AS OF TODAY, JULY 23, 2011 NONE OF YOU HAVE GONE TO WEB-CT AND TAKEN THE EXAM. REMEMBER IT WILL EXSPIRE ON JULY 243TH AT MID-NIGHT. "NO EXCEPTIONS"
DR. GILBERT
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
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DR. GILBERT
DR. GILBERT
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
I found out that final exam start on August 3. Therefore, YOUR FLASH DRIVES WILL NOT BE DUE UNTIL, MONDAY, AUGUEST 1ST. REMEMBER THAT YOUR RESEARCH MUST BE SENT TO ME BY MIDNIGHT, JULY 24TH. PLEASE POST A COMMENT BELOW THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THIS MESSAGE.
DR. GILBERT
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EXAM ON WEB-CT
WEB-CT IS STILL HAVING PROBLEMS. THEREFORE, I CANNOT UPLOAD ANYTHING. PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT jgilb38731@gmail.com AND I WILL SEND YOU YOUR TEST:
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DR. GILBERT
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Saturday, July 16, 2011
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS -HELP
Chapter 16
Discussion
1. How did Reconstruction address the results of the Civil War?
After the Civil War had ended, Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts. These four statutes included: the creation of five military districts, required approval by Congress for new state constitutions, the Confederate states must acknowledge and allow every man’s right to vote, and all states must ratify the 14th Amendment. However, Reconstruction did not adequately address the results because the government’s agenda and goals put forth were unclear.
2. How did African American express their new found freedom?
Many of them took advantage of this freedom and migrated in hopes of finding and reuniting with their families and find jobs. They quickly began to set up churches, schools, and community associations to avoid the idea of white control. Overall, the Reconstruction Era was initially a time of progress for them.
3. What was the Compromise of 1877?
One of the compromises put into place to create a peaceful United States. This compromise took place after the Civil War and was basically an attempt to keep down violence. Part of the agreement included that R. Hayes bring an end to the Reconstruction throughout the south and provide financial subsidies if he took office.
4. What issues remained unresolved at the close of the Reconstruction Era?
Reconstruction period was an era of a corrupt government (which was thought to be caused by blacks being a part of political issues). Hence, justification of racial segregation survived. The overthrow of the Reconstruction left the problem of racial injustice.
5. What was the Freedman’s Bureau and what did it accomplish?
The Freedman’s Bureau was established March 3, 1865 in hopes of addressing all matters concerning refugees and freed slaves. It was a federal agency that was formed during Reconstruction to aid distressed refugees of the American Civil War. It became primarily an agency to help the Freedmen (freed slaves) in the South, including issuing rations, clothing, and medicine. The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory. The Bureau was established by Congress. It was part of the United States Department of War, and headed by Union General Oliver O. Howard. Fully operational from June 1865 through December 1868, it was disbanded by President Andrew Johnson.
Chapter 17
1. Why was California the model for agribusiness in this period?
The Gold Rush helped motivate agriculture in California. During the Mexican phase, agriculture was neglected, and the Americans continued the trend until about 1848. Agriculture became a very important aspect of California’s economic system. California evidently possessed great climate, soil, oil, and other natural resources, which prospered early on with the help of the Gold Rush. “The second American agricultural revolution” was termed for the years of 1941-1973, and the factors included were better equipped soil conditioners, fertilizers and cover crops; productive crops and livestock; production of crops and livestock intensified; and thorough conservation practices.
2. In terms of labor how was race used?
The poor whites disrupted the social order by their demand for lands and privileges. African labor provided a buffer against poor whites. Hence, they were immune to many of the diseases, and they were better laborers (who didn’t have anywhere to escape to). It was then that Africans were used for their intense ability to withstand various hardships and other cruel circumstances.
Chapter 18
1. What factors made industrialization at such a rapid rate possible?
Industrialization is the system of production that rose from the steady development, study, and use of scientific knowledge. It is based on the division of labor and on specialization and uses mechanical, chemical, and power-driven, as well as organizational and intellectual, aids in production. The primary objective of this method has been to reduce the real cost, per unit, of producing goods and services. The changes that took place in Britain during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and 19th century led the way for the early industrializing nations of western Europe and North America. Industrialization was geared toward technology and social developments. Cities attracted large numbers of people, massing workers in new industrial towns and factories.
2. How did industrialization affect the lives of individuals?
The effects of industrialization in the 19th century was contributed by agriculture, factories, and machinery. The changes produced progress; however, setbacks were also evident. The use of machinery caused an increase in the food industry which reduced the use of people and animals. This decreased the use of hired help; therefore, increasing income. Cities became wealthy and farmers began to move toward the city. The increase in city size had a negative effect since people were moving into the cities faster than housing could be constructed. Disease began to spread because of the overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions. On the positive side, the grow cities introduced new technologies that aided in transportation and water systems.
Chapter 19
Explain the emergence and characteristics of each of the following and discuss their impact on American society.
Sports flourished in America in the 1920s. Americans worshiped their athletic heroes. Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey were known as President Calvin Coolidge. Professional athletes, especially baseball and boxing, expanded dramatically. Professional football and basketball emerged later.
Show business-Without Harlem, the 1920s wouldn’t have been the Jazz Age. From
trumpets, beating drums, dancing feet, and plaintive and mournful songs, Harlem’s clubs, cabarets, theaters, and ballrooms echoed with the vibrant and soulful sounds of African Americans. Black and white people flocked to Harlem to enjoy themselves and to break the law. White men wrote many of the popular Broadway productions that starred black entertainers.
Moving pictures- The first machine patented in the United States that showed animated pictures or movies was a device called the "wheel of life" or "zoopraxiscope". Patented in 1867 by William Lincoln, moving drawings or photographs were watched through a slit in the zoopraxiscope. However, this was a far cry from motion pictures as we know them today. Modern motion picture making began with the invention of the motion picture camera. The Frenchman Louis Lumiere is often credited as inventing the first motion picture camera in 1895. But in truth, several others had made similar inventions around the same time as Lumiere. What Lumiere invented was a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit and projector called the Cinematographe, three functions covered in one invention.
Popular journalism-
a. 1608 First English reporter in the colonies, Captain John Smith, leader of the Jamestown settlement, publishes his newsletter, Newes from Virginia
b. 1690 First American Newspaper, Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick, is published in Boston
c. 1721 The New England Courant, published by Ben Franklin’s older brother James, is first to offer readers literature in addition to news
d. 1727 First local correspondents report news from nearby communities
Chapter 20
1. Who were the muckrakers?
The muckrakers were a journalistic voice of a larger movement in American society. Called progressivism, it lasted from the mid-1890s through WWI. The muckrakers were reporters, authors, and critics who sought to expose the evils and injustices of Gilded Age society, hoping to expose such social ills before they strangled democracy. Publishing their works in popular periodicals like McClure's, Hampton's, Cosmopolitan, and even the more conservative Ladies' Home Journal and Saturday Evening Post, these reporters spearheaded a movement in investigative journalism that remains an important part of American society today. Yet
Characterize the presidents of the Gilded Age and their administrations
2. The Harrison Administration
Harrison's administration brought a reversal of the financial policies of Grover Cleveland. Congress disposed of the Treasury surplus by making large appropriations for pensions, naval vessels, lighthouses, coast defenses, and other projects. It also passed the McKinley Tariff Act, which raised the already high protective duties and resulted in higher prices for many household commodities. In order to gain the support of the West for the bill, Congress in 1890 passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, by which the government agreed to buy 4,500,000 oz (130,000 kg) of silver every month and to issue paper money equaling the full amount purchased. platform that included demands for the free coinage of silver, government ownership of important utilities, and election of U.S. senators by popular vote.
3. The Second Cleveland Administration
Cleveland's second administration was marked by increasing conflict between the interests of the agricultural reformers, whose followers lived in the West, and those of the large bankers and manufacturers of the country, the seat of whose enterprises was generally in the East. Those who expected Cleveland and his solidly Democratic Congress to affect the financial and economic reforms demanded by the West suffered disappointment. Although pledged to a tariff for revenue only, Congress yielded to the desires of senators devoted to protecting the interests of large corporations or trusts by passing another high protective tariff. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the income tax lawThis dissatisfaction was expressed at the Democratic convention of 1896. Dominated by the radical elements of the West, the convention issued a platform demanding, among other things, the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 (Bimetallism), and an end to government by federal injunction, as in the Pullman strike. The Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan for president; the Republicans, William McKinley. The chief issue of the campaign, in which the economic interests of West and East were sharply opposed, was the silver question. After a strenuous contest, McKinley defeated Bryan.
4. The McKinley Administrations
The United States was victorious in the war, and Spain relinquished Cuba and ceded to the United States the Philippine Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Expansion of the nation to include regions outside of the North American continent was denounced as imperialism by the Democratic Party, and became the principal issue of the 1900 presidential campaign. The nation, however, supported the policy of expansion as carried out by the McKinley administration; in the election McKinley again defeated Bryan, this time by a popular majority of almost 1 million votes and by 292 electoral votes to 155. In September 1901 McKinley was assassinated by a crazed anarchist, and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt became president. His administrations marked a new attitude held by a section of the Republican Party toward the important social, political, and economic questions of the time, and led gradually to a sharp split in the party.
5. Theodore Roosevelt and Progressivism
Theodore Roosevelt, like Jackson and Lincoln, believed that the president had the duty of initiating and leading Congress to implement a policy of social and economic benefit to the people at large. As he himself put it, he found the presidency "a bully pulpit." Roosevelt's policies, designed to secure a greater measure of social justice in the United States, were outlined in his first message to Congress, on December 3, 1901. Roosevelt's address included demands for federal supervision and regulation of all interstate corporations; for amendment of the Interstate Commerce Act to prohibit railroads from giving special rates to shippers; for the conservation of natural resources; for federal appropriations for irrigation of arid regions in the West; and for extension of the merit system in civil service.
During his administrations (after completing McKinley's administration, Roosevelt was elected in 1904), the Department of Justice instituted 43 suits against the trusts and won several important judicial decisions, including one ordering the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey as a holding company with a monopoly on oil refining.
Other domestic reforms in Roosevelt's program, which he called the Square Deal, were his expansion of forest reserves and national parks; the appointment of the National Conservation Commission in 1908 to promote further conservation; and the passage of the Meat Inspection Act. Also passed was the first of the Pure Food and Drug Acts, which followed a federal investigation of packing-house conditions prompted by revelations made in Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle (1906) (see Sinclair, Upton Beall). Roosevelt gained worldwide importance through his dramatic speeches and actions as president, his inauguration of the building of the Panama Canal, and his activities in ending the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Roosevelt declined to run for reelection in 1908 and the Republicans nominated his secretary of war, William Howard Taft, based on Roosevelt's recommendation. Taft easily defeated his Democratic opponent, William Jennings Bryan.
6. The Taft Administration
The Republican platform of 1908, like the Democratic platform of that year, called for a downward revision of the tariff. Nonetheless, the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, which Congress passed in 1909, was still a high protective tariff. A pronounced split over the tariff questions and other issues developed in the Republican Party during Taft's administration. On one side was the conservative element, the so-called standpatters, who wanted a high tariff and opposed the kind of reforms initiated by Roosevelt. On the other side were the so-called insurgents, later known as progressives, who denounced the high rates of the Payne-Aldrich tariff as a betrayal of the promises made in the Republican platform and criticized the administration for refusing to continue the reforms begun by Roosevelt. Former President Roosevelt openly sided with the progressives; he supported not only tariff revision but other political and economic reforms such as direct primaries, the recall, and an income tax.
Farm Loan Act of 1916 established 12 federal land banks to make money available for long-term farm mortgages at reasonable rates.
Wilson also achieved a victory in domestic affairs when the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which legalized women's voting rights, was passed in 1919 and ratified in 1920.
Chapter 21
Examine the similarities and differences between Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson
Theodore Roosevelt-Elected as a Republican to the New York State Assembly at 23, Roosevelt quickly made a name for himself as a foe of corrupt machine politics. In 1884, overcome by grief by the deaths of both his mother and his wife on the same day, he left politics to spend two years on his cattle ranch in the badlands of the Dakota Territory, where he became increasingly concerned about environmental damage to the West and its wildlife. Nonetheless, he did participate as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1884. His attempt to reenter public life in 1886 was unsuccessful; he was defeated in a bid to become mayor of New York City. Roosevelt remained active in politics and again battled corruption as a member of the U.S. Civil Service Commission (1889–95) and as president of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners. Appointed assistant secretary of the navy by President William McKinley, he vociferously championed a bigger navy and agitated for war with Spain. When war was declared in 1898, he organized the 1st Volunteer Cavalry, known as the Rough Riders, who were sent to fight in Cuba. Roosevelt was a brave and well-publicized military leader. The charge of the Rough Riders (on foot) up Kettle Hill during the Battle of Santiago made him the biggest national hero to come out of the Spanish-American War.
Woodrow Wilson- Wilson won the presidential election of 1912 when William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt split the Republican vote. Upon taking office he set about instituting the reforms he had outlined in his book The New Freedom, including the changing of the tariff, the revising of the banking system, the checking of monopolies and fraudulent advertising, the prohibiting of unfair business practices, and the like.
Chapter 22
1. William H. Seward was one of its chief architects argued for extension of the American frontier as a Senator from New York (1849-1861) and Secretary of State (1861-1869). Seward envisioned a large U.S. empire encompassing Canada, the Caribbean, Cuba, Central Mexico, Hawaii, Iceland, Greenland, and the Pacific Islands. Most of his plans did not reach fruition in his lifetime.
2. Roosevelt first efforts were focused on Latin America where U. S. economic and power towered. As U. S. economic interests expanded in Latin America so did U. S. political influence. Exports to Latin America nose from over $50 million in 1870 to more than $120 million in 1901 and $300 billion in 1914. Investment by U. S. citizens also rose. Roosevelt became worried that Latin America nation defaults debts own to European intervention until in 1904 he issued the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. He advised them to stabilize their politics& finances.
Chapter 23
1. Why did the U. S. enter the war? Americans got caught in the Allied- Central Power crossfire. For principle, for morality, for honor, for commerce, for security, for reform, for all of these reasons, Wilson took the United States into the Great War. The U. S. went to war to reform world of politics, not to destroy Germany.
2. Discuss the failures & successes of the Versailles Peace Treaty. The Versailles stripped Germany from its power by reducing their army to 10,000 men, banning their Air Force taking a whole lot of the land blaming the entire Great World War I on Germany.
Chapter 24
1. Explain the characteristics of each of the following discuss the impact of each on American society during the 1920s.
A. Games Americans in the 1920’s embraced entertainment spending $ 2.5 billion on leisure in 1919. Spectator amusements movies, music, sports accounted for 21% of the 1929 total. The rest involved participatory recreation such as games, hobbies, and travel. Early in the 1920s, Mahjong, a Chinese tile game was the craze.
B. Movies- Americans also enjoyed watching movie & sports. In total capital investment, motion picture became one of the nation’s leading industries. 1929 movies attracted 40 million viewers weekly.
C. Sports- As technology and Mass society made the individual less significant people clung to heroic athletes as a means of identify with the unique. Tennis, swimming, & golf become famous. But boxing, football & baseball produced the most popular heroes.
D. Prohibition-After 1925 prohibition broke down as thousands made their own wine and gin illegally & bootleg importer. The 18th amendment in 1918 subsequent federal law prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.
E. Discussion the impact of the automobile on the American family, the American economy, and the American values during the 1920s.
Cars altered American life streets became cleaner as autos replaced the horses that daily dumped tons of manure. Women who learned to drive achieved new found independence. By 1927 the car was the ultimate social equalizer.
F. Discuss the impact of Prohibition on the American people & their society during the 1920s. Explain the failures of, “The Noble Experiment.”
G. During the 18th Amendment which prohibited the manufacture, sale, transportation of alcoholic beverages. It worked well at first. Per Capita consumption of liquor dropped as did arrest for drunkenness. But mobs such as Al Capone seized control of illegal liquor and wine in Chicago maintaining power over politicians and vice businesses through intimidation, bribery, and violence. Americans wanted to purchase alcohol and Capone supplied the people.
Chapter 25 – The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929-1941
Discussion Questions:
Causes of the Great Depression
What caused the Great Depression, the worst economic depression in US history? It was not just one factor, but instead a combination of domestic and worldwide conditions that led to the Great Depression. As such, there is no agreed upon list of all its causes. Here instead is a list of the top reasons that historians and economists have cited as causing the Great Depression. The effects of the Great Depression were huge across the world. Not only did it lead to the New Deal in America but more significantly, it was a direct cause of the rise of extremism in Germany leading to World War II.
Stock Market Crash of 1929
Many believe erroneously that the stock market crash that occurred on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929 is one and the same with the Great Depression. In fact, it was one of the major causes that led to the Great Depression. Two months after the original crash in October, stockholders had lost more than $40 billion dollars. Even though the stock market began to regain some of its losses, by the end of 1930, it just was not enough and America truly entered what is called the Great Depression.
Bank Failures
Throughout the 1930s over 9,000 banks failed. Bank deposits were uninsured and thus as banks failed people simply lost their savings. Surviving banks, unsure of the economic situation and concerned for their own survival, stopped being as willing to create new loans. This exacerbated the situation leading to less and less expenditures.
Reduction in Purchasing Across the Board
With the stock market crash and the fears of further economic woes, individuals from all classes stopped purchasing items. This then led to a reduction in the number of items produced and thus a reduction in the workforce. As people lost their jobs, they were unable to keep up with paying for items they had bought through installment plans and their items were repossessed. More and more inventory began to accumulate. The unemployment rate rose above 25% which meant, of course, even less spending to help alleviate the economic situation.
American Economic Policy with Europe
As businesses began failing, the government created the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930 to help protect American companies. This charged a high tax for imports thereby leading to less trade between America and foreign countries along with some economic retaliation.
Drought Conditions
While not a direct cause of the Great Depression, the drought that occurred in the Mississippi Valley in 1930 was of such proportions that many could not even pay their taxes or other debts and had to sell their farms for no profit to themselves. This was the topic of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
How did Franklin D Roosevelt attempt to restore economic confidence in the US?
Roosevelt dominated the American political scene, not only during the twelve years of his presidency, but for decades afterward. He orchestrated the realignment of voters that created the Fifth Party System. FDR's New Deal Coalition united labor unions, big city machines, white ethnics, African Americans and rural white Southerners. Roosevelt's diplomatic impact also resonated on the world stage long after his death, with the United Nations and Bretton Woods as examples of his administration's wide-ranging impact. Roosevelt is consistently rated by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.
What was the fate of many Mexican laborers in the United States in the 1930s? In 1931 the Labor Department announced plans to deport illegal immigrants to free jobs for Americans.
What was Hoover’s response to the Bonus Army?
President Hoover opposed the Bill and the Senate voted it down.
What was the impact of the great depression on African Americans?
The depression hit African Americans hard. While many African Americans were already living in poverty, white employers felt no reservations about firing their black workers first and by 1932 more than half of African Americans were out of the jobs. Racial tensions grew as economic tensions mounted; lynching's in the south saw a huge resurgence.
Examine the impact of the New Deal Era on African Americans?
Most New Deal programs discriminated against blacks. The NRA, for example, not only offered whites the first crack at jobs, but authorized separate and lower pay scales for blacks. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) refused to guarantee mortgages for blacks who tried to buy in white neighborhoods, and the CCC maintained segregated camps. Furthermore, the Social Security Act excluded those job categories blacks traditionally filled. The story in agriculture was particularly grim. Since 40 percent of all black workers made their living as sharecroppers and tenant farmers, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) acreage reduction hit blacks hard. White landlords could make more money by leaving land untilled than by putting land back into production. As a result, the AAA's policies forced more than 100,000 blacks off the land in 1933 and 1934. Even more galling to black leaders, the president failed to support an anti-lynching bill and a bill to abolish the poll tax. Roosevelt feared that conservative southern Democrats, who had seniority in Congress and controlled many committee chairmanships, would block his bills if he tried to fight them on the race question. Yet, the New Deal did record a few gains in civil rights. Roosevelt named Mary McLeod Bethune, a black educator, to the advisory committee of the National Youth Administration. Thanks to her efforts, blacks received a fair share of NYA funds. The WPA was colorblind, and blacks in northern cities benefited from its work relief programs. Harold Ickes, a strong supporter of civil rights who had several blacks on his staff, poured federal funds into black schools and hospitals in the South. Most blacks appointed to New Deal posts, however, served in token positions as advisors on black affairs. At best, they achieved a new visibility in government.
Chapter 26 Peaceseekers and Warmakers: Americans in the World, 1920-1941
No Discussion Question
Chapter 27 The Second World War at Home and Abroad, 1941-1945
What was the Powers Act?
