Heroes and American Values - Essay Example

The USA during 1890-1990: Heroes and American Values The year 1890s in the history of the United s of America has been led by the imperial expansion of the country (Hamby 2005). They engaged with war against the Spaniards who are in control of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippine Islands. President William McKinley was the one who suggested arm intervention. In the Pacific, it was Commodore George Dewey who took the president’s orders as they sailed onto Philippines from Hong Kong to capture the whole of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay. With their victory, the country named Commodore George Dewey and Colonel Theodore Roosevelt – leader of the Rough Riders to service in Cuba – as their new heroes (Hamby 2005). In the Encyclopedia Smithsonian, Roosevelt is labeled as the “Icon of the American Century,” right after the war against Spain in Cuba, he was chosen to be a governor in 1898 and as a vice president in 1900 (National Portrait Gallery). He strived to be the person anyone wants to be despite the tragedies that he have undergone – the death of his mother and wife. With the assassination of President McKinley, Roosevelt’s fate has been decided, he became the youngest US president at that time. He made sure to make the government be of service with the people – he made sure that despite the growing inequalities, President Roosevelt normalized huge businesses’ trusts to create fair competition and he also closely watched the railroads, labor and processed food industry (National Portrait Gallery). He also did everything he could to maintain the status of USA in world affairs and leadership. As a president, he was characterized as progressive and modern, he also believed that it was his duty as president to lead the initiatives that will be beneficial to them and to the welfare of their country. He was also one of the few president who used their executive powers in the same level of the other branches of the government and he believe that the powers of the president should also be put under limitations and restrictions (National Portrait Gallery). Roosevelt is only one of the many that can be called an American hero. There is Jane Addams who was a social reformer who led the international initiatives to intervene between the countries who are going against one another in World War I, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman who was a feminist author who reasoned out that women should be capable of participating actively in the realm of politics and that women should be economically independent – all of these were written in “Women and Economics,” a feminist manifesto written in 1898 (Schultz 1999). Then there are the prominent Americans in World War II like Dwight Eisenhower and General Douglas MacArthur. The latter is not only a hero in his own country but also in the Philippines and other countries in the Pacific during the battle against the Japanese. All of these people have lived according to their values – among these numerous values are freedom, democracy, champion of the small, helper of the oppressed, defender against tyranny, capitalism, independence, strength, rightness and righteousness, God, freedom of religion, family, faith, and happiness and entertainment (Reel 2005). To be more organized, the American values can be compressed into individual freedom which already comprise of freedom and independence, choice in education which can provide them various opportunities including financial security, family which gives them the primary source of happiness and a place where they could learn how to be independent, and privacy which is in connection with individual freedom that helps mold the Americans to be self-reliant, strong-willed and confident, making them capable to be the heroes of the less fortunate just like in the case of the Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Filipinos (Grouling). Most of the American values have already been manifested in Roosevelt alone – he embodied the American values such as freedom, equality, democracy, champion of the small, helper of the oppressed, defender against tyranny and independence. Before he became the president of the USA after McKinley, he fought against the Spaniards in Cuba. During the 1890s, the Cubans were striving to get their independence from the Spaniards, this struggle earned the sympathy of the Americans who value independence very much (Hamby 2005). The Cubans are being oppressed by the Spaniards with their tight autocratic rule. Hence, during this war, the Americans led by Roosevelt fought to hand the independence that Cuba was longing for, gave them the freedom that they have been wanting, and drove away the Spaniards from their land. The years between the 1890s to 1990s are filled with several wars starting from the Spanish-American War in the 1890s. It was also in this century that the World War I, World War II and the Cold War occurred – all of which have the Americans involved. Unlike the two World Wars, the Cold War was not a filled with bombings, killings or any kind of violence, but it the period filled the whole world with unrest and tension as the USA and USSR compete against with one another through space science. Also during the Cold War era did the Korean War and the Vietnam War occurred, these two wars became the most evident manifestation of the conflict between the USA and the USSR as in both of the said wars, it has always been them that played a major role – USSR, along with China, backed up the North Korea while the USA took the South Korea under its wing, the same case occurred in Vietnam. It was also within that century that the USA experienced the Great Depression. The US stock market tremendously declined, losing numerous investors (Hamby 2005). Just like the current global economic crisis, the whole world was also affected by this Great Depression. Their hero for this crisis was President Franklin Roosevelt who boosted everybody’s confidence and positive thinking with his campaign, the New Deal. Another prominent occurrence during this era is the unequal gender treatment, there were various feminists that emerged during this period, demanding for equality economically, politically, etc. Nonetheless, Alan Edelstein’s words, “the hero reflects the American values, hopes and fears,” are indeed true. As mentioned before, Theodore Roosevelt demonstrated the value of freedom, equality, democracy, protector of the less fortunate, opponents of tyranny and independence. The feminists like the two that were mentioned, Addams and Gilman, also showed the value of equality, and Franklin Roosevelt demonstrated self-reliance, strong-will and confidence which are rooted from the value of privacy of the Americans. These people have gave other people of the contemporary time the picture of what was USA during the 1890s to 1990s – chaotic, tensed, complicated and uncertain due to the wars and the Great Depression, however, it also demonstrated the rise of the USA as the world’s most powerful country – by defeating the Spaniards in Latin America and in the Pacific, by defeating the powerful Japanese during the World War II, by surpassing and outliving the USSR, and by surviving the Great Depression. References Grouling, Thomas E. n.d. American Values. American Hospitals. http://www.americanhospitals.com/questions/american/amervalues.htm Hamby, Alonzo L. 2005. Growth and Transformation. In Outline of U.S. History. U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs. http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/histryotln/growth.htm National Portrait Gallery. n.d. Theodore Roosevelt: Icon of the American Century. Smithsonian Institute. http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/roosevelt/ Reel, Guy. 2005. American Values. CommonDreams.org. http://www.commondreams.org/ views05/0420-20.htm Schultz, Stanley K. 1999. Who’s Who in American History. University of Wisconsin. http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/bios/eras.html Read More