We are....Technology of the 1970's

The theme of our project was the influence of technology of the past on today's world.  Technology is constantly evolving and becoming a newer product of improvement, efficiency, and practicality.  Technology never emerges at random.  It always reveals underlying correlations to inventions from history's past.  In this project, we studied the roots of today's technology.  When looking at modern computers, cell phones, and CD players, we see direct correspondence to bulky and inconvenient products from our past.  The US have reached such a milestone in technological advancements, and I believe its a key feature of our nation.  We set the bar for the rest of the world and I believe its something admirable and worth dedicating our project to.  In addition, the most drastic improvement has been in communication.  Now our world is constantly interconnected through use of cell phones, computers, online chats (skype, aim), facebook, twitter, email, etc.  Technology has opened up a whole new world of communication for our country.  Now we can consistently keep in touch with family and friends all across our entire world.  It's really quite conspicuous how united our nation has become.  Technology of the past has become the roots for all we've become today, and is an indispensable aspect of our daily life. 

When choosing our items we kept two important things in mind.  First, we wanted to make sure we chose items that had a large influence on technology today.  Secondly, we wanted to select items representing communication.  Some examples of the items we chose were floppy disks.  They illustrated both how CDs were based off these floppy disks and how they helped open up communication.  Another item we chose was a vinyl disk.  It had discernible effects on today's CD players and ipods.  In addition, it opened up communication during that era with the growing disillusionment of government and advances in civil rights.  Through music, artists were able to express their opinions with the general public.  Some other items we chose included tapes, a computer mouse, a pager, and an old cell phone.  

To obtain these items, we each looked to older members of our family for assistance.  For example, I contacted my grandfather in Connecticut and talked to him about technology of the 1970's and what being apart of that era was like.  He was able to give me personal knowledge that I would not be able to find in a textbook.  He also sent me some of the items we used.  In addition, Ms. Sanderson helped our group by providing a pager from that period.  Some of the other members talked to parents and were able to obtain things found around the house.  Lastly, I attended a garage sale where I found the vinyl disk we used.  Through various tactics, we were able to come together and pull items from various sources.

If I were to do this project again, there are definitely things I would do differently.  I feel like we came to class more than prepared.  However, I wish we had been more creative with putting together our box.  Everything seemed too organized, almost too perfect.  I loved how some groups made there projects big and showed artistic creativity.  Although our box was organized, neat, and colorful, I felt like it was lacking in originality. 

My advice to next year's classes would be to create the box before hand.  It's far too difficult to wait until the last minute to put that product together.  It only puts your group in a stressful situation that could have easily been prevented.  

In conclusion, I feel this project really helped bring history to life.  It also gave us the chance to work as a collegial effort.  It gave us the freedom to choose a topic of our interest and work hard towards producing creative final project.

-Madeleine Traver

We are...Technology of the Past

My group chose the theme: technology of the 1970’s to 1990’s. We decided to find objects and people that helped promote the growth of technology throughout this time period.
Some of the items my group and I came up with include: color slides, a photo lamp, and cassette player. These items are very important because they helped promote technological growth. These items are also commonly used, and it is fun to see how technology has advanced since the time they first were invented.
To find my items for our project, I was able to borrow some items from Ms. Sanderson during class when she would pass out technological items from the 70’s to 90’s, like the photo lamp and the floppy disk. My parents helped me very much in obtaining some items because they lived during this time period and had many things having to do with technology that they held on too. I would definitely make sure my group, I gathered all our items, and ahead of time and prepared our boxes for our project earlier so we would not have had to spend an extra hour at lunch finishing our project.
Although my group and I took longer to finish, we were able to polish off everything to make our project look great and stand out. My advice to next years class would be, make sure your boxes are covered ahead of time because they take a long time to cover during your preparation period. It can make you take longer than the hour in class to finish your project.

Found Art- TV shows and Media

We are... influenced by the media

Our Found Art theme was the influence by the media. We made our display out of four construction boxes to resemble a television set. This is appropriate because media was mainly influencing people through television shows. The way we set up the boxes is like the show “The Brady Bunch” with the different windows. “The Brady Bunch” was a very influential show during the 1970s-1990s because there was a moral or lesson for the viewers to learn at the end of each episode. In each window, we placed different items such as a clock to represent the show "60 minutes", an Elmo and ScoobyDoo stuffed animals, VHS, an old remote control, a wheel of fortune toy, etc.

The show "60 minutes" was a very popular show for families to get their daily news during primetime. The Elmo and Scooby Doo stuffed animals represent the kid shows shown in this time period. Each episode would have a "lesson" at the end, making these shows educational. The wheel of fortune was an extremely popular show shown during the afternoon. Game shows like these caused people to change their leisure time activities from going outside to staying in and watching the show.

The majority of our items belong to our group members. However, for the rabbit ears/antannae for our "TV" we had to ask our parent's coworker.

If I were to do this project again, I would start out by asking more people in advance for items. I found that as one of our biggest problems. We all expected to have the items somewhere in our household, but when we searched last minute we were not able to find as many items as we wanted/expected to.

The advice I would give next year's class is make sure you really have everything planned before you do the setting up in class. Also, I would highly advise them to do plenty of research.

Found Art- The Gay Rights Movement, 1970 through 1990

We are ... Coming out of our closet and proud of it.

The partial purpose of our project was to throw light upon the coming out of the gay community to be true to their feelings. We symbolized this action of the gay community by building a closet like structure with cardboard and showing the gay community walking out into a world they were initially not accepted in.

In our project we portrayed the two adversary worlds with the use of two cardboard boxes, one of which was painted black and red to show hatred towards and opposition to the community coming out of the second box that was painted in rainbow colors. To portray pro-gay ideas, we pasted a 2D figurine of Harvey Milk, a key leader in the struggle for gay rights, and an album produced in 1976 by Elton John a famous pianist who declared his homosexuality in an interview in 1976. Through the use of the outside cover of the movie, “The Longtime Companion" (1990) which deals with a gay couple and the issue of AIDS, we intended to illustrate the extent to which the idea of homosexuality had crept into the society. Since homosexuality was often related to AIDS, we included AIDS quilts that my group member came across in a thrift store. To display the element of opposition of the gay-rights movement, we included pictures of the prominent anti-gay activist Anita Bryant, delivering a speech to an assembly of anti-gay fanatics who were affiliated to the "Save Our Children" campaign. Anti-gay rally pictures captured the element of violence and level of opposition against the gay community. We obtained our found art from teachers, neighbors, thrift stores and our own garage.

