America’s global commitments had dramatic consequences for American government and politics. But the presidents of the time from 1950 to 2000 pushed for a larger role in the areas of social welfare. Under the administration of Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, the government went beyond their means to provide for the social well-being of the people. What follows is a heady sense of unlimited affluence that lasted until the early 1970’s.
The victory after World War II renewed the calls for America to make good on its promise of liberty and equality for all. In great waves of protests in the 1950 and the 1960s, African Americans challenged the political status quo. As the new century began, the promise of social justice and equality remained unfulfilled. More than half a century after the end of World War II, Americans are living in an increasingly interwoven network of national and international forces. Outside events shape ordinary lives in ways that were inconceivable a century ago. As the cold war fades into history, the country remains a military superpower and is still heads an economic leadership in the new interdependent global system.
THE COLD WAR
The defeat of Germany and Japan did not bring stability to the world. The war had destroyed governments and geographical boundaries, creating new power relationships and new threat to peace. Before the war ended, the United States and the Soviet Union were struggling for advantage in those unstable areas; after the war they engaged in a protracted global conflict – a battle between communism and capitalism, the cold war is in reality a more complex power struggle covering a range of economic, strategic and even cultural issues. As each side tried to protect its own national security and way of life, its actions aroused fear in the other, contributing to a cycle of distrust and animosity for decades to come.
The United States military wielded enormous military power as the sole possessor of the atomic bomb and became powerful in the military arena. The Soviet Union posed a threat to the nation but with no direct engagement on the battlefield. The Cold War fueled a growing arms race. It fostered a climate of fear and suspicion and subversion in the fields of government, education, and even in the media that undermined democratic institutions.
During the war Franklin Roosevelt had worked effectively with Soviet leader Stalin and had determined to continue good relations in peacetime. When Truman assumed the presidency after Roosevelt’s death, he took a stand toward the Soviet Union. As tensions mounted between the superpowers, the nation increasingly perceived Soviet expansionism as a threat to its own interest. The Truman doctrine of 1947, the nation began a fight with communism by helping Greece and Turkey battle communism in their shore. Not only in the Middle East but also in other parts of the world that America and the Soviet Union began to influence their position.
One of the most prominent was the Korean War where both nations helped North Korea and South Korea depended themselves – the North being backed up by the Soviet Union being a communist nation while the South by the United States soon, sporadic fighting broke out and civil war began. North Korea remained firmly allied with the Soviet Union: South Korea signed a mutual defense treaty with the United States in 1954.
The Korean War had a lasting impact on the conduct of American foreign policy. The country had become more global, more militarized and more costly. Even in times of peace, the United Sates functioned in a state of permanent mobilization. But the most dramatic manifestation of t the cold war is its effect on American life.
Post war America saw the deterioration of the relation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The fear of Communism became widespread. The fear even involved the Congress. One of the most prominent people against communism was Senator Andrew McCarthy of Wisconsin who accused the Congress of having 200 people working in the government. In a speech addressed to the Congress in 1950, he challenged the government to take the necessary measures to battle communism. For the next four years, he was the central figure in a virulent campaign of anticommunism. Ultimately, few communists were found in positions of power; far more Americans became innocent victims of false accusations and innuendos. Truman could do nothing to curb the belief of the people about communism. Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in 1952 but he still refrained from challenging McCarthy’s claim.
THE POLITICS OF JOHN F. KENNEDY
John F. Kennedy promised to get America moving again through vigorous governmental activism at home and abroad. Ambitious and hard driven, Kennedy launched his campaign calling for civil rights legislation, health care for the elderly, aid to education and expanded military programs. At forty three, he was the youngest men ever elected for presidency. He turned his age into a powerful campaign asset. Using the power of the media to reach people directly, he relied on professional media and political pollsters.
Kennedy’s greatest priority as president was also with foreign affairs. Kennedy took a hard line against communism. He proposed that the nation must be prepared to deter all wars. Congress quickly granted his military request expanding the country’s military industrial complex. Kennedy adopted a new military doctrine of counterinsurgency. Soon U.S. Army Special Forces were receiving intensive training in repelling guerilla warfare and soon enough, Vietnam would soon provide a testing ground for this technique.