A law, passed by congress after the Vietnam War, over President Nixon's veto, and of dubious constitutionality, which seeks to define and limit the powers of the president of the United States to command the armed forces. The most important provision is that if the U.S. armed forces go into combat the president must get a resolution from congress authorizing the mission. If the resolution is not passed then the forces must be withdrawn from the combat within sixty days.
What happen to most New Deal program.
Some were done away with, but others still exist today.
What was the Holocaust?
Mass loss of life, but most people use it specifically to refer to the extermination of millions of people in minority ethnic, religious, and social groups under the Nazi Regime during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Hitler aimed this at the Jews.
What actions were taken against Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and what role did Japanese Americans play in World War II?
The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 led some to suspect that Imperial Japan was preparing a full-scale attack on the West Coast of the United States. Japan's rapid military conquest of a large portion of Asia and the Pacific between 1936 and 1942 made its military forces seem unstoppable to some Americans. Civilian and military officials had serious concerns about the loyalty of the ethnic Japanese after the Niihau Incident which immediately followed the attack on Pearl Harbor, when a civilian Japanese national and two Hawaiian-born ethnic Japanese on the island of Ni'ihau violently freed a downed and captured Japanese naval airman, attacking their fellow Ni'ihau islanders in the process.
Concerns over the loyalty of ethnic Japanese seemed to stem as much from racial prejudice than evidence of actual malfeasance. Major Karl Bendetsen and Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, head of the Western Command, each questioned Japanese American loyalty. DeWitt, who administered the internment program, repeatedly told newspapers that "A Jap's a Jap" and testified to Congress,
I don't want any of them [persons of Japanese ancestry] here. They are a dangerous element. There is no way to determine their loyalty... It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen, he is still a Japanese. American citizenship does not necessarily determine loyalty... But we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map.
DeWitt also sought approval to conduct search and seizure operations aimed at preventing alien Japanese from making radio transmissions to Japanese ships. The Justice Department declined, stating that there was no probable cause to support DeWitt's assertion, as the FBI concluded that there was no security threat. On January 2, the Joint Immigration Committee of the California Legislature sent a manifesto to California newspapers which attacked "the ethnic Japanese," whom it alleged were "totally unassimilable." This manifesto further argued that all people of Japanese heritage were loyal subjects of the Emperor of Japan; Japanese language schools, furthermore, according to the manifesto, were bastions of racism which advanced doctrines of Japanese racial superiority.
The manifesto was backed by the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West and the California Department of the American Legion, which in January demanded that all Japanese with dual citizenship be placed in concentration camps. Internment was not limited to those who had been to Japan, but included a small number of German and
Italian enemy aliens. By February, Earl Warren, the Attorney General of California, had begun his efforts to persuade the federal government to remove all people of Japanese heritage from the West Coast.
Those that were as little as 1/16th Japanese could be placed in internment camps. There is evidence supporting the argument that the measures were racially motivated, rather than a military necessity. For example, orphaned infants with "one drop of Japanese blood" (as explained in a letter by one official) were included in the program.
Upon the bombing of Pearl Harbor and pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act, Presidential Proclamations 2525, 2526 and 2527 were issued designating Japanese, German and Italian nationals as enemy aliens. Information from the CDI was used to locate and incarcerate foreign nationals from Japan, Germany and Italy (although Germany and Italy did not declare war on the U.S. until December 11).
Presidential Proclamation 2537 was issued on January 14, 1942, requiring aliens to report any change of address, employment or name to the FBI. Enemy aliens were not allowed to enter restricted areas. Violators of these regulations were subject to "arrest, detention and internment for the duration of the war."
Chapter 28- The Cold War and American Globalism, 1945-1961
Discussion: Discuss the legacy of the Eisenhower years, and assess the Eisenhower Presidency – a) his administration published "To Secure These Rights" in 1947 a drive was started in 1948 to end discrimination in federal employment in 1950, the Supreme Court all but overturned what is referred to as Plessey v Ferguson. These were a series of laws dating from 1896 which effectively approved the "Jim Crow" segregation laws that characterized the South. The laws introduced the "separate but equal" philosophy of the south - but with the backing of the highest legal body in America. b) The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. It was accompanied by much civil unrest and popular rebellion. The process was long and tenuous in many countries, and most of these movements did not fully achieve their goals although, the efforts of these movements did lead to improvements in the legal rights of previously oppressed groups of people. c) African Americans were successfully challenging racial discrimination in the courts. And so, African Americans continued to suffer disfranchisement, job discrimination, segregation, and violence. But in 1954 the NAACP won a historic Supreme Court victory, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which Thurgood Marshall argued, incorporated school desegregation cases from several states. d) The impact was found in the national mass media. Television also fostered a shared culture. Although television set cost about $300 oppose to $2000 now or more. Television programming was due in part to advertise.
Chapter 29 America at Midcentury, 1945-1960
The Korean War - The Korean War (1950–53) was the first major proxy war in the Cold War (1945–91), the prototype of the following sphere-of-influence wars such as the Vietnam War (1959–75). The Korean War established proxy war as one way that the nuclear superpowers indirectly conducted their rivalry in third-party countries. The NSC-68 Containment Policy extended the cold war from occupied Europe to the rest of the world. a). KOREA, like Germany, had been jointly occupied by Soviet and American forces at the end of World War II. The nation had been part of the Japanese empire since 1910, and when Japanese resistance suddenly collapsed in the summer of 1945, the Red Army, which had been planning to invade Manchuria, found the way open into northern Korea as well. The way was also open, in southern Korea, for some of the American troops whose original mission had been to invade the Japanese home islands. The peninsula was occupied, therefore, more by accident than by design: that probably accounts for the fact that Moscow and Washington were able to agree without difficulty that the 38th parallel, which split the peninsula in half, would serve as a line of demarcation pending the creation of a single Korean government and the subsequent withdrawal of occupation forces. b). The reconstruction plan, developed at a meeting of the participating European states, was established on June 5, 1947. It offered the same aid to the Soviet Union and its allies, but they did not accept it. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948. During that period some US $13 billion in economic and technical assistance were given to help the recovery of the European countries that had joined in the Organization for European Economic Co-operation. This $13 billion was in the context of a U.S. GDP of $258 billion in 1948, and was on top of $12 billion in American aid to Europe between the end of the war and the start of the Plan that is counted separately from the Marshall Plan.
Chapter 30 The Tumultous Sixties, 1960-1980
Examined the factors and forces that led to the rebirth of feminism in the 1960s. Examine the factors and forces that pushed the African Americans protest movement to more radical action in the mid 1960. What was the accomplishment of President Johnson’s Great Society Program?
a). The Women movement developed from the nation’s increasingly radical social justice movements. Organized opposition to feminism came primarily from conservative, often religiously motivated men and men. b).By the end of the 1960’s divisions among Americans deepened. The civil rights movement, begun in a quest for equal rights and integration, splintered, as many young African Americans, rejected integration in favor of separatism and embraced a distinct African American culture. c). A new housing act provided rent supplements for the poor and established a Department of Housing and Urban Development. An immigration measure finally replaced the discriminatory quotas set in 1924. Federal assistance went to artists and scholars to encourage their work.
Chapter 31 Continuing Divisions and New Limits, 1968
(a) Richard Nixon said he was going to end the war fast so it would not ruin his political career as it had Johnson’s, he did not. Like Johnson, he feared that a precipitous withdrawal would harm U.S. credibility on the world state. Anxious to get U.S. troops out of Vietnam, Nixon was equally committed to preserving an independent, noncommunist South Vietnam. He adopted a policy that at once contracted and expanded the war. (b) Gulf Tonkin Resolution - was a joint resolution which the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964 in response to a sea battle between the North Vietnamese Navy's Torpedo Squadron 135 and the destroyer USS Maddox on August 2 and an alleged second naval engagement between North Vietnamese boats and the US destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy on August 4 in the Tonkin Gulf; both naval actions are known collectively as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution is of historical significance because it gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of conventional military force in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the resolution authorized the President to do whatever necessary in order to assist "any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty." This included involving armed forces.
Chapter 32 Conservatism Revived, 1980-1992
OPEC – Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. In 1976 OPEC sharply raised the price of oil a second time, the first time in 1973. Gasoline prices surged across the United States, and some dealer’s ran low on supplies. Frustrated Americans endured endless lines at the pumps and shivered in under heated homes. When the embargo was lifted in April 1974, oil prices stayed high and the aftereffects of the embargo would linger through the decade. It confirmed how much the United States economic destiny was outside its control
Chapter 33 Global Bridges in the New Millennium: America Since 1992
Ending of the cold war – When Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union in 1985, he initiated reforms that ultimately undermined the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and East Germany and led to the breakup of the Soviet Union itself, ensuring and end to the Cold War. The Persians expanded their empire to what they thought was a defensible frontier in the west - the Mediterranean Sea coastline. However the coast was dotted with hundreds of Greek city-states, who resented this dominance. Those cities were colonies of cities in the Greek mainland, and these mother-cities supported sporadic uprisings by the cities in Asia Minor against Persian rule. When Athens and Eretria supported an uprising by Miletus, they burnt the Persian provincial capital of Sardis. Persia sent a punitive expedition against the two cities, which was turned back at Marathon 490 BCE. Realizing there would always be this trouble, Persia decided to subdue mainland Greece, and so establish an ethnic frontier. They invaded in 480 BCE but failed. Athens organized a defensive anti-Persian league so sporadic clashes continued. This concluded in 449 BCE with a treaty under which the Persians agreed to stay out of Greek waters.
Discussion
1. How did Reconstruction address the results of the Civil War?
After the Civil War had ended, Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts. These four statutes included: the creation of five military districts, required approval by Congress for new state constitutions, the Confederate states must acknowledge and allow every man’s right to vote, and all states must ratify the 14th Amendment. However, Reconstruction did not adequately address the results because the government’s agenda and goals put forth were unclear.
2. How did African American express their new found freedom?
Many of them took advantage of this freedom and migrated in hopes of finding and reuniting with their families and find jobs. They quickly began to set up churches, schools, and community associations to avoid the idea of white control. Overall, the Reconstruction Era was initially a time of progress for them.
3. What was the Compromise of 1877?
One of the compromises put into place to create a peaceful United States. This compromise took place after the Civil War and was basically an attempt to keep down violence. Part of the agreement included that R. Hayes bring an end to the Reconstruction throughout the south and provide financial subsidies if he took office.
4. What issues remained unresolved at the close of the Reconstruction Era?
Reconstruction period was an era of a corrupt government (which was thought to be caused by blacks being a part of political issues). Hence, justification of racial segregation survived. The overthrow of the Reconstruction left the problem of racial injustice.
5. What was the Freedman’s Bureau and what did it accomplish?
The Freedman’s Bureau was established March 3, 1865 in hopes of addressing all matters concerning refugees and freed slaves. It was a federal agency that was formed during Reconstruction to aid distressed refugees of the American Civil War. It became primarily an agency to help the Freedmen (freed slaves) in the South, including issuing rations, clothing, and medicine. The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory. The Bureau was established by Congress. It was part of the United States Department of War, and headed by Union General Oliver O. Howard. Fully operational from June 1865 through December 1868, it was disbanded by President Andrew Johnson.
Chapter 17
1. Why was California the model for agribusiness in this period?
The Gold Rush helped motivate agriculture in California. During the Mexican phase, agriculture was neglected, and the Americans continued the trend until about 1848. Agriculture became a very important aspect of California’s economic system. California evidently possessed great climate, soil, oil, and other natural resources, which prospered early on with the help of the Gold Rush. “The second American agricultural revolution” was termed for the years of 1941-1973, and the factors included were better equipped soil conditioners, fertilizers and cover crops; productive crops and livestock; production of crops and livestock intensified; and thorough conservation practices.
2. In terms of labor how was race used?
The poor whites disrupted the social order by their demand for lands and privileges. African labor provided a buffer against poor whites. Hence, they were immune to many of the diseases, and they were better laborers (who didn’t have anywhere to escape to). It was then that Africans were used for their intense ability to withstand various hardships and other cruel circumstances.
Chapter 18
1. What factors made industrialization at such a rapid rate possible?
Industrialization is the system of production that rose from the steady development, study, and use of scientific knowledge. It is based on the division of labor and on specialization and uses mechanical, chemical, and power-driven, as well as organizational and intellectual, aids in production. The primary objective of this method has been to reduce the real cost, per unit, of producing goods and services. The changes that took place in Britain during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and 19th century led the way for the early industrializing nations of western Europe and North America. Industrialization was geared toward technology and social developments. Cities attracted large numbers of people, massing workers in new industrial towns and factories.
2. How did industrialization affect the lives of individuals?
The effects of industrialization in the 19th century was contributed by agriculture, factories, and machinery. The changes produced progress; however, setbacks were also evident. The use of machinery caused an increase in the food industry which reduced the use of people and animals. This decreased the use of hired help; therefore, increasing income. Cities became wealthy and farmers began to move toward the city. The increase in city size had a negative effect since people were moving into the cities faster than housing could be constructed. Disease began to spread because of the overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions. On the positive side, the grow cities introduced new technologies that aided in transportation and water systems.
Chapter 19
Explain the emergence and characteristics of each of the following and discuss their impact on American society.
Sports flourished in America in the 1920s. Americans worshiped their athletic heroes. Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey were known as President Calvin Coolidge. Professional athletes, especially baseball and boxing, expanded dramatically. Professional football and basketball emerged later.
Show business-Without Harlem, the 1920s wouldn’t have been the Jazz Age. From
trumpets, beating drums, dancing feet, and plaintive and mournful songs, Harlem’s clubs, cabarets, theaters, and ballrooms echoed with the vibrant and soulful sounds of African Americans. Black and white people flocked to Harlem to enjoy themselves and to break the law. White men wrote many of the popular Broadway productions that starred black entertainers.
Moving pictures- The first machine patented in the United States that showed animated pictures or movies was a device called the "wheel of life" or "zoopraxiscope". Patented in 1867 by William Lincoln, moving drawings or photographs were watched through a slit in the zoopraxiscope. However, this was a far cry from motion pictures as we know them today. Modern motion picture making began with the invention of the motion picture camera. The Frenchman Louis Lumiere is often credited as inventing the first motion picture camera in 1895. But in truth, several others had made similar inventions around the same time as Lumiere. What Lumiere invented was a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit and projector called the Cinematographe, three functions covered in one invention.
Popular journalism-
a. 1608 First English reporter in the colonies, Captain John Smith, leader of the Jamestown settlement, publishes his newsletter, Newes from Virginia
b. 1690 First American Newspaper, Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick, is published in Boston
c. 1721 The New England Courant, published by Ben Franklin’s older brother James, is first to offer readers literature in addition to news
d. 1727 First local correspondents report news from nearby communities
Chapter 20
1. Who were the muckrakers?
The muckrakers were a journalistic voice of a larger movement in American society. Called progressivism, it lasted from the mid-1890s through WWI. The muckrakers were reporters, authors, and critics who sought to expose the evils and injustices of Gilded Age society, hoping to expose such social ills before they strangled democracy. Publishing their works in popular periodicals like McClure's, Hampton's, Cosmopolitan, and even the more conservative Ladies' Home Journal and Saturday Evening Post, these reporters spearheaded a movement in investigative journalism that remains an important part of American society today. Yet
Characterize the presidents of the Gilded Age and their administrations
2. The Harrison Administration
Harrison's administration brought a reversal of the financial policies of Grover Cleveland. Congress disposed of the Treasury surplus by making large appropriations for pensions, naval vessels, lighthouses, coast defenses, and other projects. It also passed the McKinley Tariff Act, which raised the already high protective duties and resulted in higher prices for many household commodities. In order to gain the support of the West for the bill, Congress in 1890 passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, by which the government agreed to buy 4,500,000 oz (130,000 kg) of silver every month and to issue paper money equaling the full amount purchased. platform that included demands for the free coinage of silver, government ownership of important utilities, and election of U.S. senators by popular vote.
3. The Second Cleveland Administration
Cleveland's second administration was marked by increasing conflict between the interests of the agricultural reformers, whose followers lived in the West, and those of the large bankers and manufacturers of the country, the seat of whose enterprises was generally in the East. Those who expected Cleveland and his solidly Democratic Congress to affect the financial and economic reforms demanded by the West suffered disappointment. Although pledged to a tariff for revenue only, Congress yielded to the desires of senators devoted to protecting the interests of large corporations or trusts by passing another high protective tariff. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the income tax lawThis dissatisfaction was expressed at the Democratic convention of 1896. Dominated by the radical elements of the West, the convention issued a platform demanding, among other things, the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 (Bimetallism), and an end to government by federal injunction, as in the Pullman strike. The Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan for president; the Republicans, William McKinley. The chief issue of the campaign, in which the economic interests of West and East were sharply opposed, was the silver question. After a strenuous contest, McKinley defeated Bryan.
4. The McKinley Administrations
The United States was victorious in the war, and Spain relinquished Cuba and ceded to the United States the Philippine Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Expansion of the nation to include regions outside of the North American continent was denounced as imperialism by the Democratic Party, and became the principal issue of the 1900 presidential campaign. The nation, however, supported the policy of expansion as carried out by the McKinley administration; in the election McKinley again defeated Bryan, this time by a popular majority of almost 1 million votes and by 292 electoral votes to 155. In September 1901 McKinley was assassinated by a crazed anarchist, and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt became president. His administrations marked a new attitude held by a section of the Republican Party toward the important social, political, and economic questions of the time, and led gradually to a sharp split in the party.
5. Theodore Roosevelt and Progressivism
Theodore Roosevelt, like Jackson and Lincoln, believed that the president had the duty of initiating and leading Congress to implement a policy of social and economic benefit to the people at large. As he himself put it, he found the presidency "a bully pulpit." Roosevelt's policies, designed to secure a greater measure of social justice in the United States, were outlined in his first message to Congress, on December 3, 1901. Roosevelt's address included demands for federal supervision and regulation of all interstate corporations; for amendment of the Interstate Commerce Act to prohibit railroads from giving special rates to shippers; for the conservation of natural resources; for federal appropriations for irrigation of arid regions in the West; and for extension of the merit system in civil service.
During his administrations (after completing McKinley's administration, Roosevelt was elected in 1904), the Department of Justice instituted 43 suits against the trusts and won several important judicial decisions, including one ordering the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey as a holding company with a monopoly on oil refining.
Other domestic reforms in Roosevelt's program, which he called the Square Deal, were his expansion of forest reserves and national parks; the appointment of the National Conservation Commission in 1908 to promote further conservation; and the passage of the Meat Inspection Act. Also passed was the first of the Pure Food and Drug Acts, which followed a federal investigation of packing-house conditions prompted by revelations made in Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle (1906) (see Sinclair, Upton Beall). Roosevelt gained worldwide importance through his dramatic speeches and actions as president, his inauguration of the building of the Panama Canal, and his activities in ending the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Roosevelt declined to run for reelection in 1908 and the Republicans nominated his secretary of war, William Howard Taft, based on Roosevelt's recommendation. Taft easily defeated his Democratic opponent, William Jennings Bryan.
6. The Taft Administration
The Republican platform of 1908, like the Democratic platform of that year, called for a downward revision of the tariff. Nonetheless, the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, which Congress passed in 1909, was still a high protective tariff. A pronounced split over the tariff questions and other issues developed in the Republican Party during Taft's administration. On one side was the conservative element, the so-called standpatters, who wanted a high tariff and opposed the kind of reforms initiated by Roosevelt. On the other side were the so-called insurgents, later known as progressives, who denounced the high rates of the Payne-Aldrich tariff as a betrayal of the promises made in the Republican platform and criticized the administration for refusing to continue the reforms begun by Roosevelt. Former President Roosevelt openly sided with the progressives; he supported not only tariff revision but other political and economic reforms such as direct primaries, the recall, and an income tax.
Farm Loan Act of 1916 established 12 federal land banks to make money available for long-term farm mortgages at reasonable rates.
Wilson also achieved a victory in domestic affairs when the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which legalized women's voting rights, was passed in 1919 and ratified in 1920.
Chapter 21
Examine the similarities and differences between Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson
Theodore Roosevelt-Elected as a Republican to the New York State Assembly at 23, Roosevelt quickly made a name for himself as a foe of corrupt machine politics. In 1884, overcome by grief by the deaths of both his mother and his wife on the same day, he left politics to spend two years on his cattle ranch in the badlands of the Dakota Territory, where he became increasingly concerned about environmental damage to the West and its wildlife. Nonetheless, he did participate as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1884. His attempt to reenter public life in 1886 was unsuccessful; he was defeated in a bid to become mayor of New York City. Roosevelt remained active in politics and again battled corruption as a member of the U.S. Civil Service Commission (1889–95) and as president of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners. Appointed assistant secretary of the navy by President William McKinley, he vociferously championed a bigger navy and agitated for war with Spain. When war was declared in 1898, he organized the 1st Volunteer Cavalry, known as the Rough Riders, who were sent to fight in Cuba. Roosevelt was a brave and well-publicized military leader. The charge of the Rough Riders (on foot) up Kettle Hill during the Battle of Santiago made him the biggest national hero to come out of the Spanish-American War.