This project enriched me with experience. I learnt so much more about the gay right movement than I did initially. I experienced the highs and lows of working with, and depending on, other people to meet a project deadline. This project involved thinking outside the box while communicating an idea to an audience that may generally not be aware of the topic. After glancing at the finished project it occurred to me that it must have taken tremendous courage for the gay people of that time to declare their sexual orientation to the world despite of known opposition.

The advice I offer to next year’s class is effectively delegating tasks after looking at skill sets of the group members. There will never be enough time to complete a project to ones liking. Therefore, one needs to be creative, use everyday artifacts to symbolize and represent a theme relating to ones topic.

Found Art Project

The theme of our found art project was the awareness of Gay rights. We were on a mission to collect 10 items which dealt with people’s opposition of or approval for gay and lesbian people. These items were required to be from between 1970 and 1990 and needed to represent key events, people, places, concepts, and organizations.

On our set up of the project we had two boxes, one for the items supporting gays, and the other box with items opposing gays. For both supporting and opposition items we acquired a couple of posters from either Harvey Milk (a major supporter of gays) or posters from riots of people trying to get rid of gays. We used the internet to find quotes said by major influences from the US in this time period. We got a couple squares of quilt examples from the Aids Quilt, an Elton John record (he was a supporter of gays), a move dealing with gays, and a sticker about accepting gay people. We got these items from teachers, neighbors, libraries, and flea markets.

If I were to do this project again I would plan much better and use my time more efficiently. I would try to find more found art objects to cover the boxes and I would assemble the boxes and objects to look a little less rushed. I would have liked to have found a shirt or pins dealing with my topic.

Some advice for people doing this project in the future is, do not wait until the last minute to find your ten found art items. This may seem like an easy task but it is not. You may have items in mind that you want to use for your project that has been thrown away or an item might not fit the requirements. Another piece of advice is that if your boxes require painting or decorating before the quotes and items go on, you should do it on your own time. There will not be enough time in class to paint and assemble the items.

We are...influenced by the media

The theme of our project was how television impacted daily life and society in general. The objects that we put on our box, as well as the arrangement of the boxes itself, symbolized the different aspects of impact that television had on society.

The least apparent symbol on our project was the arrangement of boxes itself. We arranged our 4 boxes into the shape of a television, and each box contained a different aspect of television and society. The arrangement of the four boxes is similar to that of the infamous show The Brady Bunch. In the show The Brady Bunch, the opening theme show depicted an arrangement of 9 squares, each with a different member of the family.

We also put the characters of Sesame Street in order to symbolize the importance of educational television for children. Shows that were also educational included Scooby-Doo, which was another stuffed animal that we put on our box. These two shows, among many others, including Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, were considered to be educational. While watching the many adventures that occured in these shows, a "lesson" was presented in each episode that would emphasize the importance of a certain topic. For example, Sesame Street decided to promote health, so they made Cookie Monster go on a diet. These shows were important in shaping the ideals of children in the 1970's-1990's.


We put a clock in one of the boxes in order to symbolize 60 Minutes, which was an influential and important news program. Television was one of the primary sources of news for people as society began to move at a quicker pace and people wanted information fast. 60 Minutes was origninally showed during prime time, beginning at 7 o'clock, which is when most families were home and watching TV. Another popular prime time show was Wheel of Fortune, which was a game show that families watched and participated in together. On our box we put a mini Wheel of Fortune game consule to represent the popularity of this show.

Other items on the box included an old TV remote, and old VHS tape, as well as a pair of antennae. These two items were used to symbolize our society's progress in technology. The difference between the remote from the 1970's and the ones that we see today is very prominent. Also, we rarely see television sets that have antennae anymore. Now we have plasma screen TV sets with satellite technology in order to recieve television channels. The level of sophistication is astounding, and it really makes you think and feel greatful for the technology and level of intelligence that we have today in society.

In addition to the items mentioned, we put clothing as the backdrop of our box in order to represent the influence of TV on fashion as well. People were influenced by what the TV celebreties were wearing and as TV fashion evolved, so did the fashion in society. The placement of the clothings, in the back of the box, also symbolizes how the influence and change was noticible, but it wasn't very prominent. Fashion slowly evolved in order to fit in with the trends that television portrayed, thus we placed the clothing in the backdrop of the box.

We also placed two quotes on our box that symbolized the media's influence on society. The 1970's was a time for change. People's traditional ideals about religion, race, gender issues, and family were evolving, and television was no exception to the trend. The famous black comedian Bill Cosby was a prominent entertainer during the time, and his fame showed society's change in attitude towards race issues. Mr. Cosby said "It isn't a matter of black is beautiful as much as it is white is not all that's beautiful. " This showed that people were becoming more open and accepting of new ideas, and Mr. Cosby's case in specific, they were becoming more accepting of racial differences. Our second quote was a quote from the Sesame Street Workshop, which showed the influence of educational TV on the ideals of society. The quote explained their decision to promote health, thus leading to Cookie Monster's decision to go on a diet. These two quotes show the great change that TV brought upon society.

In order to find our found art, we had to search in the old dusty boxes that are stacked deep within our houses. Many of the items that we found were came upon by pure chance. We talked to our parents and went to our parent's work places to find the objects. For example, the TV antennae/rabbit ears were lent to us by one of our parent's co-workers.

For next year's class, I strongly recomment doing an abundant amount of research about a variety of themes before choosing a topic. Finding the items is not an easy task, and inquiring about borrowing items takes a long time. My advice would be to find your items in advance so you can find items that are meaningful and important to your topic.

We are... influenced by the media

Our Theme was: the influence of TV and the media on society. There was truly a rise of TV shows and different cultural aspects that influenced how people lived out their lives. We wanted to use our boxes to show that different people were influenced by different shows and aspects of TV.

Finding items was difficult--many people did not have many items that they had kept from the 1970s-90 so we decided to use different items symbolically.

1. You might have noticed that the boxes themselves were an item for us. We got out the middle of each of our 4 boxes and stacked them 2x2. This represented TVs as well as the Brady Bunch because in the beginning of the show, the 9 people came on the screen all in separate TVs. The Brady Bunch portrayed issues such as divorce and remarriage that were not usually discussed on TV. It had an impact in making divorce more "acceptable" to society and such.

2. We also had inside of our boxes an elmo, grover, scooby-doo and zoe doll. These dolls represented popular TV shows such as Scooby-Doo and Seasame Street, which were not only entertainment but in the case of Seasame Street, educational as well.

