U.S. intervention in underdeveloped countries raises many basic issues of international relations and foreign policy. The main purpose of this class is to provide students with an ability to examine such issues critically and in a historical context. Among the general areas we will look at are: the historical background that led to the emergence of the USA as a major power, beginning at the end of the 1940s; the role of covert operations during the Cold War; the Vietnam War and its long-term effects; the end of the Cold War; and the War on Terror. The course lectures will emphasize the remarkable continuity of U.S. policy from the Cold War through the period after it.