Essentials for US History--Semester 2
1. Students will understand the impact the Great Depression and New Deal had on the US.
Great Depression: The Great Depression began with the Stock Market Crash. It lasted from about 1929 to the late 1930’s/early 1940’s. People were so happy and life was great throughout the 1920’s. People would just spend spend spend. Farmers were already struggling from a surplus of food from the war. Buying on account came out and people would buy and not pay and they would go into massive debt. The great depression affected basically everyone, the rich and the poor. The New Deal was made to try to get the United States out of the Great Depression by working with the people and the businesses.
New Deal: The First New Deal was from 1933- 1934. It didn't end the depression, but helped with the suffering of people. It tried to get a more organized partnership between corporations and the government. It wanted to restore the economy from the top down; it would start with the banks. The 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act set up the New Deal's strategy of fighting back the depression. It focused on economy recovery.
The Second New Deal 1935-1941 wanted to restore the economy from the bottom up. They wanted to help the common people get jobs so that they would be able to pay for things. It emphasized social justice. It wanted to turn non consumers into consumers again. Relief, Reform, Recovery: relief was to the unemployed and badly hurt farmers, reform on the business and financial practices, recovery of the economy during the great depression.
It helped the UNEMPLOYED with the CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS (CCC) which provided relief, rehabilitation, and training for about around three million men. They would provide jobs for men, some of the jobs included building parks, fighting forest fires, and planting trees. The CCC was aimed mainly for men from the ages of 18-25. The Civil Works Administration was made to provide jobs for many unemployed people. Most of the jobs that they gave were construction jobs, It hired around 4 million people and it promised high wages.
The FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION (FSA) was made to help poor FARMERS that were affected by the dust bowl. It was set up in 1937. Smaller farms were bought by the government and were made better. In 1944 The Conservation Coalition took control of the FSA. It made it into a program that would help farmers buy land. The FSA was known mostly for the photographs that he took. One example was the Migrant Mother that was taken by Dorthea Lange.
The EMERGENCY BANK RELIEF ACT was made to help BANKS and was also known as the bank holiday. This act closed down banks and 5000 banks were passed. It regulated the Secretary of the Treasury and allowed the president to declare a National Emergency. It changed the ways that banks worked during emergencies such as the Stock Market Crash. It would close down banks and then assure people that if it was re-opened their money was safe. This act was made to help with the effects of the Great Depression for the banks.
The SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION was passed and helped ELDERLY, DISABLED, AND RETIRED PEOPLE. A Social Security card was what insured that people were U.S. citizens. Roosevelt was the first president to help the elderly. Women that worked in the house were considered unemployed so that they would get unemployment checks. It also provided benefits to the retired and unemployed. This act provided for a lot of controversy.
The INDIAN REORGANIZATION ACT would allow NATIVE AMERICAN lands would now belong to the entire tribe. Native American children were able to go to school on reservations. The tribes could also elect a tribal council that would govern the reservations.
The FOOD, DRUG, AND COSMETICS ACT was used to help CONSUMERS and to amend he pure food and drug act. There was a mix-up with this chemical sulfur thing that was sent out so the government put in this act so that they were stricter about the food and drugs that were sent out during the time. It helped the consumers because they checked the labels to make sure that what they were buying was ok.
2. Students will understand the causes, effects, and major events of WWII.
-Pearl Harbor
"December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy," was said by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt referring to the attack on Pearl Harbor, a harbor on the southern coast of Oahu. It was a suprise attack by the Japanese that took place on that day. The Japanese force consisting of six carriers with four hundred twenty-three planes. The attack hit eighteen U.S. ships and destroyed one hundred eighty-eight U.S. aircrafts. Two-thousand three hundred thirty-five servicemen were killed, sixty-eight civilians pronounced dead, and one thousand one hundred seventy-eight people were wounded from this attack.
But why exactly did Japan want to attack us?
