McCarthyism

As the Cold War began, The Soviet Union began to take control of Eastern European countries, which spread communism to these areas. When China became a communist state, Americans became fearful of their nation’s security, since 100000 Americans had also identified themselves as supporters of the communist party. As anti-communist sentiment increased, The Federal Employee Loyalty Program and the House Un-American Activities Committee were formed in 1947. The purpose of both of these organizations was to prosecute people and organizations perceived as being disloyal, and this began the trend of prosecuting suspected communists.

In 1950, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy had acquired a bad reputation as a legislator, and in order to get reelected in 1952, he made the decision to pursue the issue of communist government conspiracies as a sort of publicity stunt. McCarthy first gained a surge in popularity when he made a speech on Lincoln Day in 1950, saying that the government was “infested with communists”. In the early 1950s, McCarthy began accusing people of being communist in spite of having no evidence to back up his claims, and this practice became known as “McCarthyism”. At one point, McCarthy claimed to have the names of 205 communists in the State Department, and furthermore, he accused the Democratic Party of allowing communist infiltration into the government. Generally, Republicans did not speak out against his accusations because they believed the policy of purging communists would help them win the 1952 Presidential election.

In 1954, McCarthy accused the US army of housing and favoring communists, and this began the televised Army-McCarthy Hearings, where McCarthy acted as the prosecutor. However, as newspapers began reporting the court proceedings, the American public began to view McCarthy’s approach as reckless and devious, and within a few months, in addition to being severely censured by the rest of the Senate, his popularity with the public dropped significantly. Although McCarthy still served out the remainder of his term as Senator and continued to speak out against communism, the press no longer paid attention to him, and likewise, the general public lost interest in him.

Written by: Derek O'Connor

Tuskegee Airmen

Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee Airmen were African American fighter pilots in World War II as the 332^nd Fighter Group of the U.S Army Corps. These men faced a lot of discrimination despite the fact that they were fighting for our home country, the U.S. These pilots were the first African American pilots. The U.S congress forced these black men to form their own unit that did not include and white males. The Army tried to keep African Americans out of the Army by making tests and courses they had to go through which some thought were impossible. These men took up the challenge and all managed to pass the tests and go through the courses and defy all odds. The 332^nd fighter group was ready to go to war and escorted the 15^th (white) Air force unit into heavy strategic bombing raids of Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Germany.  After completing this mission and gaining much needed respect, the Tuskegee Airmen were then nicknamed the “black birdmen”. The Tuskegee Airmen were awarded several Silver Stars, 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 8 Purple Hearts, 14 Bronze Stars, and 744 Air Medals. In total, 994 pilots were trained in Tuskegee, 445 were deployed overseas, and 150 airmen lost their lives. After the war, the Tuskegee Airmen still faced racism and prejudice. The country owes a huge debt to these brave men who put their lives on the line for a population that was against them the whole time.   

Women In Wartime

Once the war began the United States did not have enough workers to help the military and industrial needs, and so 6 million women pursued work in factories; women boosted to work force by 35%.. At first factories were reluctant to hire women because they did not not think they had enough stamina, but the women proved them wrong.

Women faced much prejudice with other minorities and their wages were 40% less than men. They also took up journalism and other male professions during the war, such as photography, to document the work being done by the army. A lot of women worked in defense plants, which offered more challenging work and higher pay. The women built ships, aircraft, vehicles and, weaponry.
On top of working in factories women were also in charge of taking care of the house while the men were fighting the war. Mothers who had lost sons in the war effort put up banners with gold stars for every son or husband lost; they became known as Gold Star Mothers.
Rosie the riveter became a cultural icon for women who worked in the factories in world WWII.

More than 59,000 American nurses worked in army nurse corps, which lowered post injury, mortality rate. Propaganda posters encouraged women to join the force in order to support their soldiers.
World War 2 provided an opportunity for women to show the country what they could do. They helped their country and made our victory against the Axis powers possible.

Operation overlord (D-DAY)                                                  Walker Dow

                                                                                                Zack Yanofsky

June 6^th 1944 deployment of 15,000 airborne troops followed by many more thousands of ground soldiers a few hours later striking beaches on the Normandy shore dubbed Utah, Omaha, Sword, Gold, Juno. Prior to the operation Allied intelligence and counter-intelligence operatives planted information that told the Germans the allies were going to strike in Pas de Calais. It was the largest land and sea movement of forces ever in military history. Seven days of fighting took place for the allies to establish a foothold in an 80-mile strip of France. Allied air corps destroyed lines of communication and supplies and rendered the powerful German Luftwaffe useless.  In a month over 576,000 tons of supplies 170,000 vehicles moved to this location to be deployed. Omar Bradley led an air attack creating a gap where general George Patton leader of 3^rd army advanced inland in to France.  August 23^rd Patton reached the Seine River south of Paris, joined up with French resistance fighters and liberated Paris. By September 1944 allied forces had freed France, Belgium, and Luxemburg. Losses in this operation were costly with over 120,000 soldiers by July 24^th.  