Woodrow Wilson- Wilson won the presidential election of 1912 when William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt split the Republican vote. Upon taking office he set about instituting the reforms he had outlined in his book The New Freedom, including the changing of the tariff, the revising of the banking system, the checking of monopolies and fraudulent advertising, the prohibiting of unfair business practices, and the like.
Chapter 22
1. William H. Seward was one of its chief architects argued for extension of the American frontier as a Senator from New York (1849-1861) and Secretary of State (1861-1869). Seward envisioned a large U.S. empire encompassing Canada, the Caribbean, Cuba, Central Mexico, Hawaii, Iceland, Greenland, and the Pacific Islands. Most of his plans did not reach fruition in his lifetime.
2. Roosevelt first efforts were focused on Latin America where U. S. economic and power towered. As U. S. economic interests expanded in Latin America so did U. S. political influence. Exports to Latin America nose from over $50 million in 1870 to more than $120 million in 1901 and $300 billion in 1914. Investment by U. S. citizens also rose. Roosevelt became worried that Latin America nation defaults debts own to European intervention until in 1904 he issued the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. He advised them to stabilize their politics& finances.
Chapter 23
1. Why did the U. S. enter the war? Americans got caught in the Allied- Central Power crossfire. For principle, for morality, for honor, for commerce, for security, for reform, for all of these reasons, Wilson took the United States into the Great War. The U. S. went to war to reform world of politics, not to destroy Germany.
2. Discuss the failures & successes of the Versailles Peace Treaty. The Versailles stripped Germany from its power by reducing their army to 10,000 men, banning their Air Force taking a whole lot of the land blaming the entire Great World War I on Germany.
Chapter 24
1. Explain the characteristics of each of the following discuss the impact of each on American society during the 1920s.
A. Games Americans in the 1920’s embraced entertainment spending $ 2.5 billion on leisure in 1919. Spectator amusements movies, music, sports accounted for 21% of the 1929 total. The rest involved participatory recreation such as games, hobbies, and travel. Early in the 1920s, Mahjong, a Chinese tile game was the craze.
B. Movies- Americans also enjoyed watching movie & sports. In total capital investment, motion picture became one of the nation’s leading industries. 1929 movies attracted 40 million viewers weekly.
C. Sports- As technology and Mass society made the individual less significant people clung to heroic athletes as a means of identify with the unique. Tennis, swimming, & golf become famous. But boxing, football & baseball produced the most popular heroes.
D. Prohibition-After 1925 prohibition broke down as thousands made their own wine and gin illegally & bootleg importer. The 18th amendment in 1918 subsequent federal law prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.
E. Discussion the impact of the automobile on the American family, the American economy, and the American values during the 1920s.
Cars altered American life streets became cleaner as autos replaced the horses that daily dumped tons of manure. Women who learned to drive achieved new found independence. By 1927 the car was the ultimate social equalizer.
F. Discuss the impact of Prohibition on the American people & their society during the 1920s. Explain the failures of, “The Noble Experiment.”
G. During the 18th Amendment which prohibited the manufacture, sale, transportation of alcoholic beverages. It worked well at first. Per Capita consumption of liquor dropped as did arrest for drunkenness. But mobs such as Al Capone seized control of illegal liquor and wine in Chicago maintaining power over politicians and vice businesses through intimidation, bribery, and violence. Americans wanted to purchase alcohol and Capone supplied the people.
Chapter 25 – The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929-1941
Discussion Questions:
Causes of the Great Depression
What caused the Great Depression, the worst economic depression in US history? It was not just one factor, but instead a combination of domestic and worldwide conditions that led to the Great Depression. As such, there is no agreed upon list of all its causes. Here instead is a list of the top reasons that historians and economists have cited as causing the Great Depression. The effects of the Great Depression were huge across the world. Not only did it lead to the New Deal in America but more significantly, it was a direct cause of the rise of extremism in Germany leading to World War II.
Stock Market Crash of 1929
Many believe erroneously that the stock market crash that occurred on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929 is one and the same with the Great Depression. In fact, it was one of the major causes that led to the Great Depression. Two months after the original crash in October, stockholders had lost more than $40 billion dollars. Even though the stock market began to regain some of its losses, by the end of 1930, it just was not enough and America truly entered what is called the Great Depression.
Bank Failures
Throughout the 1930s over 9,000 banks failed. Bank deposits were uninsured and thus as banks failed people simply lost their savings. Surviving banks, unsure of the economic situation and concerned for their own survival, stopped being as willing to create new loans. This exacerbated the situation leading to less and less expenditures.
Reduction in Purchasing Across the Board
With the stock market crash and the fears of further economic woes, individuals from all classes stopped purchasing items. This then led to a reduction in the number of items produced and thus a reduction in the workforce. As people lost their jobs, they were unable to keep up with paying for items they had bought through installment plans and their items were repossessed. More and more inventory began to accumulate. The unemployment rate rose above 25% which meant, of course, even less spending to help alleviate the economic situation.
American Economic Policy with Europe
As businesses began failing, the government created the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930 to help protect American companies. This charged a high tax for imports thereby leading to less trade between America and foreign countries along with some economic retaliation.
Drought Conditions
While not a direct cause of the Great Depression, the drought that occurred in the Mississippi Valley in 1930 was of such proportions that many could not even pay their taxes or other debts and had to sell their farms for no profit to themselves. This was the topic of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
How did Franklin D Roosevelt attempt to restore economic confidence in the US?
Roosevelt dominated the American political scene, not only during the twelve years of his presidency, but for decades afterward. He orchestrated the realignment of voters that created the Fifth Party System. FDR's New Deal Coalition united labor unions, big city machines, white ethnics, African Americans and rural white Southerners. Roosevelt's diplomatic impact also resonated on the world stage long after his death, with the United Nations and Bretton Woods as examples of his administration's wide-ranging impact. Roosevelt is consistently rated by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.
What was the fate of many Mexican laborers in the United States in the 1930s? In 1931 the Labor Department announced plans to deport illegal immigrants to free jobs for Americans.
What was Hoover’s response to the Bonus Army?
President Hoover opposed the Bill and the Senate voted it down.
What was the impact of the great depression on African Americans?
The depression hit African Americans hard. While many African Americans were already living in poverty, white employers felt no reservations about firing their black workers first and by 1932 more than half of African Americans were out of the jobs. Racial tensions grew as economic tensions mounted; lynching's in the south saw a huge resurgence.
Examine the impact of the New Deal Era on African Americans?
Most New Deal programs discriminated against blacks. The NRA, for example, not only offered whites the first crack at jobs, but authorized separate and lower pay scales for blacks. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) refused to guarantee mortgages for blacks who tried to buy in white neighborhoods, and the CCC maintained segregated camps. Furthermore, the Social Security Act excluded those job categories blacks traditionally filled. The story in agriculture was particularly grim. Since 40 percent of all black workers made their living as sharecroppers and tenant farmers, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) acreage reduction hit blacks hard. White landlords could make more money by leaving land untilled than by putting land back into production. As a result, the AAA's policies forced more than 100,000 blacks off the land in 1933 and 1934. Even more galling to black leaders, the president failed to support an anti-lynching bill and a bill to abolish the poll tax. Roosevelt feared that conservative southern Democrats, who had seniority in Congress and controlled many committee chairmanships, would block his bills if he tried to fight them on the race question. Yet, the New Deal did record a few gains in civil rights. Roosevelt named Mary McLeod Bethune, a black educator, to the advisory committee of the National Youth Administration. Thanks to her efforts, blacks received a fair share of NYA funds. The WPA was colorblind, and blacks in northern cities benefited from its work relief programs. Harold Ickes, a strong supporter of civil rights who had several blacks on his staff, poured federal funds into black schools and hospitals in the South. Most blacks appointed to New Deal posts, however, served in token positions as advisors on black affairs. At best, they achieved a new visibility in government.
Chapter 26 Peaceseekers and Warmakers: Americans in the World, 1920-1941
No Discussion Question
Chapter 27 The Second World War at Home and Abroad, 1941-1945
What was the Powers Act?
A law, passed by congress after the Vietnam War, over President Nixon's veto, and of dubious constitutionality, which seeks to define and limit the powers of the president of the United States to command the armed forces. The most important provision is that if the U.S. armed forces go into combat the president must get a resolution from congress authorizing the mission. If the resolution is not passed then the forces must be withdrawn from the combat within sixty days.
What happen to most New Deal program.
Some were done away with, but others still exist today.
What was the Holocaust?
Mass loss of life, but most people use it specifically to refer to the extermination of millions of people in minority ethnic, religious, and social groups under the Nazi Regime during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Hitler aimed this at the Jews.
What actions were taken against Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and what role did Japanese Americans play in World War II?
The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 led some to suspect that Imperial Japan was preparing a full-scale attack on the West Coast of the United States. Japan's rapid military conquest of a large portion of Asia and the Pacific between 1936 and 1942 made its military forces seem unstoppable to some Americans. Civilian and military officials had serious concerns about the loyalty of the ethnic Japanese after the Niihau Incident which immediately followed the attack on Pearl Harbor, when a civilian Japanese national and two Hawaiian-born ethnic Japanese on the island of Ni'ihau violently freed a downed and captured Japanese naval airman, attacking their fellow Ni'ihau islanders in the process.
Concerns over the loyalty of ethnic Japanese seemed to stem as much from racial prejudice than evidence of actual malfeasance. Major Karl Bendetsen and Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, head of the Western Command, each questioned Japanese American loyalty. DeWitt, who administered the internment program, repeatedly told newspapers that "A Jap's a Jap" and testified to Congress,
I don't want any of them [persons of Japanese ancestry] here. They are a dangerous element. There is no way to determine their loyalty... It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen, he is still a Japanese. American citizenship does not necessarily determine loyalty... But we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map.
DeWitt also sought approval to conduct search and seizure operations aimed at preventing alien Japanese from making radio transmissions to Japanese ships. The Justice Department declined, stating that there was no probable cause to support DeWitt's assertion, as the FBI concluded that there was no security threat. On January 2, the Joint Immigration Committee of the California Legislature sent a manifesto to California newspapers which attacked "the ethnic Japanese," whom it alleged were "totally unassimilable." This manifesto further argued that all people of Japanese heritage were loyal subjects of the Emperor of Japan; Japanese language schools, furthermore, according to the manifesto, were bastions of racism which advanced doctrines of Japanese racial superiority.
The manifesto was backed by the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West and the California Department of the American Legion, which in January demanded that all Japanese with dual citizenship be placed in concentration camps. Internment was not limited to those who had been to Japan, but included a small number of German and
Italian enemy aliens. By February, Earl Warren, the Attorney General of California, had begun his efforts to persuade the federal government to remove all people of Japanese heritage from the West Coast.
Those that were as little as 1/16th Japanese could be placed in internment camps. There is evidence supporting the argument that the measures were racially motivated, rather than a military necessity. For example, orphaned infants with "one drop of Japanese blood" (as explained in a letter by one official) were included in the program.
Upon the bombing of Pearl Harbor and pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act, Presidential Proclamations 2525, 2526 and 2527 were issued designating Japanese, German and Italian nationals as enemy aliens. Information from the CDI was used to locate and incarcerate foreign nationals from Japan, Germany and Italy (although Germany and Italy did not declare war on the U.S. until December 11).
Presidential Proclamation 2537 was issued on January 14, 1942, requiring aliens to report any change of address, employment or name to the FBI. Enemy aliens were not allowed to enter restricted areas. Violators of these regulations were subject to "arrest, detention and internment for the duration of the war."
Chapter 28- The Cold War and American Globalism, 1945-1961
Discussion: Discuss the legacy of the Eisenhower years, and assess the Eisenhower Presidency – a) his administration published "To Secure These Rights" in 1947 a drive was started in 1948 to end discrimination in federal employment in 1950, the Supreme Court all but overturned what is referred to as Plessey v Ferguson. These were a series of laws dating from 1896 which effectively approved the "Jim Crow" segregation laws that characterized the South. The laws introduced the "separate but equal" philosophy of the south - but with the backing of the highest legal body in America. b) The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. It was accompanied by much civil unrest and popular rebellion. The process was long and tenuous in many countries, and most of these movements did not fully achieve their goals although, the efforts of these movements did lead to improvements in the legal rights of previously oppressed groups of people. c) African Americans were successfully challenging racial discrimination in the courts. And so, African Americans continued to suffer disfranchisement, job discrimination, segregation, and violence. But in 1954 the NAACP won a historic Supreme Court victory, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which Thurgood Marshall argued, incorporated school desegregation cases from several states. d) The impact was found in the national mass media. Television also fostered a shared culture. Although television set cost about $300 oppose to $2000 now or more. Television programming was due in part to advertise.
Chapter 29 America at Midcentury, 1945-1960
The Korean War - The Korean War (1950–53) was the first major proxy war in the Cold War (1945–91), the prototype of the following sphere-of-influence wars such as the Vietnam War (1959–75). The Korean War established proxy war as one way that the nuclear superpowers indirectly conducted their rivalry in third-party countries. The NSC-68 Containment Policy extended the cold war from occupied Europe to the rest of the world. a). KOREA, like Germany, had been jointly occupied by Soviet and American forces at the end of World War II. The nation had been part of the Japanese empire since 1910, and when Japanese resistance suddenly collapsed in the summer of 1945, the Red Army, which had been planning to invade Manchuria, found the way open into northern Korea as well. The way was also open, in southern Korea, for some of the American troops whose original mission had been to invade the Japanese home islands. The peninsula was occupied, therefore, more by accident than by design: that probably accounts for the fact that Moscow and Washington were able to agree without difficulty that the 38th parallel, which split the peninsula in half, would serve as a line of demarcation pending the creation of a single Korean government and the subsequent withdrawal of occupation forces. b). The reconstruction plan, developed at a meeting of the participating European states, was established on June 5, 1947. It offered the same aid to the Soviet Union and its allies, but they did not accept it. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948. During that period some US $13 billion in economic and technical assistance were given to help the recovery of the European countries that had joined in the Organization for European Economic Co-operation. This $13 billion was in the context of a U.S. GDP of $258 billion in 1948, and was on top of $12 billion in American aid to Europe between the end of the war and the start of the Plan that is counted separately from the Marshall Plan.
Chapter 30 The Tumultous Sixties, 1960-1980
Examined the factors and forces that led to the rebirth of feminism in the 1960s. Examine the factors and forces that pushed the African Americans protest movement to more radical action in the mid 1960. What was the accomplishment of President Johnson’s Great Society Program?
a). The Women movement developed from the nation’s increasingly radical social justice movements. Organized opposition to feminism came primarily from conservative, often religiously motivated men and men. b).By the end of the 1960’s divisions among Americans deepened. The civil rights movement, begun in a quest for equal rights and integration, splintered, as many young African Americans, rejected integration in favor of separatism and embraced a distinct African American culture. c). A new housing act provided rent supplements for the poor and established a Department of Housing and Urban Development. An immigration measure finally replaced the discriminatory quotas set in 1924. Federal assistance went to artists and scholars to encourage their work.
Chapter 31 Continuing Divisions and New Limits, 1968
(a) Richard Nixon said he was going to end the war fast so it would not ruin his political career as it had Johnson’s, he did not. Like Johnson, he feared that a precipitous withdrawal would harm U.S. credibility on the world state. Anxious to get U.S. troops out of Vietnam, Nixon was equally committed to preserving an independent, noncommunist South Vietnam. He adopted a policy that at once contracted and expanded the war. (b) Gulf Tonkin Resolution - was a joint resolution which the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964 in response to a sea battle between the North Vietnamese Navy's Torpedo Squadron 135 and the destroyer USS Maddox on August 2 and an alleged second naval engagement between North Vietnamese boats and the US destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy on August 4 in the Tonkin Gulf; both naval actions are known collectively as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution is of historical significance because it gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of conventional military force in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the resolution authorized the President to do whatever necessary in order to assist "any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty." This included involving armed forces.
Chapter 32 Conservatism Revived, 1980-1992
OPEC – Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. In 1976 OPEC sharply raised the price of oil a second time, the first time in 1973. Gasoline prices surged across the United States, and some dealer’s ran low on supplies. Frustrated Americans endured endless lines at the pumps and shivered in under heated homes. When the embargo was lifted in April 1974, oil prices stayed high and the aftereffects of the embargo would linger through the decade. It confirmed how much the United States economic destiny was outside its control
Chapter 33 Global Bridges in the New Millennium: America Since 1992
Ending of the cold war – When Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union in 1985, he initiated reforms that ultimately undermined the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and East Germany and led to the breakup of the Soviet Union itself, ensuring and end to the Cold War. The Persians expanded their empire to what they thought was a defensible frontier in the west - the Mediterranean Sea coastline. However the coast was dotted with hundreds of Greek city-states, who resented this dominance. Those cities were colonies of cities in the Greek mainland, and these mother-cities supported sporadic uprisings by the cities in Asia Minor against Persian rule. When Athens and Eretria supported an uprising by Miletus, they burnt the Persian provincial capital of Sardis. Persia sent a punitive expedition against the two cities, which was turned back at Marathon 490 BCE. Realizing there would always be this trouble, Persia decided to subdue mainland Greece, and so establish an ethnic frontier. They invaded in 480 BCE but failed. Athens organized a defensive anti-Persian league so sporadic clashes continued. This concluded in 449 BCE with a treaty under which the Persians agreed to stay out of Greek waters.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
THE HISTORY OF JIM CROW
Jim Crow Legislation Overview
By Susan Falck, M.A., Research Associate
California State University--Northridge, California
"There is no wonder that we die," an Alabama woman sighed,
"The wonder is that we persist in living."
"The Negro Problem," The Independent, September 18, 1902
More than 400 state laws, constitutional amendments, and city ordinances legalizing segregation and discrimination were passed in the United States between 1865 and 1967. These laws governed nearly every aspect of daily life, from education to public transportation, from health care and housing to the use of public facilities. African-American children got their first taste of racial discrimination when they found themselves barred from attending school with white children, and being sent, instead, to inferior facilities.
Growing up, these children learned that their lives were equally restricted outside the classroom. They were forbidden from sharing a bus seat with a white passenger or to ride in the same compartment of a train. They were denied access to public parks and restaurants, and, in some states, were forced to enter public amusements like the circus through a separate entrance. Black movie theater patrons were seated in the balcony, separated from white customers in what was commonly referred to as "Nigger heaven." When they went to work, African Americans were forced to use separate entrances and bathrooms and to collect their paychecks at separate windows. Even in death, legislation ensured that the races would remain separate. Several states prohibited hearses from carrying both races, and cemeteries were required to maintain separate graveyards.
While the majority of Jim Crow laws discriminated specifically against African Americans, other minority groups also were frequently targeted. Western states routinely passed discriminatory legislation against Asians and Native Americans, passing 51 Jim Crow laws, 12 percent of the nation's total. Outside the South, California passed more Jim Crow laws (17) than any other state in the country.
Miscegenation statutes, intended to prevent racial interbreeding, led the list of Jim Crow laws enacted. At least 127 laws prohibiting interracial marriage and cohabitation were passed between 1865 and the 1950s nationwide, with 37 percent of the statutes passed outside the South. Western states enacted 33 such laws (27 percent). Both whites and blacks who ignored the law could receive sentences for up to ten years hard labor in the penitentiary in a number of states. Punishment for miscegenation in state statutes was still in force in the 1960s in Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, and North Carolina.
Further testament that racism existed nationwide is evident in education laws. States outside the South enacted 23 percent of the laws that authorized segregated schools. Likewise, seven of the 12 laws that required race to be considered in adoption petitions were passed outside of the South.
Although the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision formally made segregation illegal, southern states continued to pass Jim Crow legislation well into the 1960s, particularly in the area of school segregation. Historian C. Vann Woodward estimated that 106 new segregation laws were passed between the Brown decision and the end of 1956. By May 1964, the South had enacted 450 laws and resolutions to frustrate the Supreme Court's decision. Many of these statutes were passed at the local level and were particularly dehumanizing. In 1960, the city of Danville, Virginia, attempted to maintain segregated library facilities by establishing a "stand-up-pick-up-your-books-and-go" policy. Tables and chairs were removed from the library so that patrons could not sit down. The cost of a library card was $2.50 and new applicants (blacks) were required to furnish two credit references and two character witnesses. As late as 1967, the city of Sarasota, Florida, prohibited blacks and whites from using the same beaches and authorized police to clear the area if such mixing occurred.
Here is a breakdown of the laws compiled for this Web site.
Legislation Topics Total Number Enacted
Segregation Statutes
(includes adoption, business licenses,
health care, housing, prisons, public accommodation,
public carrier, school and race classification) 283
Miscegenation Statutes 127
Voting Rights 29
Total 439
As you can see from the table below, miscegenation and school segregation laws dominated the types of statutes passed.
