History of USA

Cuban crisis
• major Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) over Soviet-supplied missile installations in Cuba, regarded by many as the world’s closest approach to nuclear war
• after Castro’s revolution on Cuba, Eisenhower’s administrative anulled diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1960, because Cuba abused American soldiers on ambassys, took over American property and supported guerrilas in Latin America
• on April 17, 1962, a group of Cuban refugees, trained and equiped in USA, landed on the Cuban coast, in the Bay of Pigs; Castro’s soldiers were waiting for them and 2,000 Cuban refugees were captured or killed by 20,000 Castro’s army
• in October USA had leaerned that Soviet Union had begun missile shipment and spy planes overflying Cuba had photographed Soviet-managed construction work by August 29; and the first ballistic missile was spotted on October 14.
• after a week of secret consultation with his advisers, during which options of invasion, air strikes, blockade, or diplomacy were discussed, on October 22 US President John F. Kennedy announced his intention of placing a naval blockade around Cuba to prevent the arrival of more missiles.
• Kennedy demanded that the Soviet Union dismantle and remove the weapons, declaring that US naval forces would intercept and inspect ships bound for Cuba to determine whether they were carrying missiles.
• Soviet vessels en route for Cuba turned away to avoid the quarantined zone, while communication between Khrushchev and Kennedy was opened through diplomatic channels. After several days of negotiations during which nuclear war was feared by many to be a possibility, Khrushchev agreed, on October 28, to dismantle the missile sites and return the weapons to the Soviet Union, offering the United States on-site inspection in return for a guarantee not to invade Cuba
• Kennedy halted the blockade and also secretly promised to withdraw US missiles recently stationed in its NATO partner Turkey

JFK
• J.F. Kennedy comes from a 9-children family, his father was a politician and multimillionaire; he studied the best-known universities and during WWII was a soldier in US NAVY (he rescued his crew from Jappanneese); he begun his political career in congress as a strict anticommunist and supporter of working class; he was elected in the presidential office in November 1960
• he introduced some important social-political changes, e.g. Food stamp program (distribute food to poor people from state supplies), Area development act (unemployed people had an opportunity to build needed buildings and new industrial buildings) and Alliance for progress (USA would support the industrial growth in Latin America)
• JFK was assasinated on November 22 in 1963 in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald

Vietnam war
• Vietnam war was actually the war between USA and Soviet Union – Soviet Union wanted to spread its communist power and USA was afraid of a “domino theory” (if Vietnam became communist, surrounding countries would become communist too)
• in 1949 South Vietnam was formed by French and a guerrila war between North and South begun; USA started to supply French, but only with non-military arsenal; in 1954 Vietcong under a leadership of communist Ho Chi Minh surrounded French in the South with a president N. D. Diem > negotiations in Geneva continued; in 60’s USA sent advisers in South Vietnam (Johnson and JFK were both fond of the war); the struggles begun in 1964 and continued until 1975
• the ground fights were unsuccesful for American soldiers because of the difficult landscape and that’s why USA decided to begin the night bomb raids with huge B-52s
• there were many demonstrations held in USA against the war (mainly in years 67-68) because it costed 25 billion $ a year and several lives
• finally Vietnam was divided by Geneva on 17th paralel

Watergate affair
• a major United States political scandal that began with the burglary and wiretapping of the Democratic party’s campaign headquarters and that culminated in the first resignation of a US president
• the burglary was committed on June 17, 1972, by five men who were caught in the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate apartment and office complex in Washington, D.C.; their arrest uncovered a White House-sponsored plan of espionage against political opponents and a trail of complicity that led to many of the highest officials in the land
• on July 16, 1973, it was told the committee, on nationwide television, that Nixon had ordered a taping system to be installed in the White House to automatically record all conversations; Nixon refused to release the tapes, claiming they were vital to the national security, but US District Court Judge ruled that Nixon must give the tapes
• Nixon gave the tapes to the court, but some subpoenaed conversations were missing, and one tape had a mysterious gap of 18,5 minutes; experts determined that the gap was the result of five separate erasures; Nixon also released written transcripts of 42 more tapes; the conversations revealed an overwhelming concern with punishing political opponents
• rather than face almost certain impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 9, the first US president to do so