3. The Mickey Mouse Clock represented 60 minutes (the TV show) because it was an influential news program that was very popular during this time period. Many people watched it to get their daily news.

4. The remote we used was from the 70s, and we used it to contrast how different the TV remotes use to be.

5. The mini wheel of fortune was used to represent the popular game show "Wheel of Fortune."

6. We used the TV antennae because that's how people got different show on their TV.

In addition to these items, we also had clothes to represent how TV influenced society. We used them as the backdrop because clothes were an important aspect of the media and people were influenced by what the stars were wearing, but this influence wasn't "in your face" or too obvious. We also had 2 quotes. The quote from Bill Cosby represented how much change was sparked from TV. People talked about more issues such as race, gender, and etc. more openly, and TV rose to new heights, ignoring all previous limits.

For next year's class, I highly recommend doing LOTS of research about different themes and then settling for what you want to do. Items are hard to find, and if you pick a topic/theme that you can't find many items in, it might be better to do something else. I would also advise them NOT to wait until the last minute to get the items because it takes a lot of effort and time to find something meaningful to put on the box.

By Alee

We are...President Ronald Reagan's presidency

The theme for my project is Ronald Reagan's presidency. It is about what Ronald Reagan did as president. It is also about his life as the president of the United States. For example, the project shows his accomplishments and how he was going to be assassinated.
We chose to use items from Reagan's presidency like articles. It is since the articles depict what he did during his time. Also, it shows what he has down during his time as president. Another item we chose was the picture of the Berlin Wall because he was president when the wall was up.

There were a few methods on how we were able to obtain the found art. We had some help from family who have kept items from the 1980s. Another was found by our neighbors who were willing to lend us their items.
The things I would do differently would probably be to have the courage to travel 100 miles to the Reagan Museum during my free time. Also, be willing to buy things like buttons online. I would also try to decorate the box better and have better prepared box that would fit our design. And, plan better on how the presentation would appear.
My advice would be to obtain the items as early as possible because you will find yourself unable to obtain the items as time passes by. Also, split the work and make sure everyone is on task instead of having one person doing all the work. And, think about your topic really carefully because you want to choose a topic that will allow you to find items easily.

Found Art Project - Technology

Our theme for the Found Art project was technology and we found pieces of technology from 1970 to 1990. Notable companies and the famous products they developed were added to the project. Some of the items included were floppy disks, CD ROMs, an old light bulb, cassette tapes, an old record, and pictures depicting other technological inventions and famous people, including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
To find these items, our group looked around our houses for old technology. Our parents still had some items from the 1970-1990 period and were willing to lend them to us. Several other found art pieces were also given to us by Ms. Sanderson. We were able to gather over ten pieces of found art technology.
I would organize the items on the box pieces differently, giving spreading them across the available sides more evenly and giving a more uniform look. I would have also tried to obtain more found art pieces and pictures of technology and famous inventors or founders of technological companies.
For next year's class, I would recommend gathering found art early on and compiling pictures to use on the project as well. Having a good look on the overall project will leave a positive impression on viewers. I would make sure that all group members contributed equally and every member was satisfied with the end result. Start early, and do not hold the project off until the last possible moment.

The Entertainment and Fun Found Art Boxes

The theme was Fun and Entertainment where my group's main focus was on video games, movies, and popular music.
We mainly tried to find cassettes and videotape of the 70's-80's period, or at least some that represent the time period. Meanwhile Tyler did his video game research and found screenshots of the games from the 70's and 80's.
To obtain the items, we mostly got stuff from our homes, and had friends to find things. Also we used the internet very often to check that the items are indeed from the assigned time period, or just to see what we should be looking for.
What I would have done differently is to choose smaller and less amount of boxes, and plan to have my group work on some day in the weekend instead after school where some of us ended up not being able to show up.
For next year's class, I would suggest to use e-mail and chats to communicate with group members, because that was really effective, and we could send the documents to everyone so everyone knew mostly what was going on. Also spray painting is the quickest way "to paint", but make sure that the boxes are white.

Found Art Project

We are...coming out of the closet and proud of it.

Those who understand the feeling of having to face the fact that they are different, also understand the use of the analogy of the closet. Gay people have faced severe discrimination through the decades but have only recently begun to fiercely protest the discrimination towards them. By openly claiming their sexual orientation, gay people have stepped out of the suffocating closet and into the open world.
We decided to display the opposition towards gay people and the growing support for their rights through 1970-1990. This gives viewers an idea of what the situation was like in that time period. To show opposition of gay rights, there was no other better representation than Anita Bryant, a prominent figure in the 70s-80s in the Save Our Children movement. We obtained pictures of her advocating her anti-gay organization that she founded. We also used several popular quotes that expresses her viewpoint of gay people. To represent hatred, we used a black box for the anti-gay section.
For the important gay supporters, we used pictures, records and posters of Harvey Milk who was a gay political figure in San Francisco and Elton John who admitted he was bisexual in a 1976 interview. These pictures really capture the personality of these two figures. To show the fervor of those times, we used pictures of protests by the Gay Liberation Front and a picture of the Gay Liberation Day March in 1970. To show the importance and role of the media in influencing viewpoints, we had a cover of the movie Longtime Companion (1990) which deals with a gay couple and AIDS. Since the topic of AIDS meshes with the issue of gays, we had four different squares from the AIDS quilt (1987) in Washington DC. All of these squares represent in their own way, the feelings of families and friends of gay and AIDS people. Finally, we had a logo and mission statement from the Human Rights Campaign (formed 1980), showing the support and help that the gay rights movement receives. We obtained these items from our teachers, neighbors, old library exhibits and thrift stores.

The only thing I would do differently is plan ahead and time management so that we could obtain all the items we were hoping to have. Also I would try harder to find more sources to get items from the allotted time period. While assembling, we should have brought more supplies such as tape so that we wouldn't waste time looking for it.

For next year's class, I recommend that you find a topic that really intrigues you so that you will be excited to do this project. Also you could do a topic you do not know much about, as in my case, and end up learning a lot so that you have something worthwhile to take back from this project. As usual time management is key and look hard for found art items. Hopefully, you will learn tons of information about the era just by viewing the found art.

Foud art project: We are..

