World War II
Main page: World War II
The atomic bomb over Nagasaki, August 9, 1945
As World War II was beginning, the United States said they would not get involved in it. Most Americans thought the United States should remain neutral, and some people thought the United States should enter the war on the side of the Germans. Eventually, the U.S. did try to help the Allied Powers (Soviet Union, Britain, and France) with the Lend Lease Act. It gave the Allies a lot of money and guns in trade for use of air bases throughout the world.
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, a U.S.Naval base in Hawaii. The U.S. was no longer neutral, and it declared war on the Axis Powers (Germany, Japan, Italy). The U.S. entering World War II ended the Great Depression because the war created many jobs. While some of the battles the U.S. fought in were air and naval battles with Japan, the U.S. mainly fought in Europe and Africa. The U.S. opened up several fronts, including in North Africa and Italy. The U.S. also bombed Germany from airplanes, blowing up German cities and factories. On June 6, 1944 (D-Day), American and British forces invaded Normandy. A year later, the Allies had freed France and taken Berlin. In 1945, Roosevelt died, and Harry Truman became president. The U.S. decided to drop two atomic bombs on Japan. Japan gave up soon afterwards, and the war ended.
The war meant different things for women and minorities. During the war, many women worked in weapons factories. They were symbolized by a character called "Rosie the Riveter". Many African-Americans served in the army, but often in segregated units with white officers. Japanese-Americans on the West Coast were forced to live in internment camps, though a few also served in the Army.
Postwar era (1945–1991)
Cold WarMain page: Cold War
See also: Korean War, Vietnam War, Cuban Missile Crisis, Space Race, and Reagan Era
After World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States were the two most powerful countries left in the world. The Cold War was a period of tension between the two countries over ways of life. The two countries tried to get other countries on their side. The Soviet Union tried to get countries to become Communist and the United States tried to stop them from being Communist. American and Soviet soldiers never fought in battles, but they fought indirectly in the Korean War (1950s) and the Vietnam War (1950s–1970s).
Neil Armstrong lands on the Moon.
The Korean War lasted only a few years, but led to American soldiers being in Korea since then.The Vietnam War lasted much longer. It started with a few American troops in Vietnam, but by the 1960s thousands of Americans were being sent to Vietnam. Both wars were between a Northern Communist government helped by the Soviet Union and Communist China and a Southern government helped by the U.S. The Korean War resulted in a split Korea, but the Vietnam War resulted in a Communist Vietnam after the United States left due to American people wanting to end the war. Over a quarter million Americans died or were wounded in Vietnam, which was very much a military failure.The U.S. and Soviet Union argued about where they could place nuclear weapons. One of these arguments was the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. and Soviet Union came very close to attacking each other with nuclear weapons.
During the Cold War, the United States had a "Red Scare" where the government tried to find people it thought were Communist. The House of Representatives had a group called the House Un-American Activities Committee to deal with this, and Joseph McCarthy led hearings in the Senate. The Red Scare led to people losing their jobs, going to jail, and even being executed.Many actors and authors were put on blacklists, which meant they could not get jobs in movies or get credit for their writings.
The Cold War began with an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union to see who could have more and better weapons. This started after the Soviets were the second country to develop an atomic bomb. In the United States, this started something called the "Military Industrial Complex", which meant business and government working together to spend a lot of money on large-scale weapons projects. Business and government helped each other to get more money and more power. Part of the Complex was something called the Marshall Plan, which rebuilt Europe while making them buy American goods. The Complex allowed for a growing middle class, but also kept the Cold War going.
Nixon giving his resignation speech on his last day as President, August 1973
Besides the arms race, another part of the Cold War was the "Space Race". This started when the Soviets launched a satellite into space called Sputnik in 1957. Americans became worried that the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union, and made their schools focus more on mathematics and science. Within a few years, both the United States and the Soviet Union had sent satellites, animals and people into orbit. In 1969 the Apollo 11 mission put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon.
