Important Events That Occurred in the United States During the Past 50 Years
Lawsianita Charles
Axia College of University of Phoenix

Important Events That Occurred 2 There were so many different events that occurred in the past fifty years that help to shape the United States. These events have brought good and hard times to the United States Politically. Huge contributions were contributed to the American society every decade by the past leaders. These Contributions has help mode the United States into what it is today. There has been a great deal of wars fought by this country for its civil rights and people. After the many battles and wars that the United States endured, the United States never let their dreams die. Many of their dreams came true, many of their dreams failed due to different programs and policies from our former leaders of America. For instance, the Watergate Scandal in the 1970s was one of the great events that became memorable. The drastic tax cut in the 80’s by President Ronald Reagan also became memorable. Almost every president in the United States past has left some sort of significant legacies with their leadership in some sort of way. The leaders that made mistakes also help to shape the country to what it is today because of their past mistake. Their past mistakes help to create a solution for success further down the road. Our education, businesses, homes, and families were affected through our past leaders decisions. Through it all the success and failures the country remains strong. The 1950’s- The Rise of the Cold War The Cold War was a time when the nations were fighting each other and wanted nothing more than to take each other lives. There was no blood shed for a long time. Instead of killing each other at the first chance available, the nations waited to see who would pull the trigger first. Both nations were considered to be very powerful. The two battling nations were the Soviet Union and the United States. The Soviet Union predicted that the United States would make the first move and they were prepared for that attack. The United State was prepared for the Soviet Important Events That Occurred 3

Union to attack thinking that the Soviet Union would be the first. The United states were aware of the great powers of the Soviet Union, so they prepared themselves for anything. During the Cold War the United States came across a very negative impact towards the political views known as the McCarthyism. The McCarthyism damaged the trust the nation had for its leadership and put a big dent into the political world. The United States felt very strongly against the Soviet Union because of Communism. Senator Joe McCarthy created McCarthyism in order to bring Communism into the United States. It brought a lot of fear to the political leaders and the nation. The United States was use to the capitalist and democratic views that was already established. During the 1950’s, along with the Cold War, McCarthyism also became one of the Untied States memorable events. The 1960’s- The Vietnam War During the 1960s, became involved with the United States became involved with a war known as the Vietnam War. The United States sent nearly 5000 United States troops over to fight this war. The Pentagon funded $77.8 billion toward this war. So many Americans and Vietnamese were killed in this war, almost 58,000. (Vietnam War, 2000). This event will be remembered forever because there were so many lives lost and the negative view towards the leaders for not ending the war. Many college students started taking action. They decided to voice their opinions to the leaders. The students felt that the war did not serve a good purpose and the figure it was a war that the United States could not win. Then J Kennedy and L Johnson thought it would help to send 60,000 more troops to Vietnam. Unfortunately only half of the troops survived. (Mabry, 2003). Many of those who survived were still badly wounded. Important Events That Occurred 4
Although many Americans died and were badly wounded, Vietnam had an outcome that was worse than the Americans. The impact of the bombing caused long term health issue with the people. This war would be a very memorable event for the United States..
The 1970’s- Watergate Scandal In the 1970s a decade later, there was the Water Gate Scandal. During this time the United States had a president who did not know much and did nothing but abuse his power. President Nixon’s Watergate Scandal did nothing positive for the United States. Instead it destroyed the nation’s trust and confident in the administrators and politicians. The Watergate scandal was name from the Watergate hotel in Washington DC which was the location of the Democratic Party National Headquarters in 1972. Because of the Watergate Scandal, President Nixon’s attempt to hide his illegal campaigns, burglaries, wire traps, and fraudulent tax audits was revealed. They were all revealed by some tapes that were kept in Nixon’s office. Nixon felt that he was above the law because he was the president and did not have a problem with facing the media about what he has done. Nixon’s tapes were then released by the courts in August 1974. This embarrassment caused Nixon to resign only four days after. Nixon was replaced by his Vice president. The American became more to the point of not trusting Politian. The nation felt like any politicians that claims that they are dedicated with serving the people are just hypocrites. Especially since Nixon’s administration was involved in his scandal. The media called Nixon’s Presidency the “Imperial Presidency”. Reasoning for that name was because Nixon was so conceited and very selfish with is power. Not all hope was lost after Nixon’s resignation. Many people began to feel that the constitution actually works and also believe that because of that not even the president is above the law. The American citizens became Important Events That Occurred 5 more cautious when choosing who they wanted to lead the country, from the local to the national positions. (Jiffynotes, 2010).
The 1980’s- Reaganomics
In the 1980s President Ronald Reagan came up with another policy known as the Reaganomics. President Reagan had to take over a sloppy Administration. Although president Reagan had a rough turn over he still had some very high hopes for America. President Reagan was able to win the public trust. President Reagan developed the Reaganomics in hopes that he would fix the economy and improve the military. There were a lot of good that came out of the Reaganomics. There was also great deal of disadvantages that came out of it also. President Reagan wanted to accomplish the following goals for the United States. Goals such as reducing the growth of the government, reducing the marginal tax rates income from labor and capital, reducing regulations, and reducing inflation by controlling the growth of the money supply. President Reagan began with the tax cuts as soon as he was sworn into position. President Reagan had hoped that the tax cut would help to boost the economy of the United States. The tax cut did exactly the opposite of what President Reagan wanted. President Reagan’s tax cut cause the United States to go through a recession. According to the United States Department of Labor, President Reagan’s administrations have put the United States’ welfare and unemployment to a record high. Reagan also tried to cut all programs that focused on the need of the poor which only created more poor citizens. People still look up to President Reagan and viewed him as their hero. Although he manage to decrease the price controls on the goods listed above, he also manage to put the U.S in more debt. The debt was increase to $125 billion. He spends more than plan on the military earlier during his term. President Reagan’s monetary Important Events That Occurred 6 policy was very successful. He decreased the price controls on oil and natural gas, cable television, long distance telephone service, interstate bus service, and ocean shipping. President Reagan had endorsed a policy that was initiated by the Federal Reserve in the late 1979 for the reduction in money growth. With out any effort, the country had to experience what is called a recession. Basically the poor became poorer and the rich became richer.
The 1990’s- The Bush Administration and the Gulf War
In the 1990s George Bush became president. He took over the mess that President Ronald Reagan has created. President Bush was unfortunately no better than President Reagan. President Bush kept the state of the American economy from the people. He had the American more focused on the war with Iraq instead. He was very focused on the capture of Saddam Hussein. The chase for Saddam Hussein last for a very long time. The chase lasted almost twenty years. Later the son of bush began to rebuild Iraq. The rebuilding of Iraq did not end the war. This war was just as wasteful to the lives of the Americans as the Vietnam War during the 1960s. While being so focused on the war and capturing of Hussein, the United States has suffered a very low economy. Foreclosure of many homes has become at a very high rate. Jobs were at a very low. Another concern for the former President Bush was the response to a natural disaster. According to "CRS Report For Congress" (Jan 2008), “In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, some Members of Congress and others questioned the competence of leadership at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). After investigating the federal response to the hurricane, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs concluded

