the 20th century: America Rising...

THE 20TH CENTURY: AMERICA RISING (1898-1929)PEOPLE AND TERMINOLOGY

PRESIDENTS Standard Definitionon quizlet

Additional DetailsYou will need to add from your notes and the Piktochart

William McKinley

Theodore Roosevelt

William Howard Taft

Woodrow Wilson

Warren Harding

Calvin Coolidge

Herbert Hoover

NOTABLE PEOPLE

Standard Definition Additional Details

William Randolph Hearst

Joseph Pulitzer

Booker T. Washington

The Wright Brothers

JP Morgan

Henry Ford

WEB DuBois

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Kaiser Wilhelm

Pancho Villa

VI Lenin

Czar Nicholas II

Susan B Anthony

Ernest Hemingway

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Louis Armstrong

Langston Hughes

Babe Ruth

Charles Lindberg

Al Capone

Sacco and Vanzetti

John Scopes

GENERAL TERMINOLOGY


Plessy v Ferguson

The Atlanta Compromise

Imperialism

The Spanish American War

Yellow Journalism

“Remember the Maine”

The Bully Pulpit

The Great Train Robbery

The Jungle

The Roosevelt Corollary

Panama Canal

Russo Japanese War

San Francisco Earthquake

The Antiquities Act

The Great White Fleet

NAACP

The Triangle Shirt Waist Fire

The Titanic

The Bull Moose Party

Militarism

nationalism

Triple Entente

Triple Alliance

Lusitania

The Battle of the Somme

Russian Revolution

Bolsheviks

communism

Zimmerman Telegram

The American Expeditionary Force

The Committee for Public Information

The War Industries Board

The Armistice

Treaty of Versailles

Wilson’s Fourteen Points

The League of Nations

The Spanish Flu

The Great Migration

The Chicago Race Riots

18th Amendment

Prohibition

The Volstead Act

19th Amendment

The Harlem Renaissance

Palmer Raids

The 1st Red Scare

Teapot Dome Scandal

Time Magazine

Native Origins Act of 1924

Scopes Monkey Trial

Mein Kamph

Kellogg-Briand Pact

penicillin

Laissez-faire economics

Stock Market Crash

AMERICA RISING (1898-1929)BIG IDEAS

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR WAS “A SPLENDID LITTLE WAR” THAT MARKED THE BEGINNING OF AMERICAN IMPERIALISM

The Spanish American War lasted only 4 months. Hay’s comment is a reflection of the belief that this was a justified and righteous war that was essential to America’s growing strength.

The leading causes of the Spanish-American war were

O AMERICAN IMPERIALISM: Imperialism is the government philosophy in which a stronger nation exerts control over a weaker nation. This control can take the form of military dominance, economic and trade advantages, and cultural or religious supremacy. 19th century US imperialism included the purchase of Alaska (“Seward’s Icebox”) and the construction of a military base in Hawaii.

Many other countries also had imperial goals. Japan was growing in influence and ambition. Germany and France had battled for control of Europe in the Franco-Prussian War and the “sun never set on the British Empire.” As each of these countries developed “spheres of influence” in various parts of the world, the United States didn’t want to be left behind.

O ECONOMIC INTERESTS: Cuba was the last of the Spain’s colonies in the New World, and many in Cuba were ready to have their independence. There was also a lucrative sugar industry in Cuba, and the Cubans resented having to share its profits with Spain. The Spanish brutally punished the rebels, but while the Americans supported Cuba’s desire for independence in concept, they wanted a quick resolution to the conflict in order to protect their large investments in Cuba’s sugar plantations. The instability of the region hurt US profits, so they began to highlight Spanish atrocities in an attempt force a war they believed they could win.

O YELLOW JOURNALISM: The explosion of the USS Maine was the high profile attack that persuaded the American public to support a war in Cuba. Rival newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst portrayed America to be the victim of Spanish aggression and exploited the tragedy with huge headlines and graphic details. Hearst knew that the American public craved this type of drama and knew that a war would increase readership.

“A splendid little war; begun with the highest motives, carried on with magnificent intelligence and spirit, favored on by that fortune which loves

the brave.” – Secretary of State John Hay

“You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war.” – William

Randolph HearstPublisher New York World

Results of the War

Spain agreed to the Treaty of Paris and Cuba was now an independent state , but the United States got international prestige and got further along in its imperial goals.

O NEW AMERICAN TERRITORIES The Treaty of Paris also granted the US the right to build a military base on the island. Spain also ceded the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. Finally The US gained the opportunity to buy the Philippine Islands for $20 million dollars. This meant that the US would have a foothold in South Pacific as well as in the Western Hemisphere. Ironically, however, the $20 million investment turned out to be much more costly as the Filipinos revolted against the American presence and the ensuing revolt cost $400,000,000 and 20,000 Philippine lives. 4,000 Americans died in the attempt to put down the uprising.

O A POLITICAL OPPORTUNITY FOR THEODORE ROOSEVELTTheodore Roosevelt quit his job as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in order to volunteer for the Spanish American War. He led a famous cavalry charge up San Juan Hill and gained international fame for his bravery and military skill. Roosevelt saw it as a great opportunity to showcase American military strength and his own bravery against a poorly prepared Spanish force. War is not always glorious, but TR saw that chance.

AT THE DAWN OF THE 20TH CENTURY, AMERICA WAS WORKING ON GETTING ITS OWN AFFAIRS IN ORDER. THIS WOULD ENABLE IT TO EMERGE ONTO THE WORLD STAGE FROM A POSITION OF STRENGTH.

O THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND PROGRESSIVE REFORMTheodore Roosevelt’s presidency was an extension of the Progressive Era reforms of the late 1800s. He proclaimed a Square Deal for the American people and pledged to use the power of the government to correct injustice. He focused primarily on the business community

Even though the Sherman Anti-Trust Laws had been in effect since 1890, but TR was the first to enforce them. He spent his presidency working to break down bad trusts (like JP Morgan’s) but also saw the benefit of having a strong business community to provide jobs and economic strength.

Sinclair’s expose on the meat-packing industry The Jungle led to the formation of the Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act. He wanted the muckraker to expose the problems facing the poor and disadvantaged but also warned them against going too far.

TR’s strength was that he could find a balance between the romance of reform and the practicality of business.

“The men with the muck rakes are often indispensable to the well being of society, but only

if they know when to stop raking the muck.”

- Theodore Roosevelt

o RACE RELATIONSPlessy vs. Ferguson established the Separate but Equal doctrine that would characterize the African American experience for over 60 years. This was the world in which black people had to try to co-exist and, if lucky, advance in society.

Booker T. Washington, the president of the Tuskegee Institute , addressed the black man’s plight in a speech at the Atlanta Cotton Exposition would come to be called “The Atlanta Compromise.” Here, Washington urged educational and business success as the keys to African American success and acceptance by the white community and reminded his people of the futility of protest.

In a sense, Washington’s message was not threatening to the white man and it

led to a relatively peaceful period in the years following his 1895 address. Blacks steadily worked to find ways to advance within the segregated system (For example, Mary McLeod Bethune began a school in Florida for black girls and women).

On the other hand, his passiveness stirred a more active resistance in other areas of the movement. WEB DuBois strongly opposed Washington’s views and founded the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) as an organization that would work to ensure the constitutional protections granted by the 14 th amendment.

