Was the Vietnam War justifiable and fought in an honorable manner?
Write on both questions.
Question 1: Was the Vietnam War justifiable and fought in an honorable manner? Give evidence to support your opinion. What was the intent behind the American involvement (from Eisenhower through Johnson)? What were the public arguments for and against the war? Did the United States achieve its goals set in the “peace with honor” policy of the Nixon Administration?
Question 2: Describe the general conditions of African-Americans from the 40s though the sixties. How did they view their predicament (see the Zinn docs, especially) and what did they do about it?
Each essay should be at least 750 words. It must be double spaced and typed in 12 point Times New Roman font. (These are short essays, so you don’t have time to puff them up. Get right to the point and support each claim with evidence. Do not use overly long quotes. If a quote is more than a sentence or two, briefly summarize it, but still cite it.
• Unless you have a truly coherent thematic structure in mind, make the elements of the outline chronological. Remember, this is History class, not a Sociology class. In History, we look for coherence and causal relationships within chronological frames. This allows us to see context and not just random events.
• Begin with a strong thesis statement followed by relevant evidence from the readings and lectures. Cite Foner as (Foner pg.#); cite the Zinn documents by the author of the document of title if the author is anonymous, for example (Ginsburg 454); and cite the presentations/lectures as Colling + lecture/slide #, e.g. (Colling 5/42).
• In addition to the Foner text and lectures, you must use at least three primary documents for evidence. These can be found in Zinn. They are your choice, but you must use the primary documents as significant sources to make your case.
• The essays must include references to all of the assigned readings and only assigned readings. Again, use Foner, Zinn, and lectures only. (I will not read the essay if it employs outside sources. The purpose of the essays is to determine whether you’ve read the assigned readings, viewed lectures, and understood the material as presented.)
• Do not plagiarize. If you use any sources other than Foner, Zinn, or the presentations, you will fail the exam
Cold War Part 2
For this second part of the Cold War lectures, I’m just going to give you a few impressions and a few highlights. I suspect you’re getting overloaded at this point with all of the assignments coming due.
I will give 10 points of Extra Credit to anyone who can list five important events or ideas from these years, with a strong justifying paragraph for each of the five. Obviously, I’m looking for five points that I have not already discussed.
Jimmy Carter
1977-1981
A physicist by education, a peanut farmer by trade, he brought a vocal Christian morality to the presidency, but no national political experience. He’d been governor of Georgia.
Ronald Reagan
1981-1989
Reagan also has little national experience. He had been governor of California. He’d lead a conservative backlash against the liberal gains of the 60s and 70s.
George H.W. Bush
1989-1993
Bush, on the other hand, had a great deal of experience, including being a former director of the CIA.
By the mid 70s, even though the economy was stagnant, a high inflation rate continued.
This caused problems for the Carter Administration. Prices were gong up, but incomes were not.
There was also a postwar malaise. The nation was tired of war and of the civic disruptions of the 60s and early 70s. Some wanted to retreat to a mythical happier time.
Happy Days
Carter’s international human rights focus was admirable but given the U.S. footprint in the world seemed hypocritical to many.
His greatest success was brokering an agreement between two mortal enemies – Israel and Egypt at the Camp David Accords. It was a stunning achievement, but it was followed by several policy gaffes.
After overthrowing Mossadegh in ‘53, Eisenhower had facilitated the return of the royal family in Iran. The young Shah Reza Pahlavi took power.
The U.S. built a strong relation with this pro-Western leader, who was also a brutal despot.
The Shah was overthrown in 1978 and exiled. When he became sick, Carter let him in to the U.S. and this sparked a violent reaction. Students took over the U.S. embassy and held Americans hostage for over a year.
Carter came off as weak and ineffective during the hostage crisis and lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election.
Carter gave an impassioned speech about human justice as he said farewell to the nation, but justice was not on the agenda for the Reagan Administration.
Reagan brought a law and order message and even more importantly the objective of reconsolidating the nations wealth in the upper strata of society.