This U.S. History found art project was all about collecting material from the decades from 1970 to 1990 in order to show, by exposing these object, how a certain aspect of the Americans life was in past.
My group decided to be all about entertainment so we all worked to collect significant milestones to represent the three biggest forms of entertainment: music, video games and movies.
I took particular care about the movies section, since I love this narrative form very much and I learn a lot of interesting facts about the cinema Industry in my Film Literature class.
My items of choice were mostly movie covers, quotes and screen shot and some pieces of merchandise.
I decided to focus on a particular group of movie directors, the film school generation, in particular Steven Spielberg and George Lucas: this is a group of filmmakers who , as their name suggests, studied very deeply how to make the best movie possible and, by the use of special effects, the attention to the wants and desires of their audience and their big inventive, gave birth on the screens to masterpieces like new gangster movie ("The Godfather", "The Untouchables") or amazing science fiction the original Star Wars trilogy, that is the saga that I decided to represent the most. Spielberg is a particular example of very versatile director, since he worked on a lot of different movies, from the very adventurous and entertaining Indiana Jones saga to the deeper, dramatic and at the same time moving story told in "The color Purple".
I collected the carton boxes of the movies both from my teacher and my friends, while I had to buy the Star Wars trilogy.
My project, as told above, was focusing most on Lucas' movie, since the great impact that they had and the fame that they still old is almost a legend and it was really nice going back to its origins, so I collected from he Internet some screen shots of the main characters and also the most memorable quotes, paying attention to avoid spoilers for those he may not have seen the movies yet.
I guess the Star Wars merchandise was the hardest thing to find: my luck is that I have a very busy garage, full of every imaginable thing, here, after a while; I found some candy containers and a very cool tool to make a cake shaped as Star Wars character R2D2.
I'm pretty satisfied with my project, but there are some things that I think could have been improved, for example, I bought modern Star Wars merchandise before looking into the garage, because it was told that there was nothing interesting there.
I also believe it would have been nice having at last a picture of the movie directors that I am mentioning in my project, but there was not that much space on the boxes to put them anyways.
Probably I could also focalize more on a last another saga or movie than Star Wars, but since the theme of my group was entertainment; I decided to stay maybe too close to it.
I hope the next year this project will be one again, because collecting the material and organizing it was really fun; some advices would be at first, look in your garage.
American garages contain almost everything, also potential found art.
The most serious suggestion is to look for an original box design: while most of the people just put the boxes one on the top of another, some students made very original composition, such like a Hamburger container and a nuclear material barrel. I think it was under evaluated the importance f the boxes: they are not just a pedestal or the found art; they can represent the project as well!
So, I wish good luck to the next class who is going to do this project: it was a great overall experience and I'm sure that by listening at the other groups’ presentations it will be even more interesting.

Great Society: Programs

On May 1964, Lyndon Baines Johnson named his national idea the Great Society during his speech at the University of Michigan. It was meant to end racial discrimination and poverty. The Congress passed 206 bills that were for the Great Society.  Between 1965 and 1966, Johnson thought of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 because he thought education was the key opener of the Great Society. The act provided over $1 billion in aid to help public schools buy textbooks and any new library materials. The Great Society also changed the way we looked at healthcare. Johnson and the Congress established Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare gave low-cost medical insurance and hospital insurance to any American over the age of 65. Medicaid helped extend health insurance to most of the people under welfare. The Great Society has also changed housing. The Congress had given enough money to build around 240,000 units of low-rent public housing. It also helped families with low income to pay for better private housing. Around the same time, they established the Department of housing and Urban Development with Robert Weaver as the Secretary. He was also the first African-American to obtain a cabinet seat.The Great Society even had an effect on immigration. The first two bills were the Immigration Act of 1924 and the National Origins Act of 1924. They were meant to build  immigration quotas to about 150,000 people annually. Though, it dsicrimated against the southern and eastern Europeans as well as the Asians. For the environment, the Congress passed the Water Quality Act of 1965 which required states to clean their rivers. Johnson also ordered the government to find the biggest polluters in the nation. There was also consumer protection along with the Great Society. Companies were fiven standards before they sold their products.

Berlin Crisis and the Bay of Pigs

During the 1950s Cuba's government faced a drastic change. A group of rebels led by Fidel Castro wanted to take down current dictator Fulgencio Batista. Once in power Castro publicly stated his goal to improve Cuban conditions. The United States although skeptical respected the new government, until Castro provoked the US by nationalizing US owned oil refineries and sugar plantations. This combined with an increased dependence on Soviet Aid started to worry the Eisenhower Administration.




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The close proximity of Cuba's communist government to the United States heightened Cold War Tensions.

With Castro also started exiling his opponents to the United States, which gave birth to the Cuba counterrevolution movement. In early 1960, Dwight D. Eisenhower allowed the CIA to invade Cuba with Cuban exiles. Eisenhower and the CIA wanted to catalyze a massive uprising against Castro which would overthrow the Communist government. When Kennedy was elected, he was nervous but approved what Eisenhower had started. On April 17, 1961 the plan began. Nothing went correctly since Cuba knew about what the US thought would be a surprise attack. The Cubans outnumbered the relatively poorly equipped Cuban Exiles, and the US forces had to surrender. Although the US was embarrassed on a world scale, Kennedy's popularity soared when he publicly took the blame.



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Lines of Cuban exiles who were captured in the failed invasion of Cuba


In Germany, the US and USSR found another battleground, Berlin. Over 3 million Berliners had left East Germany through West Berlin, located in the heart of the Soviet German sector. Many of those who left held prominent jobs and were of consierable intelligence. This so called "brain drain" led USSR leader Khrushchev to propose cutting off West Berlin from West Germany, which Kennedy was adamently opposed to. Kennedy spoke to the US and told them as a nation that they must have access to West Berlin so it does not fall into Soviet hands. The US had superior nucler abilities so instead of cutting off West Berlin from West Germany, Khruschev put up the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin to stop the flow of Germans into West Germany. This wall started as Barbed wire and was later constructed as a large concrete wall with a death zone filled with landmines. This resolution was relieving to Kennedy as he did not have to go to war and the Soviets were pleased with their plan.



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This photo was taken during the initial construction of the Berlin Wall.

Crisis Over Berlin and Bay Of Pigs

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On March 1960, President Eisenhower gave the CIA permission to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba. Since the planning was done in secrecy, Kennedy was unaware of the plans until nine days after his election. The CIA had hope this would trigger a mass uprising that would overthrow Castro. On April 17, 1961, around 1,500 Cuban exiles, which were supported by the US military, landed on the island’s southern coast at Bahia de Cochinos, also known as The Bay of Pigs. The event was chaotic and did not go as planned. When the main unit landed, it faced 25,000 Cuban troops backed up by Soviet Tanks and jet aircraft. Invading exiles were killed or imprisoned. Kennedy was embarrassed by how wrong the CIA was about this plan succeeding. He negotiated with Castro for the release of surviving commanders and paid $53 million for ransom in food and medical supplies. Kennedy warned that he would resist future communism expansion in the Western Hemisphere.