Japanese American Internment Camps

After the Japanese bombing on Pearl Harbor, the government feared that the Japanese would further attack the United States, and citizens feared that the Japanese Americans were committing sabotage in the mainland of Untied States. In response, the War Department of Untied States in 1942 demanded Japanese Americans to be evacuated from Hawaii. However, the military governor of Hawaii, General Delos Emmons, disobeyed War Department’s order because the island’s economy depended heavily on Japanese Americans who made up 38% of the island’s population. Unfortunately, he was forced to put one percent of Hawaii’s Japanese Americans in internment camps. As fear began to spread to the West Coast on the sizable group of Japanese Americans living there, President Roosevelt received advice from the military and took action for national security. He ordered to remove anyone of Japanese ancestry from the states along or near the West Coast such as California and Oregon. During the process, the government sent about 11,000 Japanese Americans to remote location center.

The policy against Japanese Americans raised controversies in the United States. Firstly, the internment camps consisted of about two-thirds of Nisei, or Japanese people born in the Untied States, and some even joined the armed forces. Secondly, Japanese Americans were not charged against any unpatriotic acts nor was any evidence of such acts discovered. However, Roosevelt justified his actions as a necessity to protect the national security. Unsatisfied, the Japanese Americans suggested injustice to the Congress and thecourts in the government’s actions towards the treatment of Japanese Americans during the war. In Korematsu v. United States in 1944, the Supreme Court ruled that the evacuation of Japanese Americans was based on “military necessity.” Years later, the Japanese American Citizens League demanded government compensation to those who went to the camps and lost their property. The Congress in 1965 only passed a spending of $38 million to compensate but it was only less than a tenth of the group’s losses. The JACL pushed again for payment of reparations to each individual who was once in the camp. It was not only a decade later that President Ronald Reagan signed a bill that promised $20,000 to every Japanese Americans living who were sent to internment camps. Finally, President George Bush in 1990 admitted the mistakes that the government did to the Japanese Americans during World War II.

By Alvin

The Eisenhower Presidency

Unlike the presidents preceding him, Dwight D. Eisenhower did not hold an extremist political ideology. He instead decided to take the "middle of the road approach", later called dynamic conservatism. Resolving that the government should be "conservative when it comes to money and liberal when it comes to human beings", Eisenhower set out to stabilize Americans in the aftermath of World War II.
Eisenhower was a five star general in the war, and the commander of Operation Torch, the allied invasion of North Africa. The operation was long and brutal, as Eisenhower was fighting Erwin Rommel, the German commander of North African operations. After a series of long and brutal battles, the Allies emerged victorious under Eisenhower's command.
During his presidency, Eisenhower preferred not to take a side on the Civil Rights issue, and instead focus on the US economy. He pressed hard for programs that would create a balanced budget and a cut in taxes. His administration backed the creation of interstate highways, increased funding for public housing, extended Social Security and unemployment benefits, raised the minimum wage, and created the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. He is now considered among our most sucessful and most popular presidents. We can see his impact all around us, from the roads we drive on to the schools we are taught at.

Women in Wartime

Women In Wartime:

Once the war began they did not have enough workers to help the military and industrial needs, and so 6 million new workers were women and at first factories were reluctant to hire women because they did not not think they had enough stamina but the woman had proved them wrong.

Women faced much prejudice with other minorities and their wages were 40% less than men, they also took up journalism and other male professions during the war; a lot of women worked in defense plants, which offered more challenging work and higher pay, Woman also boosted to work force by 35%. On top of working in factories women were also in charge of taking care of the house while the men were fighting the war.

More than 59,000 American nurses worked in army nurse corps, which lowered post injury, mortality rate.

Vietnam "War" short summary

Vietnam was a french colony until after WWII. Vietnam signed the S.E.A.T.O treaty which separate the north from the south. The north were the communists and the south were the democrats. The US began sending military aid to France in 1950. The US perceived communism as a post war threat. US feared that southeast Asia would fall to communism. In 1955, US started to send aid to the south Vietnamese army to fight communist rebels from the north.

Vietnam facts:
- 58,148 Americans were killed
- 304,000 wounded
- average age that enlisted was 22
- 500,000 to 600,000 north Vietnamese soldiers were killed
- two-thirds of men that served in the Vietnam war were volunteers
-91% of Vietnam veterans say they were glad to serve

WWII Holocaust

Nov 9-10 1938 is when the holocaust began, this was the day of Kristallnacht. The night of broken glass. On this night the Nazi gangs attacked the Jewish homes and businesses. About 30,000 Jews were arrested and many synagogues were destroyed. The Kristallnacht was the beginning of Jewish persecution. Jews tried to escape the Nazis invasion by emigrating. About 100,000 fled to the United States.

