Notes

What were Eisenhower’s overarching foreign policy objectives? How successful was he in achieving those objectives?
Eisenhower’s foreign policy key objectives were to keep the financial cost for the United States during the Cold War to a minimum, protect the United States’ influences in key corners of the globe, and to avoid war. Eisenhower proposed massive retaliation and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to help accomplish these goals because using bombs was cheaper than deploying troops all over and achieving goals through spies was also much more cheaper than having to speculate what was happening in foreign governments/regimes. Eisenhower’s peace objective was put into danger when Israel, France, and Britain attacked Egypt because of its control of the French and British owned Suez Canal. The Soviets and Americans opposed the war and called a Israel withdraw which was ignored, the United States threatened to send troops to Egypt and a cease fire was organized.

What were the most important long-term consequences of the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite?
The launch of the Sputnik satellite installed fear into the United States, because it was a clear sign the Soviets were winning the space race. The National Aeronautics and Space Agency or NASA was created as a result to close the gap between Soviet and American space technology. Also the National Defense Education Act or NDEA was passed by Congress to provide funds to improve science education, provide scholarships, and create an education division within the National Science Foundation to improve the nation’s schools.

Why did the United States and the Soviet Union find it so difficult to move past their mutual distrust and build a less confrontational relationship?
When success were reached problems always seemed to arise, after Khrushchev’s great success of a visit/tour of the United States there was a U-2, spy plane, shot down in Russia with massive amount of proof it was just that, a spy plane and the Soviets wanted American Action to punish whoever was responsible. The United States refused which caused tension with the Soviets once again and little talk followed in the coming two years.

What were the most important consequences of the surge in automobile ownership in the 1950s?
Infrastructure, was the main driving force for the success of the American Road Builders Association which created the Highway Trust Fund which built highways in the United States. Finding the money for these operations was very easy due to the tax on gasoline which was being eaten up along with the rapid sale of cars. Eisenhower proposed the Interstate Highway Act which was passed in 1956 and created the Interstate Highway System, it connected east to west interstates along with many feeder highways. Many new industries were created by the automobile, industries to car for cars and make sure they were running fine and properly equipped.



How did television transform American culture in the 1950s?
News was spread nationally at an alarming rate in the United States. Television also changed politics, because viewers could actually see the faces of the candidates creating a new form of intimacy between runners/leaders and voters. Americans began watching television religiously because of new shows, American youth was introduced to great/rebellious artists like the Beatles and Elvis Presley. It was simply cheaper to stay home and see greatness than to go outside and accomplish it. Advertising made huge bucks as well, television was a major success in the American business world as well.

How would you explain the religious boom of the 1950s?
In all honest the last two question greatly help answer this question, the massive purchasing of automobiles made it 10x easier for families to attend church as well as the great success of the television made it easy to simply just sit home and watch a religious program. Billy Graham was especially a great figure during this time because of his religious revival in Los Angeles (1945) also he didn’t discriminate, religion was united the races in a way. Many magazines and books began to be created on religious topics, religion was just “mainstream” and was in at that time. Television helped spread religious leaders like Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen because it brought the catholic religion to a wider American audience/culture.

Why was Rosa Parks an ideal person to challenge Montgomery bus segregation?
Her life previously was the perfect lead up, she was a former activist but also one of the first blacks to receive the right to vote after being told she failed the literacy test although she could perfectly rewrite the entire test proving she was indeed, literate. She had no federal offenses, she was just a common black woman who had faced racial discrimination in life and was determined to take a stand.

How did students and other young people shape the Civil Rights Movement of the early 1960s?
Sit ins and students went hand in hand. This younger generation of African Americans didn’t require a great civil rights leader to act, they just acted. The Greensboro sit in 1960 wasn’t a planned event and involved no civil rights leaders from the NAACP or SCLC, it was just a few African American college students trying to get a coffee but weren’t served due to being at a whites only counter. The following days many other college students joined in and the event began to start a national crisis of African American college students lashing out through peaceful demonstrations.

Compare and contrast Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. What were the most important similarities and differences in their responses to racial discrimination and segregation?
Both were strong advocates against racial discrimination. Martin Luther King Jr. was more of a peaceful activist though and encouraged peaceful demonstrations like sit ins or large parades/marches. Malcolm X on the other hand didn’t believe in King’s nonviolent approach and disapproved of it saying the whites wanted to teach the blacks to be nonviolent. Malcolm X had been on every spectrum of society though, slumping to the bottom as a result of crime and then being reborn in the nation of Islam, his path changed multiple times while King’s path was more narrow with less changes.
What might explain the dramatic impact in the 1960s of books like Michael Harrington’s The Other America? Why did similar books published in the 1950s have less influence?
Michael Harrington was giving a lifelike face to an easily ignored domestic issue. He used words in a skillfully way to describe the great and vast sadness of the modern poor American and his words even reached the president, John F. Kennedy who he himself read Harrington's book.
Harrington was at the forefront of urging Americans to have a new look on urban and rural poverty that had been unnoticed in the 1950s. The 1950s was a time of money, many people weren’t suffering and those that were weren’t having any attention brought to them because no one wanted to hear about the bad.