While Washington and DuBois strongly disagreed on the best methods for achieve racial equality, both were passionate advocates for the idea and worked to raise awareness of the need for reform.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S PRESIDENCY REFLECTED THE SPIRIT OF THE AGERoosevelt would exclaim “Bully!” whenever he was pleased about something, and some historians have described his presidential agenda for progressive reform and international strength as “The Bully Pulpit”

O THE STRENUOUS LIFERoosevelt embodied the American Work Ethic as he built a busy and productive life from a sickly and timid childhood. He applied this stamina to everything he did

The messages of Booker T Washington,President of The Tuskegee Institute

“Cast your bucket down where you are. Cast it down, making friends in every way in every manly way of the people of all races, making friends where you

are.”

“In all things that are purely social we can be a separate as the fingers, yet as one as the hand in all

things essential to mutual progress.

“There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is by pushing down, the other is by pushing up.”

“”There is in this world no such forces as the

force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be

permanently chained.”– W.E.B DuBois

Founder NAACP

“I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the

virtue of the strenuous life.”- Theodore

Roosevelt

and decreed. Reporters and other associates could barely keep up with him as he tried to achieve as much as he possibly could.

O THE MAN IN THE ARENARoosevelt also admired courage and urged others to take risks and dare greatly. Roosevelt was a romantic who admired bravery but he was could be a realist to recognize that risks can lead to failure. Yet, he inspired the risk-taker to continue the efforts because the American who dared was the American who could help the country gain its greatest glory and power.

O “THE BIG STICK” PRESIDENCYRoosevelt’s passions and beliefs led to an effective administration and it helped make the presidency a powerful office once again. The big stick motto, which he borrowed from an African proverb, reflected his strategy to negotiate tactfully from position of strength. The Roosevelt Corollary, the construction of the Panama Canal, Roosevelt’s role in negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese War, US imperialism in the Pacific and the celebratory tour of the Great White Fleet all reflected an ever-confident and ever-determined America. The big stick philosophy is also reflected in Roosevelt’s domestic presidential power. Roosevelt’s trust-busting and other progressive reforms also reflected his belief that all Americans should receive a “square deal” and his resolve to crack down when “big business” took advantage of the everyday American.

TAFT WAS ROOSEVELT’S HANDPICKED SUCCESSOR, BUT A CONFLICT EMERGEDRoosevelt declined to break precedent and run for a third term, but he handpicked his successor, William Howard Taft. Roosevelt expected Taft to continue the spirit and polices of his presidency, but, when TR took off on an African safari, Taft emerged as his own man. Taft was not as progressive as Roosevelt would have liked and his administration tended to favor business interests. Taft did continue to break up unfair trusts, but he was politically weaker than TR and deferred to the Republican Congress in its opposition to Progressive reforms that it saw as threatening to business. In the controversial Pinchot Affair, Taft fired Gifford Pinchot, the head of the Forest Service and a TR friend, because Pinchot protested the Taft administration’s decision to make millions of acres of land in Alaska available to business interests.

THE BULL-MOOSE CAMPAIGN WAS ROOSEVELT’S ATTEMPT TO GET BACK IN THE ARENA AND BRING BACK HIS PROGRESSIVE AGENDA,Without power and frustrated by Taft’s presidency, Roosevelt created his own Progressive political party and was a candidate in the 1912 president election. His self-styled “Bull Moose” Campaign was a tarnish on his legacy. It split the Republican Party and handed the election to the Democrat Woodrow Wilson. However, TR felt somewhat vindicated because he had at least taken the chance and used the campaign to articulate his progressive beliefs. Then, at a personal crossroads, he and his son Kermit embarked on a reckless expedition to map the unchartered tributaries of the Amazon River. This voyage along the “River of Doubt” may have

“Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you shall go far.” -Theodore Roosevelt

helped restore Roosevelt’s sense of purpose, but it was physically devastating. Roosevelt would be dead by the end of the decade.

THE CAUSES OF WORLD WAR I WERE COMPLICATED. WWI was the result of a tangled web of trade and military alliances made by nationalist European countries who sought to establish imperial and military dominance in European and world affairs. The MAIN acronym of Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism is a good summary. The metaphor “If World War I Was a Bar Fight” also applies. Essentially, Europe was a small place with lots of countries – all of whom wanted to be the biggest and most powerful. Eventually, tensions erupted although nobody really knows who threw the first punch.

WORLD WAR I SHOWED THAT IMPERIALISM AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE ALSO LED TO INTERNATIONAL ENTANGLEMENTS AND RESPONSIBILITYRemarkably, the United States stayed neutral for the first three years of the Great War. Certainly the US economy benefited from international stability, and America had to determine the lengths to which it would go to protect that. Further complicating the question was the fact that, as a nation of primarily European immigrants, American intervention in the European war could cause internal conflict.

Even though the United States sought to maintain a high international profile, the war was “over there” and the isolationist American public was not willing to sacrifice its sons to a European war. Wilson won re-election in 1916 with the campaign slogan “He kept us out of war,” but, events like the sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmerman Telegram eventually forced the US out of its neutrality.

BY 1917, THE WAR WAS AT A BITTER STALEMATE AND THE ALLIES DESPARATEY NEEDED AMERICAN MIGHT AND MORALEWithout question, the US entry into the war was the only thing that could save Europe from itself. WWI was the first industrialized war as the Industrial Revolution led to the production of more powerful and more deadly weapons like the tank, machine guns, fighter planes, and poison gas. Yet, the European powers found that their traditional military defenses were no match for the powerful weapons they faced. The resulting stalemate in the trenches, most notably evident at the Battle of the Somme, meant that the war could go for years even if neither side got an upper hand. The intervention of the American Expeditionary Force would give allies the military strength and momentum it needed to defeat Germany and bring an end to the bloodshed.

AMERICA WENT “ALL OUT” FOR THE WAR EFFORTThe Committee on Public Information (The CPI) created the propaganda that solidified the American war effort. It depicted the Germans as evil oppressors and gave all Americans a chance to protect humanity

from evil by enlisting in the Army, buying Liberty Bonds, and conserving fuel/food through rations. The War Industries Board (WIB) was a government agency that limited free enterprise and competition by controlling what manufacturing companies could produce, where these products would go and what the prices would be. The government also raised prices on grain and other foods supplies in order to stimulate farms to increase food production to support the war.

As in other times of war, the war effort also resulted in some controversial measures and the job of the CPI was to enforce all of these measures – a task made more difficult by the fact that the US was a nation of immigrants. The Selective Service Act of 1917 brought about another draft. The Espionage Act allowed for censorship of materials and the Sedition Act made it unlawful for anyone to use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the United states and the war effort. The landmark Supreme Court Case Schenk vs. the United States ruled that it was legal for the United States to limit free speech in times of war if the words “present a clear and present danger” to the country.

DESPITE WILSON’S WELL-INTENTIONED EFFORTS, WWI ENDED IN A BITTER PEACE THAT WOULD EVENTUALLY LEAD TO AN EVEN GREATER WAR.The Great War had been so devastating that some called it “The War to End all Wars” and pledged to keep the world from ever going down such a senseless path of destruction. However, the brutality of the war also led to intense bitterness and the victorious Allies pledged to punish Germany for its role in starting the bloodshed.

In reality, the causes of the war were quite complex and, while Germany was certainly at fault, there was plenty of blame to go around. Expecting a prominent role in the peace process as recognition of America’s decisive intervention. Wilson proposed “Fourteen Points” as a system of safeguards and alliances to prevent future wars. However, the hardened European powers of England and France thought most of Wilson’s proposals were naïve and idealistic. They were also not willing to cede any colonies or agree to a weak military presence which might make them vulnerable. Instead, they overruled Wilson and forced Germany to sign Treaty of Versailles in a humiliating and symbolic ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors at the palace of Versailles in France. The treaty contained a weakened League of Nations (one of Wilson’s Fourteen Points), and Germany was made to accept a “war guilt” clause and pay expensive reparations.