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Kennedy wanted to prove to Khrushchev his determination to contain communism. In 1962 the city of Berlin was in great turmoil. In eleven years since the Berlin Airlift, three million people from East Germany fled to West Berlin because it was free of Communist rule. Khrushchev was determined to solve this problem by threatening to sign a treaty with East Germany enabling the country to close all access roads to West Berlin. Kennedy refused to give up US access to West Berlin and would not permit communists to drive the US out. Kennedy’s determination and America’s superior nuclear striking power prevented Khrushchev from closing the air and land routes between West Berlin and West Germany. On August 13, 1961, East German troops unloaded concrete posts along the border and created the Berlin wall within days, separating East and West Germany. The Berlin wall ended the Berlin Crisis but aggravated Cold War tensions.

LBJ' Great Society

Lyndon Baines Johnson created his ideal America, which he called the Great Society. He defined this phrase as a legislative program that would promote a higher standard of living, equal opportunity and create a richer quality of life for all. In 1965 LBJ introduced the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which funded more than one billion dollars to schools to purchase textbooks and new materials. The Higher Education Act funded scholarships and low-interest loans for college students. Fighting poverty LBJ created the Tax Reduction Act stimulating growth by decreasing corporate and individual taxes. The Economic Opportunity Act created many programs like the Job Corpse, VISTA, and the Project Head Start to help end poverty in America. In 2964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended discrimination in public accommodations, housing and jobs. The same year the Twenty-Fourth Amendment abolished the poll tax in federal elections. Helping the environment, LBJ introduced the Wilderness Preservation Act of 1965 to set aside over nine million acres for forestlands. Other Acts included the Water Quality Act of 1965, Clean Air Act Amendment of 1965 and Air Quality Act of 1967 all helping to clean up the environment and provide America with a cleaner and efficient life style. LBJ passed the Omnibus Housing Act of 1965 to provide money for low-income housing. In addition, in 1965 he also passed the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Area Redevelopment Act to fund slum rebuilding, mass transit, and other improvements for the more important cities. From 1964-1969 LBJ produced over 206 of his measures through congress with most of his measures passing. He helped America greatly change through his years as president and helped America become a more clean, efficient, and caring society.

The Election of 1960 and the Camelot year

In the 1960, insecurity and restlessness arose among the voters. This tension could be attributed to the economic recession, the USSR’s launch of Sputnik I in 1957 sparked fears that the American military was falling behind that of the Soviets. The incident of the U2 and the alignment of Cuba with the Soviet Union further invoked a feeling of insecurity among the voters.
The Democratic nominee for president, Massachusetts senator John Kennedy promised active leadership. His republican opponent was Vice president Richard M. Nixon; he hoped to win by riding Eisenhower’s popularity. Both candidates had similar positions on policy issues. There were two factors that helped put Kennedy over the top: television and the civil rights issue.
Kennedy was backed by his wealthy family and was handsome. People doubted his experience since he was only at the age of forty three. America was also worried that having roman catholic in the white house would lead either to influence of the pope on the American policies or to closer ties between church and state.
On September 26, 1960, millions watched Kennedy and Nixon debate on television. Kennedy had been coached by television experts and he looked great and confident on television. He therefore looked and spoke better than Nixon.
Another major event of the campaign besides the televised debate took place in October in Atlanta, Georgia. The police there arrested the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and thirty three other African Americans for sitting at a segregated lunch counter.
Although the other demonstrators were released Martin Luther was sentenced to months of hard labor- officially for minor traffic violations.
The Eisenhower administration refused to intervene and Nixon took no notice. When Kennedy heard of this he telephoned king's wife to express his sympathy.
This news caught the immediate attention of the African American community, whose votes would help Kennedy carry key states in the Midwest and South.

Kennedy won the elections of 1960 by fewer than 119,000 votes. On the podium sat over 100 writers, artists, and scientists that the Kennedy’s had invited, including an opera singer Marian Anderson, who had once been barred from singing at constitution hall because she was African American. Kennedy’s speech called for hope, commitment and sacrifice.

Jacqueline Kennedy
During his term, the president and his beautiful young wife, Jacqueline, invited many artists and celebrities to the White House. The press loved Kennedy’s wit and charm; this also helped to bolster his image.

Despite his smooth style, critics argued that he lacked substance. But the new first family fascinated the public. After learning that Kennedy could read 16, 00 words a minute, thousands of people began to emulate him by enrolling in speed reading classes.
The first lady captivated the public with her keen eye for fashion and culture.

Newspapers and magazines were inundated with pictures and stories about the president’s young daughter Caroline and his infant son John. With JFK’s youthful glamour and his talented advisers, the Kennedy White house reminded many of a present day Camelot, the mythical court of King Arthur.

Kennedy surrounded himself with a team of journalists and advisers called “The best and the brightest” They included McGeorge Bundy, a Harvard University dean, as national security adviser; Robert McNamara, president of Ford Motor Company, as secretary of defense; and Dean Rusk, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, as secretary of state.

Kennedy relied most on his thirty five year old brother Robert, whom he appointed attorney general.

Left: JFK and Dean Rusk

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

In 1963, a man named Ernesto Miranda was arrested and charged of kidnapping and rape. The police interrogated Miranda and eventually had him sign a confession, which was later used in his trial as evidence. Ernesto Miranda was found guilty, but he appealed his case on the basis that he did not know about his constitutional rights: a right against testifying against oneself (self-incrimination), and a right to an attorney during police questioning. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and reviewed the case.

According to the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, a suspect does not have to “be a witness against himself”. This means that, during questioning, one does not have to reveal any evidence that may be used against them. Those being questioned by police may also have an attorney present to guide and prevent them from falling into any legal traps.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ernesto Miranda. They agreed that his constitutional rights had been violated, and the confession could not legally be used in his trial. The case of Miranda v. Arizona also required police to inform suspects of their legal rights at the time of their arrest. Variations exist, but they are traditionally as follows,

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights?.”

The Supreme Court of this era set the notion that those under arrest need to be informed of their constitutional rights. Miranda v. Arizona gave more rights to the individual during the 1960's with other landmark Supreme Court cases.

