Question 1
President Lyndon Johnson came up with the vision of “A Great Society” that enabled him to attain the path to one of the most far-reaching legislative programs in the history of the Nation. He first signed into law the Civil Rights Bill that President John Kennedy had promised to sign before his assassination. This act criminalized all forms of discrimination relating to race, gender in employment and brought the end of discrimination in all public amenities. President Johnson signed the omnibus Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 that led to the creation of the office of the office of Economic Opportunity with the main goal of getting rid of poverty among Americans. The other law that helped advance his vision of Great Society was the passing the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act that led to Millions of elderly people receiving help for their miseries. Johnson believed his vision of the Great Society would greatly benefit the nation by aiding on education, proper Medicare, fight against poverty and prevention of crime and delinquency. In the end Mr. Johnson’s vision was largely successful with the several laws that were passed to ensure the vision was fulfilled.
Question 2
When President Nixon came into office as the President of The United States, the country was right in the middle of one of the severest foreign policy crises ever witnessed in the American history. The president together his national security adviser and secretary of state, Henry Kissinger felt the need to change the foreign policies with the main aim of preserving the interests of Americans by having a balance of power that would ensure peace and prosperity throughout the world. Detente was term used to the constant tensions between the USSR, China and the USA during the period of the cold war. Détente led to the three superpowers coming together to discuss matter of security including the situation in Vietnam where several horrors shocked people world over. The actions of President Nixon and his national security adviser on detente brought a few positive results by improving the relationships between the USSR and the USA and also it led to President Nixon visiting Moscow something that had not happened before. The relationship between these three superpowers was now better after a series of treaties signed between them
Question 3
The Warren Court passed several major decisions that greatly changed the social and political landscape of the United States of America. In 1954 the Warren Court declared as unconstitutional the state laws that advocated for the creation of separate schools for black and white students and this was a major landmark ruling that flagged the way for proper integration among people within the American society and was also a major boost to the civil rights movements. In 1958, the Warren court made a ruling that all states within the United States of America were bound by the decisions of the Supreme Court and was not able to decide to ignore any ruling. This brought about equality among the rules governing different states and thus changing the political landscape. In 1962 the court through a ruling allowed federal courts to intervene in case of any dispute and decide reapportionment cases. From these actions of the Warren Court we find out that the court was liberal in its decisions as it made decisions liberally sometimes favoring the minority against the majority. From most of the rulings done by the Warren Court we find out that Black Americans benefited more with several cases ruled to their favor. These Black Americans benefited mostly because the Warren Court was getting rid of the segregation laws that had been passed earlier and which were discriminatory to the black race. For example the case Lucy v. Adams, 350 U.S. 1 (1955), the court ruled that all citizens would be accepted as students at the University of Alabama despite their racial orientation.
Question 4
The “Reagan Revolution” as it is popularly known was a period during the Reagan Administration when he came up with several policies that he used in leading the country. It involved economic recovery where President Reagan set out on a plan to cut down marginal tax rates and also reduce the level of government spending. These actions led to a reduction in expenditure by the government while still maintaining a stable and steady monetary policy. The other policy involved gaining peace through increasing our strength where Mr. Reagan confronted the several challenges posed by the communists by seeking to restore America’s strength within the military thus preventing any future war and enhancing peace and freedom among citizens. President Reagan championed for an “informed” patriotism by showing great respect to America and American history and the heroes that had gone down from the time of the political upheavals during the years of 1960. During this revolution a lot was achieved especially the bringing to an end of the cold war peacefully by President Reagan. His tax cuts and reduced government spending led to the creation of several job opportunities thus reducing unemployment levels. Though some claim the revolution to be exaggerated but the benefits were very beneficial to all citizens and it led to the improvement of the economy to greater heights.
Question 5
The Watergate scandal occurred in the year 1972 when burglars broke into the offices of the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to wiretap phones of prominent members of the party and also to steal secret documents belonging to the party. These burglars were found out to be President Nixon’s men who were involved in his re-election campaign. While it is not known whether the president knew of the plans by the burglars to break into the offices, it is documented that the president tried to cover up this story by destroying the evidence and interfering with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s work of trying to bring the culprits to justice. In the year 1974 President Nixon was forced to retire after it was found out he was involved in the Watergate scandal. The Iran-Contra scandal on the other hand happened during President Reagan’s reign in 1980s when he made a secret arrangement to offer funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from the profits he had made from the arms that were sold to Iran. This scandal involved two separate initiatives one being the aiding of the contras that were fighting the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and the second being the placation of moderates in the Iranian government in an effort to seek the release of several American hostages that were held by pro-Iranian insurgents while also seeking to influence Iranian policy in a pro-Western direction. The major players in these two scandals were very influential people within government during these particular times and their major undoing’s was to perform these acts in the dark only for them to come out clearly in the open. The executive during these times tried so hard to make these events secret by going to great lengths to ensure they do not come to light but in the end the cat was out of the bag. However these scandals could have easily be avoided had the government come out in the open and sought public opinion before taking the drastic measures that eventually destroyed the reputations of both President Nixon and President Reagan.