The greatest irony is that the “War to end all Wars” only prompted another, more destructive war as Germany aggressively sought to restore its economy, prestige and power in the face of a humiliating defeat.

THE UNITED STATES NEVER EVEN RATIFIED THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES There are two reasons

1. The United States wanted to remain isolationist and was wary of a League of Nations. The Spanish Flu, which killed more people than WWI did, was just one of the bad things that could result from interaction with other countries. Different ideological beliefs posed a far more scary threat and there was a great fear that these beliefs could also spread like a virus throughout the US. Communism was particularly scary. This ideal, based on the communal economic policies of Karl Marx, led to the Russian Revolution in which the working class Bolsheviks overthrew the centuries old Czarist regime in Russia in 1916. While Czar Nicholas II was definitely ineffective

and the system was certainly elitist and unfair, the bloody revolt was a clear threat to American Capitalism. It was based on a promise of economic equality that couldn’t be sustained (“Peace, land and bread”) and the rebels would become the tyrants as they resorted to brutal measures to protect their revolution. Many in the US feared that international contact would cause this and other destructive “viruses” to spread to our shores.

2. Wilson suffered a stroke and was unable to lobby Congress to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. In an extraordinary deception that would be unthinkable today, Wilson was effectively incapacitated for the last year of his presidency. His wife pulled the strings behind the scenes, but Wilson himself was unable to govern or overcome the political opposition to the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.

THE “ROARING TWENTIES” AND “THE JAZZ AGE” REFLECTED A CHANGING AMERICAN SOCIETY.

The TR era and WWI were full of American drama, achievement, strife, and triumph. These dramatic years led to major changes in American attitudes and beliefs beginning in the post war years. Following are some of the cultural movements of the 1920s (although many of these movements began in the late part of the 1910s)

O THE LOST GENERATION: Literally, the term The Lost Generation refers to the fact that an entire generation died during the Great War. Figuratively, if refers to those who survived were aimless and disillusioned in the aftermath of a brutal and pointless war. Yet, war can build economic prosperity so many of these survivors were also wealthy survivors.

They followed the “eat, drink, and be merry…for tomorrow we may die” philosophy because they had already seen the worst of humanity. Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald were two Lost Generation writers who articulated the despair

O THE GREAT MIGRATIONThe advent of the car and Ford’s promise to make it affordable led to greater mobility as Americans took advantage of the opportunity to move in an attempt to change their circumstances. One of the largest migrations was the The Great Migration of southern blacks to Northern cities where they hoped to find industrial jobs. This migration began in 1915 but the lure of the North ended in 1919 when the Chicago Race Riots illustrated the brutal reality that racism was everywhere – especially when Northern whites felt their jobs were threatened.

O THE HARLEM RENAISSANCEThe influx of African Americans into the Northern cities did, however, lead to The Harlem Renaissance, one of the most prominent exhibitions of African American culture. In places

like Harlem and Chicago and Detroit, African American music, arts, and literature flourished and fueled The Jazz Age. The music of the music provided the soundtrack for the “lost generation” party and, emboldened by their popularity, many African Americans began to find their voice for a new movement for equality.

O PROHIBITIONAs women gained political power and the right to vote in 1920, their issues also gained prominence. Women had exerted their power in the abolitionist, child labor, and suffrage movement, so now some, but certainly not all, in the movement joined in with others (mainly preachers) to ban alcohol (the devil’s brew) with The 18 th Amendment t o the Constitution. However, nothing is more desirable than something that is forbidden, so the main result of Prohibition was the rise of speakeasies, (secret drinking clubs), bootleggers, and organized crime.

O CULTURAL CONFLICTSNo one stopped drinking during Prohibition and some flaunted it. Women, in particular, felt emboldened by the success of Susan B. Anthony and the suffrage movement and were, therefore, less willing to be consigned traditional female roles. Hemlines became shorter and the “flapper” became a part of American culture. This “recklessness” was seen in other cultural conflicts. Racial conflicts deepened in the South as some felt their white supremacy being threatened by migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and efforts toward progress. Science and religion clashed as new experiences and greater access to education led to new ideas. This conflict came to a head with the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” about evolution.

O A MASS MEDIA CULTUREWartime can lead to economic prosperity, and The WWI propaganda machine quickly transformed into a vehicle to promote anything and everything to the postwar society. Magazines like TIME , LIFE or the Saturday Evening Post were full of ‘ads’ for new inventions that everyone had to have and they made new fashions and behaviors (like smoking) look glamourous. As a result, consumer spending during the 20s was at an all-time high, and, lucky for the consumer, many of these ads convinced them that buying on credit was a great idea!

Moving films and the radio were also at the center of American life. These forms of pushed products, entertained the masses, gave us shared experiences, and created heroes – most notably Charles Lindbergh and Babe Ruth. While their achievements could certainly stand on their own merits, the media gave Americans a chance to put them on the pedestal. The American love affair with the celebrity would continue, and, some like Lindbergh, would find that celebrity can come at a high price.

Mass media became firmly entrenched in American society in the 1920s. It was and will continue to be one of the primary drivers of American attitudes, desires, and prejudices.

DESPITE OUTWARD APPEARANCES, THERE WAS UNSTEADINESS AND UNEASE.

While the magazines, newsreels, radio broadcasts, newspapers, and moving pictures projected an exciting and vibrant country, there were some serious conflicts brewing.

O THE RED SCAREThe 1 st Red Scare (1919-1920) was a direct response to the Russian Revolution and American fears that the “virus” could spread here. In particular it was a fear that same Communist principles were embedded in our labor unions as they had been embedded in Bolshevik workers groups in Russia. Many worried that these unions, which were growing in power, would become emboldened to take more control over American life – and eventually topple our democracy.

This fueled longstanding American fear of the immigrant. What new ideas would they bring? Were they communists? What diseases would they bring? Would they take our jobs? Would they assimilate to the American life? The Palmer Raids, the 1924 National Origins Act, and trial/execution of Sacco and Vanzetti are three significant examples of this rampant distrust.

O PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP DECLINES AS BUSINESS INFLUENCE GROWSThe strength of the presidency took a hit with Woodrow Wilson’s concealed illness. Warren Harding promised a Return to Normalcy” yet he was politically weak. He consistently deferred to business interests and tarnished the presidency with the Teapot Dome land speculating scandal. Harding’s sudden death propelled Calvin Coolidge to the presidency. Coolidge was a mild-mannered man who proclaimed that the “business of America is business.” Coolidge restored integrity and cleaned up corruption in presidency, but his “laissez-faire” approach to business meant that there was little regulation and helped create an over-inflated stock market. He decided not to run again in 1928, and his successor, Herbert Hoover, was blindsided when the stock market crashed. We would need another Roosevelt.

O THE BUBBLEEverything looked grand. Businesses were making money and stock prices were high. There was little regulation and no one checked to verify the record profits that business were proclaiming. If they had, they would have found that these profits were built on credit and the banks had overextended themselves by lending money that they did not have. They would have also found that the American farmer was struggling to get out from under the debt they had incurred as they bought more land and equipment to meet WWI production demands. During the 1920s, American farmers still produced at record levels but demand did not meet the supply.

“The business of America is business.”

