Most Significant Events

By

Bryon W. Neubauer Jr.

University of Phoenix - Axia College

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to inform you of the different events over the past five decades that changed the world that we live in today. Some of the events were good and some were bad. The people of the United States have seen and been through numerous of changes and wars. The U.S. has seen presidents come and go that has either helped us or have hurt us in some way or another. In this paper I will try to explain some of those events.

People wonder why historical things happen and why it is important to learn about them. Although we do not have an exact answer down to an exact science, we have come to notice that past events have or may have happened has an impact on future events. Ever since the 1950’s all the way through 1990’s, numerous events have happened. Many of those events were social, economic and political related. Almost of all of these events throughout the 1950’s through the 1990’s have impacted how our world is today. Throughout the past five decades and all the historical events that have taken place has had some kind of effect on the way our world is today and future events that has yet to happen.

The Korean War – 1950’s

During the 1950’s significant social, economic and political events had occurred. The biggest events that happen during this time were the Korean War. The Korean War began on the early morning of June 25, 1950 and ended on July 27, 1953. The two major parties of this war were North Korea and South Korea. The Korean War started because South Korea refused to hold elections based on the wants and demands of North Korea. In the early morning hours of June 25, 1950, is when North Korea started invading South Korea. Before North Korea invaded South Korea the North took their time in planning their evasion on South Korea. Unfortunately, South Korea was outnumbered not only in manpower but firepower as well.

At the time of North Korea’s invasion of South Korea, the United States had military forces stationed in Japan and since the United States did not like North Koreas plans, the U.S. decided to aid South Korea to help avoid the spread of communism into South Korea.

Now with the aid from the United States, South Korea was able to intimidate North Korea. In October of 1950, the U.S. military crossed into North Korea and took over 135,000 prisoners of war this decreased the number of soldiers of the North Korean Army. Around the same time the U.S. was aiding South Korea China began aiding and supplying North Korea with their war needs. The United States tried bombing the supply routes that North Korea was using to receive these supplies from China, in turn causing China to intervene in the war.

After three years of fighting and the loss of many soldiers from all parties involved neither North Korea nor South Korea had won the war and decided to sign a cease fire agreement to bring some peace to both countries. Till this day the Korean War has not officially ended.

John F. Kennedy – 1960’s

In 1960, a senator named John F. Kennedy ran and became the youngest president of the United States. One of the first things President Kennedy did when he go into office was start his new “New Frontier Plan” to get the U.S. economy back on track. President Kennedy’s most successful and memorable program was a program that sent volunteers to other countries when they are in need of some help. This program was called the United States Peace Corps.

When President Kennedy was in office, he accomplished many things. One of these was putting a man on the moon. President Kennedy felt that since the Soviet Union was the first country to put a man in space, that United States would be the first country to put a man on the moon. The “New Frontier” in which President Kennedy spoke of promises to improve education, medical help for the elderly, and the involvement of the government to stop the recession.

With everything that President Kennedy was trying to do to improve the U.S... There was a problem happening in Cuba known as the Cubin missile crisis. The Cubin missile crisis started because the Soviet Union was placing nuclear missiles on Cuba and President Kennedy considered this a threat to the U.S... After meeting with the leader of the Soviet Union at that time President Kennedy agreed to take U.S. missiles out of Turkey, if the Soviet Union would take their missiles out of Cuba. Eventually, both countries agreed to remove their missiles from those countries.

In November of 1963, while on a political trip to Dallas, Texas, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy while riding in a vehicle with his wife and the governor of Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination of President Kennedy, but was shot and killed two days later. Even with President Kennedy’s killer dead, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson now president after Kennedy’s death still had President Kennedy’s death investigated. While President Kennedy was in office, I believe he made good choices for his country. The Peace Corps as well as his belief in the space programs were great and both still continue to be a great asset to the United States.

New Federalism – 1970’s

In 1969 President Richard Nixon was elected President of the United States and like many presidents before him; he had some great ideas for the U.S. as well as some bad ones. In 1972, President Nixon began the “New Federalism” idea. It was basically a fancy name for revenue sharing and the control of federal spending after it was dispersed. When federal funds were dispersed, the funds were used in different ways depending on the city and the size of it. The larger cities used the funds to maintain their operations when the smaller cities used the funds to start programs. Basically, “New Federalism” is when the U.S. government shared the money from income taxes with the state and local governments, which helped these cities to continue to run smoothly or produce programs that would help their communities. I believe this had a positive impact on the state and local governments and proved that the U.S. government was not all for the taking.

