The Forever Changing Events of the 1950’s -1990’s

Throughout the last fifty years there are many events that significantly shaped who we are today and changed America’s future greatly. Throughout these decades the American experience has greatly varied. There were several wars such as the Cold War, Vietnam War, and the Gulf War all which took its own toll on the American people and their economy. The civil rights movement, protest, and demonstrations throughout the decades were validated by the impact they left. Through the various presidents we witnessed many scandals and terminologies that remain and affect America today.

McCarthyism, Cold War Ideology, Eisenhower’s politics, The New Frontier, and Reaganomics will stick with the American people forever. These are chain of events that constantly shaped our country for what it is today. This paper will hit on a few of these events that had the most powerful effects on the American People and the economy. McCarthyism/ “The Red Scare" of The1950’s Cold War ideology crystallized after the end of World War II. After World WarII, Americans began to be very afraid of communists taking over the United States.

American referred to communist as “reds” this symbolized the communist as worse than urderers. At one point during World War II the United States had an alliance with Russia and Britain; however that alliance ended as America began to rebuild and Europe continued to struggle. A power struggle known as the Cold War began between the United States and Russia creating more fear in the American people of communism. Americans became more and more suspicious of the Soviets; Americans thought being associated with the communist were as bad as being one yourself. The fear and concern rose amongst the Americans fro communism which caused mass suspicion.

Order custom essay The Forever Changing Events of the 1950’s -1990’s with free plagiarism report

450+ experts on 30 subjects Starting from 3 hours delivery

Get Essay Help

The Truman doctrine was put into place by President Truman. The doctrine enforced loyalty against communism. Many were being accused of being connected to communism or communist with no real evidence, in that came the Red Scare. The Red Scare or McCarthyism Era is a termed used to describe anti-communism era of the 50’s which was named after Joseph McCarthy.

He was a former U. S. Senator who used the public’s fears against communism to gain political standing. He claimed to have a list of suspected communists. He accused many in and out of governmental positions of being communist or having commingled ith communist. There was and is no real evidence to base his claims. This caused a great deal of miss trust for the American people and the government and caused a great deal of social issues.

The senate held hearings and along with McCarthy and the HAUC many were black listed. McCarthyism had a major hand in the change in feelings America had about both politics and society. The Civil Rights Movements of the 1960’s In the 1960’s racial challenges was discouraging and overtaking the society. The African Americans bore the antagonistic reaction to the economy and were racially segregated in every way from society.

Their civil rights were violated and were not part of the national agenda for change. The African American race was usually referred to as “Negro” or “Colored. ” The Civil rights of the 1960’s came with a high price. In spite of The Declaration of Independence which states “All men are created equal” the injustice that the African Americans endured was one that wasn’t easily spoken out about. There were risk that took place in standing up for their right, many gave everything they had and lost everything, if not their lives. They endured and stayed committed to change this injustice.

In effort to build a coalition for racial equality many of races and creed gave up their place in society and thousands lost their lives. There were strong black men and women that played key figures in the Civil rights movement they were Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Emmett Till, and Dorothy Height. In 1967 The Detroit Riot took place because police raided a local illegal drinking hole for African Americans.

In The 1963 March on Washington there was an estimated 250,000 people who gathered for a peaceful demonstration to promote Civil Rights and economic equality for African Americans. This is where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech took place. During the civil rights movement many demonstrations, protest, and riots took place and was successful in the coalition for racial equality.

The Watergate Scandal of 1970’s The 60’s were full of chaos many thought that the chaos of the war and the social changes made would carry on into the 70’s. The Vietnam War continued to divide the ountry. It was at war that many contested and by the early 70’s many of the American people views were begining to change. Daniel Ellsberg turned over secret Pentagon reports to new paper. President Nixon could not stop the publications of these pentagon papers and it infuriated him.

President Nixon had a group who were called the “Plumbers” because they fixed the leaks in The Whitehouse. They set out to discredit Ellsberg and with a job well done they were assigned a new job. They were in charge of derailing the democratic ticket. The Plumbers broke into the Democratic National .

Committee and bugged the office. A security guard spotted the men and called the police. The Plumbers were apprehended. All of this was going on while President Nixon was seeking his second term as President. President Nixon was re-elected by a landslide. As the time passed and the break in was investigated it was traced back to the officials of the CREEP, which was the committee to re-elect the president.

President Nixon denied any involvement to the break ins. The president was forced to turn recordings which directly ndicated him and that he tried to cover the entire thing up. The break in’s became known as the Watergate Scandal. Watergate was known for the fall of President Richard Nixon. In 1974 the courts named President Nixon as a co-conspirator in the obstruction of justice over the Watergate matter scandal. President Nixon feared impeachment and on August 8, 1974 he announced his resignation.

In the 1980 Ronald Reagan was elected president during what was considered the worst recession since the great deppression . He came in with a plan to fix the deficit introducing The Economic Recovery Act. This plan would restore the economy over and within the next three years. President Reagan truly believed that economy needed awakening.