Type Number % of Total
Statutes Passed
Miscegenation 127 29
Education 112 25
Public carrier 71 16
Public accommodation 34 8
Voting rights 29 6
Other categories of Jim Crow segregation laws compiled for this Web site include:
Category Number on this Web site
Adoption 12
Alcohol sales 1
Business Licenses 1
Employment 4
Health Care 19
Housing 5
Military 3
Land ownership 1
Prisons 5
Race Classification 7
Recreation 4
Sports 1
Vital Records 1
Not surprisingly, the South legislated the greatest percentage of Jim Crow laws (79 percent). Louisiana passed more Jim Crow laws than any state in the nation (29). Alabama and Georgia, with 27 statues each, were close behind. Here's a look at the laws from all categories (segregation, miscegenation and voting rights) by region:
Region Number of Laws % of Total
South 342 78
West 59 13
Midwest 27 6
Northeast 11 3
In September 1949, only 15 states had no segregation laws in effect. These included Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. Of the remaining states, 30 states prohibited mixed marriages and "race mixing." Twenty states proscribed separate schools for blacks and whites. Fourteen states permitted or required separate railroad accommodations.
By September 1949, only 18 states had laws prohibiting discrimination in places of public accommodation. These states included California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin. This Web site includes 215 laws that protected civil rights
By Susan Falck, M.A., Research Associate
California State University--Northridge, California
"There is no wonder that we die," an Alabama woman sighed,
"The wonder is that we persist in living."
"The Negro Problem," The Independent, September 18, 1902
More than 400 state laws, constitutional amendments, and city ordinances legalizing segregation and discrimination were passed in the United States between 1865 and 1967. These laws governed nearly every aspect of daily life, from education to public transportation, from health care and housing to the use of public facilities. African-American children got their first taste of racial discrimination when they found themselves barred from attending school with white children, and being sent, instead, to inferior facilities.
Growing up, these children learned that their lives were equally restricted outside the classroom. They were forbidden from sharing a bus seat with a white passenger or to ride in the same compartment of a train. They were denied access to public parks and restaurants, and, in some states, were forced to enter public amusements like the circus through a separate entrance. Black movie theater patrons were seated in the balcony, separated from white customers in what was commonly referred to as "Nigger heaven." When they went to work, African Americans were forced to use separate entrances and bathrooms and to collect their paychecks at separate windows. Even in death, legislation ensured that the races would remain separate. Several states prohibited hearses from carrying both races, and cemeteries were required to maintain separate graveyards.
While the majority of Jim Crow laws discriminated specifically against African Americans, other minority groups also were frequently targeted. Western states routinely passed discriminatory legislation against Asians and Native Americans, passing 51 Jim Crow laws, 12 percent of the nation's total. Outside the South, California passed more Jim Crow laws (17) than any other state in the country.
Miscegenation statutes, intended to prevent racial interbreeding, led the list of Jim Crow laws enacted. At least 127 laws prohibiting interracial marriage and cohabitation were passed between 1865 and the 1950s nationwide, with 37 percent of the statutes passed outside the South. Western states enacted 33 such laws (27 percent). Both whites and blacks who ignored the law could receive sentences for up to ten years hard labor in the penitentiary in a number of states. Punishment for miscegenation in state statutes was still in force in the 1960s in Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, and North Carolina.
Further testament that racism existed nationwide is evident in education laws. States outside the South enacted 23 percent of the laws that authorized segregated schools. Likewise, seven of the 12 laws that required race to be considered in adoption petitions were passed outside of the South.
Although the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision formally made segregation illegal, southern states continued to pass Jim Crow legislation well into the 1960s, particularly in the area of school segregation. Historian C. Vann Woodward estimated that 106 new segregation laws were passed between the Brown decision and the end of 1956. By May 1964, the South had enacted 450 laws and resolutions to frustrate the Supreme Court's decision. Many of these statutes were passed at the local level and were particularly dehumanizing. In 1960, the city of Danville, Virginia, attempted to maintain segregated library facilities by establishing a "stand-up-pick-up-your-books-and-go" policy. Tables and chairs were removed from the library so that patrons could not sit down. The cost of a library card was $2.50 and new applicants (blacks) were required to furnish two credit references and two character witnesses. As late as 1967, the city of Sarasota, Florida, prohibited blacks and whites from using the same beaches and authorized police to clear the area if such mixing occurred.
Here is a breakdown of the laws compiled for this Web site.
Legislation Topics Total Number Enacted
Segregation Statutes
(includes adoption, business licenses,
health care, housing, prisons, public accommodation,
public carrier, school and race classification) 283
Miscegenation Statutes 127
Voting Rights 29
Total 439
As you can see from the table below, miscegenation and school segregation laws dominated the types of statutes passed.
Type Number % of Total
Statutes Passed
Miscegenation 127 29
Education 112 25
Public carrier 71 16
Public accommodation 34 8
Voting rights 29 6
Other categories of Jim Crow segregation laws compiled for this Web site include:
Category Number on this Web site
Adoption 12
Alcohol sales 1
Business Licenses 1
Employment 4
Health Care 19
Housing 5
Military 3
Land ownership 1
Prisons 5
Race Classification 7
Recreation 4
Sports 1
Vital Records 1
Not surprisingly, the South legislated the greatest percentage of Jim Crow laws (79 percent). Louisiana passed more Jim Crow laws than any state in the nation (29). Alabama and Georgia, with 27 statues each, were close behind. Here's a look at the laws from all categories (segregation, miscegenation and voting rights) by region:
Region Number of Laws % of Total
South 342 78
West 59 13
Midwest 27 6
Northeast 11 3
In September 1949, only 15 states had no segregation laws in effect. These included Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. Of the remaining states, 30 states prohibited mixed marriages and "race mixing." Twenty states proscribed separate schools for blacks and whites. Fourteen states permitted or required separate railroad accommodations.
By September 1949, only 18 states had laws prohibiting discrimination in places of public accommodation. These states included California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin. This Web site includes 215 laws that protected civil rights
Monday, July 11, 2011
STYLES OF LEARNING SURVEY
The following link will get you to the styles of learning survey. Your mission is to complete the survey, PRINT OUT THE COMPLETION FORM, bring to class for extra credit.
PS. You may also post a comment on your thoughts here.
Dr. Gilbert
http://jsu.qualtrics.com//SE/?SID=SV_2bndHW39Eza7Bru
PS. You may also post a comment on your thoughts here.
Dr. Gilbert
http://jsu.qualtrics.com//SE/?SID=SV_2bndHW39Eza7Bru
Saturday, July 9, 2011
RACIAL IDENTITY
STUDENTS!!!
You were given a copy of the article below. You were to read it. At the end of this post, you will find two (2) questions. Please respond to these questions in the comment section of this post. THIS WILL HELP YOU WITH YOUR JIM CROW ARTICLE.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Trials of Racial Identity in 19th Century America
Author: Ariela Gross, University of Southern California
Full Time Count: 05:12
In 1857 Alexina Morrison, a slave in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana ran away from
her master and threw herself on the mercy of the jailer of the county jail, or the parish jail
as it is known in Louisiana. She told him that she had been kidnapped into slavery and
did not belong in slavery, and he believed her. He told the court later that she had blue
eyes and flaxen hair, and he believed that she was white and that she had been wrongly
enslaved. He took her home to live with his family, and introduced her into white
society. She slept in bed with his daughter and went to balls with the neighbors, and by
the time that her master came to Jefferson Parish to file his answer to her lawsuit at the
local court, she had won over the community to so such an extent that he appealed for a
change of venue. He said he had been surrounded by a lawless mob and that he feared for
his life.
Alexina Morrison's lawsuit went through three trials in Jefferson Parish,
Louisiana. She won the first trial, the second ended in a hung jury, and we don't know
what happened in the final appeal because it was right when the Louisiana Supreme
Court doors were closed by the occupying Union Army. But Alexina Morrison's case –
while surprising I think to many people today who don't know about such cases – was not
an uncommon occurrence in local courts across the South. From the beginning of the
Republic through the Civil War, similar cases happened after the Civil War as well and
even in the North. They were cases where the central issue that the witnesses and
litigants were discussing in a courtroom was whether someone was black or white or
Indian. What was their racial identity?
These questions should have been decided simply by statutes. Louisiana, like
many southern states, defined a Negro by statute as a person with at least one grandparent
of African origin. This is the kind of statute that was on the books in not only southern
but many northern states as well. But in practice, statutory rules about ancestry couldn't
decide someone's racial identify. In fact, the witnesses and the jury couldn't see the
ancestors and the person's blood when they're put in terms of blood, because in fact all
our blood is red. So these factors couldn't decide the case, and what really mattered at
trial was not only how a person appeared, but how he or she behaved and who he or she
associated with. In particular for men, it was whether they performed acts of citizenship
and for women whether they upheld honor and virtue, particularly sexual virtue. In
Alexina Morrison's case, people came in and talked about how she looked, how she
carried herself, and how she had appeared at balls. They said she must be white because
she slept with our daughter, we would have known. As one witness in the case said, a
Louisiana native knows African blood the way an alligator knows a storm is coming. So
they had this idea of racial common sense.
We know it when we see it, and we know it based on performance, not really on
biology. We know it in the way people perform their identity. Performance for men was
tied up in ideas about citizenship – so long that a man who could prove that he had voted,
he had mustered in the militia, and he had sat on a jury was a man who must be white.
Whiteness was defined through exercise of the rights of citizenship, and it seems like a
strange kind of circularity in order to claim rights of freedom you have to be white. You
have to show that you behave like a citizen. But that circularity made sense to
Antebellum southerners because they believed so deeply in that equation of whiteness
and citizenship. That, I think, is the legacy of these racial identity trials that we still have
to reckon with today and break that link between the idea of whiteness and fitness.
QUESTIONS
1. How were nineteenth century court cases about racial identity suppose to be decided? How were they actually decided?
2. What does the history of nineteenth-century racial-identity trials suggest about how Americans understood “Race” in that era? What were some of the historical consequences of nineteenth-century definitions of race?
You were given a copy of the article below. You were to read it. At the end of this post, you will find two (2) questions. Please respond to these questions in the comment section of this post. THIS WILL HELP YOU WITH YOUR JIM CROW ARTICLE.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Trials of Racial Identity in 19th Century America
Author: Ariela Gross, University of Southern California
Full Time Count: 05:12
In 1857 Alexina Morrison, a slave in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana ran away from
her master and threw herself on the mercy of the jailer of the county jail, or the parish jail
as it is known in Louisiana. She told him that she had been kidnapped into slavery and
did not belong in slavery, and he believed her. He told the court later that she had blue
eyes and flaxen hair, and he believed that she was white and that she had been wrongly
enslaved. He took her home to live with his family, and introduced her into white
society. She slept in bed with his daughter and went to balls with the neighbors, and by
the time that her master came to Jefferson Parish to file his answer to her lawsuit at the
local court, she had won over the community to so such an extent that he appealed for a
change of venue. He said he had been surrounded by a lawless mob and that he feared for
his life.
Alexina Morrison's lawsuit went through three trials in Jefferson Parish,
Louisiana. She won the first trial, the second ended in a hung jury, and we don't know
what happened in the final appeal because it was right when the Louisiana Supreme
Court doors were closed by the occupying Union Army. But Alexina Morrison's case –
while surprising I think to many people today who don't know about such cases – was not
an uncommon occurrence in local courts across the South. From the beginning of the
Republic through the Civil War, similar cases happened after the Civil War as well and
even in the North. They were cases where the central issue that the witnesses and
litigants were discussing in a courtroom was whether someone was black or white or
Indian. What was their racial identity?
These questions should have been decided simply by statutes. Louisiana, like
many southern states, defined a Negro by statute as a person with at least one grandparent
of African origin. This is the kind of statute that was on the books in not only southern
but many northern states as well. But in practice, statutory rules about ancestry couldn't
decide someone's racial identify. In fact, the witnesses and the jury couldn't see the
ancestors and the person's blood when they're put in terms of blood, because in fact all
our blood is red. So these factors couldn't decide the case, and what really mattered at
trial was not only how a person appeared, but how he or she behaved and who he or she
associated with. In particular for men, it was whether they performed acts of citizenship
and for women whether they upheld honor and virtue, particularly sexual virtue. In
Alexina Morrison's case, people came in and talked about how she looked, how she
carried herself, and how she had appeared at balls. They said she must be white because
she slept with our daughter, we would have known. As one witness in the case said, a
Louisiana native knows African blood the way an alligator knows a storm is coming. So
they had this idea of racial common sense.
We know it when we see it, and we know it based on performance, not really on
biology. We know it in the way people perform their identity. Performance for men was
tied up in ideas about citizenship – so long that a man who could prove that he had voted,
he had mustered in the militia, and he had sat on a jury was a man who must be white.
Whiteness was defined through exercise of the rights of citizenship, and it seems like a
strange kind of circularity in order to claim rights of freedom you have to be white. You
have to show that you behave like a citizen. But that circularity made sense to
Antebellum southerners because they believed so deeply in that equation of whiteness
and citizenship. That, I think, is the legacy of these racial identity trials that we still have
to reckon with today and break that link between the idea of whiteness and fitness.
QUESTIONS
1. How were nineteenth century court cases about racial identity suppose to be decided? How were they actually decided?
2. What does the history of nineteenth-century racial-identity trials suggest about how Americans understood “Race” in that era? What were some of the historical consequences of nineteenth-century definitions of race?
Thursday, July 7, 2011
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 31
Disaster and Détente: The Cold War, Vietnam, and the Third World, 1961-1989
Chapter Summary
Chapter 31 continues the survey of the Cold War, begun in Chapter 29, and carries the story from the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to the end of President Reagan’s term in 1989. As can be seen in the discussion of U.S. foreign policy during this period, the containment doctrine, formulated during the Truman administration, continued to be the guiding force behind American foreign policy from the Kennedy administration through the Reagan administration. Furthermore, the action-reaction relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union that was so much a part of the early Cold War persists into the 1961 to 1989 period.
In its quest for friends in the Third World and ultimate victory in the Cold War, the Kennedy administration adopted the goal of nation building, to be accomplished, for example, through the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps as well as through the techniques of counterinsurgency. Such methods perpetuated an idea that had long been part of American foreign policy: that other people cannot solve their own problems and that the American economic and governmental model can be transferred intact to other societies. Historian William Appleman Williams believed that such thinking led to “the tragedy of American diplomacy,” and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., refers to it as “a ghastly illusion.” The idea is further evidenced in the CIA’s intervention in the Congo (Zaire) from 1960 to 1961 and in Brazil from 1962 to 1964.
Despite the strategic superiority of the United States over the Soviet Union in 1960, President Kennedy’s presidential campaign was based, in part, on the false premise that the Eisenhower administration had allowed a “missile gap” to develop between the United States and its arch-rival. Once elected, President Kennedy oversaw a significant military buildup based on the principle of “flexible response,” and his policies and actions in the field of foreign policy were shaped by his acceptance of the containment doctrine and his preference for a bold, interventionist foreign policy. His activist approach not only helped bring the world to the brink of nuclear disaster in the Cuban missile crisis but also led to a significant acceleration of the nuclear arms race—a trend that continued through the administration of Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson.
The authors trace the course of American involvement in Vietnam from deepening U.S. involvement during the Kennedy administration to the collapse of South Vietnam in April 1975. This discussion is based on the thesis that disaster befell the United States in Vietnam because of the U.S. belief that it had a right to influence the internal affairs of Third World countries. This theme runs through the discussion of United States involvement in Vietnam in several variations: the United States decision to sabotage the Geneva accords (see Chapter 29), United States support of the overthrow of the Diem regime, Johnson’s view of Vietnam as a “damn little pissant country,” the arrogance of power on the part of the United States, and Nixon’s “jugular diplomacy.”
Several subthemes remind us of the sources of the Cold War, discussed in Chapter 29. It is within this context that the authors state: “Overlooking the native roots of the nationalist rebellion against France, Washington officials took a globalist view of Vietnam, interpreting events through a Cold War lens.” And in a review of the material we find that the following sources of the Cold War discussed in Chapter 29 fit the war in Vietnam:
1. The unsettled international environment at the end of World War II encouraged competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Empires were disintegrating (France’s attempt to reinstate its authority in Indochina ended in disaster at Dienbienphu); nations were being born (Ho Chi Minh attempted to create an independent Vietnam); and civil wars were raging within nations (the National Liberation Front emerged against Ngo Dinh Diem’s South Vietnamese regime).
2. United States fear of the Soviet system led to economic expansionism (the United States recognized Southeast Asia as an economic asset) and globalist diplomacy (Southeast Asia seemed vital to the defense of Japan and the Philippines).
3. United States officials exaggerated the Soviet threat because of their belief in a monolithic communist enemy bent on world revolution. (American presidents from Truman through Nixon failed to recognize the nationalist roots of the problem in Vietnam. Instead, they saw Ho Chi Minh as a Communist and Vietnam as an “Asian Berlin,” and they accepted the tenets of the domino theory.)
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Americans began to debate its causes and consequences. Just as they had disagreed over the course and conduct of the war, they were now unable to reach any real consensus on its lessons for the nation.
Although a great deal of energy was expended on questions relating to the Vietnam War during Richard M. Nixon’s presidency, Nixon considered other foreign policy matters, especially the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, to be more important. In an attempt to create a global balance of power, Nixon and Henry Kissinger (Nixon’s national security adviser and later his secretary of state) adopted a “grand strategy.” By means of détente with the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, Nixon and Kissinger sought to achieve the same goals as those of the old containment doctrine, but through accommodation rather than confrontation. Despite détente, the United States still had to respond to crises rooted in instability. Nowhere was the fragility of world stability via the grand strategy more apparent than in the Middle East, where war again broke out between the Arab states and Israel in 1973. While the Soviet Union and the United States positioned themselves by putting their armed forces on alert, OPEC imposed an oil embargo against the United States. Kissinger was able to persuade the warring parties to agree to a cease-fire; OPEC ended its embargo; and, through “shuttle diplomacy,” Kissinger persuaded Egypt and Israel to agree to a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Sinai. But many problems remained, and the instability of the region continued to be a source of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union.
President Nixon believed, just as previous presidents had believed, in America’s right to influence the internal affairs of Third World countries. It was out of this belief and the concomitant belief that the United States should curb revolution and radicalism in the Third World, that Nixon accepted the Johnson Doctrine in Latin America, as evidenced by the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile.
As Nixon and Kissinger sought world order through the grand strategy, global economic issues highlighted the differences between the rich and poor nations of the world and heightened the animosity of Third World nations toward what they perceived to be the exploitive industrialized nations of the world. The United States, the richest nation on Earth, exports large quantities of goods to developing nations as well as importing raw materials from those nations. This important trade, along with America’s worldwide investments, in part explains the interventionist nature of United States foreign policy, a policy accepted and continued by Presidents Nixon and Gerald Ford, and by their foreign-policy overseer, Henry Kissinger. Therefore, during the Nixon-Ford-Kissinger years America’s global watch against forces that threatened its far-flung economic and strategic interests continued.
When Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency in 1977, he and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance at first pledged a new course for the United States. However, this course was challenged by Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, by Democratic and Republican critics, and by the Soviet Union, which reacted in anger and fear to the human rights aspect of Carter’s policies. The Cold War seemed to have its own momentum. Despite the Carter administration’s successful negotiation of the SALT-II Treaty and its achievements in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, it was overwhelmed by critics at home, the Iranian hostage crisis, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The grain embargo, the 1980 Olympics boycott, and the Carter Doctrine all seemed more reminiscent of the containment doctrine and the sources of the Cold War than of a new course in American foreign policy. Furthermore, the excesses in which the United States had engaged in the past in its attempts to create stability, protect American economic interests, and contain the Communist threat rained down on the Carter administration in the form of the Iranian hostage crisis. In this crisis America’s missiles, submarines, tanks, and bombers ultimately meant nothing if the lives of the hostages were to be saved. But many Americans wished for a return to the immediate postwar world, a world in which the United States had a monopoly on economic and military power. In this spirit of nostalgia, the electorate chose Ronald Reagan as its president in the 1980 election.
Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 marked a return to foreign-policy themes rooted in America’s past and reminiscent of the early days of the Cold War. As a result, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated and arms talks between the two nations broke down. The questioning of U.S. intervention in Third World nations, so apparent in the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam disaster, was absent in the Reagan administration. Fearing communism, Reagan simplistically blamed unrest in the world on the Soviets, failed to see the local roots of problems, and formed alliances with antirevolutionary regimes, which tended to be unrepresentative. American relations with the Third World during the 1980s evoke memories of the sources of the Cold War, of the containment policy, and of attempts to protect American economic interests against the force of revolutionary nationalism. Therefore, in the name of protecting private American companies, the Reagan administration rejected the Law of the Sea Treaty. In the same vein, American policies toward El Salvador and Nicaragua recall phrases used to describe American policy in previous eras; and Reagan’s desire for victory rather than negotiation, seen especially in his policies toward Central America, brings to mind the early years of the Kennedy administration. However, since the Kennedy years the American people had been through the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate, and the power of Congress, relative to that of the president, had increased. Therefore, Congress in the mid-1980s was much more willing to play an active role in foreign policy decisions than it had been in the 1960s. But Congress, reflecting the debate among the American people over the nation’s policy toward Nicaragua, vacillated between ending aid to the contras in mid-1984 and again extending aid in 1986. During the period when aid was prohibited, the executive branch of the government, through the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency, acted to circumvent the will of Congress. These actions came to light in 1986 in the Iran-contra scandal, a scandal that deeply wounded Ronald Reagan’s ability to lead during his last two years in office.
From this discussion of the Iran-contra scandal, the authors turn their attention to continuing problems in the Middle East, the problem of terrorism against United States citizens and property, America’s ill-fated 1983 mission in Lebanon, and to a discussion of Congress’s ability to force the Reagan administration to alter its policy of “constructive engagement” toward South Africa. At the close of the 1980s major problems continued to face the United States in the Third World.
Public concern over the Reagan administration’s anti-Soviet stance and propensity toward confrontation led to international concern and to massive support for a freeze in the nuclear arms race. Public pressure, combined with other forces, led to a resumption of arms talks in 1985. In the same year Mikhail Gorbachev assumed power in the Soviet Union. Perhaps President Reagan was right when he said that he was “dropped into a grand historical moment,” because under Gorbachev’s leadership the Soviet Union undertook an ambitious domestic reform program and Soviet foreign policy underwent significant changes. These dramatic changes helped reduce international tensions and, in 1987, led to a Soviet-American agreement to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe.
Learning Objectives
1. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
2. Discuss Cuban-American relations from 1959 to October 1962; explain the causes, outcome, and consequences of the Cuban missile crisis, and evaluate President John Kennedy’s handling of the crisis.
3. Examine and evaluate the events and decisions that led to deepening United States involvement in Vietnam from 1961 to 1965.
4. Discuss the nature of the Vietnam War, the characteristics of American soldiers who served in the war, and the war’s impact on those soldiers.
5. Explain the factors that contributed to the emergence of anti-Vietnam War sentiment and protests within the United States.
6. Discuss the course of the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1975; explain the war’s impact on Southeast Asia and American society; and discuss the debate in the United States over the meaning of the American experience in Vietnam.
7. Explain the theories on which the Nixon-Kissinger “grand strategy” was based; examine and evaluate the policies and actions inspired by those theories; and examine the international crises and issues that placed the grand strategy in jeopardy.
8. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Carter administration.
9. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Reagan administration.
10. Discuss the activities that constituted the Iran-contra scandal, and explain the scandal’s impact on the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Developing countries became entangled in Cold War diplomacy because both America and the Soviet Union wanted them as allies. The Third World altered the bipolar nature of the Cold War.
II. Kennedy’s Nation Building, Arms Buildup, and the Cuban Missile Crisis
A. Nation Building and Counterinsurgency
Based on the concept of nation building, the Kennedy administration initiated aid programs to help developing nations through the early states of nationhood. The concept of counterinsurgency was the tactic used to defeat revolutionaries in Third World countries friendly to the United States.
B. Military Expansion
John Kennedy vowed to improve the military, and his “flexible response” sought ways to fight any kind of war.
C. Berlin Wall
Kennedy rejected Soviet demands concerning Berlin, and he vowed to defend West Berlin. The Soviets responded by building the Berlin Wall to stop the flow of Eastern Germans into the more prosperous Western zone.
D. Bay of Pigs Invasion
Kennedy inherited the Bay of Pigs invasion plan, but he ordered that no Americans be directly involved. The April 1961 invasion was a disaster.
E. Cuban Missile Crisis
Russia provided military assistance to Cuba and placed nuclear missiles on the island. Discovery of these missiles in 1962 sparked a frightening episode of brinkmanship.
F. Kennedy’s Handling of the Crisis
Critics assert that Kennedy courted disaster in the way in which he handled the crisis.
G. Aftermath
The crisis led to some easing of Soviet American tensions. However, the Soviet pledge to catch up in the nuclear arms race increased tensions.
III. Johnson and Americanization of the War in Vietnam
A. Nuclear Proliferation Treaty
Johnson signed a non proliferation treaty in 1968, but Vietnam meant that Cold War tensions would continue.
B. Kennedy’s Legacy in Vietnam
Kennedy sent more than 16,000 advisors to Vietnam. Diem created problems because of his oppressive policies and his persecution of Buddhists. The CIA urged South Vietnamese officers to overthrow Diem, and they murdered him in 1963.
C. Tonkin Gulf Incident
Despite flimsy evidence of attacks on American ships, in 1964 Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution giving Lyndon Johnson authority to wage war on North Vietnam.
D. Bombing Campaigns in Laos and Vietnam
In 1964 stepped-up bombing of Laos. After the Vietcong attacked the American airfield at Pleiku, Johnson ordered Operation Rolling Thunder against North Vietnam.
E. Troop Strength
Johnson decided to increase U.S. ground forces in Vietnam in July 1965. U.S. troop strength peaked in 1969 at 543,400.
IV. Vietnam: Escalation, Carnage, and Protest
A. My Lai Massacre
A gruesome atrocity occurred at the village of My Lai, where Americans killed some 500 civilians.
B. American Soldiers in Vietnam
Many Americans in Vietnam just tried to survive their tours of duty in a brutal and inhospitable environment.
C. Growing Antiwar Sentiment
Protests at home grew along with the military escalation in Vietnam, but Johnson vowed to continue the war.
D. McNamara’s Doubts
McNamara became convinced that continued bombing would not win the war.
E. Tet Offensive
The Vietcong and North Vietnamese offensive in 1968 ended in an American victory, but many people came to believe that the war could not be won.
F. Dollar/Gold Crisis
Rampant deficit spending to finance the war caused Europeans to redeem dollars for gold, providing further pressure on the Johnson Administration to end the war.
G. Johnson’s Exit
On March 31, 1968, Johnson announced a halt to the bombing of most of North Vietnam, asked Hanoi to begin negotiations to end the war, and announced that he would not run for reelection.
V. Nixon, Vietnamization, and the Impact of America’s Longest War
A. Invasion of Cambodia
Richard Nixon announced that the United States would help those nations that helped themselves. In Southeast Asia this doctrine meant “Vietnamization” of the war by replacing Americans with South Vietnamese troops. In 1970 Nixon announced that American and South Vietnamese forces had entered Cambodia. This action sparked violent protests in the United States.
B. Cease Fire Agreement
In 1973, America and North Vietnam agreed to withdraw American troops, return POWs, account for MIAs, and recognize a role for the Vietcong in South Vietnam.
C. Costs of the Vietnam War
More than 58,000 Americans and a million and a half Vietnamese died in the war. The conflict cost the United States almost 200 billion dollars, and it delayed improved relations with other nations.
D. Debate over the Lessons of Vietnam
Hawks claimed the war taught that the military should be allowed a free hand; doves insisted that losing the war showed the dangers of an imperial presidency.
E. Vietnam Veterans
Post traumatic stress disorder plagued thousands of veterans, causing them fears and anxiety.
VI. Nixon, Kissinger, and Détente
A. SALT
Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger sought détente that would recognize Soviet American rivalry while creating cooperation through negotiations. The United States and the Soviets signed the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks treaties, which limited ABM systems for each nation to two sites and imposed a five year freeze on the offensive missiles each side could possess.
B. Opening to China
Nixon extended détente to the People’s Republic of China, and he made a historic trip there in 1972.
C. War in the Middle East
When Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in 1973, OPEC stopped oil shipments in an effort to gain American support for the Arabs.
D. Chile
Nixon plotted covert actions against Salvador Allende, while continuing to deny it.
E. Containing Radicalism in Africa
Nixon viewed the white minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa as bulwarks against communist inspired radicalism.
F. United States in the World Economy
American interventionism reflected a dependence on raw materials from abroad and the importance of foreign investments. Threats to investments, materials, and markets made intervention appear to be a viable option.
G. Economic Competition with Japan
Economic relations with Japan deteriorated as an influx of Japanese imports caused the United States to suffer from an unfavorable balance of trade.
H. International Environmental Issues
In 1972 the U.S. participated in a U.N.-sponsored environmental conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
VII. Carter, Preventive Diplomacy, and a Reinvigorated Cold War
A. Carter’s Divided Administration
Jimmy Carter suffered from indecision and from squabbles among members of his administration, hampering his attempts to advance human rights.
B. SALT II
The SALT II Treaty further limited nuclear weapons, but the treaty stalled when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. In the Carter Doctrine, the President promised to defend the Persian Gulf militarily from any Soviet invasion.
C. Camp David Accords
Jimmy Carter helped ease tensions in the Middle East by negotiating an accord between Egypt and Israel.
D. Iranian Hostage Crisis
In 1979 Iranians stormed the embassy in Teheran and took a number of hostages. The United States unfroze Iranian assets and promised no further intervention in Iran in January 1981, and the hostages were released.
E. Panama Canal Treaties
Carter signed treaties with Panama that turned the Canal Zone over to Panama in the year 2000 and allowed the United States to defend the Canal Zone after that time.
VIII. The Ups and Downs of Reagan’s World
A. Law of the Sea Convention
The Reagan Doctrine announced that the United States would openly support all anti-Communist fighters. A supporter of free-market capitalism, Reagan rejected the 1982 United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea, which dealt with offshore resources. Furthermore, Reagan believed an intensive military buildup would thwart the Soviet threat.
B. Intervention in El Salvador
Reagan considered the revolution in El Salvador a case of communist aggression, and, citing the domino theory, he persuaded Congress to fund the government there.
C. Contra War in Nicaragua
Reagan, afraid of Nicaragua as a Soviet client, worked to topple the Sandinista regime. The CIA trained rebels, mined Nicaraguan harbors, and blew up merchant ships.
D. Iran Contra Scandal
The Reagan administration sold arms to Iran and sent the profits to anti Sandinista forces, in violation of the law.
E. U.S. Interests in the Middle East
The troubled Middle East was strategically and economically important to the U.S.
F. Crisis in Lebanon
Reagan sent troops to Lebanon, where a terrorist attack killed 241 American servicemen in Beirut in 1983.
G. South Africa
Reagan struggled with South Africa’s racist policy of apartheid. Because of public pressure, Congress passed economic restrictions against South Africa in 1986.
H. Third World Indebtedness
Indebtedness of Third World nations caused economic instability and political unrest throughout the Third World, and had an adverse economic impact on the United States
I. Debate over Nuclear Weapons
Reagan’s search for nuclear superiority sparked a worldwide debate and appeals for a freeze in the nuclear arms race. Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed that they should limit weapons but could not reach an accord because Reagan wanted the Strategic Defense Initiative.
J. Gorbachev’s Reforms
Gorbachev worked to modernize the Soviet economy and to liberalize the political system, which eased tensions.
Disaster and Détente: The Cold War, Vietnam, and the Third World, 1961-1989
Chapter Summary
Chapter 31 continues the survey of the Cold War, begun in Chapter 29, and carries the story from the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to the end of President Reagan’s term in 1989. As can be seen in the discussion of U.S. foreign policy during this period, the containment doctrine, formulated during the Truman administration, continued to be the guiding force behind American foreign policy from the Kennedy administration through the Reagan administration. Furthermore, the action-reaction relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union that was so much a part of the early Cold War persists into the 1961 to 1989 period.
In its quest for friends in the Third World and ultimate victory in the Cold War, the Kennedy administration adopted the goal of nation building, to be accomplished, for example, through the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps as well as through the techniques of counterinsurgency. Such methods perpetuated an idea that had long been part of American foreign policy: that other people cannot solve their own problems and that the American economic and governmental model can be transferred intact to other societies. Historian William Appleman Williams believed that such thinking led to “the tragedy of American diplomacy,” and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., refers to it as “a ghastly illusion.” The idea is further evidenced in the CIA’s intervention in the Congo (Zaire) from 1960 to 1961 and in Brazil from 1962 to 1964.
Despite the strategic superiority of the United States over the Soviet Union in 1960, President Kennedy’s presidential campaign was based, in part, on the false premise that the Eisenhower administration had allowed a “missile gap” to develop between the United States and its arch-rival. Once elected, President Kennedy oversaw a significant military buildup based on the principle of “flexible response,” and his policies and actions in the field of foreign policy were shaped by his acceptance of the containment doctrine and his preference for a bold, interventionist foreign policy. His activist approach not only helped bring the world to the brink of nuclear disaster in the Cuban missile crisis but also led to a significant acceleration of the nuclear arms race—a trend that continued through the administration of Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson.
The authors trace the course of American involvement in Vietnam from deepening U.S. involvement during the Kennedy administration to the collapse of South Vietnam in April 1975. This discussion is based on the thesis that disaster befell the United States in Vietnam because of the U.S. belief that it had a right to influence the internal affairs of Third World countries. This theme runs through the discussion of United States involvement in Vietnam in several variations: the United States decision to sabotage the Geneva accords (see Chapter 29), United States support of the overthrow of the Diem regime, Johnson’s view of Vietnam as a “damn little pissant country,” the arrogance of power on the part of the United States, and Nixon’s “jugular diplomacy.”
Several subthemes remind us of the sources of the Cold War, discussed in Chapter 29. It is within this context that the authors state: “Overlooking the native roots of the nationalist rebellion against France, Washington officials took a globalist view of Vietnam, interpreting events through a Cold War lens.” And in a review of the material we find that the following sources of the Cold War discussed in Chapter 29 fit the war in Vietnam:
1. The unsettled international environment at the end of World War II encouraged competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Empires were disintegrating (France’s attempt to reinstate its authority in Indochina ended in disaster at Dienbienphu); nations were being born (Ho Chi Minh attempted to create an independent Vietnam); and civil wars were raging within nations (the National Liberation Front emerged against Ngo Dinh Diem’s South Vietnamese regime).
2. United States fear of the Soviet system led to economic expansionism (the United States recognized Southeast Asia as an economic asset) and globalist diplomacy (Southeast Asia seemed vital to the defense of Japan and the Philippines).
3. United States officials exaggerated the Soviet threat because of their belief in a monolithic communist enemy bent on world revolution. (American presidents from Truman through Nixon failed to recognize the nationalist roots of the problem in Vietnam. Instead, they saw Ho Chi Minh as a Communist and Vietnam as an “Asian Berlin,” and they accepted the tenets of the domino theory.)
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Americans began to debate its causes and consequences. Just as they had disagreed over the course and conduct of the war, they were now unable to reach any real consensus on its lessons for the nation.
Although a great deal of energy was expended on questions relating to the Vietnam War during Richard M. Nixon’s presidency, Nixon considered other foreign policy matters, especially the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, to be more important. In an attempt to create a global balance of power, Nixon and Henry Kissinger (Nixon’s national security adviser and later his secretary of state) adopted a “grand strategy.” By means of détente with the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, Nixon and Kissinger sought to achieve the same goals as those of the old containment doctrine, but through accommodation rather than confrontation. Despite détente, the United States still had to respond to crises rooted in instability. Nowhere was the fragility of world stability via the grand strategy more apparent than in the Middle East, where war again broke out between the Arab states and Israel in 1973. While the Soviet Union and the United States positioned themselves by putting their armed forces on alert, OPEC imposed an oil embargo against the United States. Kissinger was able to persuade the warring parties to agree to a cease-fire; OPEC ended its embargo; and, through “shuttle diplomacy,” Kissinger persuaded Egypt and Israel to agree to a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Sinai. But many problems remained, and the instability of the region continued to be a source of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union.
President Nixon believed, just as previous presidents had believed, in America’s right to influence the internal affairs of Third World countries. It was out of this belief and the concomitant belief that the United States should curb revolution and radicalism in the Third World, that Nixon accepted the Johnson Doctrine in Latin America, as evidenced by the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile.
As Nixon and Kissinger sought world order through the grand strategy, global economic issues highlighted the differences between the rich and poor nations of the world and heightened the animosity of Third World nations toward what they perceived to be the exploitive industrialized nations of the world. The United States, the richest nation on Earth, exports large quantities of goods to developing nations as well as importing raw materials from those nations. This important trade, along with America’s worldwide investments, in part explains the interventionist nature of United States foreign policy, a policy accepted and continued by Presidents Nixon and Gerald Ford, and by their foreign-policy overseer, Henry Kissinger. Therefore, during the Nixon-Ford-Kissinger years America’s global watch against forces that threatened its far-flung economic and strategic interests continued.
When Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency in 1977, he and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance at first pledged a new course for the United States. However, this course was challenged by Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, by Democratic and Republican critics, and by the Soviet Union, which reacted in anger and fear to the human rights aspect of Carter’s policies. The Cold War seemed to have its own momentum. Despite the Carter administration’s successful negotiation of the SALT-II Treaty and its achievements in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, it was overwhelmed by critics at home, the Iranian hostage crisis, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The grain embargo, the 1980 Olympics boycott, and the Carter Doctrine all seemed more reminiscent of the containment doctrine and the sources of the Cold War than of a new course in American foreign policy. Furthermore, the excesses in which the United States had engaged in the past in its attempts to create stability, protect American economic interests, and contain the Communist threat rained down on the Carter administration in the form of the Iranian hostage crisis. In this crisis America’s missiles, submarines, tanks, and bombers ultimately meant nothing if the lives of the hostages were to be saved. But many Americans wished for a return to the immediate postwar world, a world in which the United States had a monopoly on economic and military power. In this spirit of nostalgia, the electorate chose Ronald Reagan as its president in the 1980 election.
Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 marked a return to foreign-policy themes rooted in America’s past and reminiscent of the early days of the Cold War. As a result, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated and arms talks between the two nations broke down. The questioning of U.S. intervention in Third World nations, so apparent in the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam disaster, was absent in the Reagan administration. Fearing communism, Reagan simplistically blamed unrest in the world on the Soviets, failed to see the local roots of problems, and formed alliances with antirevolutionary regimes, which tended to be unrepresentative. American relations with the Third World during the 1980s evoke memories of the sources of the Cold War, of the containment policy, and of attempts to protect American economic interests against the force of revolutionary nationalism. Therefore, in the name of protecting private American companies, the Reagan administration rejected the Law of the Sea Treaty. In the same vein, American policies toward El Salvador and Nicaragua recall phrases used to describe American policy in previous eras; and Reagan’s desire for victory rather than negotiation, seen especially in his policies toward Central America, brings to mind the early years of the Kennedy administration. However, since the Kennedy years the American people had been through the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate, and the power of Congress, relative to that of the president, had increased. Therefore, Congress in the mid-1980s was much more willing to play an active role in foreign policy decisions than it had been in the 1960s. But Congress, reflecting the debate among the American people over the nation’s policy toward Nicaragua, vacillated between ending aid to the contras in mid-1984 and again extending aid in 1986. During the period when aid was prohibited, the executive branch of the government, through the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency, acted to circumvent the will of Congress. These actions came to light in 1986 in the Iran-contra scandal, a scandal that deeply wounded Ronald Reagan’s ability to lead during his last two years in office.
From this discussion of the Iran-contra scandal, the authors turn their attention to continuing problems in the Middle East, the problem of terrorism against United States citizens and property, America’s ill-fated 1983 mission in Lebanon, and to a discussion of Congress’s ability to force the Reagan administration to alter its policy of “constructive engagement” toward South Africa. At the close of the 1980s major problems continued to face the United States in the Third World.
Public concern over the Reagan administration’s anti-Soviet stance and propensity toward confrontation led to international concern and to massive support for a freeze in the nuclear arms race. Public pressure, combined with other forces, led to a resumption of arms talks in 1985. In the same year Mikhail Gorbachev assumed power in the Soviet Union. Perhaps President Reagan was right when he said that he was “dropped into a grand historical moment,” because under Gorbachev’s leadership the Soviet Union undertook an ambitious domestic reform program and Soviet foreign policy underwent significant changes. These dramatic changes helped reduce international tensions and, in 1987, led to a Soviet-American agreement to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe.
Learning Objectives
1. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
2. Discuss Cuban-American relations from 1959 to October 1962; explain the causes, outcome, and consequences of the Cuban missile crisis, and evaluate President John Kennedy’s handling of the crisis.
3. Examine and evaluate the events and decisions that led to deepening United States involvement in Vietnam from 1961 to 1965.
4. Discuss the nature of the Vietnam War, the characteristics of American soldiers who served in the war, and the war’s impact on those soldiers.
5. Explain the factors that contributed to the emergence of anti-Vietnam War sentiment and protests within the United States.
6. Discuss the course of the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1975; explain the war’s impact on Southeast Asia and American society; and discuss the debate in the United States over the meaning of the American experience in Vietnam.
