Fasttrack to America's Past
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Background for the discussion questions  

1.  How did the Cold War affect...

   The Cold War had a wide-ranging impact on many aspects of American life.  Its effects were visible from the halls of Congress and the White House to the neighborhood school and cinema. 
   The contest of wills and ideology with the Soviet Union created a period of near-paranoia in the early 1950s.  Senator Joe McCarthy exploited the tense climate of the time, and used his office to make increasingly outlandish accusations of a broad communist conspiracy in the U.S. government, the army, and in the film industry. 
   The need for defense against growing Soviet power prompted American leaders to push for expensive new weapons like the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and nuclear powered submarines.  Closely connected to the arms race in weapons was the space race.  The rush to orbit a satellite and get Americans to the Moon had a scientific purpose, but was also intended to win international influence and prestige.
   In response to the Soviet launch of the space satellite Sputnik, American schools began boosting instruction, especially in math and science.  Air raid drills were also a part of student life in many schools.
   Many Hollywood films of the era had Cold War related themes.  Spy films were popular, with heroes like James Bond pitted against make-believe Soviet agents.
   The Soviet threat, however, was all too real, as the Cuban Missile Crisis proved during John Kennedy's presidency.  Armed conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Central America, and many other places also became part of the struggle of the Cold War. 
   In such conflicts, America sometimes found itself supporting less than admirable governments when the alternative, a communist take-over, appeared an even worse option.  Such hard choices often caused sharp divisions at home.  One good example is the large protest movement that grew over American involvement in the war in Vietnam.
   A small number of Americans argued that the communist  system was not really so bad or so dangerous, and might even be a model society if it allowed more personal freedom.  That view, which gained some ground in America in the 1960s and 1970s, was completely rejected by President Ronald Reagan.  Reagan pushed for a hard line against communism, well aware that the people of the Soviet Union were themselves disgusted with their own system and its abuses.
   A famous speech Reagan delivered at the Berlin Wall highlighted the cruel reality at the heart of of the Soviet system.  By 1989, the people of the Soviet Union were rising up against their communist rulers, and the Cold War ended.

2.  Rev. Martin Luther King said...  

   Rev. Martin Luther King, speaking at the 1963 March on Washington, declared that the hopes of the Civil Rights movement were "deeply rooted in the American Dream." 
   That phrase has a number of references in American history.  There is, of course, the Declaration of Independence with it's famous words, "all men are created equal." 
   Most people would also agree the phrase "The American Dream" is about the opportunities America has long represented, especially the opportunity to rise on individual merit rather than social class background.
   Rev. King understood that white Americans widely honored and practiced such ideals, except when it came to blacks.  Racism and segregation had created a kind of blind spot for many whites:  they looked, but did not see this basic contradiction in American society. 
   Rev. King's strategy of civil disobedience was designed to force whites to open their eyes and talk about these contradictions.  By deliberately breaking segregation laws, civil rights demonstrators put the morality and legality of segregation on America's dinner tables for discussion.  Once there, more and more people, white and black, joined with those already determined to dismantle segregation and erase racism from American life.
   The task taken up by Rev. King and his followers was not easily or quickly finished.  But his leadership kept the movement moving forward, and finally brought down the wall of segregation.

3.  What approach did liberals...   

   President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty was based on the approach favored by liberals since FDR's New Deal programs.  That approach held that the federal government can and should develop large-scale programs tailored to solve social problems affecting Americans.
   LBJ pushed Congress to create or expand a wide range of welfare, public housing, and education programs.  A common attitude was that if America could put a man in outer space, it could certainly defeat poverty and its causes.  Slum areas in many cities were cleared, and new government run housing projects constructed.  Head Start programs put the children of poor families in school even before the kindergarten years to give them a boost up.  Medicare and Medicaid helped poor and elderly Americans afford better health care. 
   Many people were helped by the new federal anti-poverty programs.  But critics, especially political conservatives, began pointing to some serious flaws in the New Deal / Great Society approach. 
   Public housing projects often became centers of crime, drugs, and violence.  Welfare payments tended to create a sense of helplessness and dependence, instead of encouraging people to find jobs.  Out of  wedlock births soared, which created more social problems in poor neighborhoods.
   President Ronald Reagan favored cutting back social welfare programs to the minimum needed to provide a "safety net."  He argued that the best way to help the poor and disadvantaged was through real jobs and real paychecks.  Reagan promoted policies that lowered taxes to boost economic growth and jobs creation.