Important Events That Occurred 7 that the agency’s leader had “lacked the leadership skills that were needed for his critical position.” (Statutory Qualifications for Executive Branch Positions).

Conclusion America has suffered a lost of trust, lives of love ones, during the past 50 years because of the former Presidents. Although America suffered, America also became more knowledgeable about what type of leadership that is needed to run the country. The politician should have learned what works and what does not work from the country past experiences. A leader with genuine concern for the welfare of the country is what needed. American has a great need for a leader who is not afraid of change and will focus on making a better society for both the rich and the poor. Changes with the foreign policies, and the American citizens civil rights is also greatly need. Also make some changes to the United States that will drastically increase the economy by lowering the price of gas, food, and homes. America economy is in a terrible state but is slowly but surely getting better. It will take some time to overcome what this country has suffered. Hopefully the United States will only get better because there is little room for to many more mistakes. The current President is President Barack Obama and hopefully he can make some changes that will leave the United States in a better position.

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References

Jiffynotes.com. (2010). NIXON, RICHARD MILHOUS. Retrieved November 10, 2011 from

http://www.jiffynotes.com/a_study_guides/book_notes/eueh_02/eueh_02_00655.html

Mabry, D. (2003). Historical Text Archive. Vietnam War. Retrieved November 10, 2011, from

http://historicaltextarchive.com/print.php?action=section&artid=614

Niskanen, W. (1988). The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Reaganomics. Retrieved November 16, 2011, from http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/Reaganomics.html

Vietnam War. (2000). Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. 2000. Retrieved November 10, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406400998.html

CRS Report for Congress. (Jan 2008). Retrieved November 20, 2011 from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33886.pdf