In September of 1940, the United States placed an embargo on Japan. This prohibited the exports of goods to Japan including steel, scrap iron, and aviation fuel. We placed the embargo because of Japan's takeover of northern French Indochina. From June until July in 1941, Japan occupied southern Indochina. Two days later, the United States, along with Great Britain and the Netherlands froze Japanese assets which prevented Japan from buying oil. There were warnings that Japan was going to attack. It was not a full surprise. The U.S. had broken a code and knew that an attack was coming. A warning arrived from Washington, but unfortunately, the warning arrived too late. Radar technology was new at this time, and when the Japanese planes appeared on American radar, they were mistaken as be B-17's flying in from the West Cost. There were two waves of Japanese aircrafts that flew attacked Pearl Harbor that beautiful Sunday in December. The two waves of terror lasted for two hours. Eighteen American ships were either sunk or badly damaged. One thousand one hundred seventy-seven lives were lost on the Battleship U.S.S.R Arizona. The ship exploded and sank. All eight ships of the Pacific Fleet suffered from the attack. Sixteen Medals of Honor, fifty-one Navy Crosses, fifty-three Silver Crosses, four Navy and Marine Corps Medals, one Distinguished Flying Cross, four Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, and three Bronze Stars were awarded to the Americans who were serving during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is what brought the United States into the war on December 8th. The Americans were brought into World War II determined to fight until the finish. The attack on Pearl Harbor obviously led to many other tragic events in American History.
-D-Day
The best known D-Day is June 6, 1944 — the day of the Normandy landings — initiating the Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II. This was the largest invasion of all time, there was 175,000 troops landing in Normandy. There was an air assault and an amphibious landing of allied infantry and armored divisions on the cost of France. Operation Overlord began on D-Day. American casualties were light, and the troops were able to press inward much faster than expected, making it a near-complete success.
-Atomic bombing
The United States conducted two major atomic bombing during WWII against Japan. They were on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and the “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. These were the only times nuclear weapons were used in the entire war. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki,[5] with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. The Hiroshima prefectural health department estimates that, of the people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. A plausible estimate of the total immediate and short term cause of death, 15–20% died from radiation sickness, 20–30% from flash burns, and 50–60% from other injuries, compounded by illness. Most of the deaths in the cities were civilians.
-Africa/European Front
African Front: A large amount of battles between the axis and the allied powers during WWII in Africa. The United States got involved in this war in 1941. The battles started with the Italian Declaration of War. This war consisted of desert warfare. The war came out as a win for the allied powers. The main general for the United States was General George S. Patton. The Main leader for Germany was Erwin Rommel.
European Front: The Italian/Mediterranean front began after the African Front. The main idea was to capture the German and Italian forces in Italy. This was also started to relieve pressure from the Soviets. They started with an invasion of Sicily and then moved inland towards Italy. The Apennine Mountains made this a difficult campaign, and the allies struggled in advancing to Rome. The German forces surrendered in Italy on May 2, 1945.
-Pacific Front
The Philippine Campaign began in 1941 when Japan invaded the Philippines and the campaign ended in 1942. The United States got involved with this because we were allies with the Philippines. The Japanese took over Malia, and there they ordered death marches. They occupied the Philippines until 1945. In February, the United States took over the city of Malia. Also, the Battle of Coral Sea took place during the Pacific Front, there were also the United State’s atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan constructed Kamikaze (suicide) Attacks when a crazy little Japanese Man would fly a plane into a ship to destroy the ships. There were also the major battles such as the Battle of Midway and Iwo Jima. The countries communicated through codes such as Ultra and Purple, it was basically some scrambler messenger thing, and there were machines to unscramble them and whatnot. We called this the spying game. The United States used Navajo Indians as code talkers to communicate in their unpublished languages.
3. Students will understand how/why the Allies won WWII.
The Allies won the war because the vast amount of resources they had and their unbreakable code. During these times, the United States was an extremely powerful force. They had people on the Home Front who were completely generous and devoted to the war. A lot of other countries did not have the resources like the United States had. Also, Germany made a huge mistake with turning on the Soviet Union. The war ended with the signing of surrender documents by Japan on a U.S. ship.
4. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of the Cold War.
a. Define the Cold War and it's causes
east vs. west
(communism vs. democracy)
(control vs. freedom)
Communism- a government system where the government has COMPLETE control.. trying to make this like whole utopian society where everyone is created equal, robinhood style, everyone is created equal but equal means poor.
Democracy- the people vote, the people do what they want but are abided by some law, everyone has certain rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press but this is not allowed in a communist government
Socialism- government controls the businesses
Capitalism- people control their own businesses. communists hate capitalists.
The Causes of the Cold War..
was was between the communists and the non communists, which includes like democratic governments and certain dictatorships.
At the end of WWII, Germany was split into four equal parts. The four parts were divided by the United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia. This almost led to a war between us and the Soviet Union.
We made an atomic bomb. this upsetted the USSR..
Treaty between Russia and Poland saying they cannot atack each other.. the border treaty?
Iron Curtain.. russia had control over poland east germany hungary romania bulgaria and Czechoslovakia
Bolshevik Revolution.. when russia became communists.. this is the birthplace of the cold war.. this is when hatred torwards communists was developed
The First Red Scare.. started with the fear of anarchism and communism. searching people without a warrent and deporting people who he thought were communists. we do all of these things to get the communists out of our country
b. Policy of Containment -domino effect, mutual deterrence, massive retaliation, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO
Policy of Containment.
