Caroline -------
History 231
Final
Please identify, describe, and give the significance of these concepts.
The New Deal was the name given to FDR’s program of legislation, which brought the Unites States economy out of the depression suffered during Hoover’s time in office. His first act of legislation was a bank holiday, and the Emergency Banking Act, which gave congress a chance to pass reformative legislation that would give stability to the nation’s banking system. The Economy Act cut back federal spending and encouraged business. The Truth in Securities Act (1933) required corporations to publish business information, and the development of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which policed the stock market, helped it to recover from the crash of 1929. Roosevelt’s initiatives ensured that the inappropriate speculation, which caused the stock market to crash, could not happen again. With the Agricultural Adjustment Act, Roosevelt gave subsidies to farmers and enacted legislation, which helped the cost of food to rise, giving stability to one of the groups hardest hit by the Depression. He helped the working class by enacting the National Industry Recovery act, and by creating the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which distributed federal funds to regional relief agencies. He enacted further legislation that enhanced the power of labor unions, and created the works Progress Administration, which gave jobs to the unemployed while simultaneously benefiting communities. He also invented Social Security. Critics of the New Deal from the right argued that the legislation was against free enterprise; from the left, that his legislation was cosmetic and ignored deeper social problems .
Roosevelt’s administration and his New Deal are significant in the context of American History for several reasons. Herbert Hoover, president from 1928 – 1932, was unable to do much of anything to pull the nation out of depression. He was unwilling to try different types of liberal legislation, as Roosevelt was. Roosevelt was ambitious enough to try many different things in search of a solution; failure didn’t deter him. If something didn’t work, he was willing to try something else . Roosevelt will always be remembered and loved for his leadership during the economic recovery of the 1930’s.
The New Deal and Roosevelt’s popularity gave the democrats more power. In fact, modern democratic ideology can be traced back to Roosevelt. But perhaps the greatest significance of Roosevelt’s New Deal is this: he saved the American economy by working with the capitalist system, rather than adopting socialism. Roosevelt’s administration would preserve the nation’s economic identity.
Truman, a democrat, attempted to reform domestic policy in the same ways that Roosevelt did. He tried to enact liberal social welfare legislation, including bills that protected the rights of laborers and minorities. Truman believed that the federal government should impose a national standard of racial equality, one that would override the state’s attempts to maintain institutional prejudice. The Republicans, who had control of congress during Truman’s first term, made it very difficult for his legislation to become law, and rejected his request for civil rights legislation to secure the rights of minority groups. Many Southern democrats were also offended by his support of civil rights and refused to support him as the democratic candidate for the 1948 elections. Despite the fact that his request for civil rights was rejected and made him unpopular, he managed to carry most of the states to win the 1948 election. His motive for supporting civil rights seems to be purely his conviction that the Bill of Rights should supercede any racial legislation passed by individual states. The United States was also entering the Cold War, and Truman felt that legislation was needed to enforce the Constitution. The United States had a bad reputation overseas for preaching freedom but practicing oppression. Although Truman was not able to get his civil rights agenda approved by congress in the 1950’s, the Supreme Court did sanction civil rights in 1964. Therefore Truman was ahead of his time and instrumental in paving the way for the movement.
D’Souza discusses the connections between religious liberty and commerce in the chapter entitled “When Virtue Loses all her Loveliness” of his book What’s so Great About America. The United States has religious and moral diversity that other countries, especially Arabian nations, do not have. Because of this diversity, no one religious or moral perspective controls society. Today’s US population is markedly less religious than that of even 100 years ago. D’Souza argues that now freedom is the highest virtue in America. Arabs think that our freedom corrupts morality, and if we compare the two societies, we can see that this is true. But D’Souza argues, “The apparatus of modern technology makes inevitable some degree of moral change” . So it is not religious liberty but technological capitalism that is to blame for the breakdown of a once moral, once heterogeneous religious society.