-Calvin Coolidge

There was an optimism that wasn’t built on reality. The crash was coming, but no one wanted to see it.

AMERICA TESTED: (1929-1945)

PEOPLE AND TERMINOLOGY

PRESIDENTS Standard DefinitionOn Quizlet

Additional DetailsYou will need to add from your notes and the

Powerpoint

Herbert Hoover

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Harry Truman

LEADERS OF THE AXIS POWERS


Adolf HItler

LEADERS OF THE AXIS POWERS (continued)


Benito Mussolini

LEADERS OF THE ALLIED POWERS


Neville Chamberlain

Winston Churchill

Joseph Stalin

OTHER NOTABLE PEOPLE


Huey Long

John Steinbeck

Joseph P. Kennedy

Edward R Murrow

Rosie the Riveter

General Dwight D Eisenhower

J Robert Oppenheimer

OTHER TERMINOLOGY


Hoovervilles

The Bonus Army

The New Deal

The Alphabet Agencies

Fireside Chats

The Dust Bowl

Okies and Arkies

Totalitarianism

Fascism

Nazism

The Rape of Nanking

The Battle of Britain

America First Committee

The Tripartite Pact

The Lend-Lease Act

The Atlantic Charter

The Arsenal of Democracy

Double “V” Campaign

Tuskegee Airmen

Internment Camps

The Manhattan Project

Hiroshima

Nuremberg Trials

AMERICA TESTED

BIG IDEAS

THE GREAT DEPRESSION SPIRALLED OUT OF CONTROL QUICKLYIt is actually possible to look at the Stock Market Crash as a standard, albeit large, market correction which today would have been contained with a number of safeguards like interest rate adjustments, job production, or other government intervention. These safeguards didn’t exist in 1930.

Many Americans didn’t even own stock so the stock market crash didn’t necessarily affect them directly. However, the stock market crash would lead to more problems.

Banks closed in record numbers as many stock market investors couldn’t repay the loans they had gotten to repay stocks.

People panicked as they heard of bank closings so they rushed to withdraw their money. The banks didn’t have the money since they had loaned it all out to investors.

Industrialists lost the capital they needed to continue operations. Factories closed and unemployment soared

European countries also had heavy investments in the stock market, so the stock market crash led to worldwide instability – particularly in Germany.

The Dust Bowl also increased the stranglehold of the depression. Caused by a combination of drought and poor soil (as a result of over farming), the farmers in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas were particularly hard hit. With their crops ruined, these farmers were unable to produce enough food to meet the county’s needs and many (Okies and Arkies) headed to California in the often vain hope of finding agricultural jobs. Their stories of migration were detailed by John Steinbeck in the famous novel The Grapes of Wrath.

HOOVER MISJUDGED THE SEVERITY OF THE SITUATIONPresident Herbert Hoover also thought that the Stock Market crash was a part of the economic cycle and, like his predecessors relied on a laissez-fairre approach by believing that the markets would correct themselves. He urged those who could to contribute to charities and put pressure on the business community to keep prices low and avoid cutting jobs. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff was a high tax on imports designed to stimulate local manufacturing, but Europe responded with its own high tariffs. The result was that there was essentially no international trade.

But, the most clear sign that Hoover was out of touch was the tragedy of the Bonus Army. The Bonus Army was a group of WWI veterans who demanded an early payment of bonuses that they were scheduled to receive in 1945. Hoover refused, and the Bonus Army set up a camp of make-shift tents in Washington DC. Washington DC. Efforts to dislodge the Bonus Army failed and Hoover eventually ordered the military (including future WWII Generals MacArthur, Patton and Eisenhower) to forcibly remove the Bonus Army. Many were injured as the US military doused the marches with tear gas and burned down their tents.

The attack on the Bonus Army cost Hoover whatever credibility he had left, and his name would always be paired with the despair of the Great Depression. Shantytowns were called “Hoovervilles,” empty pockets were called “Hoover Flags”

THE LEADERSHIP OF FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT WAS CRITICAL AS AMERICA WAS TESTED TO ITS LIMITSFDR’S campaign song was in 1932 was “Happy Days Are Here Again,” and while he couldn’t promise happy days, he brought a sense of leadership to the White House. He was chipper and upbeat. He talked to the nation honestly through his radio broadcasted “Fireside Chats.” He was like a lovable,

This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning,

trustworthy, and kind grandfather. And, the public knew he was paralyzed by polio, they quickly forgot it. He just didn’t seem weak.

Roosevelt inspired each man to take responsibility for his role in the nation’s economic recovery. He championed sacrifice and hard work as the guiding values of the common man and celebrated his determination to trudge ahead through the desperate economic times. It was this work ethic that fueled the labor pool that would be ready to produce the industrial might needed to win the looming war in Europe.

Finally, FDR was a shrewd politician. He instinctively knew how to get people and politicians to trust him or, if they didn’t trust him, he still managed to get them to do what he wanted. He could read the mindset of the American and act accordingly. He didn’t point to an enemy as the cause of the nation’s woes as demagogues like Huey Long and Hitler did. He used rhetoric to inspire instead of rhetoric to divide. He called America to its highest heights instead of dragging it to lowest depths. There was no written rule that a president could only serve two terms, but each four years, the country turned to Roosevelt.

FDR’S NEW DEAL WAS A BOLD MOVE AND EXPANDED THE ROLE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FURTHER THAN IT HAD EVER GONE BEFORE.Desperate times call for desperate measures and the New Deal represented government intervention on an unprecedented scale. Roosevelt struck quickly and the New Deal began to take shape in his First Hundred Days (a time period which is now a measuring standard for other presidential administrations). The New Deal enacted work relief programs, banking reform laws, the Social Security Agency, building programs, and other measures still part of government today.

These agencies (known as the Alphabet Agencies) came with a large bureaucracy and cost lots of money to run. While many still debate the legitimacy of government “handouts” and the cost of administering them, there is little question that The New Deal was eventually an essential part of American recovery.

AS AMERICA PERSEVERED THROUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION, GERMANY TOOK A DARKER PATH TO RECOVERY.The brutality of WWI led the victors seek revenge and vanquish Germany in an attempt to make WWI “The War to End All Wars.” However, the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were so economically damaging that the resulting economic despair gave rise to a demagogue (Hitler) and intense nationalism (the Nazi Party) as Germany sought to restore its former glory. At each step in his rise to power, Hitler portrayed himself as Germany’s savior while embarking on a plan of world dominance and racial superiority. He manipulated deep-seeded prejudices against Jews by painting them as the main obstacle in the path to the restoration of the Fatherland. He took fascism (a fierce, unquestioning nationalism mastered by Benito Mussolini in Italy) and added a racial element. Few were willing to speak out against this totalitarianism (a form of government in which the state recognizes no limits to its authority and restricts all individual freedom) out of fear, prejudice, or misguided loyalties to Hitler’s magnetic, though diabolical charm.

JAPANESE IMPERIALISM WAS ALSO BRUTALThe imperialism that was evident to Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s and was a factor in the Russo-Japanese war continued throughout the first part of the 20th century. Japan’s march to an Asian empire was brutal and the 1937 Rape of Nanking showed just how vicious it could be. Roosevelt responded by enacted economic sanctions, but military conflict was always a threat. The Tripartite Pact that Germany

This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning,

and Italy (led by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini) signed with Japan in 1940 linked the three totalitarian powers in an evil axis.

ISOLATIONIST SENTIMENT CONTINUED WHILE EUROPE FELL APART.