US used the policy of containment to stop communism
build up foreign security
prevent domino effect
president truman best represented this policy
george kennan
created the policy of containment
he was a us embassador to the soviet union, then later to Yugoslavia
leader of a lot of many like anti communist programs
critic of international policies
domino effect..
communism theory that if soviets took over a few more counties then it would just keep getting taken over so if one country falls over from communism they all fall from communism HENCE the policy of containment
taken over were north vietnam laos and Cambodia
not taken over were thailand and indonesia
Iron Cutrtain Speech
marked the beginning of the war, soviets were not happy with the speech. the speech was about the iron curtain, which was like the non communists and the communists and europe.. churchill gave the speech. talked about how the iron curtain had split europe, saying there was now eastern europe and western europe.. seperated by this spred of communism. the communist world and the free democratic world did not mesh. first defined by churchills iron curtain speech... and the cold war began...
east side europe.. communist. west side. free.
Marshall Plan
european recovery program for western europe.. created a stronger economic foundation.. thetruman administration wanted to help.. george marshall addressed it.. it was a proposal to europe.. the us gave europe 13 billion dollars.. many of the major cities in europe were destroyed.. we thought that we should rebuild europe to stop the spread of communism.. if we didnt lend a helping had the soviet union would and then they would make them comunists and we did not want that to happen. STOP THE SPREAD OF COMMUNISM IN EUROPE. we offered this money even to the soviet union. the soviet union did not allow eastern european countries to accept the money that we offered..
George Marshall
former general of the us army.. secretary of state. won the nobel peace prize in 1953 because he created the marshall plan..
Truman Doctrine
us strategy for containment. the long telegram was how the soviets would resopnd. us set up a long term strategy, the first step in the process.. establishing NATO to stop communism. it was aimed to help greece and turky. they were in couth eastern europe and there were communists in their country trying to take over so they called us for help so we sent them billions of dollars and military supplies and aid. it was to help them to literelly fight off the communists from taking over their countries. the bill was passed.
north atlantic treaty organization
1949- you agree to a mutual defense in response to an attack by any externel party. in belgium(headquarters)
the alliance in between 28 countries.. united states, canada, and western europe. against the warsaw pact which was like the soviet union's alliance in the late 90s we had some of our old enemies joining like hungary and poland and the czech republic.
de-stalinization
created by kruschev.... stalin ded in early 1950s... we didnt like stalin but we knew how to deal with him. kruschev came to power, started talking about destalinizetion. start undoing the bad things that stalin did such as getting rid of his cult of personality like changing the town names from stalingrad.
cult of personality- a cult promoting adulation of a living national leader or public figure, as one encouraged by Stalin to extend his power.
peaceful coexistance.. influenced communist states that they could peacefully coexist with capatilists states this was made by kruschev.
c. Both Berlin Crises
Berlin blockade
June 1941 to may 1949
Took place in germany
First major international crises of the cold war
What did the yalta conference do?
-split germany into four parts
-us ussr uk and france
soviet union control of berlin… (capital of germany)
berlin was splir into four parts
stalin blockaded berlin…. cause he didn’t like that it was split
stalin wanted to weaken germany he saw them as a threat and that it cant be tolerated and thought that they were nothing but problems
d. The Red Scare--McCarthyism and HUAC
1938... to investigate alleged disloyalty
the chairman of the committee was martin dies
would question private citizens public employees and other organizations suspected of having communists
hauc ofter pressures witnesses to surrender names
huac activities commanded broad popular support
huac questioning style and examination techniques were later used by senator joe mccarthy
investigation of hollywood... the huac thought that threat of communits in the film industry was a serious one
in 1947 they began investigating the hollywood motion picture industry
investigated whether communists were planting propaganda in us films
interviewed 41 people ... "friendly witnesses" gave names
a lot of the people were afraid to go to prison so they accused other people of being communist
the hollywood ten.. the most famous group of blacklisted individuals was known as the hollywood ten
they were blacklisted.. so they couldnt really work
the work of the committee started to decline throughout the late 1950s... the former president truman said that it was the most un american thing in the country today. the committee was renamed the house internal security committee in 1969.. the committee was abolished in 1975.
