Explain the main changes that occurred after WWII
World War II produced major changes in the way the main economic and military powers related. The United States had seized the opportunity to build its network of international allies, and President Truman made efforts to increase the spread of capitalism and defeat to communism and another socialist movement. The post-war era brought a lot of success to American corporate companies, a factor that increased government resources in the ensuing boom of the 1950’s. Same way, military expenditure increased by double digits between 1947 to 1960, and part of the money was used to offer military support to potential allies like Greece. America had a renewed nuclear strength by 1955 after President John F. Kennedy increased the expenditure on the military by $9 billion on his first year in office. Outside America, there were problems with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries like Cuba. Particularly, when Fidel Castro, the new Cuban president, refused to meet the requirements of the United States, his country was denied loans from the USA and the International Monetary Fund. That underscored the suspicion that the international monetary fund had been formed to aid the dominance of the US in world affairs. When Cuba opted to get money from the Soviet Union, the United States stopped buying its sugar (the mainstay of the economy), and American refinery companies refused to refine the oil coming from Russia. Similar problems were faced by countries like Iran and East Europe countries that still believed in the values of socialism.
The major events of the 1750s were centered on the push for anti-communism, starting with the communist groups inside the USA. The military was tasked to be hard on people who supported communism, and anti-communism was considered to be heroic, in a bid towards policy change that moved to the support of capitalism. Other than the distressing conditions around communism and the need to defeat it, the USA was faced with an unprecedented upsurge in the countries that demanded for independence as promised before the start of the World War II. Part of the promise to England and France was that the United States would respect their geographical sovereignty, home and abroad. However, reactionary groups were pushing for independence in Africa and Latin America, pushing the United States to reconsider its positions with other countries. Also in the 1950’s, the black people in America became aware of their conditions in a way that raised a lot of action and push for changes. Considerably, the South had series of fights between activist groups and the police, as the people fought for equality and an end to racial segregation. To capture the level of segregation during and after the war times, imagine the case of the Red Cross blood bank manager who was forced to sort the blood for the white and black fighters, even getting sacked when he tried to abolish that directive.
What were some of the problems that Truman and Eisenhower faced?
The main problems faced by Truman regard to his start of tenure where he took over from Roosevelt, who had overseen America through the late thirties and the beginning of the war. America had stayed away from international affairs in many countries, but when the Japanese hit the Pearl Harbor, things changed. Truman took over at a time when the war was nearing an end, and he had to make decisions on the transition from wartime to peacetime, by renegotiating deals with other countries and ensuring that business returned to normal. Eisenhower, on his part, faced the troubles of the cold war, where countries played cards on each other. The rise of communist groups in the United States was one of his biggest problems, and the push by some members of the Senate to annihilate communism in the US led to arrest and prosecution of leaders of communist groups. Away from home, he faced the challenge of shifting the world politics from fascism, communism to capitalism, and where it would not be possible, he would form alliances with national leaders that would benefit USA’s capitalistic influence across the world. The economy was booming during the reign of Eisenhower, but there was no trickle-down effect, meaning that most of the wealth was concentrated among the rich and elite; a group that was made of politicians, military leaders, and corporate leaders.
Summarize the major point in Chapter 20 and Zinn's view of Watergate.
Chapter 20 touches on the Watergate scandal, a political controversy that started with the arrest of five burglars who had tried to break into the offices of the National Democratic Committee. What ensued was a drama-filled series of arrests accusations, culminating in the resignation of President Richard Nixon, after he was implicated in corrupt deals and efforts to ensure that the Democratic Party never won the elections. However, the exit of Richard Nixon did not lead to the stabilization of the system, as most of the structural aspects of the system remained, and his resignation was an insider decision that was meant to cool down the temperatures and avoid further revelations. Americans had lost confidence in the political systems, and the Watergate scandal was the tipping point of that trust. Zinn viewed the Watergate as a collapse of a system that was based on lies and corruption, but he is also adamant that the corrupt units were too powerful, such that they went ahead to disrupt the investigations and retain the system and its functionalities.