Fall of Communism – 1980’s

For many years, communism has been a problem in the Soviet Union and many realized that communism was not working so well for the Soviet Union. Since the United States was against communism, the U.S. wanted to help put an end to communism once and for all. During the 1980’s President Ronald Reagan was in office, while Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader of the Soviet Union. Mr. Gorbachev tried to reform the Soviet Union to be more democratic but failed.

In 1987, President Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev signed the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which would eliminate the use of nuclear missiles. The signing of that treaty was the first time those two leaders had worked together and since it went so well they decided to work together to end communism.

In December of 1988, Mr. Gorbachev gave a speech of a New World Order. A short time after his speech, Mr. Gorbachev began to build up the Soviet Union’s cold war legacy by sending troops to other countries. This ultimately led to the demise of the Soviet Union and some of their powerful communist leaders. Within one year of the demise of the Soviet Union, Mr. Gorbachev ordered the Berlin wall to be torn down as a sign to the end of communism. Since the Berlin wall was a symbol of Communist oppression for so many years the people of the former Soviet Union seemed happy and felt they had more rights but was still afraid of what might happen to them if they exercised those rights.

Immigration into the U.S.– 1990’s

When the Immigration Act came to be in 1965, it did not have an effect on anything until the 1990’s, when more immigrants started migrating to the United States, that’s when the U.S. started feeling the impact. When the immigrants got here to the U.S. they were able to work but were not required to pay income or any state and local taxes. This would eventually have a negative effect on the U.S. economy.

A large portion of immigrants came to the United States 1996 and still continues till this day. Many immigrants that are here illegally have been here for so long and living off the American tax payers for example healthcare, taking jobs for less pay than a U.S. citizen, and not paying taxes has hurt the U.S. economy. Immigration can cause problems for countries economically and cause problems not only between other countries but their citizens as well. When the U.S. government decided to crack down on illegal aliens coming into the United States it did more harm than good. Many illegal alien started stealing and committing other crimes, like drug dealing, even as far as identity theft in order to be able to stay in the United States.

For the immigrants that come the U.S. legally to live as regular citizens and find and pay taxes like the rest of us, then that is terrific. It is the ones that have migrate here illegally and have no desire to find legal work and pay taxes or to live off of the work of others that needs to get sent back to their country and go through the proper legal channels to come back to the U.S. as legal citizens. I believe that the ones who came to the U.S. and were allowed so much freedom, has played a big role to some of the economic destruction that U.S. is still currently in.

In closing, there have been significant amount events from the 1950’s through the 1990’s that has helped or has hurt our country. Some of which is still practiced by current presidents. I believe that many events from the past have been both for the good and the bad for the United States.

Past, current and future Presidents will each leaving some mark on the history of the United States some being good or bad or maybe even both. We as U.S. citizens who vote on who is going to lead this country has to accept the choices that our elected leaders have made, because when we elected them we hoped and believed that they would lead us to prosperity even along the way they had made some wrong choices. It does not matter who the candidates are there is always going to be something about each candidate that you do not like and I have not seen or heard a presidential candidate that says they will do or even try to do everything that we want done.

Over the next ten years if our economy does not improve I believe we are going to see more companies close their doors and more and more people becoming unemployed. With more people unemployed will causes less dollars being put back into the economy, which will also cause companies to close their doors because they cannot afford to keep them open. Because of past events like the “Great Depression” I believe that we are able pull ourselves out of this recession over time like we have in the past. I believe even though our economy is struggling we will continue to see an increase in the number of immigrants coming into the U.S. to try and make a better living for themselves and their families for it is human nature to want to do so.

I would also like to believe that as a global community effort that over the next ten years we will be able to rely on other fuel sources that are renewable and non toxic to the planet so we can stop or at least slow down global warming. I believe that we as a global community all want to live better lives and make sure that our children’s children can have a safe life and live free of war and pollution so they can live a long and healthy life. Although it is unpredictable where we will end up in ten years I believe and hope it will be better than where we are right now.

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