Today, we did some more Cold War projects..and for our last blog assignment, I have the topic of the Iran hostage crisis...we also started our Cold War project presentations...
The Decades Project
1950’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s
You or your group will research one of the decades from the 1950’s to the 2000’s. The focus of your research should be based on social history.
Your group must put together a video slideshow showing us the decade you were assigned. Once completed, your presentation must be put onto your website.
Items to research and include in your presentation:
-music
-movies
-sports
-fashion
-fads
-minorities push for equality-Civil Rights, Equal Rights push for women, etc.
-major events that shape the culture-Vietnam for example
-Government scandals-Watergate, Iran-Contra, Clinton scandals
-anything else that you find fun or interesting about the decade
To get the most points, your group will be required to interview one man and one woman that “came of age” during that decade. They must have been in middle school, high school, college or their early twenties throughout most of the decade. The questions you ask them are up to you. You can tape them if they agree to be taped. Be sure to let them know that it will be put online.
Your group must put together a video slideshow showing us the decade you were assigned. Once completed, your presentation must be put onto your website.
Presidential Blog Discussions:
Cold War: stretegic struggle between communism and democrasism...we wanted to stop communism
Truman:
- Became vice president fro FDR in January, 1945 (only 3 months into FDR's presidency)
- Took over for FDR when he died in April, 1945
- One of the most unpopular presidents of all time when he left office-22% approval rating--there was a recession; he fired MacArthur during the Korean war (conflict): because MacArthur wanted to go to war with China and to drop a bomb on China with a nuclear bomb...
- Rating has improved greatly over the last 60 years
- In the 1948 election, he went up against Thomas Dewey--in the weeks prior, everyone thought that Dewey would win, but Truman ended up winning
- foreign policy: what presidents do with other countries
- domestic policy: what you do back home "domestically" ...like the New Deal/Fair Deal
Accomplishments:
- ended WWII--was president when WWII ended with Germany and Japan
- militaries were desegregated
- issued the Fair Deal (is the New Deal by extending it or adding things; trying to help the poor people as well as the economy)--many of the Fair Deal proposals didn't get passed because of opposition->aimed to promote economic development and social welfare..civil rights, housing, social security, minum wage, health, labor, education, agriculture, tried to help African Americans
- Made the decision of dropping the atomic bomb
- stopped the spread of communism as best he could
- Potsdam Conference/Declaration (to determine German consequences/Japan's surrender or else face destruction)
- thus, Decided to use the atomic bomb against Japan
- took responsibility for the good and bad
- had to deal with transition from wartime economy to peacetime economy
- Helped organize and later join the United Nations
- Took a hard-line stance against communism and the Soviet Union-Policy of Containment (to stop communism)
- Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan were passed--giving money to European countries to help them stop communism...
- Created the CIA and the National Security Council--designed to keep the US secure from terrorists, etc.
- Recognized Israel as a homeplace for the Jewish people
- Got the US involved in Vietnam by giving aid to France
- Berlin Airlift
- NATO established
- Chinese Civil War ends
- McCarthyism
- The Korean Conflict and firing of General Douglass MacArthur:: did this because he suggested that we go to war with China....we traded with them, so it would lead to WWIII
- Assassination attempt over Puerto Rican independence
President Dwight Eisenhower (R)-24th 1953-1961
- Famous WWII general
- Decided to join the Republican Party after WWII
- This all but guaranteed him a win in the 1953 election
- Richard Nixon was his Vice-President
- Diagnosed with Crohn's disease and had a minor stroke while president
- Started NASA
- was very poor when he was little
- was unsure whether to be a democrat or republican
- Domestic policy:: laissez-faire; believed in balanced budget; deported around 1 million illegal immigrants (mostly Mexican); sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to help in the desgregation of all public schools-1954-Brown case; helped set up the Interstate Highway system
Accomplishments:
- Ended the Korean War
- Signed the Civil Rights Bill
- Cold war dominated his foreign policy
- Laissez-faire--big on saving money
- oldest man to be elected president
- commander of the Allied forces
- started the Interstate Highway system
- Dominated the Cold War-Containment Policy
- Also used CIA to do covert-ops to disrupt communist goverments abroad (Iran/Guatamala)
- Opened relations with Spai
- Ended the Korean Conflict as promised in his 1952 election campaign
- Defensive alliances were signed with South Korea and Taiwan
- SEATO was formed (South East Asian Treaty Organization)--helped try to stop communism
- Increased US involvement in Southeast Asia (Vietnam)-US advisors sent
- Developed idea that nuclear weapons would be defensive weapons (deterrence)
- NASA created due to Soviet Sputnik launch
- US spy plane (U-2) was shot down over USSR
- Allowed McCarthy to do his thing but privately did not approve
- Eisenhower Doctrine: told middle eastern countries that they could ask the US for assisstance (money or military aid) in fighting communists
John F. Kennedy
- Served in WWII
- 1960 election: ran against Vice-President Richard Nixon; first presidential televised debates took place; many say this helped JFK win the election
- Escalation: started small and escalated
Accomplishments
- "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." JFK
- Cold War Issues dominated Kennedy's presidency
- Berlin Wall was built in 1961
- Bay of Pigs invasion-1961
- Cuban Missile Crisis--we found out that the Soviet Union had missiles in Cuban
- Alliance for Progress with Latin America
- Kennedy increased the number of helicopters, military advisors and undeclared US Special Forces in Vietnam
- The CIA helped the new Ba'ath Party government overthrow Communists in Iraq. This new party systematically murdered large numbers of Iraq's educated elite-killings in which Saddam Hussein himself is said to have participated
- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963
- The New Frontier-
- Promised federal funding for:
- 1. Education
- 2. Medical care for the elderly
- 3. Economic aid to rural regions and
- 4. Government intervention to halt the recession
- 5. End racial discrimination
- Peace Corps was established in 1961 where Americans volunteer to help underdeveloped nations in areas such as education, farming, health care, and construction
- Signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, a federal law aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex
- JFK Act: Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK Act), mandating the gathering and opening of all records concerned with his death...
--Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald
--Lee Harvey shot police officer JD Tippet
--He shot Kennedy from Sniper's building
--Warren Commission: the official investigation into the JFK assassination
President Lyndon Johnson (D)-36th 1963-1969
- JFK's Vice-President
- Took over as President after JFK was assassinated
Accomplishments:
- Put togehter the Warren Commission to investigate the JFK assassination
- Passed Civil RIghts Act of 1964, which outlawed most forms of racial segregation
- Passed Voting Rights Act (1965) which outlawed discrimination in voting, thus allowing millions of southern blacks to vote for the first time
- Started affirmative action laws
- Passed immigration Act of 1965 which allowed more non-European people to immigrate to US. Immigration more than doubled between 1965-1970
- Johnson's plan to:
- Aid education
- Attack disease
- Medicare and Medicaid
- Urban renewal
- Beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions
- War on poverty
- Control and prevention of crime
- Removal of obstacles to the right to vote--helping african americans
- Johnson's plan to:
- Elemetary and Secodary Education Act of 1965--helped education; gave loans to states to help with education : for the first time, large amounts of federal money went to public schools and the focus was poor schools
- Higher Education of 1965: focused on funding lower income students, including, grants, work-study money, and government loans ^^
- Set up the National Endowmennt for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts
- **Economic Opportunity Act helped start Head Start, food Stamps, Work Study, Medicare and Medicaid
- all part of his domestic policy ^^^^^^^
- Gun Control Act of 1968 regulates the firearms industry and firearms owners. Passed in response of JFK, RFK (Robert F. Kennedy), and MLK (Martin Luther King)
- The Vietnam Conflict dominated much of Johnson's presidency
- Believed in Domino Theory-if one country falls, others are going to too, if you don't stop it and help it
- Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)-Congress gave Johnson power to wage war in Vietnam as he saw fit
Richard Nixon (R)-37th 1969-1974
- Refused to take part in debates for 1968 election
- was previously beat by JFK
- Vice-President of Eisenhower
- Lost 1960 election to JFK
- the only person to be elected twice to both the presidency and the Vice Presidency
- Only President to resign from office--because of the Watergate scandal
- Used FBI and CIA to keep track on things
- Wrote some books
- During his presidency, he had a lot of haters, and he was very paranoid...
- "Silent Majority"--the majority of the people who didn't speak out, need to speak out
Accomplishments:
- Opened up relations in China
- In 1972, he was part of the Watergate scandal: some people associated with him were caught going into this hotel snooping on some democrats to find out what they were doing...find dirt to help them win the election.
- He put equal opportunity for everyone to get equal opportunity for jobs
- Ran on a platform to get out of the Vietnam war
- Vietnam Conflict dominated much of his presidency-war became very unpopular
- Promised to end the war-"Peace with honor"--ended up extending the war
- Expanded the war into Cambodia and Laos-bombing Ho Chi Minh Trail ^^ made americans very mad
- Started pulling troops out of Vietnam as promised
- The Nixon Doctrine-"Vietnamization" of the war--we're pulling our troops out and let the Vietnamese fight the rest of the war
- Paris Peace Accords signed in 1973 stopped the fighting and got the US out of the war
- Evironmental Decade
- National Environmental Policy Act
- Clean Air Act of 1970
- Federal Water Pullution Control Act
- Established many government agencies:
- 1. Environmental Protection Agency
- 2. Occupational Safety and Health Administration
- 3. Council on Environmental Quality
- War on Drugs-1971--first president to declare war on drugs
- Supplemental Security Income--provides money to low-income people who are either aged (65 or older), blind, or disabled
- Saw large scale integration of schools in the south
- Supported affirmative action
- Signed Title IX (1972) prohibiting gender discrimination in all federally funded schools
- Equal Employment Opportunity Act-enforces laws against workplace discrimination based on individuals's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence and disability
- Abortion was legalized during Nixon's presidency (Roe vs. Wade-1973)
- US astronauts landed on the moon-1969
- Nixon approved the development of NASA's Space Shuttle program
- In 1972, President Nixon traveled to China where the president was to have direct talks with Mao Zedong and Chou En-lai---he had US relations with communist China
- This eased relations with the US and China and China (not Taiwan) was recognized as the official China
- Nixon's visit to the Soviet Union
- Went to Moscow in 1972
- SALT I was signed, limiting nuclear weapons--The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty/Talk
- Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was signed which banned the development of systems designed to intercept incoming missiles
- This led to a new era of "peaceful co-existence" and/or detente with the USSR
- Nixon's visit to the Soviet Union
- The 1972 election was rigged...
- Supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War (1973) where Israel was attacked by Egypt and Syria
- This support of Israel led to the 1973 oil crisis where OPEC countries did not trade oil with the US as a result
- Nixon lowered the maximum US speed limit to 55 mph to conserve gasoline during the crisis
- Nixon took US completely off of the gold standard
- Water Gate
- Five men were caught breaking into Democratic party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972 to find dirt on the Democratic Party
- Two Washington Post reporters, Carl Berstein and Bob Woodward, insvestigated the story
- Woodward and Berstein relied on an FBI informant known as "Deep Throat" (Mark Felt) to link the men to the Nixon White House--"follow the money"
- This became one of a series of scandalous acts involving the Committee to Re-elect the president
- Nixon downplayed the scandal and denounced the story as biased and misleading
- FBI eventually confimed that Nixon aides had attempted to sabotage the Democrats--many began resigning and faced prosecution
- Nixon was involved by trying to cover up the break-in (obstruction of justice) and eventually resigned from the presidency--broke the law of justice
- Water Gate
President Gerald Ford (R)-38th 1974-1977
- Nixon's Vice President
- Took over when Nixon resigned
- Only Vice President and President to never be elected
- "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president but by your ballots, and so I ask you to confim me as your president with your prayers." Ford
- Had two assassination attempts within three weeks
- Real name was Leslie but changed it
Accomplishments
- Pardoned Nixon-a "corrupt bargain"...
- Offered conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled to countires such as Canada
- "Whip Inflation Now" called for Americans to reduce their spending and consumption in an attempt to stop inflation (WIN)
- Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975) established special education in school throughout the US
- Continued detente with the USSR
- Ford wanted to help South Vietnam when North Vietnam invaded in 1974 but Congress refused
- By April 1975, all of Vietnam became Communist
- Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act was passed to allow refugees to immigrate to the US
Definitions... (1947- 1991)
- Policy of Containment: It was a policy out of the US using economic and military strategy to slow the spread of communism.
- The policy was created after the Soviet Union tried to spread communism into Western Europe, Vietnam, China, Korea, Afghanistan, and others
- The policy was also there so the US could have a better influence on other countries
- It was also a way to make America's security for secure and to better it
- In doing this it helped reduce the chances of the "domino effect"Cold War: was all about Democracy and Communism..a free world and a controlled world
- Domino Effect: in simple terms if someone starts a bad habit, so to say they knock it down..
- Was promoted by the US between 1950 and 1980
- It showed that smaller countries involved in communism would influence other countries around it into communism ...this isn't a good thing
- Led to our policy of containment
- Iron Curtain Speech: Spoke by WInston Churchill in 1946
- The Iron Curtain was describing the differences and separation between the areas controlled by the Soviet Union and the Western Powers
- The "Curtain" was there from the end of WWII in 1945 and the end of the Cold War 1989
- Because of the Iron Curtain the states of both side began doing their own thing
- coming up with international military and economic alliances
- The "Curtain" was there from the end of WWII in 1945 and the end of the Cold War 1989
- Marshall Plan: was a plan made during George Marshall's speech in 1947
- was a plan to make a difference in the economy between 1947-1951
- It was originally made to help European conutries and make the economy stronger
- Later it was offered to the Soviet Union but they wouldn't accept it
- Was supposed to ensure that European countries wouldn't turn communist
- Also called the ERP European Recovery Program
- Truman Doctrine: Policy set by Harry Truman in his 1947 speech.
- The speech was agreeing to support Turkey and Greece against the struggle from the Soviet Union.
- They would help with military and economic aide to precent them into the problems the Soviet Union was trying to pull them into.
House Committee On Un-American Activities (HUAC)
- Was an Anti-communist investigative commiettee in the US house of representatives
- First chairman-Martin dies
- Richard Nixon was an active member
- Investigated public employees, private citizens, and organizations suspected of having communist ties
- Went to Hollywood in 1947: promoting communsit through propaganda in movies..9 days of hearings
- Hollywood 10 refused to answer questions about their beliefs--using the First ammendment
- They were charged for contempt of congress....
- ....
Joe Mcarthy
- Macarthyism-accuse people without any real evidence
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