7. Explain the theories on which the Nixon-Kissinger “grand strategy” was based; examine and evaluate the policies and actions inspired by those theories; and examine the international crises and issues that placed the grand strategy in jeopardy.
8. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Carter administration.
9. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Reagan administration.
10. Discuss the activities that constituted the Iran-contra scandal, and explain the scandal’s impact on the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Developing countries became entangled in Cold War diplomacy because both America and the Soviet Union wanted them as allies. The Third World altered the bipolar nature of the Cold War.
II. Kennedy’s Nation Building, Arms Buildup, and the Cuban Missile Crisis
A. Nation Building and Counterinsurgency
Based on the concept of nation building, the Kennedy administration initiated aid programs to help developing nations through the early states of nationhood. The concept of counterinsurgency was the tactic used to defeat revolutionaries in Third World countries friendly to the United States.
B. Military Expansion
John Kennedy vowed to improve the military, and his “flexible response” sought ways to fight any kind of war.
C. Berlin Wall
Kennedy rejected Soviet demands concerning Berlin, and he vowed to defend West Berlin. The Soviets responded by building the Berlin Wall to stop the flow of Eastern Germans into the more prosperous Western zone.
D. Bay of Pigs Invasion
Kennedy inherited the Bay of Pigs invasion plan, but he ordered that no Americans be directly involved. The April 1961 invasion was a disaster.
E. Cuban Missile Crisis
Russia provided military assistance to Cuba and placed nuclear missiles on the island. Discovery of these missiles in 1962 sparked a frightening episode of brinkmanship.
F. Kennedy’s Handling of the Crisis
Critics assert that Kennedy courted disaster in the way in which he handled the crisis.
G. Aftermath
The crisis led to some easing of Soviet American tensions. However, the Soviet pledge to catch up in the nuclear arms race increased tensions.
III. Johnson and Americanization of the War in Vietnam
A. Nuclear Proliferation Treaty
Johnson signed a non proliferation treaty in 1968, but Vietnam meant that Cold War tensions would continue.
B. Kennedy’s Legacy in Vietnam
Kennedy sent more than 16,000 advisors to Vietnam. Diem created problems because of his oppressive policies and his persecution of Buddhists. The CIA urged South Vietnamese officers to overthrow Diem, and they murdered him in 1963.
C. Tonkin Gulf Incident
Despite flimsy evidence of attacks on American ships, in 1964 Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution giving Lyndon Johnson authority to wage war on North Vietnam.
D. Bombing Campaigns in Laos and Vietnam
In 1964 stepped-up bombing of Laos. After the Vietcong attacked the American airfield at Pleiku, Johnson ordered Operation Rolling Thunder against North Vietnam.
E. Troop Strength
Johnson decided to increase U.S. ground forces in Vietnam in July 1965. U.S. troop strength peaked in 1969 at 543,400.
IV. Vietnam: Escalation, Carnage, and Protest
A. My Lai Massacre
A gruesome atrocity occurred at the village of My Lai, where Americans killed some 500 civilians.
B. American Soldiers in Vietnam
Many Americans in Vietnam just tried to survive their tours of duty in a brutal and inhospitable environment.
C. Growing Antiwar Sentiment
Protests at home grew along with the military escalation in Vietnam, but Johnson vowed to continue the war.
D. McNamara’s Doubts
McNamara became convinced that continued bombing would not win the war.
E. Tet Offensive
The Vietcong and North Vietnamese offensive in 1968 ended in an American victory, but many people came to believe that the war could not be won.
F. Dollar/Gold Crisis
Rampant deficit spending to finance the war caused Europeans to redeem dollars for gold, providing further pressure on the Johnson Administration to end the war.
G. Johnson’s Exit
On March 31, 1968, Johnson announced a halt to the bombing of most of North Vietnam, asked Hanoi to begin negotiations to end the war, and announced that he would not run for reelection.
V. Nixon, Vietnamization, and the Impact of America’s Longest War
A. Invasion of Cambodia
Richard Nixon announced that the United States would help those nations that helped themselves. In Southeast Asia this doctrine meant “Vietnamization” of the war by replacing Americans with South Vietnamese troops. In 1970 Nixon announced that American and South Vietnamese forces had entered Cambodia. This action sparked violent protests in the United States.
B. Cease Fire Agreement
In 1973, America and North Vietnam agreed to withdraw American troops, return POWs, account for MIAs, and recognize a role for the Vietcong in South Vietnam.
C. Costs of the Vietnam War
More than 58,000 Americans and a million and a half Vietnamese died in the war. The conflict cost the United States almost 200 billion dollars, and it delayed improved relations with other nations.
D. Debate over the Lessons of Vietnam
Hawks claimed the war taught that the military should be allowed a free hand; doves insisted that losing the war showed the dangers of an imperial presidency.
E. Vietnam Veterans
Post traumatic stress disorder plagued thousands of veterans, causing them fears and anxiety.
VI. Nixon, Kissinger, and Détente
A. SALT
Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger sought détente that would recognize Soviet American rivalry while creating cooperation through negotiations. The United States and the Soviets signed the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks treaties, which limited ABM systems for each nation to two sites and imposed a five year freeze on the offensive missiles each side could possess.
B. Opening to China
Nixon extended détente to the People’s Republic of China, and he made a historic trip there in 1972.
C. War in the Middle East
When Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in 1973, OPEC stopped oil shipments in an effort to gain American support for the Arabs.
D. Chile
Nixon plotted covert actions against Salvador Allende, while continuing to deny it.
E. Containing Radicalism in Africa
Nixon viewed the white minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa as bulwarks against communist inspired radicalism.
F. United States in the World Economy
American interventionism reflected a dependence on raw materials from abroad and the importance of foreign investments. Threats to investments, materials, and markets made intervention appear to be a viable option.
G. Economic Competition with Japan
Economic relations with Japan deteriorated as an influx of Japanese imports caused the United States to suffer from an unfavorable balance of trade.
H. International Environmental Issues
In 1972 the U.S. participated in a U.N.-sponsored environmental conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
VII. Carter, Preventive Diplomacy, and a Reinvigorated Cold War
A. Carter’s Divided Administration
Jimmy Carter suffered from indecision and from squabbles among members of his administration, hampering his attempts to advance human rights.
B. SALT II
The SALT II Treaty further limited nuclear weapons, but the treaty stalled when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. In the Carter Doctrine, the President promised to defend the Persian Gulf militarily from any Soviet invasion.
C. Camp David Accords
Jimmy Carter helped ease tensions in the Middle East by negotiating an accord between Egypt and Israel.
D. Iranian Hostage Crisis
In 1979 Iranians stormed the embassy in Teheran and took a number of hostages. The United States unfroze Iranian assets and promised no further intervention in Iran in January 1981, and the hostages were released.
E. Panama Canal Treaties
Carter signed treaties with Panama that turned the Canal Zone over to Panama in the year 2000 and allowed the United States to defend the Canal Zone after that time.
VIII. The Ups and Downs of Reagan’s World
A. Law of the Sea Convention
The Reagan Doctrine announced that the United States would openly support all anti-Communist fighters. A supporter of free-market capitalism, Reagan rejected the 1982 United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea, which dealt with offshore resources. Furthermore, Reagan believed an intensive military buildup would thwart the Soviet threat.
B. Intervention in El Salvador
Reagan considered the revolution in El Salvador a case of communist aggression, and, citing the domino theory, he persuaded Congress to fund the government there.
C. Contra War in Nicaragua
Reagan, afraid of Nicaragua as a Soviet client, worked to topple the Sandinista regime. The CIA trained rebels, mined Nicaraguan harbors, and blew up merchant ships.
D. Iran Contra Scandal
The Reagan administration sold arms to Iran and sent the profits to anti Sandinista forces, in violation of the law.
E. U.S. Interests in the Middle East
The troubled Middle East was strategically and economically important to the U.S.
F. Crisis in Lebanon
Reagan sent troops to Lebanon, where a terrorist attack killed 241 American servicemen in Beirut in 1983.
G. South Africa
Reagan struggled with South Africa’s racist policy of apartheid. Because of public pressure, Congress passed economic restrictions against South Africa in 1986.
H. Third World Indebtedness
Indebtedness of Third World nations caused economic instability and political unrest throughout the Third World, and had an adverse economic impact on the United States
I. Debate over Nuclear Weapons
Reagan’s search for nuclear superiority sparked a worldwide debate and appeals for a freeze in the nuclear arms race. Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed that they should limit weapons but could not reach an accord because Reagan wanted the Strategic Defense Initiative.
J. Gorbachev’s Reforms
Gorbachev worked to modernize the Soviet economy and to liberalize the political system, which eased tensions.
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 30
Reform and Conflict At Home:
A Turbulent Era, 1961-1974
Chapter Summary
In Chapter 30, we examine the crises that engulfed American society during the 1960s and early 1970s. As we learn from the first section, “Civil Rights and the New Frontier,” the New Frontier was overly ambitious in light of the political distance between the new president’s liberal agenda and a Congress dominated by a conservative coalition. When he attempted to deal with this conservative coalition, Kennedy at first failed to press forward on civil rights issues. At this point, violence began to have an impact on developments. In the face of violent challenges from southern segregationists to an expanding black civil-rights movement, the Kennedy administration gradually committed itself to a decisive stand in favor of black equality. But only because of continuing racial violence and Kennedy’s assassination did Congress finally pass civil rights legislation.
The section “The Great Society and the Triumph of Liberalism” covers the legislative accomplishments of the Johnson administration—the most sweeping reform legislation since 1935. This legislation comprised the Civil Rights Act of 1964, establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and legislation associated with Johnson’s War on Poverty. The authors look closely at the legislation that constituted the War on Poverty and discuss the problems and successes of this program.
The liberal decisions rendered by the Supreme Court during the 1960s and early 1970s matched the liberalism reflected in the progressive legislation of the Johnson years. The authors examine these rulings, the aspects of American life and American society they affected, and the praise and criticisms they evoked.
As the three branches of the federal government slowly began to deal with such long-standing American problems as poverty and minority rights, frustrations that had built up over generations of inaction manifested themselves. Events convinced civil-rights activists in the South that the “power structure” in American society was not to be trusted. Northern blacks began to reach the same conclusions. Both the civil-rights movement and Johnson’s antipoverty programs had offered African Americans hope for a better day in American society. However, as discussion of the social, economic, and political plight of urban blacks reveals, that hope had not been fulfilled. Among other factors, unfulfilled expectations and the continued display of wealth and possessions in the consumer-oriented American society led to the urban riots of the 1960s. Militant black leaders gained prominence and questioned Martin Luther King’s philosophy of nonviolence as well as his goal of integration. Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and the Black Panther Party called for “black power” within the context of black nationalism.
Along with this revolution of rising expectations among blacks, some whites involved in the civil rights movement began to become disillusioned with American society. Although their disillusionment stemmed from different sources than that of blacks, it led to the political and social activism associated with the New Left and the counterculture. The authors discuss the emergence, characteristics, and goals of both of these groups as well as the reaction of the middle class to their attacks on traditional values. In addition, the activism of blacks, the New Left and counterculture, and women gave rise to gay activism and to the gay rights movement. As the Vietnam War escalated and the New Left and the counterculture found common cause in their antiwar stance, the middle class became more and more convinced that traditional society was under siege.
The forces of frustration, rage, and anger born of racism, sexism, poverty, disillusionment, materialism, and the revolution of rising expectations practically ripped America apart in the tumult of 1968. After explaining the events of that year, the authors discuss the emergence, characteristics, and goals of both moderate and radical feminists. They also examine the problems encountered by many working women in the 1960s and note gains made by women against sexism in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Continuation of chaos into the 1970s convinced President Nixon and many Americans that society was on the verge of anarchy. Nixon attempted to use the perceived danger to his political advantage by portraying critics, including the Democratic opposition, as Communist pawns and enemies of American society. These tactics gained Nixon little in the 1970 congressional elections, and publication of the Pentagon Papers fostered more distrust of government. As Nixon prepared for the 1972 presidential election, he turned to Keynesian economics to deal with the country’s economic problems and opened relations with the People’s Republic of China.
In “Nixon’s Reelection and Resignation,” the authors first examine the factors that contributed to Nixon’s landslide victory in the 1972 election. These factors include the “southern strategy,” Nixon’s success in associating the Democratic Party with groups and movements that threatened traditional values, the nature of George McGovern’s campaign, and division within the Democratic Party. Even though the voters overwhelmingly chose to return Nixon to the White House in 1972, they also chose to leave both houses of Congress in the hands of the Democrats.
Unfortunately, Nixon’s landslide victory did not guarantee an end to the crisis atmosphere that had plagued the nation since the late 1960s. The Watergate scandal caused more disillusionment with government and increased the somber mood of the people, for it involved a series of illegal activities approved at the highest level of American government. Some of these activities, such as the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office, had been undertaken to discredit political opponents; others, such as the paying of hush money to witnesses, were part of an elaborate cover-up.
Beyond the illegal actions, the Watergate scandal was a constitutional crisis; the “imperial presidency” threatened the balance-of-power concept embodied in the Constitution and the guarantees of individual rights embodied in the Bill of Rights. We see the constitutional nature of the crisis in the clash between the executive and judicial branches of government, the impeachment hearings undertaken by the House Judiciary Committee, and ultimately the resignation of the president. Unlike the scandals of previous administrations, the activities linked to Watergate were aimed not at financial gain but at monopolizing political power. After citing the events associated with Watergate, the authors outline and briefly evaluate congressional attempts to correct the abuses associated with the scandal.
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss John F. Kennedy’s personal and political background; examine the goals and accomplishments of the Kennedy administration, and evaluate the legacy of the Kennedy presidency.
2. Discuss John F. Kennedy’s assassination and its impact on American society.
3. Examine the goals and accomplishments of the Johnson administration, and evaluate the legacy of the Johnson presidency.
4. Discuss the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1964 congressional and presidential elections.
5. Discuss the major rulings of the Warren Court, and explain the impact of these rulings on American life and society.
6. Discuss the accomplishments and failures of the black search for equality from 1961 to 1973; explain the transformation of the civil rights movement into the black power movement; and discuss the impact of black activism on American society.
7. Discuss the forces that gave rise to the New Left and the counterculture; examine the philosophy, goals, and actions of these two groups; and discuss their impact on American society.
8. Explain the emergence of the gay rights movement, and discuss the movement’s goals and its impact on American society.
9. Examine the crises that sent shock waves through American society in 1968.
10. Discuss the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1968 congressional and presidential elections.
11. Explain the emergence, characteristics, and goals of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and discuss the successes and failures of this movement and its impact on American society.
12. Discuss the issues that faced the Nixon administration in the late 1960s and early 1970s; explain and evaluate the administration’s actions concerning those issues; and discuss the consequences of those actions.
13. Examine the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1972 congressional and presidential elections.
14. Discuss the illegal activities that constituted the Watergate scandal, and explain the threat these activities posed to constitutional government.
15. Examine the impact of the Watergate scandal on the American people, American society, and American institutions, and discuss and evaluate the reforms enacted in the scandal’s aftermath.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Each administration from 1961 to 1974 promised reforms, but violence also marked the terms of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.
II. Civil Rights and the New Frontier
A. “The Best and the Brightest”
Kennedy surrounded himself with intellectuals with fresh ideas.
B. The New Frontier
Kennedy’s program promised more than the president could deliver, especially since Congress was dominated by conservatives.
C. March on Washington
Student volunteers formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and encouraged African Americans to resist segregation and register to vote. Kennedy gradually began to commit himself to first-class citizenship for blacks. In August 1963, thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for a March on Washington. At this event Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American history.
D. The Kennedy Assassination
Kennedy died in Dallas Texas, and crushed the hope that many held for the future. Many Americans still wonder if Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.
E. Kennedy in Retrospect
Critics fault Kennedy as president, but he seemed to grow in the office and his untimely death enhanced his reputation.
III. The Great Society and the Triumph of Liberalism
A. Civil Rights Act of 1964
At the urging of President Johnson, Congress outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment.
B. Election of 1964
Johnson and the Democrats won a tremendous victory in 1964, paving the way for numerous domestic programs.
C. Voting Rights Act of 1965
The federal government became involved in voter registration.
D. War on Poverty
Johnson’s ambitious effort to destroy poverty through education and job training enjoyed mixed success.
E. Successes in Reducing Poverty
Federal programs and economic expansion alleviated a number of problems the poor faced.
F. The Warren Court
Under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court supported judicial activism and handed down a series of landmark decisions.
G. Civil Rights Rulings
The Court protected freedom of speech, of privacy, of the rights of accused criminals, and upheld the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
IV. Civil Rights Disillusionment, Race Riots, and Black Power
A. Explosion of Black Anger
Many black leaders advocated nonviolence, but in 1964 frustration erupted into riots in several northern cities.
B. Race Riots
A bloody riot occurred in Los Angeles in 1965. In this case blacks, not whites, initiated the violence. Riots continued from 1966 to 1968. A federal committee found that white racism had led to the disturbances.
C. Malcolm X
Malcolm X, a symbol of AfricanAmerican pride, was killed in 1965 for moderating his hard line positions.
D. Black Power
In 1966, Stokely Carmichael encouraged African Americans to express their identity through Black Power.
V. The New Left and the Counterculture
A. Free Speech Movement
At the University of California at Berkeley, the Free Speech Movement indicated a new white activism.
B. Students for a Democratic Society and the New Left
Students for a Democratic Society, meeting at Port Huron, Michigan, condemned racism, poverty, and the Cold War. The heterogeneous protest movement referred to itself as the New Left.
C. Countercultural Revolution
Cynicism, drug use, and a contempt for many traditional values shaped the emergence of a counterculture.
D. Rock ‘n’ Roll
The counterculture often found expression for their feelings in rock music.
E. Sexuality
Oral contraceptives led young people to adopt more casual sexual mores.
F. Gay Rights Movement
Many homosexuals became more open, and a 1969 riot in Greenwich Village marked the genesis of “Gay Power.”
G. Antiwar Protests
The counterculture and the New Left both opposed the Vietnam War.
VI. 1968: A Year of Protest, Violence, and Loss
A. Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
In April 1968, James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr., touching off widespread violence.
B. Assassination of Robert Kennedy
In June 1968, an Arab nationalist assassinated Robert Kennedy, increasing a sense of despair in Americans.
C. Violence at the Democratic Convention
In August 1968, a riot between demonstrators at the Democratic convention and the police shocked the nation.
D. Election of 1968
In November 1968, Americans narrowly elected Richard Nixon over Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace.
E. Unraveling of the New Deal Coalition
The Vietnam War and the Democratic Party’s support for civil rights and welfare for the poor shook apart the Democrat’s New Deal coalition.
VII. Rebirth of Feminism
A. National Organization for Women
The need for action in advancing women’s issues led to the 1966 founding of NOW.
B. “Personal Politics”
Radical feminists preferred confrontational, direct action.
C. Working Women’s Burdens
For working women, the most pressing issue was sex discrimination in employment.
D. Women’s Educational and Professional Gains
By 1973, female participation in professional schools rose. Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment failed.
E. Roe v. Wade
In 1973, citing a woman’s constitutional right to privacy, the Supreme Court legalized abortions.
VIII. Nixon and the Divided Nation
A. Kent State and Jackson State
The United States invaded Cambodia in 1970, leading to huge protests and the killing of four demonstrators at Kent State University and two students at Jackson State.
B. Politics of Divisiveness
The Republicans sought to discredit the Democrats as radical at best and treasonous at worst. Still the Democrats made gains in the 1970 elections.
C. Stagflation
In 1971 the United States suffered relatively high inflation and unemployment, or “stagflation.” Nixon took pragmatic, liberal steps to restore the economy.
D. Environmental Issues
Over Nixon’s opposition, environmentalists made gains during his first term.
IX. Nixon’s Reelection and Resignation
A. Liberal Legislative Victories
Democrats still controlled the Congress after 1968, and they continued to enact liberal programs.
B. Nixon’s “Southern Strategy”
Nixon’s “southern strategy” appealed to voters from the Sunbelt and helped Nixon defeat George McGovern.
C. Nixon and the Supreme Court
Nixon managed to appoint four conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
D. Election of 1972
Nixon faced very few serious challengers. In 1972 he took elaborately staged trips to China and the Soviet Union. He was also aided by the rumor planted by his aids that the Vietnam War was near its end. Nixon won a smashing victory in 1972, but the Democrats retained control of Congress.
E. Watergate Break in
During the election, Nixon henchmen burglarized the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex.
F. White House Cover up
In June 1972, police arrested five men for breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters. The White House began feverish efforts to destroy any link with the men.
G. Watergate Hearings and Investigations
Judicial and Congressional investigations uncovered misconduct high in the Nixon administration.
H. Saturday Night Massacre
When pressured for Watergate tape recordings, Nixon fired the Attorney General and a Special Prosecutor.