United States foreign policy changed in the 1970s when the United States left Vietnam and Richard Nixon left office due to a political scandal called Watergate. In the 1970s and 1980s, the United States had a policy of "detente" with the Soviet Union. This meant that the two countries signed treaties to stop use of weapons. Under Nixon and Reagan, the United States sent troops and money to many Latin American governments to stop them from being Communist. This led to violence in Latin America. Around this time, the economy suffered because the United States was not making as many things as it used to, and because some countries in the Middle East were not giving the U.S. as much oil as it wanted (this was called an "oil embargo"). The Middle East became very important in American foreign policy after several Americans were kidnapped in Iran in 1979. In the 1980s, people in the U.S. government sold weapons to people in Iran and gave the money to "contra" soldiers in Nicaragua. This was called the "Iran-Contra affair". In the 1970s and 1980s, the U.S. normalized relations with China. The Cold War came to an end as Communist governments in the Soviet Union and other countries fell apart.
Domestic and social issues
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" speech.
The United States once again had prosperity. Millions of white people moved out of the cities and into suburbs, and into Southern and Western states known as the "Sunbelt". They bought new cars and television sets. The birth rate in the 1940s and 1950s rose, in what was called the "Baby Boom" The "Space Age" inspired "Googie" style art and architecture. Many more people became part of the middle class, but there were still many people who were poor.
Poverty was most common among African-Americans. Most lived in poor neighborhoods in Northern cities, or in the South where they faced racism and "Jim Crow" segregation. These conditions led to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s, led by Martin Luther King Jr. and others. In 1954, the Supreme Court found school segregation illegal in Brown v. Board of Education, though it would be several years before school segregation was ended. In 1955, King led a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. In the late 1950s and 1960s, King got help from Presidents John F. Kennedy, who was shot, and Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1963, he led a march on Washington calling for civil rights. Soon after, Congress passed laws that made most segregation illegal. Johnson also a program called the Great Society that helped poor and minorities.
Gays and lesbians, who had often been persecuted, also started to ask for rights, beginning with the Stonewall riots in 1969. Chicanos, Native Americans, old people, consumers, and people with disabilities also fought for rights, as did women. Though women had had jobs during World War II, most of them went back to the home after the war. Women did not like that they often held jobs that paid less than men or that fewer opportunities were open to them. People like Betty Freidan and Gloria Steinem founded groups such as the National Organization for Women to try and solve these problems. NOW and other groups wanted an Equal Rights Amendment that would guarantee them equality in all areas. In the 1970s and 1980s, many more jobs and opportunities were opened to women. There were some women like Phyllis Schlafly who opposed Freidan and Steinem and were known as "anti-feminists". It was partly because of the anti-feminists that the Equal Rights Amendment was defeated, but also because women had already gained equality in many areas and they did not want to be drafted into the army.
In the 1960s, the counterculture was created. Some of the followers of the counterculture were called hippies. They had long hair, and lived communally, smoking marijuana and practicing free love. The counterculture, along with college students, were the groups most against the Vietnam War. They also were the groups that listened to new music known as rock and roll.
In 1973, the Supreme Court issued a decision called Roe v. Wade, which made many abortions legal. The many changes led to a reaction by Jerry Falwell and other conservatives who called themselves the "Religious Right" and the "Moral Majority".
Reagan Era
President Reagan said that "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem".
Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1980. He defeated incumbent Jimmy Carter by winning 44 out of the 50 American states. During the Reagan Era, the country was facing through inflation, a bad economy, and the American foreign policy were not as good. When Ronald Reagan became president, he signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 which helped the economy. Afterwards more and more jobs began to appear. More people were getting jobs. The inflation decreased. During Reagan's presidency, he also helped expand the American military. This also created more jobs, but also raised the deficit. During his first term, the economy went from a 4.5% to 7.2%.
In 1984, Reagan won in a major landslide by winning 49 out of the 50 American states. During his second term, Reagan focused on ending the Cold War. He held many meetings between Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. They first met at the Geneva Summit in 1985. Later they both discovered their passion of ending the war. Reagan met four times with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who ascended to power in 1985, and their summit conferences led to the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Also during his second term, Reagan's Invasion of Grenada and bombing of Libya were popular in the US, though his backing of the Contras rebels was mired in the controversy over the Iran–Contra affair that revealed Reagan's poor management style.
Since leaving office in 1989, Reagan became one of the most popular Presidents of the United States.
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