The Other America

Amidst the prosperity that many white Americans enjoyed in the 1950s, millions of other Americans lived in poverty. In 1962, about 1 in 4 Americans was living below the poverty level, most of them being elderly people, single women and their children, or minorities.
In the 1950s, millions of middle-class Americans had left for the suburbs, taking all of their resources out and isolating all the other races. Around this time, the rural poor moved to the inner cities. When all of the middle-class white Americans left, the cities lost people and business, and also lost taxes that they were paying for their property. This meant that the city governments could no longer maintain schools, public transportation, and the police and fire departments. However, many of the suburban Americans were ignorant to what was happening to the poor people, refusing to believe that such a thing as poverty existed in a rich nation such as the United States. To spread awareness, Michael Harrington published The Other America: Poverty in the United States that told accounts of what the poor were going through and the reality of poverty.
Minorities such as African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos lived in dirty and crowded slums. To solve the housing problem in the inner cities, there was proposal called urban renewal, which is he tearing down and replacing of buildings in rundown inner-city neighborhoods. In 1949, the National Housing Act was passed to provide a decent home and suitable living environments for every American family for urban renewal.
Although many buildings were torn down due to this act, there was seldom enough new housing to accommodate all the displaced people. Sometimes, like in Los Angeles when a barrio was torn down to make way for Dodger Stadium, this act simply displaced more poor people. These people were then forced to move from one ghetto to another. Due to problems such as these, some critics of urban renewal claimed that it became urban removal.

--Alee

Miranda vs. Arizona (1966)

In 1963, a man named Ernesto Miranda created history when he was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona and convicted of kidnapping and rape. Miranda had signed a written confession which he later deemed to be invalid because he claimed that the police never advised him of his rights to an attorney and his right to avoid self-incrimination. Miranda thought this was unreasonable and decided to fight the legal system; thus leading to the landmark Supreme Court case if Miranda v. Arizona.

At the time, it was Chief Justice Earl Warren who ran the Supreme Court, and collectively, his court was named the Warren Court. Chief Justice Warren was known to have a strong belief that all people deserved to be treated with respect by the government. Warren argued that when suspects are being interrogated by the police, the situation is "inherently intimidating" which would therefore leads to statements that are not "the product of free choice." This means that in a situation in which there are intimidating factors (such as the police), the decisions made could therefore only be an affect of pressure to relieve oneself of the situation. The Fifth Amendment guarantees that a accused person cannot be forced "to be a witness against himself". Due to the amendment as well as Warren's argument, the Court majority found that Miranda's confession could not be used as evidence and he was acquitted from that case. Miranda was later found guilty on other evidence and was subsequently sent to jail.

The Miranda decision was very controversial. Critics, mostly conservatives, argued that the case would "protect the rights of criminals at the expense of public safety." They said that by reading the rights, it would become more difficult of the justice system to convict criminals. Over the subsequent years that followed Miranda v. Arizona, there were several cases that softened the ruling of the Miranda case, but in 2000, the Supreme Court affirmed the decisions made in the Miranda case in a 7 to 2 majority in the Dickerson v. United States Supreme Court case. Today, police officers are required to read the arrested person their Miranda rights after their arrest.

Crisis over Berlin and Bay of pigs

by Silvia Verdoglia

The 1960 Presidential election led Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy to the white house and soon after his inauguration in 1961, the new president faced two great international crisis one after another.
Just two year before, the revolutionary Fidel Castro had established a Communist government in the island of Cuba, just 90 miles from Florida.
Former president Eisenhower had recognized the new government, since Castro had promised democracy t his followers, but soon the reality about his plan was known, when the Cuban leader put under his government's control a lot of farms and American and British owned oil refineries.
On the top of that, Castro required soon the Soviet Union's aid.
This new regime led about 10% of the people to leave their country and reach the United States.
Here, soon CIA, under the Eisenhower administration, started a program to train them as an army to invade Cuba and defeat Castro.
However, after his election, Kennedy found out about the program just a few days before it was put into action and he had to approve it.
Unfortunately, the plan failed: many of the Cuban exiled soldiers were killed, or captured the Cuban air force resisted the attacks and the group that should have assassinated Castro never arrived to his destination.
The disaster became famous as the Bay of Pigs, the name of the place where American boats arrived.
President Kennedy took responsibility for the failure, so even if what happened signed a big victory for Communism and would led to the Crisis of Cuban missile, it increased the young President's popularity.

He also negotiated with Castro to have the CIA trained Cuban exiled back in the US and promised them to free their home state.

In the same time, another crisis was taking place, on the other side of the world.

After World War II Germany was divided into four zones controlled by the allies and the capital city, Berlin, was not an exception.

By the '60s, the United States, France and Great Britain had left Germany, with the hope to reunite the country and help its economic growth, but the Soviet Union did not.

Eastern Germany was loosing all its professional class, since 20% of the people (3 millions) were escaping in Western Germany, reporting the failure of the Communist government.

To find a compromise to the will of Kruschev to close the access to Berlin, in June 1961 President Kennedy went to Vienna and met Nikita Kruschev, the Soviet prime minister.

The American president was trying to keep an access open to help the Germans but just a few months after, on August 13rd 1961, Kruschev ordered the construction of the Berlin wall, who would divide Germany until Novmeber 9, 1989.

This second victory of the Communism increased the already great tension of the Cold War.

The Other America

The post-World War II time in America was considered a glorious time where many Americans enjoyed the high standard of living that a prosperous U.S had to offer. However, what is not know about this time period is that 40 million people were struggling to make ends meet. In fact, in 1962, 1 out of 4 people were living below the poverty line. These staggering statistics are due to the fact that in the 1950s, many white Americans moved from the cities to rural suburbs. This meant that jobs, industries and the income taxes these white middle-class Americans paid also disappeared from the cities. Ironically, 5 million African Americans moved from the rural areas to the urban cities almost simultaneously.

Now with no funds, city governments could not afford to maintain the high standard of living that whites enjoyed when they lived in the cities. Schools were not maintained, public transportation declined and police were underpaid. But worst of all, the urban poor were suffering. The extent of their suffering was so great that in 1959 the poverty line or the minimum amount to survive was $2973. Michael Harrington saw these despicable conditions that poor Americans had to live through and wrote a book called "The Other America: Poverty in the United States".

This book delineated the filth and utter poverty that African Americans, Native Americans and Latinos had to live through. As a response to the housing problems, urban renewal was a suggested solution and led to the passage of The National Housing Act of 1949. It aimed to ameliorate the horrible living conditions. This was done by tearing down rundown neighborhoods and building low-income houses. A new cabinet position was also created and was called Housing and Urban Development to assist in the renewal of cities.