I. Agnew’s Resignation
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned because of income tax evasion and corruption. Gerald Ford replaced him.
J. Nixon’s Resignation
Facing the prospect of impeachment on three counts, Nixon resigned as president on August 9, 1974.
K. Post Watergate Restrictions on Executive Power
The excesses of Nixon’s term led Congress to pass laws restraining presidents in foreign affairs, preventing the impounding of federal appropriations, limiting campaign funding, and ensuring access to government documents.
Reform and Conflict At Home:
A Turbulent Era, 1961-1974
Chapter Summary
In Chapter 30, we examine the crises that engulfed American society during the 1960s and early 1970s. As we learn from the first section, “Civil Rights and the New Frontier,” the New Frontier was overly ambitious in light of the political distance between the new president’s liberal agenda and a Congress dominated by a conservative coalition. When he attempted to deal with this conservative coalition, Kennedy at first failed to press forward on civil rights issues. At this point, violence began to have an impact on developments. In the face of violent challenges from southern segregationists to an expanding black civil-rights movement, the Kennedy administration gradually committed itself to a decisive stand in favor of black equality. But only because of continuing racial violence and Kennedy’s assassination did Congress finally pass civil rights legislation.
The section “The Great Society and the Triumph of Liberalism” covers the legislative accomplishments of the Johnson administration—the most sweeping reform legislation since 1935. This legislation comprised the Civil Rights Act of 1964, establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and legislation associated with Johnson’s War on Poverty. The authors look closely at the legislation that constituted the War on Poverty and discuss the problems and successes of this program.
The liberal decisions rendered by the Supreme Court during the 1960s and early 1970s matched the liberalism reflected in the progressive legislation of the Johnson years. The authors examine these rulings, the aspects of American life and American society they affected, and the praise and criticisms they evoked.
As the three branches of the federal government slowly began to deal with such long-standing American problems as poverty and minority rights, frustrations that had built up over generations of inaction manifested themselves. Events convinced civil-rights activists in the South that the “power structure” in American society was not to be trusted. Northern blacks began to reach the same conclusions. Both the civil-rights movement and Johnson’s antipoverty programs had offered African Americans hope for a better day in American society. However, as discussion of the social, economic, and political plight of urban blacks reveals, that hope had not been fulfilled. Among other factors, unfulfilled expectations and the continued display of wealth and possessions in the consumer-oriented American society led to the urban riots of the 1960s. Militant black leaders gained prominence and questioned Martin Luther King’s philosophy of nonviolence as well as his goal of integration. Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and the Black Panther Party called for “black power” within the context of black nationalism.
Along with this revolution of rising expectations among blacks, some whites involved in the civil rights movement began to become disillusioned with American society. Although their disillusionment stemmed from different sources than that of blacks, it led to the political and social activism associated with the New Left and the counterculture. The authors discuss the emergence, characteristics, and goals of both of these groups as well as the reaction of the middle class to their attacks on traditional values. In addition, the activism of blacks, the New Left and counterculture, and women gave rise to gay activism and to the gay rights movement. As the Vietnam War escalated and the New Left and the counterculture found common cause in their antiwar stance, the middle class became more and more convinced that traditional society was under siege.
The forces of frustration, rage, and anger born of racism, sexism, poverty, disillusionment, materialism, and the revolution of rising expectations practically ripped America apart in the tumult of 1968. After explaining the events of that year, the authors discuss the emergence, characteristics, and goals of both moderate and radical feminists. They also examine the problems encountered by many working women in the 1960s and note gains made by women against sexism in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Continuation of chaos into the 1970s convinced President Nixon and many Americans that society was on the verge of anarchy. Nixon attempted to use the perceived danger to his political advantage by portraying critics, including the Democratic opposition, as Communist pawns and enemies of American society. These tactics gained Nixon little in the 1970 congressional elections, and publication of the Pentagon Papers fostered more distrust of government. As Nixon prepared for the 1972 presidential election, he turned to Keynesian economics to deal with the country’s economic problems and opened relations with the People’s Republic of China.
In “Nixon’s Reelection and Resignation,” the authors first examine the factors that contributed to Nixon’s landslide victory in the 1972 election. These factors include the “southern strategy,” Nixon’s success in associating the Democratic Party with groups and movements that threatened traditional values, the nature of George McGovern’s campaign, and division within the Democratic Party. Even though the voters overwhelmingly chose to return Nixon to the White House in 1972, they also chose to leave both houses of Congress in the hands of the Democrats.
Unfortunately, Nixon’s landslide victory did not guarantee an end to the crisis atmosphere that had plagued the nation since the late 1960s. The Watergate scandal caused more disillusionment with government and increased the somber mood of the people, for it involved a series of illegal activities approved at the highest level of American government. Some of these activities, such as the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office, had been undertaken to discredit political opponents; others, such as the paying of hush money to witnesses, were part of an elaborate cover-up.
Beyond the illegal actions, the Watergate scandal was a constitutional crisis; the “imperial presidency” threatened the balance-of-power concept embodied in the Constitution and the guarantees of individual rights embodied in the Bill of Rights. We see the constitutional nature of the crisis in the clash between the executive and judicial branches of government, the impeachment hearings undertaken by the House Judiciary Committee, and ultimately the resignation of the president. Unlike the scandals of previous administrations, the activities linked to Watergate were aimed not at financial gain but at monopolizing political power. After citing the events associated with Watergate, the authors outline and briefly evaluate congressional attempts to correct the abuses associated with the scandal.
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss John F. Kennedy’s personal and political background; examine the goals and accomplishments of the Kennedy administration, and evaluate the legacy of the Kennedy presidency.
2. Discuss John F. Kennedy’s assassination and its impact on American society.
3. Examine the goals and accomplishments of the Johnson administration, and evaluate the legacy of the Johnson presidency.
4. Discuss the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1964 congressional and presidential elections.
5. Discuss the major rulings of the Warren Court, and explain the impact of these rulings on American life and society.
6. Discuss the accomplishments and failures of the black search for equality from 1961 to 1973; explain the transformation of the civil rights movement into the black power movement; and discuss the impact of black activism on American society.
7. Discuss the forces that gave rise to the New Left and the counterculture; examine the philosophy, goals, and actions of these two groups; and discuss their impact on American society.
8. Explain the emergence of the gay rights movement, and discuss the movement’s goals and its impact on American society.
9. Examine the crises that sent shock waves through American society in 1968.
10. Discuss the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1968 congressional and presidential elections.
11. Explain the emergence, characteristics, and goals of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and discuss the successes and failures of this movement and its impact on American society.
12. Discuss the issues that faced the Nixon administration in the late 1960s and early 1970s; explain and evaluate the administration’s actions concerning those issues; and discuss the consequences of those actions.
13. Examine the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1972 congressional and presidential elections.
14. Discuss the illegal activities that constituted the Watergate scandal, and explain the threat these activities posed to constitutional government.
15. Examine the impact of the Watergate scandal on the American people, American society, and American institutions, and discuss and evaluate the reforms enacted in the scandal’s aftermath.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Each administration from 1961 to 1974 promised reforms, but violence also marked the terms of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.
II. Civil Rights and the New Frontier
A. “The Best and the Brightest”
Kennedy surrounded himself with intellectuals with fresh ideas.
B. The New Frontier
Kennedy’s program promised more than the president could deliver, especially since Congress was dominated by conservatives.
C. March on Washington
Student volunteers formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and encouraged African Americans to resist segregation and register to vote. Kennedy gradually began to commit himself to first-class citizenship for blacks. In August 1963, thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for a March on Washington. At this event Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American history.
D. The Kennedy Assassination
Kennedy died in Dallas Texas, and crushed the hope that many held for the future. Many Americans still wonder if Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.
E. Kennedy in Retrospect
Critics fault Kennedy as president, but he seemed to grow in the office and his untimely death enhanced his reputation.
III. The Great Society and the Triumph of Liberalism
A. Civil Rights Act of 1964
At the urging of President Johnson, Congress outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment.
B. Election of 1964
Johnson and the Democrats won a tremendous victory in 1964, paving the way for numerous domestic programs.
C. Voting Rights Act of 1965
The federal government became involved in voter registration.
D. War on Poverty
Johnson’s ambitious effort to destroy poverty through education and job training enjoyed mixed success.
E. Successes in Reducing Poverty
Federal programs and economic expansion alleviated a number of problems the poor faced.
F. The Warren Court
Under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court supported judicial activism and handed down a series of landmark decisions.
G. Civil Rights Rulings
The Court protected freedom of speech, of privacy, of the rights of accused criminals, and upheld the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
IV. Civil Rights Disillusionment, Race Riots, and Black Power
A. Explosion of Black Anger
Many black leaders advocated nonviolence, but in 1964 frustration erupted into riots in several northern cities.
B. Race Riots
A bloody riot occurred in Los Angeles in 1965. In this case blacks, not whites, initiated the violence. Riots continued from 1966 to 1968. A federal committee found that white racism had led to the disturbances.
C. Malcolm X
Malcolm X, a symbol of AfricanAmerican pride, was killed in 1965 for moderating his hard line positions.
D. Black Power
In 1966, Stokely Carmichael encouraged African Americans to express their identity through Black Power.
V. The New Left and the Counterculture
A. Free Speech Movement
At the University of California at Berkeley, the Free Speech Movement indicated a new white activism.
B. Students for a Democratic Society and the New Left
Students for a Democratic Society, meeting at Port Huron, Michigan, condemned racism, poverty, and the Cold War. The heterogeneous protest movement referred to itself as the New Left.
C. Countercultural Revolution
Cynicism, drug use, and a contempt for many traditional values shaped the emergence of a counterculture.
D. Rock ‘n’ Roll
The counterculture often found expression for their feelings in rock music.
E. Sexuality
Oral contraceptives led young people to adopt more casual sexual mores.
F. Gay Rights Movement
Many homosexuals became more open, and a 1969 riot in Greenwich Village marked the genesis of “Gay Power.”
G. Antiwar Protests
The counterculture and the New Left both opposed the Vietnam War.
VI. 1968: A Year of Protest, Violence, and Loss
A. Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
In April 1968, James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr., touching off widespread violence.
B. Assassination of Robert Kennedy
In June 1968, an Arab nationalist assassinated Robert Kennedy, increasing a sense of despair in Americans.
C. Violence at the Democratic Convention
In August 1968, a riot between demonstrators at the Democratic convention and the police shocked the nation.
D. Election of 1968
In November 1968, Americans narrowly elected Richard Nixon over Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace.
E. Unraveling of the New Deal Coalition
The Vietnam War and the Democratic Party’s support for civil rights and welfare for the poor shook apart the Democrat’s New Deal coalition.
VII. Rebirth of Feminism
A. National Organization for Women
The need for action in advancing women’s issues led to the 1966 founding of NOW.
B. “Personal Politics”
Radical feminists preferred confrontational, direct action.
C. Working Women’s Burdens
For working women, the most pressing issue was sex discrimination in employment.
D. Women’s Educational and Professional Gains
By 1973, female participation in professional schools rose. Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment failed.
E. Roe v. Wade
In 1973, citing a woman’s constitutional right to privacy, the Supreme Court legalized abortions.
VIII. Nixon and the Divided Nation
A. Kent State and Jackson State
The United States invaded Cambodia in 1970, leading to huge protests and the killing of four demonstrators at Kent State University and two students at Jackson State.
B. Politics of Divisiveness
The Republicans sought to discredit the Democrats as radical at best and treasonous at worst. Still the Democrats made gains in the 1970 elections.
C. Stagflation
In 1971 the United States suffered relatively high inflation and unemployment, or “stagflation.” Nixon took pragmatic, liberal steps to restore the economy.
D. Environmental Issues
Over Nixon’s opposition, environmentalists made gains during his first term.
IX. Nixon’s Reelection and Resignation
A. Liberal Legislative Victories
Democrats still controlled the Congress after 1968, and they continued to enact liberal programs.
B. Nixon’s “Southern Strategy”
Nixon’s “southern strategy” appealed to voters from the Sunbelt and helped Nixon defeat George McGovern.
C. Nixon and the Supreme Court
Nixon managed to appoint four conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
D. Election of 1972
Nixon faced very few serious challengers. In 1972 he took elaborately staged trips to China and the Soviet Union. He was also aided by the rumor planted by his aids that the Vietnam War was near its end. Nixon won a smashing victory in 1972, but the Democrats retained control of Congress.
E. Watergate Break in
During the election, Nixon henchmen burglarized the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex.
F. White House Cover up
In June 1972, police arrested five men for breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters. The White House began feverish efforts to destroy any link with the men.
G. Watergate Hearings and Investigations
Judicial and Congressional investigations uncovered misconduct high in the Nixon administration.
H. Saturday Night Massacre
When pressured for Watergate tape recordings, Nixon fired the Attorney General and a Special Prosecutor.
I. Agnew’s Resignation
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned because of income tax evasion and corruption. Gerald Ford replaced him.
J. Nixon’s Resignation
Facing the prospect of impeachment on three counts, Nixon resigned as president on August 9, 1974.
K. Post Watergate Restrictions on Executive Power
The excesses of Nixon’s term led Congress to pass laws restraining presidents in foreign affairs, preventing the impounding of federal appropriations, limiting campaign funding, and ensuring access to government documents.
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 29
The Cold War and American Globalism,
1945-1961
Chapter Summary
Chapter 29 surveys the history of the bipolar contest for international power between the United States and the Soviet Union, a contest known as the Cold War, from 1945 to 1961.
We first examine the Cold War as the outgrowth of a complex set of factors. At the end of the Second World War, international relations remained unstable because of (1) world economic problems; (2) power vacuums caused by the defeat of Germany and Japan; (3) civil wars within nations; (4) the birth of nations resulting from the disintegration of empires; and (5) air power, which made all nations more vulnerable to attack. This unsettled environment encouraged competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two most powerful nations at the war’s end.
Furthermore, both the United States and the Soviet Union believed in the rightness of their own political, economic, and social systems, and each feared the other’s system. Their decisions and actions, based on the way each perceived the world, confirmed rather than alleviated these fears. For example, the American resolution to avoid appeasement and hold the line against communism, the American feeling of vulnerability in the air age, and American determination to prevent an economic depression led to an activist foreign policy characterized by the containment doctrine, economic expansionism, and globalist diplomacy. These factors, along with Truman’s anti-Soviet views and his brash personality, intensified Soviet fears of a hostile West. When the Soviets acted on the basis of this feeling, American worries that the Soviet Union was bent on world domination intensified.
Despite the fact that the Soviet Union had emerged from the Second World War as a regional power rather than a global menace, United States officials were distrustful of the Soviet Union and reacted to counter what they perceived to be a Soviet threat. They did so because of (1) their belief in a monolithic communist enemy bent on world revolution; (2) fear that unstable world conditions made United States interests vulnerable to Soviet subversion; and (3) the desire of the United States to use its postwar position of strength to its advantage. When the actions of the United States brought criticism, the United States perceived this as further proof that the Soviets were determined to dominate the world.
The interplay of these factors provides the thread running through the examination of American-Soviet relations from 1945 to 1961. The action-reaction theme is evident throughout the chapter, and the events discussed serve as evidence to support the authors’ interpretation of the sources of the Cold War. For example, in the discussion of the origins of the Korean War, we find that Truman acted out of the belief that the Soviets were the masterminds behind North Korea’s attack against South Korea. However, closer analysis of the situation shows the strong likelihood that North Korea started the war for its own nationalistic purposes and secured the support of a reluctant Joseph Stalin only after receiving the support of Mao Zedong. We examine the conduct of the war, Truman’s problems with General Douglas MacArthur, America’s use of atomic diplomacy, and the war’s domestic political impact. In the war’s aftermath, the globalist foreign policy used to justify it became entrenched in U.S. policy. This, in turn, led to an increase in foreign commitments and military appropriations and solidified the idea of a worldwide Soviet threat.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, accepted this view of a worldwide communist threat. During Eisenhower’s administration, this belief and the fear of domestic subversives that accompanied it led to the removal of talented Asian specialists from the Foreign Service, an action that would have dire consequences later on. Meanwhile, a new jargon invigorated the containment doctrine and the U.S. undertook propaganda efforts to foster discontent in the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe. Despite Eisenhower’s doubts about the arms race, as expressed in his 1953 “Atoms for Peace” speech, the president continued the activist foreign policy furthered during the Truman years and oversaw the acceleration of the nuclear arms race. Therefore, during the Eisenhower-Dulles years, the action-reaction relationship between the superpowers continued. Each action by one side caused a corresponding defensive reaction by the other in a seemingly endless spiral of fear and distrust. As a result, problems continued in Eastern Europe, Berlin, and Asia.
The process of decolonization begun during the First World War accelerated in the aftermath of the Second World War. As scores of new nations were born, the Cold-War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union began. Both superpowers began to compete for friends among the newly emerging nations of the Third World; however, both the United States and the Soviet Union encountered obstacles in finding allies among these nations. The factors that created obstacles for the United States in its search for Third World friends included:
1. America’s negative view toward the nonaligned movement among Third World nations;
2. the way in which the United States characterized Third-World peoples;
3. embarrassing incidents in the United States in which official representatives of the Third World were subjected to racist practices and prejudices;
4. America’s intolerance of the disorder caused by revolutionary nationalism; and
5. America’s great wealth.
To counter nationalism, radical doctrines, and neutralism in the Third World, the United States undertook development projects and, through the United States Information Agency, engaged in propaganda campaigns. In addition, during the Eisenhower administration the United States began increasingly to rely on the covert actions of the Central Intelligence Agency, as demonstrated in the Guatemalan and Iranian examples. Moreover, the attitude of the United States toward neutralism and toward the disruptions caused by revolutionary nationalism may be seen in the discussion of America’s deepening involvement in Vietnam and in the Eisenhower administration’s reaction to the events surrounding the 1956 Suez Crisis. In the aftermath of that crisis, fear of a weakened position in the Middle East led to the issuance of the Eisenhower Doctrine, which in turn was used to justify American military intervention in Lebanon in 1958, thus expanding the nation’s “global watch” approach to the containment of Communism.
Learning Objectives
1. Examine and explain the sources of the Cold War.
2. Examine the reasons for the activist, expansionist, globalist diplomacy undertaken by the United States in the aftermath of the Second World War; and, during the course of the Cold War, explain the exaggeration of the Soviet threat by United States officials.
3. Discuss the similarities and differences between American and Soviet perceptions of major international problems and events from 1945 to 1961.
4. Explain the rationale behind the containment doctrine; examine the evolution of the doctrine from its inception in 1947 to the end of the Eisenhower administration in 1961; discuss the history, extent, and nature of criticisms of the doctrine; and evaluate the doctrine as the cornerstone of American foreign policy from 1947 to 1961.
5. Examine the nature and extent of the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1961.
6. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Truman administration.
7. Discuss the reconstruction of Japan after that country’s defeat in the Second World War, and discuss relations between the United States and Japan from 1945 to 1961.
8. Examine and evaluate the events and decisions that led to deepening United States involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1961, and discuss the course of the war from 1950 to 1961.
9. Discuss the nature and outcome of the Chinese Civil War, and examine United States policy toward the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1961.
10. Discuss the origins of the Korean War; explain its outcome; and examine its impact on domestic politics and United States foreign policy.
11. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Eisenhower administration.
12. Discuss the rise of the Third World and explain the challenge the Third World posed to the United States from 1945 to 1961.
13. Explain the U.S. view of the Third World and the obstacles to United States influence in the Third World.
14. Discuss the various ways in which the United States attempted to counter nationalism, radical doctrines, and neutralism in the Third World.
15. Examine the role of the CIA as an instrument of United States policy in the Third World during the 1950s.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Harry Truman introduced a new era that saw the United States and the Soviet Union move toward war and back again, exhausting their power and influence in the process.
II. Why the Cold War Began
A. Decolonization
Economic dislocation and the aftermath of disintegrating empires characterized the world after World War II.
B. U.S. Economic and Strategic Needs
An expanding American economy became part of an activist postwar foreign policy. In the air age, the United States and the Soviet Union collided as each attempted to establish defensive positions.
C. Truman’s Get Tough Style
Truman had a brash and impatient style not suited to diplomacy.
D. Debate over Soviet Intentions and Behavior
Critics charged that policymakers often exaggerated the Soviet threat.
III. Truman’s Cold War: Europe and Global Containment
A. Atomic Diplomacy
The United States pursued a policy of using the atomic monopoly for leverage.
B. Kennan and Churchill Warn Against Soviet Power
George F. Kennan doubted if Soviets could be trusted, and Winston Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech solidified many Americans’ fears.
C. Truman Doctrine
In response to a British request for American aid against leftist insurgents in Greece and Turkey, Truman announced his commitment to stopping communism.
D. The “X” Article
George Kennan wrote an influential article that argued that the United States should contain Soviet expansion.