Joe McCarthy “Tail Gunner Joe” US Senator, very well liked at first, great speaker, started McCarthyism. Communist Witch Hunt. Trialed people.. ended with the McCarthy vs. US Army Trials
e. Fidel Castro, Bay of Pigs and Missile Crisis
fidel castro..
very interesed in polotics, anti-americanist, juan peron paid for castros trip to columbia for some american hater thing. the cuban revolution began with an attack from general fulgencio batista on santiago, cuba. castro was not executed after being captured during this skirmish. he wanted to over throw batista and he and all the other exiled from the moncada barracks known as the 26th of july movement.. he used underground guerilla tactics to overthrow batista. this tactic was used when the cubans tried to revold against spain and they became known as imperianlistic regime. operation verano.. free walk into havana.. castro wanted to attack batista because he thought he was too much of like a us puppet and he didnt want that much influence.. january 8, became the new leader of cuba...castro became the prime minister of cuba on february 16, 1959.
"revolution now, election later."
known as La Batalla de Girón, or Playa Girón in Cuba
unsuccessful attempt by a CIA -trained force of cuban exiles to invade southern cuba with support from US
government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of castro
used 26 b26 planes
on the night of april 16/17, the bay of pigs incvasion began
cuban exiles bombed cuban naval ships
invasion lasted 3-4 days.. 176 men were killed
on the airfield invasion of april 15, 7 cubans were killed.. bunch were injured
the cuban missile crisis
the cuban missile crisis was a confrontation between the soviet union cuba and the united states in october 1963. coman and soviet governments were building bases for nuclear missiles. sait to be the poing the which the cold war came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict. building the missles in cuba.. cuba was upset with the us because of invasions such as the bay of pigs invasion. the us started to suspect that the soviet union was building missiles in cuba around august of 1962. along with the help of the us government armed forces the cia with a trained force of cuban exiles attempted to attack southern cuba. cuban exiles are anti communist cubans. the idea of placing nuclear missiles in cuba came from Nikita Khrushchev. Wanted to counter the lead of the us in developing and deploying strategic missiles.. the us was building missiles in turkey but the soviets having building missiles in cuba gave them first strike capability because they were closer to us. also wanted to protect cuba from more us sponsored invastions. photographic proof of missile bases under construction were caught by a united states U-2 photoreconnaissance on october 14. the united states considered attacking cuba but instead they settled on a military quarantine of cuba. on october 23, 1962, president kennedy signed proclamation 3504. we had a lot of options of what to do with this. we really wanted the soviet union to leave cuba peacefully
planes flew over, got photographic proof of missiles
considered attacking, decided to have a military quarantine
...they didnt wanna attack because that would lead to some sort of war
with a military quarantine its like a blockade. but its not a blockade. cause blockades are for war, and this isnt a war
proclamation 3504.. signed for the military quarantine
they wanted to get the weapons dismantled and sent them back to the soviet union
the suviets publicly refused to agree with the demand but they secretly agreed to the thing if we pledged to not invade cuba they had to dismantle their offensive weapons and send them to the soviet union and we had to leave with our nuclear missiles from turkey within six months
the crisis ended on october 28 1962
f. China
After the Nationalist leader Sun Yat Sen died in 1925 Chiang Jai Shek became the leader of that party. Chiang started the Northern Expedition. He recruited warlords and armies. Chiang supported the Kuomintang (KMT). Chiang hated what the communists were doing. The Communists were pushed out by Chiang. Mao started his own force and communist society. Chiang arrested and executed hundreds of communists. After the killing of the communists Mao formed an alliance with Zhu De and Lin Biao and they called it the Red Army. The Chinese Civil War began in April 1927. It was fought between the KMT and the communists. Both sides fought to transform China. In 1934 Mao and the communists were surrounded and were forced to retreat and it was called the Long March. Many of the people retreated to regroup and attack again. In 1936 the Long March ended. The KMT and the communist party came together to fight in the Second-Sino Japanese War. Chiang was held prisoner and was really forced to side with Zao. Soviet Volunteers, Germany, and the US helped China. Japan surrendered in the Chinese mainland and Taiwan was reclaimed. It was the largest Asian war. Chiang tried to get rid of the communists after the war, but the communists had massive support from the Soviet Union. The communist part defeated Chiang. The KMT government was forced to retreat to Tawain. The Communist forces increased from 1 million to 4 million.
in 1958-1962 there was the great leap forward and the great famine.. this was a campaign by the ccp.. everyong in china had to be involved in steel making.. farmers left theit crops.. this was a "three year natural disaster" millions of people starved and it became a poor nation. basically mao was trying to modernize and industrialize their country like the united states which lead to fourty million people starving to death. in 1966 a cultural revolution was started by mao. communis tleaders went all different directions and it caused great chaos. miiiilllliiiooonnnss od innocent chinses were killed of imprisoned. the red gaurds created choas in the public. they went around and beat people for protesting. this as a huge tragedy mao launched the cultural revolution to get rid of all of the other communist leaders... to get rid of all the people that were betraying him. Chaing and Mao vs eachother. Civil war against eachother. Mao wins. Chiang leaves to taiwan and created his own smaller government.