D’Souza describes the relationship between technological capitalism and the breakdown of morality. He sites cars and the automobile system as the first to mark change. The expansion of the automobile industry into more consumers’ lives changed the demographics by funneling young people out of rural towns where there was the moral observance of the community, and into the cities. The invention of numerous electronic domestic products contributed to the breakdown of the family; when cooking and cleaning and caring for the family no longer took all day, women were able to leave the home. D’Souza says that the social revolution of the 60’s and 70’s created an aspiration for individual authenticity previously unknown to American society. Finally, D’Souza says that American-style capitalism produces mass affluence, and the pursuit of money takes up an enormous amount of time and energy .
D’Souza’s reflections of the nature of the relationship between America’s religious liberty and commerce serves to illustrate the differences between American society and Arab societies, which are largely governed by Muslim doctrine. It also gives insight as to why Muslims regard our freedoms as contributing to immorality. D’Souza concludes that it is not our lack of religious uniformity alone that creates an immoral society, but the embracement of freedom and technology as the most important virtues.
Please identify these quotations. Name the document and its author, summarize its content, and give its significance in American history.
This quote is taken from a 1963 televised presidential address to the nation, known as John F. Kennedy’s Civil Rights Speech. Kennedy stated the reason for his address: he had to call in the National Guard to admit two students of color to the University of Alabama amidst “threats and defiant statements”. The Governor of Alabama himself had stood in the way to block the admission of the black students, which was court-ordered to proceed. He praised the conduct of those who recognized the justice of de-segregation and appealed to Americans to check their consciences concerning the issue of denying equal opportunity to citizens based on the color of their skin. He reminded the public that the nation was founded by men of diverse background, on the principle of equality. (The authenticity of which is debatable but out of the scope of this answer). He then points out that it is unjust to expect African-Americans to fight and die for a country that did not grant them full benefits of citizenship. He acknowledged that the blacks in America did not have the same opportunities for success as whites. He said it is not a partisan or sectional issue but a moral issue. It had been 100 years since Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their descendants still were not free. He said that a great social task was at hand – blacks were being treated with inequity and without legislation to protect them, their only recourse was the streets. He informed the public of his intent to ask congress to pass desegregation laws. He stated that law alone is not enough to make men see right, and encouraged all those who had voluntarily acted to desegregate business and education in the interest of a better life for all. His speech ends with an appeal to the American people to grant equal opportunity to all children regardless of their color, to make the Constitution colorblind. His speech comes after the televised tensions between police and demonstrators in Birmingham Alabama.
When Kennedy first took office, he was sympathetic to the cause of racial injustice but not prepared to enact desegregation legislation, at the risk of angering his party. Kennedy’s speech is significant in American History because it came at a time of massive social unrest concerning civil rights. The mounting demonstrations and public protests made Kennedy realize that he would have to attend to the issue. He supported and validated the cries for equality being heard all around the nation. He was committed to passing equality legislation despite the animosity it would cause among Southern democrats. Though his proposed legislation did not address class discrimination, it was revolutionary in political principal. It was not enacted until after his assassination, by the Eisenhower administration.
This quote comes from Woodrow Wilson’s War Message to Congress, 1917. Wilson states that immediate decisions must be made concerning US entrance into WWI, and that the constitution requires him to get permission from congress before declaring war. He restates that the German imperial government intended to sink any vessel that sought to approach Great Britain or Western Europe. Wilson gravely expresses that Germany’s war against commerce is inhumane and in direct violation of civilization. Wilson then states that the previous policy of armed neutrality, of protecting merchant vessels, is not only not effective but also impractical because it invites German aggression, and with no formal declaration of war, the United States was constitutionally unable to defend itself. Therefore, due to the new German policy, Wilson asked congress to declare war. He said that the objective of the Unites States involvement in the war would be “to vindicate the principles of peace against…against a selfish and autocratic power” . He then makes a distinction between the people of Germany and the government. The goal of the war would be to liberate the peoples of Europe, including German people, from the despotic German government. He ends his request for war with the idea that fighting for what is right is more important than peace.
