1. The "Nixon Doctrine" refers to the approach of President Nixon to foreign wars, a doctrine which grew out of the disaster of the Vietnam War. The latter war had shown the limitations of the nation in Third World conflicts, as well as the reluctance of the American people and Congress to fight such wars in which the cause was uncertain in the face of mounting risks and losses. Nixon fashioned the doctrine which held that American involvement in such wars in the future would be limited: "The United States would use small nations as surrogates [and] . . . provide the arms, advisers and financing for other countries to wage guerilla or conventional wars against domestic insurgents of foreign enemies" (Schulzinger 291). In other words, the Nixon Doctrine was an attempt to continue to struggle against communism in Third World venues without the kind of risk to Americans which marked Vietnam.
Schulzinger argues that this doctrine certainly did not reduce American contributions to the violence of such conflicts, especially in the area of arms sales: "While fewer Americans fought wars, the level of violence rose" (291). In addition, Nixon did not apply the doctrine to Vietnam itself, precisely where it was needed the most, choosing instead to carpetbomb the North at the same time he proclaimed his Doctrine.
After Nixon, Carter undermined the Nixon Doctrine by cracking down on the same regimes Nixon had designated as American surrogates in the Third World conflicts against communism. Carter declared such nations major abusers of human rights (Schulzinger 317).
2. The "Foraker Act," passed in 1900, was designed to establish civil government in Puerto Rico. Specifically, the Act "provided that the executive department of the government of Puerto Rico was to be composed of a council of eleven members, six heads of administrative departments, and five other persons, appointed by the President" (Adams 298). Other provisions established...