Part of the reason Hitler was able to take so much so quickly was because Europe was desperately afraid of another war. People

chose not to see what was happening to the Jews and turned the other way when Hitler’s

government restricted freedom after freedom. Most notable among the European isolationists was England’s Neville Chamberlain who, in the now infamous Munich Conference believed Hitler’s promises that he wouldn’t take any more land.

Others were intimidated by Germany’s growing economic strength, and even the famous American aviator Charles Lindberg publically admired the mechanical aspects of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force.) US Ambassador to England, Joseph P. Kennedy (the father of the future president) was another US appeaser in part because he feared losing his sons (and his political ambitions for them) in a what he saw was a needless war. In fact, Winston Churchill was one of the lone voices warning of the growing menace in Germany.

Churchill was also aware that the other threat to Europe was the Soviet Union. Both Naziism and Communism are totalitarian doctrines and each was threatened by the other. In 1930, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a Non-Aggression pact which essentially meant that the Soviet Union would stand by as Germany invaded Poland and that Germany could avoid a two-front war. However, this non-aggression pact would not stand as Hitler became so threatened by the Communist ideology (he saw it as Jewish Bolshevism) that he invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941.

Despite the fact that some recognized the threat in Europe, isolationist sentiment also dominated in the United States . Americans continued to be fearful of interaction with other countries and other beliefs, and America First movement was very powerful in the last years of the 1930s. The US also didn’t make any effort to revise the 1924 National Origins Act, which limited immigrants from many European countries, nor did it try to loosen its restrictions on allowing Jewish refugees. This nativism, tinged with some anti-semitism, is another example of the Americans fear of the “other.” This fear would also be evident in the wartime Japanese internment camps (made constitutional by the Supreme Court Case Korematsu vs. the United States). Both are painful truths of American history.

BOTH CHURCHILL AND FDR WERE RHETORICAL MASTERS Hitler was a rhetorical master too, but he used language to inspire fear, prejudice and brutality. Churchill

and FDR used language for good. After France fell to the Nazis, Germany thought it could win the Battle of Britain by breaking down the British morale. However, a desperate Churchill used powerful rhetoric inspired the English people who were able to hold on until America finally entered the War in 1941.

'What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over: the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or

Appeasement at Munich: (1938)British Prime Minister Neville

Chamberlain declares “Peace in our Time.”

FDR’s speeches helped bring the US out of its isolationism. By 1939, he had been increasingly convinced that the US would have to act even though he knew the American public was not ready. Under great pressure from Churchill, he gradually steered America (after his 1940 re-eleciton) toward the conflict by revising the pre-war Neutrality Acts and collaborating with Churchill on the Atlantic Charter statement of democratic principles. He also led the public to accept financial aid programs like The Lend-Lease Act in which we would loan war materiel to England and other Allied nations.

AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND RESOLVE KICKED INTO OVERDRIVE AS THE AMERICAN HOMEFRONT EMBRACED THE WAR EFFORT.Once attacked at Pearl Harbor, America

saw its isolationist sentiment disappear

completely. Now it was in a war against evil, and the same American ingenuity and innovation that had propelled it through its history turned to save the world for democracy. The US had a willing pre-war workforce, the American military machine was already in high gear by 1941. The amount of American military production was astounding. Furthermore, women and minorities eagerly and capably filled the jobs that the men at the front left behind. People gladly sacrificed luxuries, bought war bonds, and grew victory gardens in the effort to defeat the evil empires. Rosie the Riveter became the symbolic representation of the woman who willingly left the home and went to make tanks and ships in the factories.

Many African American also played important roles at home and in the military. However, black units were strictly segregated and used for menial, non-combat jobs. However, one notable exception is the Tuskegee Airmen who distinguished themselves with their bravery. The injustice of fighting for freedom abroad while suffering discrimination at home was not lost on many black leaders, and the Double “V” campaign pushed for the defeat of racial prejudice in Europe and in the United States.

'What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over: the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or

Pre-War Rhetoric: Franklin D. Roosevelt

“War is a contagion whether it be declared or undeclared. It can engulf states and people remote from the original scene of hostilities. We are determined to keep out of war, yet we cannot insure ourselves against the disasterous effects of war and the dangers of involvement. – “Quarantine Speech” following the

Rape of Nanking, 1937

“The people of Europe who are defending themselves do not ask us to do their fighting. They ask us for the implements of war, the planes, the tanks, the guns, the freighters which will enable them to fight for their liberty and our

security. We must be the great arsenal of democracy.” “Arsenal of Democracy “Speech, December 1940

THE WORLD WAR II GENERATION HAS BEEN CALLED “THE GREATEST GENERATION” This title of a recent book by journalist Tom Brokaw described this generation who had survived the Depression only to be tested again in an epic battle against evil. The strains they faced often seemed unbearable, but the men and women of this generation faced their tasks with a sense of duty and without complaint.

WWII MILITARY CASUALTIES WERE HORRIFIC AND THE ULTIMATE VICTORY WOULD COME AT A HIGH PRICE.There were over a million US casualties during WWII, and America was involved in a two front war. In the European theatre American troops worked to expel the Nazis from Northern Africa, topple Mussolini’s fascist regime, and then join the effort to liberate France through the D-Day invasions.

The war in the Pacific was particularly brutal as the Japanese controlled the islands surrounding it. The island hopping strategy was eventually effective but costly. The US would use its air and sea power to attack these islands and then the marines would storm ahead and try to take it from the deeply entrenched Japanese. Eventually, the US neared the island of Japan after it took Iwo Jima in 1945. By all accounts, the Japanese were becoming desperate and the American effort to capture Japan would come at an unspeakable price.

The new president Harry Truman was faced with the prospect using the all-powerful atomic bomb to bring an end to the war and avoid the loss of so many American lives. The development of this bomb had been the ongoing purpose of top-secret The Manhattan Project throughout the war. The

destructive capacity of the bomb was all-powerful and the bombings at Hirsoshima and

Nagasaki did force the Japanese to surrender. However, the price was

high. Other powers raced to develop their own bombs and there were constant worries that the Communists had infiltrated the Manhattan {roject. This new warfare had the power to destroy the world, and the director of the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, never forgot it.

“I am become death, the

destroyer of worlds.”

J. Robert Oppeheimer – Quoting the ancient

Bahavad Gita after the first test of the atomic

bomb

TERMINOLOGY

PRESIDENTS Standard Definition Additional Details

Harry Truman

Dwight D. Eisenhower

John F. Kennedy

NOTABLE PEOPLE


Douglas MacArthur

Jackie Robinson

Elvis Presley

Walter Cronkite

Richard Nixon

Charles Van Doren

Rosa Parks

Martin Luther King

The Little Rock Nine

Jonas Salk

Nikita Kruschev

Alan Shepard

Fidel Castro

George Wallace

Robert Kennedy

Ngo Dinh Diem

Ho Chi Minh

Lee Harvey Oswald

TERMINOLOGY


Cold War

United Nations

Iron Curtain

Marshall Plan

Berlin Airlift

Truman Doctrine

State of Israel

GI Bill of Rights

Baby Boom

Levittown

The Korean War

The 38th Parallel

McCarthyism

Checkers Speech

Brown vs. Board of Education

Interstate Highway Act

The Space Race

Kitchen Debate

U2 Incident

Bay of Pigs

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Berlin Wa;;

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Freedom Rides

Bombingham

I Have a Dream Speech

November 22, 1963

RELATIVE PEACE

BIG IDEAS

WINSTON CHURCHILL WAS THE FIRST TO SOUND THE WARNING ABOUT THE SOVIET UNION AND HE CALLED ON AMERICA TO TAKE ACTIONThe Soviet Union was the next big threat, and Churchill knew it. When the three big powers gathered at Yalta near the end of the war to discuss post-war spheres of influence, Churchill worried that Stalin would be greedy and aggressive as he saw the opportunity to spread Communism through a devastated Europe. He was right to worry. Roosevelt may have been worried too, but, as a politician, he through there would be a better time to confront Stalin. However, Roosevelt would be dead two months later and Churchill once again had to be the voice of warning.