The biggest test for Kennedy’s foreign policy was when Fidel Castro overthrew the corrupt and unpopular dictator Fulgencio Batista. Castro by then had a growing friendliness with the Soviets. In a war that escalated on April 17, 1961 known as the Battle of Pigs, Castro crushed the troops of the U.S. and the Soviets stepped up military aid to Cuba including the installation of nuclear missiles. Kennedy confronted the Soviet Union and they made concessions. On July 1963, the three nuclear powers – the United States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain – agreed to ban the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in space and underwater.
CIVIL RIGHTS AS A NATIONAL ISSUE
The civil rights movement was definitely the most important force in the change of post war America. The segregation of races is arguable an issue. There are segregations in restaurants, education and even in public transport. The proponents of equality had doubled its effort to combat segregation and in the succeeding years that followed, the African Americans and their white sympathizers emerged victorious.
One of the most significant victories came in May 17, 1954 with the far reaching decision in Brown vs. Board when it was argued that the segregated schools mandated in Kansas were unconstitutional because they stigmatized an entire race. The decision began with “Segregation of white and Negro children in the public schools of a State solely on the basis of race, pursuant to state laws permitting or requiring such segregation, denies to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment -- even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors of white and Negro schools may be equal.” The Amendment guaranteed equal protection of the law. Over the next several years, the Supreme Court used the Brown case to overturn a number of segregation customs in city parks, beaches, transportation and in public housing.
Martin Luther King Jr. catapulted to national prominence due to this white-black segregation. The succeeding years saw a resistance by the white people against the integration of the white and the black people but in the face of resistance to the integration, King stood up and became the voice of the black people. On August 28, 1963, about 250, 000 black and white demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln memorial. The march culminated in a memorable speech delivered by King in an evangelical style of the Black church. He ended with an exclamation: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”
Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Kennedy’s youthful image, the trauma of his assassination and the collective sense that the Americans had been robbed off a promising leader contributed to a powerful force that overshadowed the nation. Kennedy exercised bold leadership. Perhaps his greatest failure was his reluctance to act boldly on civil rights like his predecessors.
On assuming the presidency Lyndon Johnson promptly turned the passage of civil rights legislation. The Civil Rights was passed on June 1964 and was a landmark in the history of American race. The bill got 7 keystones. The first is about voting rights of the citizens; the second is public accommodation regardless of race; the third is the desegregation of public education; the fourth being the community relations service; the fifth would continue the Commission on Civil Rights until 1967, and endow it with broad new authority; the sixth amends all statutes providing financial assistance by the United States and the seventh authorizes the President to create a "Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity.” But while the act forced the desegregation, the obstacles to black voting rights remained.
In the succeeding years that followed the protest escalated. To resolve the issue, the government signed the Twenty Fourth Amendment to the Constitution which is about “the right of very citizen to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress” and that it “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.”
The counterculture and the antiwar movement were not only the social movements to challenge the status quo in the past. The frustration and anger of blacks boiled over a new racial militance as the struggle raged the entire nation and took on the more stubborn problems of the emerging black power movement. The civil rights movement turned to the more difficult task of eliminating the segregation by itself enforcing the blacks as a second class citizen. Although the Brown decision outlawed separate schools, it did nothing to change the educational system in areas where schools were all-black or all-white because of segregation. As civil rights leader took on racism, the movement fractured along the younger generation. Some younger activists became eager for social change. A more secular black movement emerged in 1966 to call for black power. The Black Panther became a militant self-defense organization dedicated to protecting local blacks from police violence. The organization quickly spread to other cities, where members undertook a wide range of projects and the assertion of black pride. Many young blacks insisted on using the term African American rather than Negro, a term they found demeaning because of its historical association with slavery and racism.
