American Civilization
Response Assignment
Unit 8
The Cold War & the Civil Rights Movements
History 1700
PART I
The Cold War
11/26
I. Film: “Make Mine Freedom”
Question: What is this film about?
This is basically an anti-communism film. It talks about what made America grow and be strong as it was in the 1890’s, which is freedom, based on the Capitalism system, and what would it be if freedom were denied and instead were establish the communism system. In the film it is stated very clearly that America, in the beginning, when establishing the Constitution, the principles of freedom were the key and the base of its foundation. Eventually, this principle that govern the nation able its people to work free, freedom to all races, worship, speech, propriety, security from law, voting. This was that made America strong.
In the 1890’s, the film talk about the development of new invention and artifact that made America grow even more. The film sets the random example of a guy name “Joe Doakes”, to explain about Capitalism. It tells that he created a new artifact and, with some money and skill labor, it became a new industry. It grows even more and, with it, the creation of more others service companies. So in this way this film illustrates how America grows more than ever before talking about national income, jobs, education, entertainment, sources more than any other country in the world. This was what the Capitalism system gives us. On the other hand, in exchange of freedom, the “state” would be who make the decisions. Also, no freedom of speech would be practice, private organization and property, etc. As a conclusion we can see what it would be the impact of communism and socialism taking control of the country added into a capitalist system, what would happen if we would not have “freedom” anymore.
11/28 & 11/30
II. Lecture and Film: “Truman’s Cold War & Vietnam”
Question: Describe the Truman administration’s approach to containment communism. How did this approach result in American involvement in Vietnam? Discuss.
In March 1947 Truman said a speech that lately would be labeled as “Truman Doctrine”. He told Congress that, without help, Greece would be a Communist nation and that Turkey and others countries also would be. The main purpose would be to resist communism. So, America helps Greece and Turkey economically and military to avoid them contact with the Soviet Union. This is the start of the containment policy. The Doctrine also was about United States to help free people who want to resist defeat by armed minorities or pressures from outside. In this idea, he asked for $400 million for Greece and Turkey.
In 1950 United States intervene in the Cold War. North Korea is taken by the Soviet Union and wants it to reunite the peninsula under communist rule. Through an organize system, CIA, United State want it to stop Communism in Cuba, under the control of the governor Fidel Castro. The main goal was stop Communism.
The WWII ended and the Cold War will replace it in 1975. More than one million Vietnamese soldiers and over 50,000 Americans died in the war. Also two million civilians lost their lives. China became a Communist country, and then Vietnam would also be. Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, declared Vietnam an independent country. After that, Ho Chi Minh’s followers and French started but it finished when French lost an important battle. France was forced to leave the country and Vietnam divided. Communists were the ones who controlled the Northern part and who were not communist the Southern. Government in the South was filthy and every time more people were against it. Communist rebels were coming from North. This revels were trained by North and they called themselves Vietcong. During the Cold War US was against Communism and fight to eliminate this system. The main problem for them was if they let Vietnam being communist other countries will become as well. This is very known as the “Domino Theory”. President John F. Kennedy sends advisers to South Vietnam and then he send soldiers to fight the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese army.
Vietcong guerrillas were prepared with weapons, USA though they could have more advantage than them. Guerrillas attacked Americans by surprise. At the beginning Americans wanted to support Vietnam war but eventually, they change their mind because the many soldiers sent to war. Anti-war protests started. Because of the pressure the American government changed the policy. In 1973 North Vietnam, South Vietnam, the United States and the Vietcong signed a peace agreement but, it wasn’t fulfill. The North Vietnamese army and the Vietcong still wanted to continue attacking the South. That forced didn’t found resistant because South was too weak. Vietnam war was brutal most part of North Vietnam was destroy, millions became refugees and were sent to North America. America had lost for the first time.
PART II
The Civil Rights Movements
12/03 & 12/05
Film Segments: “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years”
Question: Identify and explain some of the “acts of personal courage” by Africans Americans in their struggle for “civil rights” (i.e., justice and equality in American society). Did these acts accomplish anything? Discuss with support/evidence from all of the film segments shown.
In this film is clearly the acts of personal courage from African American trying to reach a decent situation of mutual respect from others and safety. Their courage came out because they want it to have something valuable, “a prize” to fight for. They wanted something for themselves and their children. They risk their lives. The first incident when African American began showing discontent and public personal courage was with an African-American teen from Chicago. He was visiting relatives in Mississippi and then he made a huge mistake. He whistles at a white woman in a grocery store. Three days later, two white men drag him from his bed and brutally murder him. In Chicago, his mother let the world know about this atrocity, an open-casket funeral shown to the world. Thousands witness the brutality the boy suffered, and photos are published and disseminated. After testimonies Mississippi found not guilty the two men. Eventually; the murder admit his fault and, show how he did it.