Wilson’s request for American involvement in WWI is incredibly significant to American history. When war broke out in 1914, Wilson issued an immediate statement of neutrality. His decision to intervene was based on German submarine warfare against any vessel, armed or no. He was a puritanical president, and didn’t believe in going to war for economic reasons. He maintained the neutrality even as the war in Europe damaged US markets. He had to wait for a human rights reason to declare war, which the Germans provided. He had to intervene to protect the economic and humanitarian interests of the United States and its allies. The United States had maintained isolationist policy concerning European conflict ever since the agreement put forth in the Monroe Doctrine.
This quote comes from the chapter entitled “Vietnam: the Impossible Victory” from Howard Zinn’s book A People’s History of the United States. According to Zinn, the war of Vietnam was a war of superior technology versus organized human will, in which superior technology failed to win. The second is that the great antiwar movement in the United States was critical to bringing and end to the war. Before World War II, all of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia were ruled by the French as a colony that the French called Indochina. During the war, while France was occupied by Germany, Japan controlled Indochina. In 1945, the popular Vietnamese nationalist and communist Ho Chi Mihn succeeded in a revolution against Japanese occupation. For the next eight years the Vietnamese nationalists fought against the French in a bitter war in which the US supported the French by financing 80% of their military efforts with over 2 billion dollars. By 1954, the French had lost the effort to regain control over Vietnam. An international assembly at Geneva structured a peace agreement: the French would withdraw to South Vietnam, and the Vietmihn (Ho’s supporters) would be allowed to remain in the North, with the understanding that in two years the Vietnamese people would elect a government of their choice. When Zinn says that “The United States moved quickly to prevent the unification of Vietnam”, he cannot be contested. The US did circumscribe the international intent to let the Vietnamese people choose their own government by installing Ngo Dihn Diem as head of government in South Vietnam, and encouraging him to avoid unification. He sites a 1954 internal memo that states free elections in Vietnam would result in Vietnam and the associated states of Laos and Cambodia becoming communist (472). This empirical evidence validates Zinn’s argument: the US never intended to allow the Vietnamese people freedom (to choose their own form of government), no matter what the public relations said. As early as 1958, guerilla activities abounded against Diem’s government. The Vietmihn in the North sent people south to support the guerilla movement. In 1960, the National Liberation front (NLF), supported by southern peasants, was formed. Even though the international convention at Geneva limited the presence of US military advisers in Vietnam to a mere 685, president Kennedy continued interventionist policies when elected in 1960, and in 1961, according to the Pentagon Papers, he authorized military action against the NLF. Soon Kennedy had over 16,000 troops in Vietnam, some fighting with Diem against the NLF in the South. Diem was losing badly; he had done nothing to reform the economic system and the NLF had the support of the majority of the people, whether through violent coercion or not. Increasingly aware of the shortcomings of the figurehead Diem, Kennedy authorized his assassination/murder. Three weeks later, Kennedy himself was assassinated, and succeeded by Lyndon Johnson. The incident that enabled President Johnson to wage an all-out war against communist forces in Vietnam was the Gulf of Tonkin skirmish. By 1968, there were over 500,000 American troops in Vietnam. The rest of the chapter is devoted to how the end of the war was brought about; overwhelming protest at home put pressure on the government. He uses statistics to prove his point. He gives many examples of the antiwar movement, and how it influenced the next president, Richard Nixon, to de-escalate military involvement in Vietnam. In 1973, with no victory in sight, the US tried to negotiate with the Saigon government US withdrawal and the construction of a new compromising government with both communist and noncommunist elements. In the end, the US had to leave without military or political victory, even in compromise. After the US forces departed, Vietnam was re-unified under the remaining revolutionary fighters, who overthrew the Southern Saigon government.
Zinn’s account of the Vietnam War is significant in American history because it posits that the war was unnecessary and that the Kennedy and Johnson administrations pursued interventionist policy in Vietnam for reasons other than assisting the peoples of Southeast Asia in securing freedom.