President Harry Truman also worried about the spreading menace of Communism. In fact, there are some theories that say that Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb in Japan was more about letting the Soviets know we had the capability than it was to bring a quick end to the war in Japan.

Truman invited Churchill to the United States and gave him the opportunity to offer the warning about Soviet aggression. He also allowed Churchilll a public forum to ask the US to take a lead role in opposing Stalin. The US was the only option. Europe was devastated, Churchill had been thrown out of power in England, and the United States was economically prosperous. The US was emerging as the superpower who, after the brutality of Naziism, know that isolation was no longer an option if the world had any hope of avoiding war like the last one.

Stalin said that Churchill’s comments were “an act of war.” The Cold War (the non-violent but highly dramatic period of hostility and tension between the US and the Soviet Union. It lasted from 1945-1991) was on.

THE POSTWAR ECONOMY WENT THROUGH TRANSFORMED TO ACCOMMODATE THE RETURNING SERVICEMAN AND HIS GROWING FAMILY.The return of thousands of servicemen meant a huge transformation for the US economy. Industry was no longer crippled by The Great Depression, but it had to change its purpose. Factories now churned out refrigerators and televisions instead of ships and tanks. The returning service man was ready to become the family man, and the GI Bill allowed him to pursue the education he needed to be a productive member of society. It also gave him the capacity to be a wage-earner and purchase all of the household products that flooded the market.

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.”

-Winston Churchill, 1946. This speech is considered to be one of the

first skirmishes of The Cold War.

The assembly line technique also found its way to household production and the sprawling suburbs became full of Levittowns (cookie-cutter mass produced houses) designed to provide a happy home for the GI, his wife, and all those babies that would be part of the Baby Boom.

WOMEN AND AFRICAN AMERICANS TOOK A STEP BACK IN SOCIETY AFTER THE WAR.Women longer needed in the factories, and they were expected to go back to their homes and kitchens and go about the business of raising babies and deferring to their husbands. Blacks also took a step back. They had sacrificed for their country but were not welcomed back as equals. They also found that it was It was harder to sit at the back of the bus after the war and were more willing to fight for equality. Truman ordered the desegregation of the media and helped pave the wave Jackie Robinson and some of the other he early Civil Rights pioneers.

AMERICA USED ITS POWER AND INFLUENCE TO HELP REBUILD A WAR-TORN WORLD AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, TO REPEL COMMUNISMAmerica realized that international stability was essential to peace and took the lead in the attempt to restore this stability. In many ways, it was responding to Churchill’s call. Economic desperation in the South Pacific and in Europe made people vulnerable for quick solutions and The Soviets, whose soldiers looked forward to getting revenge on Germany, were ready to swoop in.

The Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift were two specific ways that the United States tried to stop the “Iron Curtain” from descending any further. However, when the dust cleared in Berlin, the Soviets had taken over East Berlin and East Germany would remain in Communist hands until 1991. Other nations would fall to communism and the economic, political and cultural differences between the Eastern Block (Communist) European nations and the more progressive Western Block nations couldn’t be more striking.

The Truman Doctrine was an official policy statement that the US would “assist free people” in their resistance to “totalitarian regimes.” This doctrine would pave the way for US involvement in the struggles against Communism in China, Korea, and later, in Vietnam. It would also mean that the news that the Soviets had the atomic bomb would heighten the tension and fear of The Cold War.

AS ANOTHER RESULT OF WWII, THE STATE OF ISRAEL CAME INTO EXISTANCEThe flood of Jews fleeing the Nazis and returning to the Holy Land meant the resumption of a and ancient feud as both Jews and Arab (Muslim) claimed the Holy Land in Palestine as their own. The Zionist movement gained strength and, in 1948, the establishment of the state of Israel meant that the conflict would continue to worsen.

THE KOREAN WAR WAS A TEST OF AMERICAN RESOLVE TO FIGHT COMMUNISMWhen North Korea, backed by the Soviets and Communists in China, crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea, the Truman Doctrine was put to the test. For three bitter years, American forces fought to keep Communism from spreading into South Korea. When the conflict reached a stalemate, General Douglas MacArthur got himself fired in his campaign to convince Truman to use the ultimate weapon. However, Truman resisted and the “bomb” became the weapon that we, and we hoped everyone else, were too afraid to use. The atomic bomb, and the later and more devastating hydrogen bomb, became the ultimate threat of the Cold War.

Communism was eventually contained, but not eradicated, in North Korea, and, even today, the difference between the two Koreas is striking. At home, a war weary America tried to ignore the Korean War and go about their productive, consumer-driven family lives. There was a draft and over 53,000 Americans died in the effort. Yet, the Korean War remains the “forgotten war.”

FEAR OF COMMUNISM FUELED A RED SCARE WORSE THAN THE ONE IN THE 1920SWould the Communists get our atomic secrets. They could. Look at Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Were we getting Communist propaganda through the movies. Were there Communist spies in the Army? Let’s accuse and then investigate. Accusing a friend of being a Communist spy was twisted into a patriotic act to protect America from the evil lurking within.

The new medium of television gave Joseph McCarthy a platform to accuse and destroy lives. It also gave journalist Edward R. Murrow and McCarthy’s opponents to discredit and his methods, and McCarthyism eventually died down.

Nevertheless, this period remains a disturbing time in American history. We were so fearful and so paranoid that we got carried away. We didn’t care who we hurt or what rights we violated as long as kept ourselves safe from real and imagined enemies.

TELEVISION BECAME THE CENTER OF AMERICAN LIFE.It was a campaign tool. It was a source of news. It was a place for sports and shared experiences. It was the best place to advertise a product, and it was the place where all americans went to be distracted and to laugh. It would change American life more than anything else (until the internet?)

EISENHOWER PROJECTED A SENSE OF CALM INSTEAD OF CRISIS AS AMERICA COASTED INTO THE EASYGOING, LIFESTYLE OF THE FIFTIESIn many ways, the 1950s was just like it was portrayed on shows like “Leave it to Beaver” “Happy Days” or “Mad Men.” The dad went to a job in the city. The mom kept the house clean and met dad at the door with a drink. If a woman worked, she was a secretary…and preferably a pretty one. The children played outside and were happy and innocent. It was a society based on conforming to acceptable norms, and for many there was comfort in conformity. It was a welcome change from the turmoil of the Great Depression and World War II.

Still, television pushed the envelope as to what was acceptable. It brought new and sometimes edgy ideas. Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Little Richard were perfect examples of the world that many traditionalists didn’t want to know about. The Beatniks of Greenwich Village also rebelled against 1950s norms and they foreshadowed the counter-culture of the 1960s and 70s.

EMBOLDED BY THEIR WORLD WAR II ACHIEVEMENTS AND UNWILLING TO TAKE A BACK SEAT ANYMORE, THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT GAINED MOMENTUM

Rosa Parks’s act of resistance in Montgomery was the first public example of non-violent protest. Martin Luther King emerged as a charismatic and capable leader, and television provided the publicity that the movement needed. The landmark Civil Rights case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka overturned the old “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy vs Ferguson, and change began to come at a record place. When television captured the ugliness at the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Eisenhower realized that the federal government would have to protect those who just wanted to get an education in a free and unsegregated society.