Another act of personal courage we found it in the case of Alabama, mob and violence want to keep Lucy from enrolling in the university, although a court decision backs her efforts. In Arkansas, the Little Rock Nine, group of African American high school students, pass through angry crowds to integrate Central High School in 1957. They are protected by paratroopers dispatched by President Dwight Eisenhower. In Virginia, the governor close schools instead of than integrate. In New Orleans in 1960, white residents outburst over four black girls entering a desegregated first-grade classroom.
In Mississippi, in 1963, James Meredith is barred from registering at the University of Mississippi. Segregationists got together on the campus, armed with guns and homemade explosives, President John Kennedy negotiate with them. Kennedy he needs it to decide even to support civil right or not, even as tensions grow. When he sends Federal marshals to the campus, the mob was very violent; they kill two people before the president sends in the U.S. Army to restore order. Meredith finally enrolls to the university.
Other act of personal courage to bring about the outcome of the Civil Rights is the incident in North Carolina. Public places as movies, hotels and city buses were segregated. Blacks spent money in downtown stores, but were refused seats at lunch counters. In Nashville, a generation that had grown up with segregation was about to demand a change.
North Carolina, four black college students do the first sit-in at a white lunch counter.
African American young men and women dressed in their best clothes, target Nashville's lunch counters, where they sit and wait to be served. The stores act closing the stores, but the students continue to sit, just doing homework. After that, gangs of white, and police who arrest the activists for disorderly conduct. Students sit to take their places, filling the jails and refusing to pay fines. The sit-in movement spreads to 69 cities across the South, black communities organize economic boycotts. In Nashville, the house of Alexander Looby is destroy, a black lawyer who was helping the activist. A lot of African American march to City Hall and confront Mayor Ben West. The mayor concedes that the lunch counter segregation is wrong, businesses quickly desegregate. They succeed and found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. John Kennedy wins black support and, narrowly, the election.
African Americans are registered to vote. This result of Civil Rights Movements includes racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from oppression by white Americans. It was banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations. Also it opens free immigration; banned discrimination of rent housing. African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and across the country young people were inspired to action.
References
Film: “Make Mine Freedom”
Lecture and Film: “Truman’s Cold War & Vietnam”
Film Segments: “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years”
The Cold War
11/26
I. Film: “Make Mine Freedom”
Question: What is this film about?
This is basically an anti-communism film. It talks about what made America grow and be strong as it was in the 1890’s, which is freedom, based on the Capitalism system, and what would it be if freedom were denied and instead were establish the communism system. In the film it is stated very clearly that America, in the beginning, when establishing the Constitution, the principles of freedom were the key and the base of its foundation. Eventually, this principle that govern the nation able its people to work free, freedom to all races, worship, speech, propriety, security from law, voting. This was that made America strong.
In the 1890’s, the film talk about the development of new invention and artifact that made America grow even more. The film sets the random example of a guy name “Joe Doakes”, to explain about Capitalism. It tells that he created a new artifact and, with some money and skill labor, it became a new industry. It grows even more and, with it, the creation of more others service companies. So in this way this film illustrates how America grows more than ever before talking about national income, jobs, education, entertainment, sources more than any other country in the world. This was what the Capitalism system gives us. On the other hand, in exchange of freedom, the “state” would be who make the decisions. Also, no freedom of speech would be practice, private organization and property, etc. As a conclusion we can see what it would be the impact of communism and socialism taking control of the country added into a capitalist system, what would happen if we would not have “freedom” anymore.
11/28 & 11/30
II. Lecture and Film: “Truman’s Cold War & Vietnam”
Question: Describe the Truman administration’s approach to containment communism. How did this approach result in American involvement in Vietnam? Discuss.
In March 1947 Truman said a speech that lately would be labeled as “Truman Doctrine”. He told Congress that, without help, Greece would be a Communist nation and that Turkey and others countries also would be. The main purpose would be to resist communism. So, America helps Greece and Turkey economically and military to avoid them contact with the Soviet Union. This is the start of the containment policy. The Doctrine also was about United States to help free people who want to resist defeat by armed minorities or pressures from outside. In this idea, he asked for $400 million for Greece and Turkey.
In 1950 United States intervene in the Cold War. North Korea is taken by the Soviet Union and wants it to reunite the peninsula under communist rule. Through an organize system, CIA, United State want it to stop Communism in Cuba, under the control of the governor Fidel Castro. The main goal was stop Communism.