This quote is from the Marshall Plan, by George C. Marshall, 1947. Marshall opens his plan by stating that it is hard for the average American to understand the plight and governmental conflicts of long-suffering people. In the aftermath of WWII, Europe was in need of not only physical but also economic reconstruction. The physical destruction in Europe ravaged business and industry, which in turn affected agriculture. The two depend on each other for society to work. In post WWII Europe, one could not get back on its feet without the other. The governments were going bankrupt trying to re-establish a working society. Therefore, Marshall concluded, Europe needed outside financial aid. Stabilizing European currency was the goal of Marshall’s plan. Marshall emphasized that this was not a gift, that the United States would not “unilaterally draw up a program designed to place Europe on its feet economically”. The initiative, he said, was still up to the Europeans.
The Marshall plan is significant in American history because it illustrates the emergence of the US as the only superpower capable of giving aid after such a devastating war. It also demonstrates that the United States was dedicated to re-building a world capitalist economy. Poverty, such as the poverty that devastated much of Europe after WWII, invites communism. The Marshall plan was generous, but it was also in the United State’s self-interest.
Essays
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is not fully illustrative of his thinking because it only attends to the Constitutional and Declaration of Independence influence on his philosophy of equality. In the speech, King demands the justice that the founding documents promise. That all men are created equal, and all citizens of America should have equal, human rights is the premise on which he demands institutional change. The historical argument is very strong, but it represents only one influence on King’s thinking.
King was also heavily influenced by a philosophy of non-violence. He took inspiration from methods of attaining peace and justice from outside American culture. Gandhi and the Hindu principle of dynamic non-violence had a profound effect on him. He likened the struggle of blacks in the United States to that of Indians under the rule of British colonial government . Non-violent resistance, he learned, was a powerful moral tool in such a struggle. King was an adamant pacifist and rejected violence on every level, even in the face of direct aggression.
King, a Baptist minister, used non-violent teachings from his own religion as well to support the battle of attaining civil rights. He preached using love as a weapon , an ideology that comes from the New Testament and Christian ministry. He told his followers that it took more strength and courage to turn the other cheek after being struck than it did to fight back. “We must have compassion and understanding for those that hate us” . King saw nonviolent resistance as the only morally sound method of achieving social change.
King was profoundly moved by the injustice against colored people during the Vietnam War. Not only colored people but also poor people seemed to be targeted by the United States government to serve and die in a greater proportion than the rest of the population. Those who could not afford college or deferment were drafted into the army. King was certain the segregation and oppression went hand in hand with poverty. Towards the end of his life, King became a critic of capitalism and moved towards socialism as a model for relieving poverty and realizing civil rights .
Another influence on King was the American author Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” was about non-violently disobeying unjust laws, and very much appealed to King’s ideology. Thoreau wrote his essay from a jail cell just as King did a century later . King was imprisoned for demonstrating without a permit during the 1963 tensions in Birmingham Alabama. The law was unjust in this case, he claimed, because it meant to preserve segregation and “deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assemble and peaceful protest” .
The First amendment also attends to separation between Church and State, and that congressional legislation should not respect the establishment of any one religion . Therefore in his “I Have a Dream” speech, which was directed at congress, King limits his religious rhetoric and instead appeals to the lawmakers’ sense of justice as outlined by the fundamental documents of the United States’ legal system.
Roosevelt had to revive the economy by reorganizing the capitalist system. He aggressively passed new legislation and formed administrations to prevent the system from collapsing on itself entirely, and also to prevent a possible social revolution . The New Deal was the name given to his social welfare and economic legislation. Unlike his predecessor Herbert Hoover, Roosevelt did not have a pre-determined ideology concerning the economic system – such as that of fixed currency and the belief in the necessity of business and economy to self-regulate . He therefore was able to use the powers of legislation and federal law to combat the economic crisis. His policies were aimed at relieving and reforming the economic system to give it greater stability. There were practical lessons to be learned from the depression. Roosevelt’s legislation was interventionist and attended to the specific causes and effects of economic instability and unemployment, and was therefore pragmatic.
bravo to you miss caroline ive been away for a bit and read your piece and thought i would say that my admiration for your drive and for the attitude you exempify will one day be returned to you 10 fold...my hats off to you ...fellow student in adversityand never give up the torch you know hold and display it for all generations to see and light there way when the hour is at its darkest. 
It's to much strain on my poor little brain.