Tiananmen Square Massacre was in 1989.. people trampled by tanks. The people were protesting against the government and corruption and the conspiracies and the plans in the government and they wanted communism to fall like it did in europe.
after mao died xiaping or whatever became the new president.
g. Nuclear Arms Race and Reductions
Between the United States and the Soviet Union.. to get supremacy in Nuclear Warfare during the cold war. The first nuclear weapon was created by the American Manhattan Project during the Second World War and was developed for use against the Axis Powers. People started producing Hydrogen Bombs. Massive Retaliation was when you have nuclear weapons and you use them against him and once you get attacked, you attack back so people stop attacking because they know they will just get attacked right back. Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was the saying that there could be no nuclear arms testing above ground. So people started testing underground.
h. How the Cold War ended.
The Cold War ended because the Soviet Union was in so much debt from the Afghan War. The Soviets were is ruins after trying to defeat their enemy in the country of Afghanistan, they Russians bombed them so much, but they spent too much money on the war against the Afghans. The Soviet Union was in too much debt after this war and they became very weak. Gorbachev brought up Perestroika and Glasnost in the Soviet Union. Countries that came out of this in Europe were Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova. The Perestroika and Glasnost was great for the US but bad for the Soviet Union. In the 1980s, the United States pressured the USSR by increasing diplomatic, military, and economic pressures, when the nation was already suffering from economic stagnation In the late 1980s, Soviet President Mikhail Gobrachev introduced the liberalizing reforms of reconstruction, reorganization, and openness. The Cold War ended after the Soviet Union Collapsed in 1991, leaving the United States as the dominant military power, and Russia possessing most of the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal. The Cold War and its events have had a significant impact on the world today, and it is commonly referred to in popular culture.
5. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of the Korean Conflict.
-why did we go there? war.. north vs. south. north communist, south democratic. north wanted so spread communism. war went back and forth us went up... to china... came down... china attacked. we went to stop the spread of communism
-how did it go? back and fourth
how did it end? neither sides won... ended how it began, split around the 38th parallel
6. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of the Vietnam Conflict.
-why did we got there? 1964 because the north invaded the south and we needed to go help them. both sides wanted to unite the country under their government. north was communist, south democratic
-how did the war go? 1964.. kind of plain and simple and unknown and nobody really cared. people in the south were our allies.. fought the vietcom in the south. we went through a process through escalation. every year we got more and more involved.. one thing that made the war popular was a Buddhist monk that like lit himself on fire and then there was some catholic leading the south Vietnam Buddhists and then he started discrimination the Buddhists and then the monk was all like no that mad so he doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire and people were all like gee, why are we supporting this guy he is like mean and then the war got worse. 1964.. north Vietnamese attacked one of our ships... in the gulf of Tonkin... gulf of Tonkin resolution, right after this troop levels started rocketing because now Johnson could do what he wanted in this war. vietcom used a lot of like women and elderly and kids to do their business so it was really hard to determine who the bad guy was because they were doing that so then we started killing women and children so we became the bad guys and like people were all like yo, why the heck we are killing women and children we gotta get outta there. general William Westmoreland was the main general in this war . they were always saying that the war was almost over and all they needed was more troops and we were going to win. people basically supported the war until 1968. people started questioning the government...... nobody knew why we were over there other than stopping the spread of communism......... popular opinion was how is this war over if they are launching this major offensive? Ho Chi Minh was very wealthy, he made the statement is saying how the us is like an elephant, big and powerful. he said they were like a tiger. and the elephant would trample them unless the tiger is like rawr by surprise and guerrilla warfare and united states bleeding to death........as the war became more popular, more people began to try to get out of the draft.. if you were born on a certain date you had to go to war unless you were like married or went to Canada, went to college, medically unfit, if they were homos, if they joined the national guard or the peace corps, of if you were rich,.. this was kind of said to be the poor man’s war. -how did it end? Nixon wanted outta the can and called for Vietnamization, we pulled out and let them fight each other. we pulled out in 1973, they recognized each others independence, and in 1973, north invaded south and it all became communist, and they’re still communist today. we didn’t really lose, but we REALLY didn’t win.
the end! thanks for a great year in us history mr bruns!
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