Evaluate Theodore Roosevelt's legacy in foreign affairs with these selections from Ken Burns' The Roosevelts. Students will analyze U.S. intervention in Cuba, Panama, the Russo-Japanese War, and WWI. In the activity that follows, students are tasked with conducting research and then engaging in a Socratic Seminar to answer the question: “To what extent did Theodore Roosevelt’s record on foreign policy mar or enhance his record as US president?

Learning Objectives:

• Determine what aspects of Roosevelt's background contributed to his feelings about U.S. foreign policy.
• Analyze Roosevelt's motivations in pushing the United States to intervene around the globe.
• Analyze the US Constitution as it pertains to the powers of the president to formulate and implement foreign policy.
• Establish criteria by which to judge the performance of a president’s record in foreign affairs and apply those criteria.
• Evaluate Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy using primary and secondary sources according to the criteria they establish.

Opening Activity: Developing Supporting Questions to Debate TR’s Foreign Policy Record

• Distribute Handout: “Developing Criteria by which to Judge a President’s Record in Foreign Affairs.”
• Students may complete the handout as homework, and then share with the whole class and reach a consensus as a class.
• Review results on Part 1. According to the Constitution Article II, Sections 2 and 3, the president is commander in chief of the armed forces; may submit treaties to the Senate for ratification (by a two-thirds majority); may appoint ambassadors and cabinet ministers such as the secretary of state subject to the approval of the Senate; and may receive foreign ambassadors. (Note that Article I, Section 8, gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare war).