Later events like the Lunch Counter Sit-Ins, and the Freedom Rides were also effective ways of gaining support for the cause. It was hard to see non-violent protestors enduring violence and verbal abuse at the hands of mean-spirited white supremacists, and television broadcast every scene. These images also detracted from our credibility to fight for freedom around the world because we seemed to be unable to maintain order and equality at home.

The other thing to remember about the Civil Rights movement is the fact that the non-violent plank of the movement is the one that prevailed. As the cries for change grew more urgent and more impatient, it was Martin Luther King who gave the movement a mission. King knew that there would be violence, but he knew that lawful protest was the only, and the most honorable way, to bring about a change in civil law. Without question, King’s leadership and his stirring, uplifting rhetoric that led to the movement’s greatest sucessess.

THE AUTOMOBILE CONTINUED TO BE THE “DRIVER” (HA HA) OF AMERICAN LIFE AND CULTUREAlmost everyone had a car and American culture was centered around the drive in movie, the drive in restaurant, the growing suburbs, the idea that America was accessible to everyone. The Interstate Highway Act changed the American Landscape, and, although many didn’t realize that is main purpose was to make our tanks would be able to get around in the event of a Soviet attack.

THE COLD WAR MORPHED INTO AN ARMS RACE AND A SPACE RACEIt was as if the side with the best scientists would win. Who could make the most destructive bomb? Who could shoot it the farthest? Who could control space and what could they do with that power. We became obsessed with beating the Soviets in everything especially since Sputnik seemed to show the Russians were getting the upper hand.

THE YOUNG, CHARISMATIC KENNEDY EMERGED AS THE PERFECT MAN TO TAKE ON THE COMMUNISTS AND TO TAKE AMERICA TO ITS GREAT DESTINY

He was young. He was handsome. He was intelligent. He had a beautiful wife and beautiful children. He represented American strength and vitality. He seemed to be the man for the times.

There were a few obstacles in his path, however. He was Roman Catholic when the majority of the electorate was Protestant and held Catholic prejudices. His father was an appeaser in WWII. Some thought he was too inexperienced for the job. But, overall, his charm and charisma made people forget those handicaps.

Kennedy had a few secrets too. He was not as vigourous as he looked, and he had a chronic medical condition that had brought him to the brink of death many times. He was a womanizer who had so many mistresses that it was hard to keep up with them all. But, few knew these secrets and the media certainly wasn’t going to tell. They knew they had a celebrity on their hands, and they happily made him appear stronger than his rival Nixon and more in touch than the aging EisenhowerKennedy set the tone for his administration with his stirring inaugural address. He called Americans to public service and made it clear that there was a new voice of America and that the Communists better be ready to reckon with.

KENNEDY BEGAN HIS ADMINSTRATION ON A ROUGH NOTE AND THE COLD WAR QUICKLY ESCALATEDKennedy followed the advice of the military and agreed to support Cuban revolutionaries in their attempt to overthrow the Communist Castro regime in Cuba. It failed miserably. Kennedy felt mislead by the American military and vowed to be a cold warrior on his own terms.

He stepped up the rhetoric, raised the stakes in the Space race by pledging to put a man on the moon, and confronting the Soviets in Berlin. When the Soviets directly threatened the United States by placing missiles in striking range from Cuba, the world was as close to nuclear war as it have ever been. Kennedy skillfully outwitted Kruschev and brought the world back from the brink.

KENNEDY ALSO EXPANDED AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAMKennedy believed in the policy of containment and, like Eisenhower and Truman before him, believed that the Domino Theory was a justifiable reason for American intervention in Southeast Asia. If South Vietnam

Kennedy’s Soaring Rhetoric

“Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.”

“Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage – and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed…

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

from the Inaugural Address, 1961

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

- Speech at Rice University, 1962

fell to the Communist regime in North Vietnam, then there was a fear that other areas of Southeast Asia would fall too. The idea of Communist regimes in the Soviet Union, Europe, the Caribbean and a majority of Southeast Asia was too much of a threat to the United States and the ideals of liberty.

During his presidency, Kennedy sent over 11,000 military advisors to South Vietnam in an attempt to support the South Vietnamese leader Diem Bihn Phu’s opposition to Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Vietcong in the North.

KENNEDY WAS A TOUGH POLITICIAN WHO NAVIGATED WASHINGTON POLITICS WITH THE HELP OF HIS ATTORNEY GENERAL – HIS BROTHER ROBERTJoseph Kennedy, who had financed the election, had forced his son Jack to name his brother Robert (Bobby) as Attorney General despite the fact that Bobby had had little legal experience. The president resisted because he realized that there would be loud cries of nepotism, but he came to depend utterly and totally on his brother. Bobby had devoted his life to Jack’s career and was unswervingly loyal to him. He would do whatever it took to protect him even if it meant calling off the FBI director J. Edgar Hoover when Hoover wanted to expose stories of Jack’s womanizing.

Bobby was by his brother’s side during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the clashes on Civil Rights and any other hardship that the administration faced. He was also actively involved in the secret CIA plot to assassinate Castro.

PRESIDENT KENNEDY REACHED HIS STRIDE DURING THE LAST YEAR OF HIS PRESIDENCYKennedy enjoyed his greatest popularity during the last year of his presidency and the last year of his life. The economy was humming along and people bought whatever fashion his wife was wearing. There was a slight thawing in the Cold War. Kennedy spoke out against the construction of the Berlin Wall but, perhaps scared by how close we had come to nuclear war, negotiated a Nuclear Test Ban treaty with the Soviets.

Kennedy also began to back away from his support of Diem in South Vietnam, and helped orchestrate the overthrow of the Diem regime once it became clear that Diem had lost control. While Kennedy was not withdrawing his support from South Vietnam, he realized that the last chance for successful resistance was with new leadership.

Lastly, he had also, finally, (some would say he had waited too long) taken a strong political stance by calling Civil Rights a moral issue. Even before the stirring rhetoric of MLK’s “I Have a Dream Speech’ and the appalling nature of the Birmingham Baptist Church bombing, Kennedy had come to realize that a positive stand on Civil Rights was worth the political

“We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the

American Constitution. Next week, I shall ask the Congress to make a commitment it has not fully

made in this century that race has no place in American life or law.

- Kennedy’s Address on Civil Rights, June 1963

-

cost in the South. He also realized that a free and unsegregated society gave him a better negotiating position with Soviet Union.

In November 1963, Kennedy went to Texas on a political trip. He knew he would need to campaign hard in the South in order to win a second term in 1964. . . .

AFTER KENNEDY’S ASSASSINATION, NOTHING WOULD EVER BE THE SAMEA brave and strong leader was cut down in broad daylight as he and his wife ride in a motorcade among cheering throngs. It was unspeakable. No one could believe it happened – here – in America. And, to make it worse, the man who killed him was

a slimy little Communist who was then killed by a nasty mob guy. It all seemed so shady… so pointless.

All of the nation’s idealism ended on November 22, 1963. American attitudes turned darker and there

would be rough days ahead.