What changes in American society were reflected in popular film and music in the 1960s? In what ways did popular entertainment also reflect social and cultural continuity?
Films in the 1960s took on a new harder edge. Things were exaggerated and pushed to the limit, directors portraying the Soviets and Americans as willing to end the entire world just over a simple argument or the provocativeness of rock ‘n’ roll and sex/drugs. Change, protest, and disengagement were all reflected in the films and music of the 1960s. Protest and edgy material didn’t totally dominate media though, old timie love films and stories about heroes were still big blockbuster hits as well.

How did the growth of American colleges and universities contribute to the emergence of the student protest movements of the 1960s?
The colleges and universities were giving these young Americans knowledge, knowledge is power. I mean look at modern kids, they go to college and come back athiest. Something is happening there, they’re learning something, they’re entire lifestyle is turned upside down by the time they come home -REALLY? if they even decide to come home. Learning sparks the engine of change and these 1960s students were rowdy and loud compared to the ones of the 1950s and 40s, also they numbered much larger than ever before.

How would you explain the paucity of Kennedy’s domestic accomplishments? In your opinion, why does he enjoy a much better reputation today than his record would seem to support?
Kennedy’s victories in his domestic policies were substantial such as increase in minimum wage, funds for job training, and tougher drug testing regulations. He also increased funds for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), he also pushed the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Act in 1863 which funded the support for mental health programs. Compared to the promises Kennedy had proposed in his running though, these accomplishments were sadly much to disappoint. In my opinion JFK is thought of with such high regard because he was assassinated. There’s no respect in talking smack about someone who is dead, especially a death that had impacted the entire nation as awhole.




What goals and assumptions shaped Kennedy’s foreign policy?
Kennedy thought that foreign affairs/policy was the greatest duty of any president and was prepared to “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty”. Kennedy also was too trusting of some of his advisors, such as Allen Dulles who was head of the CIA during 1961 and greatly encouraged an invasion known as Bay of Pigs on Cuba which resulted in great American failure/embarrassment - Kennedy fired Dulles and great to be wary of trusting CIA advisors. The Berlin crisis of 1961 was a sign that Kennedy was a rash thinker because he decided that the Soviets had a right to build the Berlin Wall instead of starting WWIII over it. The Cuban Missile Crisis was extremely and probably the most significant event during JFK’s time in office, he managed to keep the United States out of WWIII by having a behind the scenes agreement with Khrushchev after both had put on strong fronts for the public.

What does the public response to the Supreme Court’s rulings in Abington School Board v. Schempp and Engel v. Vitale tell us about the society and culture of the United States in the 1960s?
Separation of church from state, Engel v. Vitale shows that early on the nation was divided religiously and attempts were made early on to keep church and state divided. (Public schools were funded by the state.) The Abington School Board v. Schempp was a very good ruling because it showed the Supreme Court’s power and authority on the subject and that no exceptions would be made for any religious purposes that would alienate any individual within a state funded facility. An honestly the 1960s was the start of when Americans got soft and allowed any little thing affect their lives heavily, the parents got weak and filled their children’s heads with nonsense of not being able to stand something they didn’t like for only a mere five minutes.

Compare and contrast Johnson and Kennedy’s domestic policy agendas. How would you explain the differences you note?
Johnson wanted to know Congress on a more personal level and trust them more than Kennedy had,(Probably due to the fact that he had been a Senator much longer than Kennedy had.) he liked to be sure who supported his acts/bills unlike Kennedy who gaged the popular interest and went out on a hypothesis essentially. Johnson tried his best to keep Kennedy’s dream alive and passed the civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed, unchanged and untampered with, along with a new Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to ensure its enforcement. Johnson also wanted an unconditional war on poverty in America. He implemented loads of peace corps such as VISTA and the Neighborhood Youth Corps which provided poor youth with job opportunities and leadership roles. Johnson’s hard policies on poverty and such can be explained by his bipolar childhood than Kennedy - Johnson was born into poverty and had to work for everything he had, he wasn’t charming/handsome or charismatic… he was just an extremely stubborn hard worker who could get the job done.




What impact did developments in the war in Vietnam have on domestic politics in the United States during the 1960s?
Although they allowed for short term success in domestic policies at home, LBJ’s sneaky/hush way of implementing more troops into Vietnam planted long term seeds of distrust in American society towards their government. Racial tensions grew as more blacks began to serve in the military although their brothers were being killed in states like Alabama and Mississippi over civil rights that you would think they earned through fighting for their nation on the combat field. Public support of the war was virtually zero because of new technology like television showing the gruesome events unfolding across the Pacific. Many students in America were opposed to the war along with many other activist groups such as the Women’s Strike for Peace, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the Catholic Worker Movement.

What divisions in American society were revealed by the events of 1968?
Any society can be disrupted to the point of violence. When great leaders fall or great nations don’t win, chaos begins. After Johnson’s loss in Vietnam the country felt a great blow of distrust in their government and president along with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. it seemed as there would be no end to the violence. All of these events resulted in more violence as riots erupted all over the United States, in the week following MLK’s assassination 20,000 people were arrested in 130 cities as a result of riots. Blacks/Black Panthers weren’t the only ones anger, “privileged snobs” or white college students were starting their own protest riots taking over the Columbia University president's office along with four other buildings.