Reagan brought in a “supply-side” economic policy. Meaning that there should be a greater focus on creating products rather than a focus on demand for products. He said he would balance the budget, and
That by cutting taxes for the rich, they would invest and create more jobs. In other words, the benefits of making the rich richer would trickle down to the working classes.
He cut social programs but increased military spending to such an extent the national debt increased dramatically and with the flood of new products, fewer and fewer made my American labor, individual Americans went into debt to purchase the commodities (the largest of which were homes).
Businesses and individuals who could not afford the computing power of main frames…
…were suddenly able to afford computers and their new applications for business and home.
Just over a month after Reagan was inaugurated, an insane young man, John Hinckley, tried to kill him. Reagan was wounded, but there was no lasting damage. His press secretary, James Brady, was not so lucky. He was shot in the head and paralyzed.
Later that year, Air Traffic Controllers went on strike for better pay and improved working conditions.
Reagan fired them all, destroying the union. Unions have been in decline ever since, as have workers benefits and relative wealth.
Gorbachev
Reagan initiated an arms race unprecedented in human peacetime history. It cause problems for the Soviets, whom he called the “evil empire”, although their bigger problem was their invasion of Afghanistan.
When Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union in 1985, he began programs of reform and democratization. The economic problems from the war and increased desires for autonomy among various group in the country would lead the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1992.
Conservative Americans tend to give the credit to Reagan, who was relentless in his anti-Soviet rhetoric.
The Iran-Contra Scandal
Early in Reagan’s second term, his administration sold arms to Iran (which was in a struggle with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, an ally whom the U.S. had supplied with weapons). The purpose of the sale to Iran was to secure funds to buy arms for a counter-revolutionary group in Nicaragua know as the Contras (and perhaps to keep these two Muslim countries at war).
Reagan desperately wanted to remove the socialist Sandinistas from power in Nicaragua and his administration largely created and funded and opposition force. The problem for him was the Boland Amendment that denied American aid to the Contras. The Reagan Administration illegally diverted money from the arms sales to the Contras in order to circumvent the Boland Amendment. Once discovered, this led to Congressional hearings and eventual criminal convictions, although Reagan himself was never prosecuted.
Shortly after Bush took office, the United States invaded Panama in late ‘89 to oust former CIA collaborator Manuel Noriega from power.
Noriega had become unstable and reliant on a massive drug trade. Former CIA director and now U.S. president Bush, who had worked with Noriega, decided to act against him.
Civilian deaths were high during the invasion. Estimates range from 500 to several thousand. They died in what was essentially an illegal police raid and coup by a foreign power.
In 1991, the United States joined over thirty other nations to repel Saddam Hussein’s annexation of Kuwait. This has become know as the First Gulf War. At first glance it seemed like an unqualified success and justifiable action, but there are many complicated issues involved.
Hussein, who always coveted Kuwait, said that Kuwait was slant drilling for oil in Iraqi territory. When asked to stop they refused. Hussein sought help from an Iraqi ally, the United States, who had been helping Saddam against the Iranians in the Iraq-Iran War. Hearing no objections to an invasion of Kuwait, Saddam went ahead. Bush immediately condemned the action and sought allies to force Saddam out.
Many revolutionary groups with Iraq were expecting the U.S. coalition to remove Hussein from power, but Bush refused to opt for regime change (usually a good call, but not in this case). Hussein brutally suppressed his opposition, who got no aid from the U.S.
Policy failures subsequent to the Gulf War would lead to another of our allies, Al Qaida, turning against the U.S. This would eventually lead to 9/11 and the Second Gulf War (as well as the longest war in U.S. history in Afghanistan).
In December of 1991, the Soviet Union would dissolve itself and the Cold War was over.
Gorbachev stepped down as leader of the Soviet Union and gave up power to Boris Yeltsin, the new president of Russia.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union created 15 new countries.
Despite presiding in America during the end of the Cold War and his apparent successes in Panama and Kuwait, Bush would be a one term president, losing to Clinton in the 92 elections.
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