While many solutions were suggested, there still were some obstacles hindering urban renewal. Land was a problem because, like money, there was not enough of it in the cities. This meant that not enough buildings could be constructed to house the large number of displaced people and they basically had to migrate from one "barrio" (slum) to another.

However, the "other America " did not let their penurious situation put them down. In fact, Mexican Americans organized the G. I. Forum (1948) in an attempt to eradicate discrimination. Native Americans also fought for their rights and managed to establish The Indian Reorganization Act (1934), the Snyder Act (1924) and the National Congress of American Indians (1944). However, it would not be until later when the "other America" emerged from the shadows and claimed the equality that they had fought so hard and long for.

Great Society Programs

In May 1964 the President Johnson introduced the Great Society. It was the plan that Johnson was going to use in order to improve education, health care, housing, immigration, the environment, and consumer protection.
For education The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 provided more than $1 billion to help public and parochial school purchase textbooks and new library materials.
Later Johnson and Congress changed the social security by establishing Medicare and Medicaid which provided hospital insurance, low-cost medical insurance for almost every American age 65 or older, and extended health insurance to welfare recipients.
Another thing that the Great Society provided was the housing. The federal government built 240,000 units of low-rent public housing which helped the low and moderated income families pay for better private housing. This also resulted in the establishment of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in which the first African American Cabinet leader, Robert Weaver, was appointed as secretary of HUD.
The Great Society also changed the United States immigration laws. The Immigration Act of 1965 let the non-European immigrants to settle in the U.S. This ended the immigration quotas that discriminated against people outside of Western Europe that were made by The Immigration Act of 1924 and National Origins Act of 1924.
In addition, the Great Society improved the Environment. The Water Quality Act of 1965 required the states to clean up rivers. Also Johnson had the government to search out the worst chemical polluters; which started the environmental movement in the U.S.
Finally, the Great Society also included consumer advocates who convinced the Congress to pass safety laws such as the truth-in-packaging law that set standards for labeling consumer goods.
Moreover Congress set safety standards for automobiles, tires, and foods(Wholesome Meat Act of 1967).
Without the Great Society we wouldn't have had today's better education, a health care, affordable housing, immigration from non-European countries, better environment, and consumer protection laws.

The Korean War

With the end of World War Two drawing close, the seemingly friendly alliances between America and the Soviet Union began to dissipate. With America following capitalism and the Soviet Union following communism, differences between the countries became more apparent. Fear of the spread of communism was ubiquitous in the United States. To buffer this dissemination, the U.S government tried to instill capitalism in foreign countries such as Korea. This was the basis of containment. The Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine were main examples of containment but the Korean War was a prime example of how far America would go to implement containment.

Korea was previously under control of Japan until 1945, after the World War, when Japanese troops surrendered. Troops north of the 38^th parallel surrendered to the Soviets and southern troops relinquished to the Americans. Simultaneously, two contrasting governments were set up in the North and South, those being communism and capitalism respectively. Kim Il Sung was the leader of the northern Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Syngman Rhee led the Republic of Korea in the south.

This separation of the nation, along with the US reduction of troops in the south instigated the Soviets to support the North in an attack to unify Korea. The Korean War began on June 25, 1950 when North Korean troops, along with Soviet planes and tanks, unexpectedly attacked South Korea. With the north advancing further south, South Korea resorted to the United Nations for help.

The UN drew up a plan of military action which was passed because the Soviet Union boycotted the council meeting and could not veto the plan. As a result, President Truman and 16 other nations sent 520,000 troops to help the South Koreans. An American fleet between Taiwan and China accompanied these troops. In order to lead the UN forces to victory, hero General Douglas MacArthur was placed in charge of the forces.

Though the situation seemed bleak with the southern forces cornered in Pusan, General MacArthur launched a counterattack. With fresh troops from US and a surprise amphibious attack, the UN forces pushed back enemy troops back to Inchon. Half of the troops surrendered and were chased across the 38^th parallel. However, when the UN troops approached the Yalu River on the border of North Korea and China, they had literally crossed the line. The Chinese, who happened to be communist, felt that they could not allow American forces come at such proximity to China.

The 300,000 Chinese troops joined the North Koreans with the hope that they will obtain North Korea as a buffer state to protect Manchuria. The large Chinese troops drove the smaller and exhausted UN troops south and even captured Seoul. The war became a stalemate with either side advancing and retreating.

MacArthur was anxious to end the stalemate and proposed extending the war to China by the use of nuclear weapons. Truman, just as obstinate as MacArthur, continually rejected his requests. However, when MacArthur went so far as to speak to Republican leaders about his plans of a war with China and criticized the president, he got himself fired.

Even after the commotion of the fall of MacArthur and the continuous war, there was hope when the Soviets suggested a cease fire on June 23, 1951. Both sides agreed to place the location of the cease fire lines at existing battle lines and establish demilitarized zones on both sides. After two years, an armistice that ended the war was signed in 1953. While containment had worked in the Korean War, 54,000 Americans died, $67 billion was expended and the Democratic Party declined in popularity. Also, the fear of communism remained prevalent and led to further atrocities.

Ashima and Ketki

Period C April 7,09

The Korean War

The Japanese had been in control of Korea from 1876 to 1945 because of the Treaty of Ganghwa.  However, after World War II ended, the Japanese north of the 38th parallel surrendered to the Soviets. The Japanese south of the 38th parallel surrendered to the Americans. In 1948 the Republic of Korea (South Korea) was established in the zone that had been occupied by the United States. The U.S. put Syngman Rhee as head of the government in South Korea, and the Soviets established the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in their territory (and Pyongyang as the capital) and put Kim Il Sung as head of the government. 

After WWII, the U.S. cut back their forces in South Korea and by June of 1949, only about 500 U.S. soldiers remained. The Soviets saw their chance to take over the entire penninsula, thinking that the U.S. would not fight to defend South Korea. The Soviets backed North Korea with tanks, planes, and lots of funds. 

On June 25th, 1950, North Korea surprise attacked South Korea which initiated the Korean War. Within the first couple of days, North Korea penetrated deep into South Korea and captured the capital, Seoul. South Korea pleaded for aid from the United Nations. When the U.N. Security Council held a meeting to pass a of military action, the Soviet Union was not present to protest the recognition of Taiwan. Therefore, the U.N.'s plan passed. 