4.  What have been some...

   The Women's Liberation movement of the 1960s was both a result and a cause of important changes in American society. 
   Even before the 1960s, changes in women's lives were already occurring.  In the 1950s, for example, more married women entered the workforce.  Two incomes in a family allowed a higher standard of living and gave women work options outside the home. 
   The 1960s, however, saw a much more organized and deliberate push by women to break up laws and attitudes that tended to steer women into the role of homemaker, or into fields like teaching, nursing, and secretarial work.  Parents with girls increasingly encouraged them to seek college degrees and professional positions before getting married and starting a family. 
   Certainly the invention of the contraceptive pill played a big role in expanding women's choices in life.  It made it much easier for a woman to make time for a career before having children, and limit the number of children.
   The changes in women's roles in society created some challenges, however.  Child care options had to expand as women with children increasingly took jobs outside the home.  A sharp rise in divorce in these years prompted new laws and options for the custody of children.  A soaring divorce rate and a sharp rise in the number of births to unwed mothers left many more children in single parent households.
   Americans, men and women alike, are still grappling  with many of these issues many decades after the Women's Liberation movement first raised its banners.

5.  Explain why the United States...

   The United States became and increasingly "multi-cultural" society in these years primarily because increased immigration after 1960 brought increasingly diverse groups to America.  At the same time, the Black Power movement of African-Americans caused many other ethnic groups to raise their own visibility and pride in their ethnic identity.
   In the early part of the 20th Century, a common attitude was that America should be a "melting pot" of cultures.  But by 1970, many Americans were questioning that image.  They argued that America was really more like a mixed salad, and that each ethnic group should retain its distinct identity in the mix. 
   Certainly the new attitude of multi-culturalism encouraged a recognition of the role played by many groups in building American society.  Young people no longer felt they had to hide or cover over their ethnic roots to become "real Americans."  Ethnic festivals became common in many cities, and on college campuses various ethnic groups often formed their own student associations.
   On the other side, however, there were complaints that sometimes multi-culturalism tended to divide people into separate groups with separate political or social goals.  The critics argued that no country could survive without citizens who share a common identity, and especially a common language.
   The issue is very much alive in American life.  For example, should colleges grant advantages in college admissions in order to ensure an ethnically  diverse student body?  Each side has strong arguments to make, and the debate promises to last many years.

6.  How did Americans respond...

   The attacks by Al Qaeda on the United States on September 11, 2001 had an effect far different from what the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden expected.  Instead of crumbling, the American people rallied to the nation's best principles, and declared a war on terrorism world-wide. 
   The immediate reaction to the collapse of the World Trade Center towers was, of course, shock and horror at the cruelty of the attack on innocent civilians.  But soon news reports revealed the heroic response of rescue crews and ordinary citizens at the WTC, the Pentagon, and on a fourth hijacked jetliner that crashed.  Suddenly, American flags began appearing outside millions of American homes in a show of pride, respect, and unity.
   President George W. Bush rose to the occasion, impressing even his critics by organizing a multinational effort to strike at terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.  Bin Laden escaped capture, but his bases were destroyed.  The extreme Islamic government of the Taliban was overthrown, and a more democratic government established. 
   Military leaders also identified Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein as a supporter of terrorist groups.  Hussein was believed to be holding chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons that could be used by terrorists.  President Bush warned that unless he stepped down, or proved his weapons were destroyed, he and his government would be attacked.
   In the spring of 2003 American and British forces made good on that promise.  Hussein was driven from office, and a new government established.  The action drew some protests from Americans and others who felt that military action was not justified because of the danger to civilians in Iraq.
   In the United States the attacks of 9/11 led to a realization that fanatical Islamic groups like Al Qaeda would stop at nothing in their goal of pulling down America and modern civilization itself.  President Bush re-organized parts of the federal government to form a new Department of Homeland Security. 
   New security measures were introduced in the nation's airports and shipping centers.  Some airplane flights carried armed marshals to protect against another hijacking.  Scanning equipment was installed on some highways to search for tell-tale radiation from nuclear weapons.  Many Americans avoided travel by plane.
   Government leaders warned that no amount of security screening and intelligence work could guarantee that all attempts by terrorists would be stopped.  The new sense of unease and uncertainty, so unfamiliar in the American experience, seemed likely to remain a part of  life in the United States for many years to come.






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   Copyright 2018 by David Burns.  All rights reserved.  Illustrations and reading selections appearing in this work are taken from sources in the public domain and from private collections used by permission.  Sources include: the Dover Pictorial Archive, the Library of Congress, The National Archives, The Hart Publishing Co., Corel Corporation and its licensors, Nova Development Corporation and its licensors, and others.  Maps were created or adapted by the author using reference maps from the United States Geological Survey and Cartesia Software.  Please see the home page for this title for more information.