The WWII ended and the Cold War will replace it in 1975. More than one million Vietnamese soldiers and over 50,000 Americans died in the war. Also two million civilians lost their lives. China became a Communist country, and then Vietnam would also be. Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, declared Vietnam an independent country. After that, Ho Chi Minh’s followers and French started but it finished when French lost an important battle. France was forced to leave the country and Vietnam divided. Communists were the ones who controlled the Northern part and who were not communist the Southern. Government in the South was filthy and every time more people were against it. Communist rebels were coming from North. This revels were trained by North and they called themselves Vietcong. During the Cold War US was against Communism and fight to eliminate this system. The main problem for them was if they let Vietnam being communist other countries will become as well. This is very known as the “Domino Theory”. President John F. Kennedy sends advisers to South Vietnam and then he send soldiers to fight the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese army.
Vietcong guerrillas were prepared with weapons, USA though they could have more advantage than them. Guerrillas attacked Americans by surprise. At the beginning Americans wanted to support Vietnam war but eventually, they change their mind because the many soldiers sent to war. Anti-war protests started. Because of the pressure the American government changed the policy. In 1973 North Vietnam, South Vietnam, the United States and the Vietcong signed a peace agreement but, it wasn’t fulfill. The North Vietnamese army and the Vietcong still wanted to continue attacking the South. That forced didn’t found resistant because South was too weak. Vietnam war was brutal most part of North Vietnam was destroy, millions became refugees and were sent to North America. America had lost for the first time.
PART II
The Civil Rights Movements
12/03 & 12/05
Film Segments: “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years”
Question: Identify and explain some of the “acts of personal courage” by Africans Americans in their struggle for “civil rights” (i.e., justice and equality in American society). Did these acts accomplish anything? Discuss with support/evidence from all of the film segments shown.
In this film is clearly the acts of personal courage from African American trying to reach a decent situation of mutual respect from others and safety. Their courage came out because they want it to have something valuable, “a prize” to fight for. They wanted something for themselves and their children. They risk their lives. The first incident when African American began showing discontent and public personal courage was with an African-American teen from Chicago. He was visiting relatives in Mississippi and then he made a huge mistake. He whistles at a white woman in a grocery store. Three days later, two white men drag him from his bed and brutally murder him. In Chicago, his mother let the world know about this atrocity, an open-casket funeral shown to the world. Thousands witness the brutality the boy suffered, and photos are published and disseminated. After testimonies Mississippi found not guilty the two men. Eventually; the murder admit his fault and, show how he did it.
Another act of personal courage we found it in the case of Alabama, mob and violence want to keep Lucy from enrolling in the university, although a court decision backs her efforts. In Arkansas, the Little Rock Nine, group of African American high school students, pass through angry crowds to integrate Central High School in 1957. They are protected by paratroopers dispatched by President Dwight Eisenhower. In Virginia, the governor close schools instead of than integrate. In New Orleans in 1960, white residents outburst over four black girls entering a desegregated first-grade classroom.
In Mississippi, in 1963, James Meredith is barred from registering at the University of Mississippi. Segregationists got together on the campus, armed with guns and homemade explosives, President John Kennedy negotiate with them. Kennedy he needs it to decide even to support civil right or not, even as tensions grow. When he sends Federal marshals to the campus, the mob was very violent; they kill two people before the president sends in the U.S. Army to restore order. Meredith finally enrolls to the university.
Other act of personal courage to bring about the outcome of the Civil Rights is the incident in North Carolina. Public places as movies, hotels and city buses were segregated. Blacks spent money in downtown stores, but were refused seats at lunch counters. In Nashville, a generation that had grown up with segregation was about to demand a change.
North Carolina, four black college students do the first sit-in at a white lunch counter.
African American young men and women dressed in their best clothes, target Nashville's lunch counters, where they sit and wait to be served. The stores act closing the stores, but the students continue to sit, just doing homework. After that, gangs of white, and police who arrest the activists for disorderly conduct. Students sit to take their places, filling the jails and refusing to pay fines. The sit-in movement spreads to 69 cities across the South, black communities organize economic boycotts. In Nashville, the house of Alexander Looby is destroy, a black lawyer who was helping the activist. A lot of African American march to City Hall and confront Mayor Ben West. The mayor concedes that the lunch counter segregation is wrong, businesses quickly desegregate. They succeed and found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. John Kennedy wins black support and, narrowly, the election.
African Americans are registered to vote. This result of Civil Rights Movements includes racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from oppression by white Americans. It was banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations. Also it opens free immigration; banned discrimination of rent housing. African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and across the country young people were inspired to action.
References
Film: “Make Mine Freedom”
Lecture and Film: “Truman’s Cold War & Vietnam”
Film Segments: “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years”