E. Marshall Plan
In 1947, the United States initiated the Marshall Plan, funneling billions of dollars into Western Europe.
F. National Security Act
The National Security Act created the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the United States Information Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
G. Fulbright Program and Cultural Expansion
The United States launched what amounted to a “cultural Marshall Plan.”
H. Recognition of Israel
The United States quickly recognized the new state of Israel in 1948.
I. Berlin Blockade and Airlift
In response to the Allied decision to unite their sections of Germany, the Soviets denied them access to Berlin. Truman responded with a massive airlift.
J. Point Four Program
In 1949 Truman instituted the Point Four Program to improve food supplies, public health, housing, and private investment in Third World countries.
K. Founding of NATO
The Berlin crisis and Soviet development of atomic weapons convinced the western nations to sign the North Atlantic Treaty Organization collective security accord.
L. NSC 68
In April 1950, the National Security Council issued NSC 68, a secret document asking for increased funds and a publicity campaign to gain support for the expenditures.
IV. Asian Acrimony: Japan, China, and Vietnam
A. Reconstruction of Japan
The United States reconstructed Japan after World War II by providing it with a democratic constitution, by revitalizing its economy, and by destroying its weapons.
B. Communist Victory in Chinese Civil War
Despite Jiang Jieshi’s corruption and recalcitrance, the United States continued to back him against Mao Zedong.
C. U.S. Nonrecognition Policy
Mao defeated Jiang and established the People’s Republic of China. Truman did not recognize the new republic.
D. Vietnam’s Quest for Independence
The Vietnamese resisted colonialism, and when French authority collapsed during World War II the Vietminh declared independence in 1945. The Cold War gave the United States several reasons to reject Vietnamese autonomy.
E. U.S. Aid to France In the War Against the Vietminh
The United States bore most of the financial costs of the French war against the Vietminh.
V. The Korean War
A. Origins of the War
The leaders of both North and South Korea sought reunification. Kim Il Sung persuaded a reluctant Stalin to approve the June 1950 invasion against South Korea.
B. Truman Commits U.S. Forces
The United Nations’ Security Council voted to aid South Korea and Truman ordered American troops into the region. Truman sent troops because he believed that the Soviets had orchestrated the attack. MacArthur staged a brilliant amphibious landing behind enemy lines that forced the North Koreans to retreat.
C. Chinese Entry into the War
When the Chinese sent thousands of troops into North Korea, MacArthur demanded full scale bombing of China.
D. Truman’s Firing of General MacArthur
MacArthur denounced Truman’s actions regarding China, leading the President to fire him.
E. Dispute over POWs
Thousands of North Korean and Chinese prisoners did not want to go home; the United States did not return them.
F. Costs and Consequences of the War
More than four million people died in this limited war. The powers of the presidency grew during the war, and the stalemated war helped elect Eisenhower.
G. Globalization of Containment
Worldwide military containment became entrenched as U.S. policy causing an escalation in defense spending.
VI. Eisenhower, Dulles, and Unrelenting Cold War
A. John Foster Dulles
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles intoned systematic and uncompromising anti-Communism. Dulles purged the State Department of many specialists, among them Asian experts whose absence adversely affected the American role in Vietnam.
B. Eisenhower-Dulles Policies
“Liberation,” “massive retaliation,” and the “New Look” military became bywords of American foreign policy. Backed by increasing stockpiles of nuclear weapons, the U.S. practiced “brinkmanship.”
C. CIA as Foreign Policy Instrument
The CIA put foreign leaders on its payroll, subsidized foreign labor unions, and engaged in “disinformation” campaigns. The CIA also launched covert operations to subvert governments in the Third World.
D. Propaganda and Cultural Infiltration
The U.S. also allocated assets for radio broadcasts and other media.
E. Hydrogen Bomb, Sputnik, and Missiles
American production of the incredibly powerful hydrogen bomb increased Soviet-American tensions. Following Soviet advances in missile technology, the United States stepped up its missile research.
F. Eisenhower’s Critique of Nuclear Arms
Eisenhower expressed his uneasiness over the arms race.
G. Rebellion in Hungary
When troops crushed a revolt against Soviet power in Hungary, America could do nothing to help the rebels without risking full scale war.
H. U 2 Incident
The Soviets walked out of the 1960 Paris summit when the Americans refused to apologize for U 2 spy missions.
I. Jinmen-Mazu Crisis
The Formosa Resolution of 1955 allowed deployment of American forces to defend the Formosan islands, which prompted China to develop nuclear capability by 1964.
J. “Japanese Miracle”
The United States rebuilt Japan as a bulwark against communist influence in Asia.
VII. At Odds with the Third World
A. Interests in the Third World
Decolonization advanced rapidly after 1945. The Soviets and the Americans sought alliances with the new nations.
B. Nonaligned Movement
Many Third World nations did not want to take sides in the Cold War and declared themselves nonaligned.
C. American Images of Third World Peoples
Americans saw the Third World’s people emotional, irrational, and dependent.
D. Racism and Segregation as U.S. Handicaps
American racism became an embarrassment and a liability in efforts to befriend Third World nations.
E. U.S. Hostility to Nationalist Revolution
Many people believed that Third World revolutions were aimed at American allies and at American investments.
F. Development and Modernization
The U.S. sought to aid developing nations in order to foster stability. The U.S. also directed propaganda toward the Third World to persuade Third World peoples to abandon radical doctrines and neutralism.
G. Third World Views of the United States
People in the developing nations both envied and resented the U.S.
VIII. U.S. Interventions in the Third World
A. CIA in Guatemala
The CIA helped overthrow Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in Guatemala in 1951 because the United Fruit Corporation disliked his confiscation of their lands.
B. The Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro’s ouster of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba sparked a serious crisis. When Cuba moved into a closer relationship with the Soviets, Eisenhower encouraged Cuban exiles to invade their homeland.
C. Operation Bootstrap in Puerto Rico
Operation Bootstrap encouraged investments in Puerto Rico from U.S. corporations.
D. U.S. Interests in the Middle East
American policy in the Middle East centered on upholding Israel and protecting the region’s extensive oil holdings.
E. Suez Crisis
In 1956, Egypt nationalized the British owned Suez Canal. The Israelis, British, and French moved against Egypt, but the United States refused to support them.
F. Eisenhower Doctrine
Eisenhower declared that the United States would intervene in the Middle East if any government threatened by a communist takeover asked for aid.
G. Dienbienphu Crisis in Vietnam
The Vietminh surrounded French troops at Dienbienphu, forcing France to end the war.
H. Geneva Accords
A peace accord divided Vietnam and set a 1956 election to unify the county, but Diem refused to hold the election.
I. Backing the Diem Regime in South Vietnam
The United States backed a corrupt and repressive regime in South Vietnam.
The Cold War and American Globalism,
1945-1961
Chapter Summary
Chapter 29 surveys the history of the bipolar contest for international power between the United States and the Soviet Union, a contest known as the Cold War, from 1945 to 1961.
We first examine the Cold War as the outgrowth of a complex set of factors. At the end of the Second World War, international relations remained unstable because of (1) world economic problems; (2) power vacuums caused by the defeat of Germany and Japan; (3) civil wars within nations; (4) the birth of nations resulting from the disintegration of empires; and (5) air power, which made all nations more vulnerable to attack. This unsettled environment encouraged competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two most powerful nations at the war’s end.
Furthermore, both the United States and the Soviet Union believed in the rightness of their own political, economic, and social systems, and each feared the other’s system. Their decisions and actions, based on the way each perceived the world, confirmed rather than alleviated these fears. For example, the American resolution to avoid appeasement and hold the line against communism, the American feeling of vulnerability in the air age, and American determination to prevent an economic depression led to an activist foreign policy characterized by the containment doctrine, economic expansionism, and globalist diplomacy. These factors, along with Truman’s anti-Soviet views and his brash personality, intensified Soviet fears of a hostile West. When the Soviets acted on the basis of this feeling, American worries that the Soviet Union was bent on world domination intensified.
Despite the fact that the Soviet Union had emerged from the Second World War as a regional power rather than a global menace, United States officials were distrustful of the Soviet Union and reacted to counter what they perceived to be a Soviet threat. They did so because of (1) their belief in a monolithic communist enemy bent on world revolution; (2) fear that unstable world conditions made United States interests vulnerable to Soviet subversion; and (3) the desire of the United States to use its postwar position of strength to its advantage. When the actions of the United States brought criticism, the United States perceived this as further proof that the Soviets were determined to dominate the world.
The interplay of these factors provides the thread running through the examination of American-Soviet relations from 1945 to 1961. The action-reaction theme is evident throughout the chapter, and the events discussed serve as evidence to support the authors’ interpretation of the sources of the Cold War. For example, in the discussion of the origins of the Korean War, we find that Truman acted out of the belief that the Soviets were the masterminds behind North Korea’s attack against South Korea. However, closer analysis of the situation shows the strong likelihood that North Korea started the war for its own nationalistic purposes and secured the support of a reluctant Joseph Stalin only after receiving the support of Mao Zedong. We examine the conduct of the war, Truman’s problems with General Douglas MacArthur, America’s use of atomic diplomacy, and the war’s domestic political impact. In the war’s aftermath, the globalist foreign policy used to justify it became entrenched in U.S. policy. This, in turn, led to an increase in foreign commitments and military appropriations and solidified the idea of a worldwide Soviet threat.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, accepted this view of a worldwide communist threat. During Eisenhower’s administration, this belief and the fear of domestic subversives that accompanied it led to the removal of talented Asian specialists from the Foreign Service, an action that would have dire consequences later on. Meanwhile, a new jargon invigorated the containment doctrine and the U.S. undertook propaganda efforts to foster discontent in the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe. Despite Eisenhower’s doubts about the arms race, as expressed in his 1953 “Atoms for Peace” speech, the president continued the activist foreign policy furthered during the Truman years and oversaw the acceleration of the nuclear arms race. Therefore, during the Eisenhower-Dulles years, the action-reaction relationship between the superpowers continued. Each action by one side caused a corresponding defensive reaction by the other in a seemingly endless spiral of fear and distrust. As a result, problems continued in Eastern Europe, Berlin, and Asia.
The process of decolonization begun during the First World War accelerated in the aftermath of the Second World War. As scores of new nations were born, the Cold-War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union began. Both superpowers began to compete for friends among the newly emerging nations of the Third World; however, both the United States and the Soviet Union encountered obstacles in finding allies among these nations. The factors that created obstacles for the United States in its search for Third World friends included:
1. America’s negative view toward the nonaligned movement among Third World nations;
2. the way in which the United States characterized Third-World peoples;
3. embarrassing incidents in the United States in which official representatives of the Third World were subjected to racist practices and prejudices;
4. America’s intolerance of the disorder caused by revolutionary nationalism; and
5. America’s great wealth.
To counter nationalism, radical doctrines, and neutralism in the Third World, the United States undertook development projects and, through the United States Information Agency, engaged in propaganda campaigns. In addition, during the Eisenhower administration the United States began increasingly to rely on the covert actions of the Central Intelligence Agency, as demonstrated in the Guatemalan and Iranian examples. Moreover, the attitude of the United States toward neutralism and toward the disruptions caused by revolutionary nationalism may be seen in the discussion of America’s deepening involvement in Vietnam and in the Eisenhower administration’s reaction to the events surrounding the 1956 Suez Crisis. In the aftermath of that crisis, fear of a weakened position in the Middle East led to the issuance of the Eisenhower Doctrine, which in turn was used to justify American military intervention in Lebanon in 1958, thus expanding the nation’s “global watch” approach to the containment of Communism.
Learning Objectives
1. Examine and explain the sources of the Cold War.
2. Examine the reasons for the activist, expansionist, globalist diplomacy undertaken by the United States in the aftermath of the Second World War; and, during the course of the Cold War, explain the exaggeration of the Soviet threat by United States officials.
3. Discuss the similarities and differences between American and Soviet perceptions of major international problems and events from 1945 to 1961.
4. Explain the rationale behind the containment doctrine; examine the evolution of the doctrine from its inception in 1947 to the end of the Eisenhower administration in 1961; discuss the history, extent, and nature of criticisms of the doctrine; and evaluate the doctrine as the cornerstone of American foreign policy from 1947 to 1961.
5. Examine the nature and extent of the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1961.
6. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Truman administration.
7. Discuss the reconstruction of Japan after that country’s defeat in the Second World War, and discuss relations between the United States and Japan from 1945 to 1961.
8. Examine and evaluate the events and decisions that led to deepening United States involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1961, and discuss the course of the war from 1950 to 1961.
9. Discuss the nature and outcome of the Chinese Civil War, and examine United States policy toward the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1961.
10. Discuss the origins of the Korean War; explain its outcome; and examine its impact on domestic politics and United States foreign policy.
11. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Eisenhower administration.
12. Discuss the rise of the Third World and explain the challenge the Third World posed to the United States from 1945 to 1961.
13. Explain the U.S. view of the Third World and the obstacles to United States influence in the Third World.
14. Discuss the various ways in which the United States attempted to counter nationalism, radical doctrines, and neutralism in the Third World.
15. Examine the role of the CIA as an instrument of United States policy in the Third World during the 1950s.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Harry Truman introduced a new era that saw the United States and the Soviet Union move toward war and back again, exhausting their power and influence in the process.
II. Why the Cold War Began
A. Decolonization
Economic dislocation and the aftermath of disintegrating empires characterized the world after World War II.
B. U.S. Economic and Strategic Needs
An expanding American economy became part of an activist postwar foreign policy. In the air age, the United States and the Soviet Union collided as each attempted to establish defensive positions.
C. Truman’s Get Tough Style
Truman had a brash and impatient style not suited to diplomacy.
D. Debate over Soviet Intentions and Behavior
Critics charged that policymakers often exaggerated the Soviet threat.
III. Truman’s Cold War: Europe and Global Containment
A. Atomic Diplomacy
The United States pursued a policy of using the atomic monopoly for leverage.
B. Kennan and Churchill Warn Against Soviet Power
George F. Kennan doubted if Soviets could be trusted, and Winston Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech solidified many Americans’ fears.
C. Truman Doctrine
In response to a British request for American aid against leftist insurgents in Greece and Turkey, Truman announced his commitment to stopping communism.
D. The “X” Article
George Kennan wrote an influential article that argued that the United States should contain Soviet expansion.
E. Marshall Plan
In 1947, the United States initiated the Marshall Plan, funneling billions of dollars into Western Europe.
F. National Security Act
The National Security Act created the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the United States Information Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
G. Fulbright Program and Cultural Expansion
The United States launched what amounted to a “cultural Marshall Plan.”
H. Recognition of Israel
The United States quickly recognized the new state of Israel in 1948.
I. Berlin Blockade and Airlift
In response to the Allied decision to unite their sections of Germany, the Soviets denied them access to Berlin. Truman responded with a massive airlift.
J. Point Four Program
In 1949 Truman instituted the Point Four Program to improve food supplies, public health, housing, and private investment in Third World countries.
K. Founding of NATO
The Berlin crisis and Soviet development of atomic weapons convinced the western nations to sign the North Atlantic Treaty Organization collective security accord.
L. NSC 68
In April 1950, the National Security Council issued NSC 68, a secret document asking for increased funds and a publicity campaign to gain support for the expenditures.
IV. Asian Acrimony: Japan, China, and Vietnam
A. Reconstruction of Japan
The United States reconstructed Japan after World War II by providing it with a democratic constitution, by revitalizing its economy, and by destroying its weapons.
B. Communist Victory in Chinese Civil War
Despite Jiang Jieshi’s corruption and recalcitrance, the United States continued to back him against Mao Zedong.
C. U.S. Nonrecognition Policy
Mao defeated Jiang and established the People’s Republic of China. Truman did not recognize the new republic.
D. Vietnam’s Quest for Independence
The Vietnamese resisted colonialism, and when French authority collapsed during World War II the Vietminh declared independence in 1945. The Cold War gave the United States several reasons to reject Vietnamese autonomy.
E. U.S. Aid to France In the War Against the Vietminh
The United States bore most of the financial costs of the French war against the Vietminh.
V. The Korean War
A. Origins of the War
The leaders of both North and South Korea sought reunification. Kim Il Sung persuaded a reluctant Stalin to approve the June 1950 invasion against South Korea.
B. Truman Commits U.S. Forces
The United Nations’ Security Council voted to aid South Korea and Truman ordered American troops into the region. Truman sent troops because he believed that the Soviets had orchestrated the attack. MacArthur staged a brilliant amphibious landing behind enemy lines that forced the North Koreans to retreat.
C. Chinese Entry into the War
When the Chinese sent thousands of troops into North Korea, MacArthur demanded full scale bombing of China.
D. Truman’s Firing of General MacArthur
MacArthur denounced Truman’s actions regarding China, leading the President to fire him.
E. Dispute over POWs
Thousands of North Korean and Chinese prisoners did not want to go home; the United States did not return them.
F. Costs and Consequences of the War
More than four million people died in this limited war. The powers of the presidency grew during the war, and the stalemated war helped elect Eisenhower.
G. Globalization of Containment
Worldwide military containment became entrenched as U.S. policy causing an escalation in defense spending.
VI. Eisenhower, Dulles, and Unrelenting Cold War
A. John Foster Dulles
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles intoned systematic and uncompromising anti-Communism. Dulles purged the State Department of many specialists, among them Asian experts whose absence adversely affected the American role in Vietnam.
B. Eisenhower-Dulles Policies
“Liberation,” “massive retaliation,” and the “New Look” military became bywords of American foreign policy. Backed by increasing stockpiles of nuclear weapons, the U.S. practiced “brinkmanship.”
C. CIA as Foreign Policy Instrument
The CIA put foreign leaders on its payroll, subsidized foreign labor unions, and engaged in “disinformation” campaigns. The CIA also launched covert operations to subvert governments in the Third World.
D. Propaganda and Cultural Infiltration
The U.S. also allocated assets for radio broadcasts and other media.
E. Hydrogen Bomb, Sputnik, and Missiles
American production of the incredibly powerful hydrogen bomb increased Soviet-American tensions. Following Soviet advances in missile technology, the United States stepped up its missile research.
F. Eisenhower’s Critique of Nuclear Arms
Eisenhower expressed his uneasiness over the arms race.
G. Rebellion in Hungary
When troops crushed a revolt against Soviet power in Hungary, America could do nothing to help the rebels without risking full scale war.
H. U 2 Incident
The Soviets walked out of the 1960 Paris summit when the Americans refused to apologize for U 2 spy missions.
I. Jinmen-Mazu Crisis
The Formosa Resolution of 1955 allowed deployment of American forces to defend the Formosan islands, which prompted China to develop nuclear capability by 1964.
J. “Japanese Miracle”
The United States rebuilt Japan as a bulwark against communist influence in Asia.
VII. At Odds with the Third World
A. Interests in the Third World
Decolonization advanced rapidly after 1945. The Soviets and the Americans sought alliances with the new nations.
B. Nonaligned Movement
Many Third World nations did not want to take sides in the Cold War and declared themselves nonaligned.
C. American Images of Third World Peoples
Americans saw the Third World’s people emotional, irrational, and dependent.
D. Racism and Segregation as U.S. Handicaps
American racism became an embarrassment and a liability in efforts to befriend Third World nations.
E. U.S. Hostility to Nationalist Revolution
Many people believed that Third World revolutions were aimed at American allies and at American investments.
F. Development and Modernization
The U.S. sought to aid developing nations in order to foster stability. The U.S. also directed propaganda toward the Third World to persuade Third World peoples to abandon radical doctrines and neutralism.
G. Third World Views of the United States
People in the developing nations both envied and resented the U.S.
VIII. U.S. Interventions in the Third World
A. CIA in Guatemala
The CIA helped overthrow Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in Guatemala in 1951 because the United Fruit Corporation disliked his confiscation of their lands.
B. The Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro’s ouster of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba sparked a serious crisis. When Cuba moved into a closer relationship with the Soviets, Eisenhower encouraged Cuban exiles to invade their homeland.
C. Operation Bootstrap in Puerto Rico
Operation Bootstrap encouraged investments in Puerto Rico from U.S. corporations.
D. U.S. Interests in the Middle East
American policy in the Middle East centered on upholding Israel and protecting the region’s extensive oil holdings.
E. Suez Crisis
In 1956, Egypt nationalized the British owned Suez Canal. The Israelis, British, and French moved against Egypt, but the United States refused to support them.
F. Eisenhower Doctrine
Eisenhower declared that the United States would intervene in the Middle East if any government threatened by a communist takeover asked for aid.
G. Dienbienphu Crisis in Vietnam
The Vietminh surrounded French troops at Dienbienphu, forcing France to end the war.
H. Geneva Accords
A peace accord divided Vietnam and set a 1956 election to unify the county, but Diem refused to hold the election.
I. Backing the Diem Regime in South Vietnam
The United States backed a corrupt and repressive regime in South Vietnam.
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