A Narrative History of the USA from the 1950s-1980s - Assignment Example

Assignment Introduction Cold war was an extremely complex war that could have been prevented if swift and effective measures had been implemented in time. There were various ideas, conflicts as well as emotions that were going on during this period. The war began in 1945 immediately after the termination of the Second World War with scholars attributing numerous factors to the starting of the war (Davidson, DeLay and Heyrman 145). Most of the sources claim that the root cause of this war was the element of greediness of the two major powers namely the USA and the Soviet Union, greediness that made them to start viewing one each other as an enemy. As a result, the world was divided into two major blocks; communist and capitalist countries. In brief, cold war was all about these two conflicting ideologies. The war started as the two economic giants started using all means possible to lure other countries to follow their economic system, an aspect that had started as a mild problem only to become serious problem later that ultimately split the world into two blocks that were following different ideologies. Factors that perpetuated the Cold War in each decade from the 1950s-1980s Korean war (1950-1953) is one of the key factors that fueled cold war in the 1950s whereby USA was leading the UN forces to support South Korea with China, which was a communist power supporting North Korea. In the 1960s, the most remarkable element that perpetuated the war was the Cuban Missile Crisis that took place in 1962. In the 1970s, the main factor that was prolonging the war was the Vietnam War that had started in the late 1960s whereby the American forces were bombing the Northern region that was led by Viet Minh, and later started bombing Cambodia (Davidson, DeLay and Heyrman 168). Other factors included the issue of Nuclear Arms Race that was very popular in the 1970s and in the 1980s. The war later ended in 1985 as a result of a number of factors with the change Soviet leadership being a major factor. Gorbachev who was a modern leader compared to the past generations took over power and introduced various reforms in order to save the country’s economy that was rampantly dwindling. He reduced the military support Soviet was giving her military in other countries thus leading to the weakening of the communism philosophy that led to breakdown of the Berlin Wall in 1989. After Gorbachev, Yeltsin was elected as the Soviet Empire came to an end and completely ended the war. 2.   The Vietnam War originated from the attempt by Viet Minh to gain independence from their colonial masters, France. This attempt led to guerrilla war which lasted from1946 to 1954 whereby USA was giving France aid with Viet Minh on the other hand receiving aid from China. From 1953 to 1963, South Vietnam was ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem who was receiving support from the US. Later on, the war intensified and USA started bombing the north before embarking on Cambodia. As a result of this, numerous demonstrations were held in the America as the citizens attempted to pressurize their government to withdraw its soldiers from Vietnam. It ultimately led to complete loss of confidence of the US citizens with their own government. 3. Civil rights movement was a movement for racial egalitarianism in the USA that was characterized by various nonviolent protests in the south as black Americans sought equal and fair treatment with the whites. Martin Luther King junior and Ralph Abernathy were the key leaders of these movements. The main cause of the movement was racial segregation/ racial discriminations whereby Afro-Americans were treated like second class people. There were various factors that were positively or negatively affecting the movement. Some of the factors that made the movement a success include support by the whites which led to the desegregation of education in 1955 as was urged by the Supreme Court. Moreover, segregation of buses was declared unconstitutional by the court thus marking a significant milestone in ending racial segregation. Good and strong leadership by Martin Luther King Jnr and Ralph Abernathy can also be termed as key factors that greatly made the movement a success in the 1960s. Finally, the passing of the Civil Rights Act immediately after the assassination of Luther King in the 1968 is termed as a key step ahead in achieving the mission of the movement. 4. America’s economy experienced both economic growth and retardation from 1950s up to 1990s. In the 1950s, the country was under a very serious depression that was almost worse like the 1930s great depression. This economic crisis was solved as a result of application of the Nixons 17 point plan, which emphasized on developing a republican guard. This ultimately created patriotism among the citizens and the crisis was solved by 1960s. In 1960s, America’s economy experienced a boom with the telecom industry experiencing a dramatic growth due to the numerous agreements that President Gore had signed. In the 1970s, the economy’s growth started declining as a result of collapse of the oil and gold share market and overdependence on plutonium from area 51. President Lincoln helped in solving the problem by negotiating with Indians on a forming an international agreement on sovereignty. In the 1980s, America’s economy started reviving again and was characterized by rampant savings and taking of loans to a point of stifling the DJIA that led to black Friday. President Bush who was in power back then introduced measures that ultimately led to the unification of European countries, which started using euro as a common currency thus fully stabilizing the economy by 1987. 5. Television has had various impacts on the history of the United States since 1950 up to around 1990. In the 1950s, TV played a major role in airing the grievances of the Afro-Americans hence making the civil rights movement a success in a significant way (Davidson 300). Launching of the original earth satellite by the Soviet Union in 1957 was a remarkable happening that was a great intimidation to the USA. In the following decades (1960s and 1970s), the rate of violence among children and the youths was dramatically increased by the excessive watch of TV with some sources showing that most of the children were watching TV for more than 27 hours a week. In order to stop this trend that was growing at a high rate, the American Medical Association House of Delegates enacted Resolution 38 in the 1976. TV violence was blamed for threatening the health and wellbeing of American youths. In the 1980s, watching television was very popular with the launch of the Black Entertainment Television and the 24/7 cable movie network Cinemax in the US being some of the most remarkable occurrences. In the 1990s, Children fascination was one of the major effects of TV whereby children were watching television at an alarming rate (Davidson 218). This ultimately led to the enactment of the Children Television Act (1990), a rule that required TV stations to increase number of children educational shows in their channels. Works Cited Davidson, James, Brian DeLay, and Christine, Heyrman. “US: A Narrative History.” McGraw-Hill Higher Education: New York, 2012. Print. Davidson, James. “US: A Narrative History.” New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print. Read More