriega voided the results of the election, which had been won by his
opposition by a 3:1 margin.
A second coup attempt against Noriega failed in October, 1989. Two months later, on
December 15, he was proclaimed Maximum Leader of Panama and declared a state of
war against the United States. In the days that followed, incidents against Americans
increased. A school bus carrying dependents of American personnel was harassed. A
U.S. Navy lieutenant was brutalized and threats and assaults were made against his
wife. When a group of Marines in a civilian car strayed too near a Panamanian defense
installation, one was killed. Conflicting accounts existed as to whether the Marines
were armed; some said they deliberately approached the area to draw a response that
would
justify American action.
Although the struggle against Noriega had begun during the Reagan administration, it
fell to President George Bush to decide on a course of action. He had to consider not
only Noriega’s misdeeds but the safety of Americans and the neutrality of the Panama
Canal.
What would you advise President Bush to do?
Crisis Scenarios
CRISIS #3 – SAVING POST-WAR EUROPE
When World War II ended in 1945, a power vacuum existed in Europe. The former
great powers of Europe – Germany, France, and Great Britain – were in shambles.
Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, attempted to take advantage of this
confusion to advance the spread of communism in the region. By 1946 he had broken
the wartime Yalta and Potsdam agreements calling for free democratic elections in
Eastern Europe and had established communist dictatorships in the area. He then
turned his attention to support of communist uprisings in Greece and Turkey. Great
Britain informed U.S. President Harry Truman that it could no longer send aid to the
anti-communist government in Greece.
In March of 1947, Truman addressed Congress and outlined what he called the
Truman Doctrine. “I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free
peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
pressures,” he said. To carry out his policy, Congress granted $400 million in military
and economic aid to Greece and Turkey. Truman and the United States had embarked
on a policy of containment of communism; any government threatened by communism
could call upon the U.S. for aid. Although there had been no mention of overthrow of
existing communist governments, Stalin saw the Truman Doctrine as an act of
aggression against his regime. Any lingering wartime friendship between the United
States and the Soviet Union came to an end, and the two countries became locked in
an ideological and political conflict known as the Cold War.
With economic conditions at their worst in Western Europe, Truman began to worry
about the spread of communism there. The communist party gained support in Italy
and in France, and the possibility of them taking over in a democratic election existed.
Europe needed help, and Truman and his Secretary of State, George Marshall, came
up with the European Recovery Plan, better known as the Marshall Plan, providing
billions of dollars in loans to the countries of Europe in return for their purchase of
American products with the money. Every western European nation applied. Several
eastern European nations attempted to apply, but were blocked by Stalin.
Rebuilding Germany proved the greatest challenge for the four victorious Allies from
World War II. The United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union divided
Germany and its capital, Berlin, into four zones, each ally controlling one zone. On the
verge of financial collapse, Great Britain turned over control of its zone to the U.S. in
1948. That same year, France merged its zone with the U.S. zone. Now controlling
three zones, the U.S. established a new independent German state, calling for a new
democratic constitution. Alarmed, Stalin and the Soviet Union cut off all access to the
western part of Berlin, which was located within the Soviet zone of occupation. He
would force the Germans and their protectors, the U.S., to back down on their call for
democracy in West Germany.
What would you advise President Truman to do?
Crisis Scenarios
CRISIS #4 – THE NULLIFICATION CRISIS
Sections of the young United States developed different economic interests. Attitudes toward
the issue of protective tariffs reflected these economic differences. The Northeast strongly
favored a protective tariff to protect factory owners and workers against foreign competition
with their manufactured goods. The South opposed a protective tariff in order to buy
manufactured goods at lower prices and feared retaliation by England to curtail purchase of
Southern cotton. The West generally supported the North on this issue because they wanted
a prosperous Northeastern market for their foodstuffs, even if it meant they might pay higher
prices for manufactured goods.
In 1816, when the first protective tariff was passed, it had the support of all sections, including
the South, which had visions of becoming industrialized. In 1828, Western and Northern
Congressmen secured passage of a tariff with extremely high rates, up to 45%, on imports of
raw materials and manufactured goods. Southerners called it a hateful law, a Tariff of
Abominations. South Carolina planters took the lead in protesting the tariff. John C. Calhoun
of South Carolina, soon to become Vice President in 1829, secretly wrote the South Carolina
Exposition and Protest, arguing three points: 1) the federal government was a compact
among the states to serve as their agent; 2) state’s conventions have the right to declare laws
of Congress, such as the tariff law, unconstitutional; and 3) laws so declared unconstitutional
are null and void. Calhoun also believed that as a last resort, a state could terminate its
compact with the other states and secede from the Union.
In a subsequent debate in the Senate in 1832, Robert Hayne of South Carolina reiterated the
states’ rights claims. He was countered by Daniel Webster of Massachusetts presenting the
nationalist point of view: 1) the Constitution and the federal government were created by the
people, not the states; 2) it was the right of the Supreme Court, not the individual states, to
determine the constitutionality of laws; and 3) no state had the right to nullify federal law or
withdraw from the Union. His dramatic concluding words, “Liberty and Union, now and
forever, one and inseparable,” were often quoted by those seeking to preserve the country in
the years leading up to the Civil War.
Taking office in 1829, President Jackson had been strangely quiet on the issue of states’
rights. At a Jefferson Day dinner in 1830, attended by leaders of the Democratic Party,
southerners were determined to smoke him out. They devised a series of toasts to honor
Jefferson that would honor his dislike for centralization and lean toward states’ rights and
nullification, hoping Jackson would join in the spirit and endorse their cause. Jackson was
forewarned and had carefully prepared a response. He rose and thundered his toast, fixing
his gaze on
Vice President Calhoun: “Our Union: It must be preserved!” Calhoun and his fellow
southerners were left dumbfounded for a moment before the South Carolinian offered a
halting reply: “The Union, next to our liberty,
most dear!” Jackson was left fuming at the South and especially Calhoun, who would resign
the Vice Presidency in 1832.
In 1832 Congress passed a new tariff, cutting some of the worst aspects of the
“abominations” and setting a rate of roughly 35% on most imports. The South was still
dissatisfied because all her demands had not been met. A convention in South Carolina
solemnly declared the existing federal tariff law to be null and void within the borders of South
Carolina. The assembly also called on the state legislature to undertake any necessary
military preparations and threatened to take the state out of the Union if the federal
government attempted to collect the customs duties by force.
President Jackson had to steer a course to enforce federal law and preserve the Union. What
would you recommend he do?