Korean war
• a military struggle fought on the Korean Peninsula from June 1950 to July 1953; it begun as a war between South Korea and North Korea but the conflict swiftly developed into a limited international war involving the United States and 19 other nations; from a general viewpoint, the Korean War was one of the by-products of the cold war
• North Korea apparently attacked South Korea without the knowledge of either the Soviet Union or the People’s Republic of China; the war began on June 25 when the North Korean leader, Kim Il Sung, invaded the south of the 38th parallel, supported by the growing opposition to South Korea’s president and thinking of reuniting the two Koreas; the United States immediately responded by sending supplies to Korea
• US President Harry S. Truman ordered combat forces stationed in Japan deployed to Korea; American forces, those of South Korea, and other nationalities forces were placed under a unified UN command headed by the US commander in chief in the Far East, General Douglas MacArthur
• at the beginning the American and other UN troops were pushed back to a small area in the south-east of South Korea, but McArthur made an excellent offensive and his troops soon reached the south borders of China; after some time they again had to retreat against well-supplied and fresh Chinnese army and McArthur changed his agressive plans only to prevent south Korea from invasion from the north
• the discussions for a ceasefire begun in July in 1951, between representatives of the UN and Communist commands; the truce negotiations continued intermittently for two years

McCarthyism
• the early 50’s in USA are often known as McCarthyism, a by-product of the cold war, when the people feared being attacked by nuclear weapons, spreading communism and this was also period of spies and secret agents
• General Joseph McCarthy commanded troops in the Korean war and was well-known for his strong hate of communists; because of his agressive military strategy he was relieved from the command
• he continued his career as a politician and was a chief of the US House of Representatives Committee of Un-American Activities; he became famous with his list of 200 communist in state department and he continued to blame hundreds of people of being member of the Communist party; he was accusing like he was mad and lost all of his popularity
• this persecution of former communists culminated when the Hollywood Ten (American writers who refused to answer whether they had been members of a communist party) were prisoning and later couldn’t be employed anywhere; between years 1947-1954 214 Hollywood workers were accused of membership in the C. party and they had to squeal on others

Civil rights movement
• until WWII there was a strong segregation of blacks, they couldn’t eat in the same restaurants, sit in the same places in buses and trains, go to swimming pools, vote and drink the same water; during the WWII, according to Truman’s orders, the blacks were given the same positions in the army as the white and in 1948 the army was desegregated
• in 1954 the segregation in schools was outlawed and the black children could attend the same schools as white pupils; in 1957 9 black students tried to enroll at a previously all-white high school, but were stopped by national guard; two days later, according to Eisenhower’s order, they were admitted under a protection of federal troops
• the landmark came in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, when a black woman refused to give up her seat to a white passanger and was arrested; this encouraged thousands of blacks , led by Martin Luther King, to Montgomery bus boycott and other willing, but non-violent protests (such as sit-in, civil disobedience); the Supreme court declared segregation in public buses unconstitutional
• in 1963 the black marchers were attacked by dogs and cattles and 4 months later MLK led an assembly on Lincoln Memorial where he delivered “I have a dream …” speech; when Lyndon B. Johnson overtook the presidential office, he aimed mainly on racial discriminations; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed which had a powerful impact on equality in accomodation, employment and voting rights …
• civil rights had been focused mainly in the south, in the north the blacks had worse opportunities in everything; in 1964 many towns in north were struck by riots; the black nationalist movement in the 60’s was very strong, some of the black leaders called for total segregation rather than integration; among them were the Black muslims led by Malcolm X
• in 1970’s the blacks decided that voting was the most effective way to gain equal rights and by 1985 10% of all American officials were blacks