The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Tennessee by James Earl Ray, a white ex-convict, set off an explosion of riots. Violence broke out. With King’s assassination the civil rights movement lost the one leader best able to stir the conscience of the white America. The trial of Bobby Seale, the founder of the Black Panther in 1970 caused another blow for the black movement. In a speech given by the Chief of staff David Hilliard on November 8, 1969, he mentioned the continuing inequality and racism and talked about the ideology of the Black Panther that is “the historical experiences of Black people in America translated through Marxism-Leninism.” That the African Americans had realized that “after 400 years we are victims of the oppressive machinery that gags, binds and chains Black men who speak out in defense of their alleged constitutional rights.Many people act as if they were surprised at what's happening to the Chairman of the Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale, but I think a careful examination of who our persecutors are will clear the minds of the masses of people that could not see through the so-called judicial smokescreen of justice. These people that tortured and gagged and chained Bobby are the descendants of pirates. Genocidal murderers of the Red Man; users of the atomic bomb upon the Japanese people. The enslavers and exploiters of Blacks in this country right up until this very day.”
The greatest legacy of the Black Civil rights movement was to spark a new awareness among the whites themselves. Such as Homosexual movement where the assertion of gay pride drew heavily on the language and the tactics of the movement; the feminist groups that has been languishing since the 1920s and the peace movements that were very much against the Vietnam war.
WAR ABROAD AND IN THE HOMEFRONT
Like many new nations that emerged from the fall of the European empires after World War II, Vietnam was characterized by a volatile mix of cultural and religious conflicts and political turmoil. The rise of communism there was just one phase of the nation’s larger struggle, which had climaxed into a civil war. The United States viewed these events as part of an international communist movement toward global domination but it led to a long and disastrous attempt to influence the course of the war.
When Lyndon Johnson became president, he retained many of Kennedy’s foreign policy. He declared support for South Vietnam. In a Presidential Press Conference given on July 28, 1965 the president stressed the reason why the nation had to intervene with the war escalating between the North and the South. He stated that “We did not choose to be the guardians at the gate, but there is no one else.” Believing that the nation committed itself to helping the Vietnam he stressed that “Moreover, we are in Viet-Nam to fulfill one of the most solemn pledges of the American Nation. Three Presidents -- President Eisenhower, President Kennedy, and your present President -- over 11 years have committed themselves and have promised to help defend this small and valiant nation.”
But still the American presence in Vietnam fails to turn the tides of the war. The military intervention accomplished little. The administration was faced in the home front with antiwar movement. Peace activists staged protests, vigils and petitions against the involvement in the war. The war was morally wrong, they argued and against American ideals. American military involvement in Vietnam would not help the Vietnamese people. And it was evident up to the present times.
The 1968 election brought about a new president. Richard Nixon tapped the considerate mood of the electorate and won the race. Vietnam, long Lyndon Johnson’s war became Nixon’s War. But dissatisfaction with the war continued to spread. The defeat in Vietnam prompted Americans to think differently about foreign affairs and to acknowledge the limits of U.S. Superpower abroad. At the same time, the student activists concentrated more on issues such as feminism, gay pride and environmentalism. Ironically, in the midst of this growing dissatisfaction and skepticism, a commitment to social change persisted. Some of the social movements born in the 1960s had their greatest impact in the 1970s. They took struggles with them from streets and campuses into courts, schools, workplaces and community organizations. But like the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the social movement of the 1970s stirred fears and uncertainties among many Americans. The darkening economic climate of the new decade undercut the sense of social generosity that would become a potent political force in the decade’s end.
THE NIXON YEARS
Richard Nixon set the stage for the conservative political resurgence. His election gave impetus to a long standing Republican effort to trim back the Great Society and shift some federal responsibilities back to the states. He embraced the use of federal power to uphold governmental responsibility for social welfare and economic stability.
During his term, he had pledged to reverse the power back to the people. Nixon also worked to scale down federal government programs that had witnessed the expansion of federal power in numerous states. His conservative social values were demonstrated in his appointments to the Supreme Court, The liberal thrust of the court had disturbed many conservatives. Its Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 requiring the desegregation of public schools was followed by other landmark decisions in the 1960’s. The Miranda v. Arizona of 1966 that reinforced the defendant’s right by requiring the arresting officers to notify the suspect of their legal rights. Nixon’s appointees did not always hand down decisions that the president approved, however. The controversial case of Roe v. Wade in 1973 struck down the laws prohibiting abortion in Texas and Georgia. The decision allowed an abortion only if the mother’s life was in danger. It had nationalized the liberalization of state abortion laws and developed a movement of anti-abortion movement.