Hitler believed that the Aryans were the master race. His proposition to wipe out the Jews was called the “Final Solution.” This incorporated genocide, the killing of the entire Jewish population. To do this, he opened camps and crowed ghettos in December 1941. Mobile gas vans killed and room within the camp contained gas chambers that are rooms filled with toxic gas to kill of the Jews efficiently. Up to 6,000 Jews were gassed each day. Bodies of victims piled the streets. The Jews resisted by publishing underground newspapers and by creating secret schools to educate children. The prisionrs were jailed in wooden barracks that were filled with 1000 people each. Many collapsed and were too weak to work. There were many tragedies of the Holocaust and impacted thousands of people.

The War in the Pacific

Following Pearl Harbor, the Japanese set up an empire that stretched from mainland China to deep in the Pacific Ocean. When the Japaneses invaded the Philippines in 1941, General Douglas MacArthur was in command of 80,000 Allied troops battling the Japanese for control of the islands. The Allied forces were soon overrun however and had to retreat, but not without Gen. MacArthur pledging to return. It took until spring 1942 for the Allies to finally turn the tide against the Japanese, and they succeeded in stopping the Japanese drive to Australia in the five day Battle of the Coral Sea. The fighting in the battle was done exclusively by airplanes that took off from enormous carriers, and not a single shot was fired by the surface ships. It was the first time a Japanese invasion had been stopped and turned back however since Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese's next move was toward Midway, a strategic island northwest of Hawaii. American codebreakers had already cracked the Japanese code however and were prepared for the attack, Admiral Chester Nimitz led his forces to defend the island. On June 3rd, 1942, Allied scouts found the Japanese fleet with their planes still on the decks of their carriers and sent torpedo planes and dive bombers to attack. The result was devastating and in the words of a Japanese offical, the Americans had "avenged Pearl Harbor." The Battle of Midway proved to be a turning point the in Pacific War, and soon Allies began island hopping and regaining each territory lost to the Japanese.
In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese sent their entire fleet into battle and also tested a new tactic, the kamikaze or suicide-plane. 424 Kamikaze pilots set off on suicide missions in the Philippines, sinking 16 ships and damaging 80 more. Despite this damage the battle was diasterous for Japan, losing almost its entire Imperial Navy ( 3 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 13 cruisers and 500 planes.) After retaking much of the Philippines, the Allies set off towards Iwo Jima, a critical strategic outpost guarded by more than 20,700 Japanese troops. 6,000 Marines died taking the little island, the greatest number lost in the Pacific to that point, while only 200 Japanese survived. Only one island now stood in between the Allies and a final assault on the Japanese mainland, the island of Okinawa. In April 1945, U.S. Marines invaded the island, while the Japanese fired more than 1,900 kamikaze attacks, sinking 30 ships while damaging 300 more. By the end of the battle more than 7,600 Americans had died, but the Japanese paid a much worse price, losing more than 110,000. It was the last battle in the Pacific war due to the decision instead to drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan.

By Matt M and Paris

Rosa Parks

By Arthur

On December 1st, 1955, one woman decided to take the initiative of sitting on the "white" section of the public transit bus. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger, which led to her arrest. She was one of many who were arrested during the period for sitting in the "white" section of the bus. She had been arrested for violating segregation laws. Her arrest led the NAACP and the Montgomery church leaders to start a boycott on the buses.

The African-American population in Montgomery, which was 70% of the passengers who took the bus, decided to walk instead of taking the bus. The bus boycott was led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was one of the most revered leader for civil movement. The boycott was very successful, lasting over 380 days. The Supreme Court declared that the segregation of the buses were illegal, causing a desegregation on the buses.

This court case angered many white passengers, who decided to fire and threat Park's family. Rosa Park moved to Detroit, Michigan to work as a receptionist for U.S. Representative, John Conyers. Rosa Parks was given numerous awards for her movement in the African American society.

The Bounteous Culture of the 1950's

In America in the 1950's, there was a great richness of culture. This included a great wave of mass media, such as the huge of phenomenon of television. Very few television shows were broadcasted, including I Love Lucy and Father Knows Best, and those were only in black and white. Children's programs also flourished, such as The Mickey Mouse Club. These shows portrayed an idealized America. Movies were upgraded to color and stereophonic sound.

There was a huge beat movement, which was localized in San Fransisco, Los Angelos, and New York City. This was the social and literary noncomformity of artists, poets, and writers. A huge era of music began, with the birth of rock n' roll. This was music that was considered both black and white, and was unique to America. Elvis Presley became a huge rock star and popularized rock n' roll. Lastly, there was an increase in the sales of comic books.