On June 27th, 1950, Truman order American troops in Japan into South Korea to support them and Truman also sent a U.S. fleet into the ocean between China and Taiwan. In all, 16 nations with a combine 520,000 troops went to help South Korea (90% of those soldiers being American). With an additional 590,000 South Korean soldiers, all 1,110,000 soldiers were under the command of General Douglas MacArthur.

In September 1950, with the help of the Chinese, North Korea pushed South Korean troops south to the perimeter of Pusan. When the U.N. troops landed at Inchon, they helped the South Korean army push back up north from Pusan. The attack drove North Korea out of South Korea and the U.N. troops and South Korea took Pyongyang and advanced into the Yalu River. China however, wanted North Korea as a Communist buffer state to protest their northeastern provinces that made up Manchuria, so the Chinese drove the U.N. troops south in Korea, outnumbering their troops by 10 to 1. From November of 1950 to January of 1951, U.N. and South Korean troops retreated across the 38th parallel. 

The territories looked exactly the same before the Korean War started, and MacArthur wanted the extension of war into China and use nuclear weapons to break the stalemate. Truman heavily rejected to this use, and General Omar N. Bradley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also agreed, quoting "it was the wrong war, place, and time." Instead, Matthew B. Ridgway led the U.S. Eighth Army as a spearhead to take back Seoul on April 1951. 

MacArthur still wanted a war with China, and was unhappy with the unchanged territory. Truman still disagreed and fired him on April 11, 1951. At first, citizens were outraged by MacArthur's firing but later, they followed Truman and MacArthur gradually faded away.

On June 23, 1951, the Soviet Union requested a ceasefire and truce talks began the following month in July. Finally The S.U. and the U.S reached an agreement and the location of the ceasefire line was at the 38th parallel. The battle line established a demilitarized zone between the opposing sides. On July 1953, they signed the armistice, but the War has never officially ended. 

 

Alee & Bohsen

Marshall plan

As World War II came to a close, the fog of war lifted revealing a devastated and vulnerable Europe. The two fronts of the War had left the infrastructure and economy of Europe in ruins. Many factories were destroyed by bombs or were looted during the chaos. People had lost homes and lived in refugee camps. The Winter of 1946-1947 was especially hard on Europe increasing the difficulty to transport supplies by boat. In 1947, US secretary of State George Marshall,




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devised a plan to help the war torn Europe. He claimed the help was not for any specific country but to fight against poverty, hunger and chaos. Over four years, 1947 to 1951, the Marshall plan gave $13,000,000,000.00 in aid to Europe. Due to the main war ravaging Britain, France, and Italy, they received the largest amounts of aid.



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The plan worked and by 1952, West Europe was strong. This plan also helped the US policy of containment as communism, which could have taken over post-war Europe, was no longer attractive.



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The plan, however, did not help all of those torn by war but simply the European countries.

By Tyler and Katie

The Atomic Bomb Ends the War

After the battle of Iwo Jima, the Japanese Empire was reduced back to the mainland of Japan. Japan however was not going to surrender without a fight. Japan, had a large standing army on the mainland that was prepared to defend at all costs. In the case that the United States adopted a frontal attack, it would have been a long and desperate struggle. President Harry S. Truman did not want to send American soldiers into such a deadly and demoralizing battle. Military estimates presented a possibility of 1 million American casualties and 500,000 British Casualties. During the war, the Army commissioned the Manhattan project, in which the atomic bomb was developed and built. The Atomic bomb project created bombs which weighed less than a dozen tons and could be dropped by a single bomber but had the destructive capability seen in thousands of tons of TNT. J. Robert Oppenheimer oversaw the project which had up to 600,000 members, although few were informed of its true goal. President Truman told the Japanese to surrender or face severe and total destruction, but his request was denied. On August 6th, a B-29 bomber dropped "Little Boy", a five ton bomb (with the power of fourteen kilotons of TNT) in Hiroshima destroying the city and killing approximately 100,000 people. Despite this, Japan did not surrender so President Truman ordered the army to drop Fat Man three days later, a bomb with the destructive power of twenty-one kilotons of TNT, onto Nagasaki, killing an additional 80,000 people. At this point Emperor Hirohito cried to his advisers that they needed to surrender, as the destruction of the Japanese people was far too much for him. On September 22nd, Japan formally surrendered on the USS Missouri as a result of the two bombings.

By Tyler Adams and Katie Lacek

The Atomic Bomb Ends the War

After the United States took over Iwo Jima and Okinawa, it opened a gateway for the U.S. to invade Japan. However, the U.S. knew that Japan would fiercely defend their country and not give up. Therefore, to invade Japan, the U.S. decided to use the atomic bomb (The Manhattan Project). This secretive project was led by General Leslie Groves and scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. This project was unknown to most the American public, the workers, and even Truman before he became the president. However, after Truman learned about the bomb, he did not hesitate in using it. Before Truman made the final decision to drop the two atom bombs on Japan, he asked Japan to surrender one last time, but the government refused. Thus, on August 6, the atomic bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima. All the buildings were disintegrated into dust, but the Japanese government still did not surrender. Therefore, 3 days later, the bomb “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki. This was the final blow, and after viewing the devastating destruction, Emperor Hirohito decided to surrender. On September 2, Japan surrendered at Tokyo Bay on the U.S. battleship “Missouri”.

By: Alee Cho and Bohsen Hsu

Women in the Military

Women in the Military Ketki S., Ashima S., C Period
In 1920, women had finally received what they had wanted for many years: the right to vote. However, women still did not receive the equal treatment that they deserved, especially in the office environment. The stereotypes of women being stay-at-home-moms restrained women from achieving their goals and getting the jobs they want.

However, after two decades, World War Two provided the perfect opportunity for women to be indirectly involved in the war while still causing a big impact on the war effort. In fact, 6 million of these women joined the workforce for the first time, out of which one third was employed in defense plants. These jobs not only pulled women out of traditional jobs such as domestic service, but also provided them with a better pay.

In fact the military was in such a great need for workforce that General George Marshall pushed for the creation of a Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. This bill allowed women volunteers to serve in non-combat positions. These women worked as nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians and pilots. At first they were not granted the full and equal rights that men had. However, after the influx of women working in the military increased, the U.S Army granted members of the WAC full benefits of the Army.

Women also occupied many jobs in the factories that were left vacant by men who left to serve the war. Employers were reluctant to hire women as they felt that women did not have the ability to work in factories for long periods of time. However, women showed that they could perform as well men could.

In fact, there were so many able women that employers could not hire all of them. Even though women only earned around 60% of the pay men earned, the 6 million proud and patriotic women still worked hard to help America in every possible way that they could.