PRESIDENTS Standard Definitionon quizlet

Additional DetailsYou will need to add from your notes and the

Powerpoint

Lyndon Johnson 36th President of the US

Richard Nixon 37th President of the US

NOTABLE PEOPLE


Mohammed Ali

Malcolm X

Walter Cronkite

Martin Luther King

Robert Kennedy

Neil Armstrong

Edward Kennedy

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

TERMINOLOGY Standard Definition Additional Details

March on Selma

Voting Rights Act

The Black Panther Party

Domino Theory

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

Tet Offensive

My Lai Massacre

Woodstock

Watergate

DESPAIR

BIG IDEAS

LYNDON JOHNSON WAS NO JOHN KENNEDY.Kennedy had chosen Johnson as his running mate in 1960 simply because he could help deliver much needed Southern votes. But where Kennedy was calm and classy, Johnson was easily agitated and crass. He was a political animal who got want he wanted by intimidation. For many Americans, their grief about losing Kennedy was compounded by the idea that their the “rough around the edges” Johnson was their new leader.

In his first year, however, Johnson tread lightly. He signed the 1964 Civil Rights Bill that Congress passed as tribute to the martyred President Kennedy. He also authorized the Kennedy Space Center in the effort to fulfill Kennedy’s pledge to go to the moon. He defeated a weak Republican opponent, Barry Goldwater, in the 1964 election in part because he pledged to continue Kennedy’s unfinished work.

THERE WAS STILL LOTS OF WORK TO BE DONE IN CIVIL RIGHTS AND ON THE DOMESTIC FRONTDespite the passage of the Civil Rights Bill, it was clear that there was still prejudice. Students who worked to help the movement often met intimidation or violent ends. The scenes from Selma were appalilng and the effort for voting rights became the new goal of the Civil Rights movement. Despite his initial opposition, Johnson supported the effort and signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Johnson also hoped to replicate FDR’s New Deal by creating a Great Society in which government would help bridge the divide between the rich and the desperately poor. But, in many ways, there was too much anger.

After Selma, the Civil Rights Movement found itself at a crossroads. There was no specific goal in front of them and the movement split into two factions. The militant movement found leaders in Malcolm X and the separatist Nation of Islam or the Black Panther movement under Stokely Carmichael. Martin Luther King would have to work harder make people see the virtue and value of non-violence. And, with the passage the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, King had to figure out where best to direct his efforts toward total equality. As America’s moral compass moved to oppose the war in Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement found itself drowned out (even though there was still deep seeded racism and hatred throughout the country.

JOHNSON ESCALATED THE WAR IN VIETNAM TO A POINT OF NO RETURNJohnson didn’t start the war and wasn’t even a part of the Kennedy’s Administration strategic planning sessions. Yet, his attempt to strike hard and fast in Vietnam backfired as US troops were overwhelmed by trying to fight an unwinnable guerilla war. The Vietcong, determined to settle their own destiny, just wanted the Americans out, and with each new shipment of troops, the Vietcong dug in further. No one really understood why we were fighting the war. Opposition to the war grew louder and it seemed most shrill on college campuses where many were able to avoid the draft with student deferments. In a sense, this made the Vietnam War a poor man’s war since those with means and education were able to stay out of the fighting.

For the American serviceman, the pressure of fighting against an unseen enemy became too much. The My Lai massacre is an example of the Americans desperate attempts to flush out the Vietcong. This brutal killing of civilians in the village of My Lai led to further American opposition to the war in Vietnam. Those soldiers lucky enough to survive in the jungles of Southeast Asia came back to very opposite of a hero’s welcome. He was called a “baby killer” or spat upon, and the scars of war were compounded by the realization that few supported his efforts to endure the hell of combat.

Still, the Johnson administration tried to put a positive spin on its efforts in Vietnam by saying that we were slowly reducing the influence of the Vietcong and winnign the war. Journalist Walter Cronkite’s news report from Vietnam showed the reality of the situation, and Johnson realized that he couldn’t find a path to victory. There were many anti-war candidates (notably Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy) in 1968, and Johnson announced that he would not run again.

THE ASSASSINATIONS OF KING AND KENNEDY SENT THE COUNTRY FURTHER INTO THE ABYSSBy 1968, the downward slide that began with President Kennedy’s assassination sunk even further as both Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy were killed within two months of each other. King was killed in Memphis, and the rage that the black community had been keeping in erupted in violent riots in almost every American city. Robert Kennedy, by then a presidential candidate with an anti-Vietnam war platform, was in Indianapolis on the night King was killed and spoke from the heart about his own epic grief following JFK’s assassination and called for calm and love in the face of tragedy. Indianapolis was the only city that didn’t burn that night. The idea that RFK would be killed two months seemed like a scene from a Greek tragedy.

There were riots at the Democratic National Convention that year and two American Olympics gave the black power salute during the national anthem. The counter culture movement of drugs, sex, protest, and flower children was reaching its heights and we appeared to the world to be a country unhinged.

NIXON’S ELECTION DID LITTLE TO CHANGE THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL After RFK was killed, the Democratic party floundered and the nation elected Richard Nixon who had made an unbelievable political comeback following his loss to JFK in the 1960 election. Some home that Nixon, the Vice President in the seemingly idyllic 1950s, would restore order and identity to a nation that had seemed to lose its way.

But the deep discontent remained. The Counter Culture movement grew stronger. Woodstock was a three day festival of debauchery (although the music was awesome!) and Nixon’s decision to expand the war into Cambodia (in an attempt to root out the source of Vietcong Communist support) led to outright chaos.The Kent State shootings in 1970 were an example of this chaos. Images of students being mowed down by the National Guard showed that we had gone off the rails.

WE DID MAKE IT TO THE MOON AND NIXON WAS RE-ELECTED….BUT The sixties did actually end on a positive note as Kennedy’s promise was fulfilled. America won the space race…and “landed a man on the moon and returned him safely to earth.” And, Nixon established himself as a skillful diplomat by going to China and opening diplomatic relations with the Communist regime there. There was hope that we would be able to contain Communism if we could find a way to fight a “peace with honor” in the hopeless quagmire of Vietnam.

In the absence of any viable Democratic candidates in 1972, Nixon was elected in a landslide. But, Nixon was a paranoid politician with lots of psychological baggage. He had been burned in 1960. He felt threatened by this new generation that he didn’t understand. He constantly felt under attack. To prevent another defeat, he was actively involved in a behind the scenes conspiracy to rig the 1972 presidential election. When his henchman got caught in a robbery in the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington DC, Nixon became actively involved in the cover up.

The scandal would drag on for two year, and Nixon was forced to resign since he knew that a vote to impeach would make him the first president to be forcibly removed from office. Almost 200 years after we declared independence, we faced a leadership crisis from which we almost didn’t recover.

STUDY STRATEGIES FOR THE EXAM

EXTRA CREDIT PROJECT

Thoroughly read and annotate the "Big

Ideas"

Look at all links on the Powerpoint and

Piktochart

Review your notes and look at someone else's notes if you don't think

yours are good!

Be very thorough on the additional details - Copy the quizlet and add the

details there

Take the Practice Test - to be released on the Thursday of Jubilee

This will add 10 points to your lowest grade this quarter. This is a group project with just one other partner. Each partner takes a side and write the rap

EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORY:

1. Find a resources for outlining one of the famous feuds of the 20th centurya. TR vs. TAFTb. Wilson vs. the European Powers at the Paris Peace Talksc. Murrow vs McCarthyd. Nixon vs. Kruscheve. Lyndon Johnson vs. Robert Kennedy

2. Print out the resource and bring it to me so we can discuss it.3. Use “Cabinet Battle #1” from Hamilton as the model for the length and

format4. Perform it on Monday May 22.

the 20th century: America Rising...

Documents

Transcript of the 20th century: America Rising...