The 1950's included the Baby Boom, which was the population sky-rocketed. There was a huge culture centered around automobiles. For instance, the drive-in movie theater was very popular, as was the drive-thru fast-food restaurants. There were great advancements in medicine, such as the polio vaccine.

All in all, America in the 1950's proved to be an age of cultural abundance.



By Liane and Becky

Kennedy Administration

Kennedy and The Cuban Missile Crisis

By Connor and Cody

In Georgia Martin Luther King Jr. and 33 other African American demonstrators were arrested for sitting at a segregated lunch bench. King was sentenced to hard labor and the Eisenhower administration refused to intervene and Nixon took no public position. When Kennedy immediately telephoned King’s wife to express his sympathy, this act of civil rights would ultimately help Kennedy win the votes of the African American community.

 

When in office, Kennedy believed that the most urgent task in fighting the soviets was to redefine the nation’s nuclear strategy. He did not want to risk the threat of using nuclear arms over minor conflicts. He increased defensive spending in order to boost conventional military forces, and he created an elite branch of the army called the Special Forces. He also tripled the nuclear capabilities of the United States. In Cuba, Castro came to power and seized American and British oil refineries in Cuba. Castro broke up commercial farms and turned them into communes. The congress passed a trade embargo, which forced Castro to rely heavily on Soviet aid. In 1960, the CIA secretly trained Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba, which they hoped would trigger a national uprising and revolt against Castro. Kennedy had his doubts but would ultimately approve. When the force landed on the Bay of Pigs, nothing went as planned, and the Cuban- American trainees were met by 25,000 Cuban troops backed up by Soviet tanks and fighter jets. This disaster embarrassed Kennedy. He publicly took the blame for the problem. Castro had a powerful ally in the Soviet Union who promised to defend Cuba and promised to defend Cuba with Soviet Nuclear missiles. On October 15^th, Soviet missile bases were spotted in Cuba, whose missiles could reach American cities in one minute. On October 22^nd, Kennedy informed the Nation of the existence of the missiles and of his plans to remove them. For the next 6 days, the possibility of a nuclear holocaust frightened the world. A few days after, the Soviets ordered the removal of the missiles in order for the Americans to not invade Cuba. The Americans then secretly agreed to remove their missiles from Turkey. Kennedy did not escape the criticism of the event. People criticized Kennedy of practicing brinkmanship when private talks might have resolved the conflict without the threat of nuclear war. Others believed that he passed up an ideal chance to invade Cuba and oust Castro. After the event, Castro closed Cuba’s doors to American. In other words, all of the Cuban refugees in American couldn’t come back. 

(Kennedy Administration)

Military Cover Up

by : Lainey B. and Micaela F.

In the wake of World War II, the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor drove the Americans to completely involve its nation in the new war. Because of the fear involved with more attacks from the Japanese, rumors spread that Japanese Americans were also involve in sabotaging mining coastal harbors and poisoning vegetables in the local markets. In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a forced relocation and internment of the 120,000 Japanese Americans residing along the Pacific Coast of United States.



In 1942, these concentration camps were known as War Relocation Camps passed by the Executive Order 9066 that authorizes the military to form exclusion zones for any people not of Japanese descent to be excluded from. This keeps the Japanese in and everyone else out.

Because there were no specific charges filed against the Japanese Americans, they were forced to sell their homes, businesses and all their belonging for less than their true value. They were only allowed to carry the items that they can carry by hand. Because they have to leave their furniture at home, most were also not able to bring their mattresses and had to sleep on floors. During the winter, most people got sicks of the flu, and pneumonia and because of the lack of medical attention, many people died in the camp.

Japanese Americans lived in a prison like setting under constant guard. There were armed guards around the camp and barbed-wire-surrounded enclave with unpartitioned toilets, cots for beds, and a budget of 45 cents daily per capita for food rations. Because the Japanese were not told of their destination, most were unable to pack appropriate clothing which resulted in many unsanitary illness spread easily.

There were simple school like facilities in the camp that allowed them to learn some English and American studies, however, they were not told the reason for being confined in the camps.

Although the military action violated most of the rights of these people, such as the Five Amendment--due process, the court ruled that these government actions did not violate the people's rights because the restrictions were based on military necessity rather than on race--Japanese were said to post threats to the nation. Later on, in 1944, the Korematsu v. United States found that there were documents that showed that the army had lied to the court in the 1940's and the Japanese Americans had not posed any security threat. The conviction was overturned in 1984.

In 1988, the Congress passed a law ordering reparations to surviving Japanese Americans who've been detained in the concentration camps.