Nixon’s domestic accomplishments were ultimately overshadowed by the Watergate Scandal which swept him away from office and undermined America’s confidence in their political leaders. Although it began in 1972, the scandal had its roots from the early years of Nixon’s first administration. Obsessed with Antiwar movement, the White House had been opening mail, tapping phones, arranging break-ins of citizens.
The Watergate affair moved into its final phase when on June 30, 1972 the House of Representatives voted three articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon: obstruction of justice, abuse of power and acting to subvert the constitution. On August 9, 1974, Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign. The next day Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president.
It is not surprising that in the wake of Watergate many citizens had become cynical about the federal government and about politicians in general. Nixon’s successor, Ford and Jimmy Carter, did little to restore public confidence. But in the 1980s election, voter apathy persisted, but the victory of Ronald Reagan signified another hope to restore traditional values and its economic and international power.
CARTER AND HIS PRESIDENCY
During the two years that Ford became president, he failed to establish legitimacy as president. He was lacking in leadership. In the election that followed, Carter won as president. Despite his efforts to overcome the post-Watergate climate of skepticism and apathy, Carter never became an effective leader.
The administration expanded the federal bureaucracy in some cases and limited its reach in others. In foreign affairs, Carter made human rights the centerpiece of his policy. He achieved his most stunning and his greatest failure on the Middle East. In 1978 Carter helped to break the diplomatic problem by inviting Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat to Camp David in Maryland. He promised additional foreign aid to Egypt and persuaded Sadat to adopt a framework for peace. The framework included Egypt’s recognition of Israel’s right to exist and Israel’s return of the Sinai Peninsula, which and it occupied since 1967.
The succeeding years saw another humiliating time for the presidency of Carter. With Carter embroiled in the hostage crisis of Iran, the election was on going. In November of 1980, Reagan won the presidency. On January 20, 1981, the Iranian government released the American hostages. But the hostage crisis symbolizes the lose of America‘s power to control world affairs. George W. Bush succeeded the presidency of Reagan. The era of Bush were determined by the judiciary rather than the executive branch. Bush also had relatively little control over the economic developments that soon became a key issue. Clinton was elected president in 1992 and won his second term in 1996.
CONCLUSION
The last two decades of the twentieth century brought enormous changes. In the international political arena, the end of the cold war had repercussions that are still evolving. We saw the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 but the threat of a war is still there. The United States is facing a major economic crisis. The world appears into a situation into which power, both economic and military is dispersed among a number of key players. In the 1990s, the United States had dramatically improved its position in the world economy but the present situation is threatening its economic power. In politics, several important trends developed. The intense media scrutinies of the presidents were dramatic examples of how people took on the importance of politics. Despite the unstable world characterized by conflicts and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the change in global economy, Americans were relatively as confident as the century ended.
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Brody, David ((2002). America. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s
Why We are in Vietnam by Lyndon B. Johnson. Presidential news conference. July 28, 1965
Camp David Meeting on the Middle East by Jimmy Carter. Address to a joint session of Congress. September 18, 1978
The Ideology of the Black Panther Party by David Hilliard
Speech given at the trial of Bobby Seale (Chairman of the Black Panthers)
November 8, 1969
24th Amendment to the Constitution. (Article XXIV), Proposed 1962, ratified 1964
Civil Rights and Legal Wrongs by Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government. Pamphlet. August, 1963
United States v. Richard M. Nixon. Supreme Court case 1974
Roe v. Wade. Supreme Court case 1973
I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr. Speech given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington August 28, 1963
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Supreme Court case May 17, 1954
Address on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty by John F. Kennedy Speech given to the nation via radio & television broadcast July 26, 1963
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