In the Economic Recovery Act the income bracket would receive a twenty five percent tax cut, breaking down to five percent the first year and ten percent the next two years. Many American felt as though the president was favoring the upper class by cutting the top rated tax by twenty percent yearly. Through the recovery act wealthy people could grow more wealth and create more business’s therefore stimulating the economy.

By creating more business’s it would in turn create more jobs and drive the  prices down. Reagan's Economy Recovery Act was passed on July 29, 1981 it did boost the economy but failed at repairing the deficit. Unemployment and poverty was on the rise, the president had taken a huge chance with the tax cut, and it was the largest tax cut ever. His theory was based on supply-side economics. Today we know it as “Reaganomics” Unfortunately President Reagan did not understand that in order for the tax cut to work spending would have to be cut.

Budgets were cut but do to the high amount President Reagan spent on military issues the budget did not balance out. Reagan's Economy Recovery Act affected Americans in many ways good and bad. The people who benefited most from the tax cut were the wealthy. They seemed to becoming wealthier. The Lower income/poverty Americans had more trouble getting ahead. It is all depending on what side of the economy you were on to say if “reaganomics” worked or not.

The Gulf War After serving as Vice President under President Ronald Reagan, President George W. Bush became president in 1988. President Bush faced a world that was drasticly changing, after forty years the cold war had come to an end,The Berlin wall came down, and the communist empire was no longer. The hardest challenge President Bush was to face was when Iraq invaded Kuwait. On August 2, 1990 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait one of the major oil producing countries in the Middle East. He was also threatining to move into Saudi Arabia. Americans were in fear because without receiving oil from Kuwait the prices would sky rocket.

Iraq’s invasion came about after Kuwait lowered the world price for oil production by increasing it’s own oil production. Iraq was in debt to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and with low world prices on oil production Iraq would never be able to pay off their debt. President Bush called upon the United Nations and operation Desert storm began. America sent 40,000 troops and 118,000 troops from allied nations.

The United nations also sent a quarter of a million soilders to Saudi Arabia also known as Operation Dessert Shield. These troops were mostly Americans and sent to protect Saudi Arabia. Suddam Hussien had been highly trained in chemical war fare and was makin and testing chemical warfare wweapns of mass destruction. Suddam was testing these weapons on his own people and the American troops found and destroyed these weapons. Operation Desert Storm eventually conquard Iraq’s million-man army. The war lasted exactly 100 hours and 40,000 troops were involved.

Many of the soilders came home with what they call Gulf War Syndrome. Democrats protested the war, however it was needed and The President called on all to help. Ultimately Suddam was left in power and refused to allow the United Nations to conduct any and all inspections for chemical weapons of mass destructions. Suddam began harboring terrorist and providing training for them. With his own little terrorist army and a safe place to train the could prepare for retaliation. If you look back on these events from the 1950’s – 1990’s you will see how they shaped

America as we know it today. All of these events had a dramatic impact on Americans, and our society socially, economically and politically. We are still very much affected by these and many other events of these decades. As we go through our own eras and decades much of it seems to be the same, in many ways. Presently we ourselves are going through much of the same obstacles, war, recession, civil rights, unemployment and poverty. We will continue to face these things as we continue to grow as a country. In ten years I believe there will still be the same things effecting America for it seems that history just repeats itself.

References

1. Page 1950’s McCarthyism/ “The Red Scare" was retrieved April 20, 2010 from http://www. eisenhower. utexas. edu/Research/Digital_Documents/McCarthy/Mccarthydocuments. html
2. (2002 )Written by Barbara Mack – Pagewise retrieved from http://www. essortment. com/all/mccarthyismred_rmfw. htm
3. 1960 African American Civil Rights movements of the 1960’s Written by Toonari and retrieved on April 20, 2010 from http://www. africanaonline. com/civil_rights. tm
4. African American Civil Rights movements of the 1960’s retrieved on April 20, 2010 from http://www. pbs. org/wnet/aaworld/timeline/civil_01. html
5. 1970’s The Watergate Scandal (2002) Written by Noell Wolfgram Evans retrieved on April 22, 2010 from http://www. essortment. com/all/watergatescand_reji. htm
6. (2010) The Washington Post Company retrieved on April 22, 2010 from http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/
7. 1980 Reaganomics (April 1996), Christopher Frenze Chief Economist to the Vice-Chairman retrieved on April 22, 2010 from http://www. house. ov/jec/fiscal/tx-grwth/reagtxct/reagtxct. htm
8. (1979-89)Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. “Chronology of Ronald Reagan’s Presidency, 1979-89. ” retrieved on April 22, 2010 from http://www. reagan. utexas. edu/archives/reference/preschrono. html
9. 1990’s President Bush and the Gulf war was retrieved on April 21, 2010 from http://www. whitehouse. gov/about/presidents/georgehwbush
10. A National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson retrieved on April 22, 2010 from http://www. gwu. edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB39/

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

Check my essay Hire Writer