The Most Significant Events
Mary Wright
University of Phoenix
The American Experience Since 1945
HIS/135
Gladys Vint
11/20/2011

Following World War II there have been many social, economic, and political events that have taken place during this decade. Different people may have various opinions of what event had the most impact or effect on the American people than other events within the same decade. I will attempt to explain the events that I believe are the most significant events of this era.
1950’s Civil Rights Movement The Civil Rights Movement began in the late 1940’s and extended throughout the late 60’s. Many people can recall some of the key events that took place during this time. For example, we all remember reading about Ruby Bridges, Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X, and many others that played an important role in the Civil Rights movement. However, Ruby Bridges is the small 6 year old little girl that comes to mind when I think of the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. This young brave little girl was escorted on her first day to school by U.S. Marshalls, as her parents stood close by. She endured being called names and threatened and feared being poisoned if she ate anything besides a packaged bag of potato chips (Davidson, Gienapp, Heymann, Lytle & Stoff, 2006). Ruby was the only students for several weeks until white students finally began coming back to school during the first year since the segregation of the schools (Davidson, et al., 2006). Ruby’s parents had different views about her being the only black child to attend, William Frantz School, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father didn’t want any part of the school mixing whites and blacks. He feared that angry people, who wanted to keep blacks and whites separate, would hurt his family if Ruby went to the all-white school (library.thinkquest.org).

After Ruby endured all the pressures of being the first black American to go to an all-white school, she helped pave the road for many other black students to attend white schools, and made it easier for them to get a better education. Her bravery helped improve racial interactions between black and whites, but she didn’t know at that time how much of an impact she really made (library.thinkquest.org).When Ruby’s brother was tragically killed in a drug-related shooting, she then realized what her purpose was, and what she did at the beginning of the Civil Rights movement was history made (library.thinkquest.org). Ruby knew that she wanted to help young, troubled, black children obtain an education. Ruby started volunteer work at the William Frantz School that once denied her right to an education. She helped make the school stronger by starting the Ruby Bridges Foundation (library.thinkquest.org). Today, Ruby travels to schools to explain the importance of reading, power of education, and integration of races (library.thinkquest.org).

1960’s Vietnam The most influential war in American history was the war in Vietnam (history1900s.about.com). This war was prolonged from 1963 to 1975, with very little resolve. Americans struggled to defend a war between nationalist forces in an attempt to unify a country that was not ours (history1900s.about.com).The Vietnam War impacted the United States drastically socially, economically, and politically. The Vietnam War began to affect the American people in many ways. The war that was killing so many young soldiers was the beginning of the most controversial issue of this decade. Not only was this a war many people didn’t understand, but it was also causing distrust among the American people towards the government and its leaders (Davidson, Gienapp, Heymann, Lytle & Stoff, 2006). Our country was engaged in a war that many Americans viewed as a war we would never win. Public support was lost, and many people had mixed feelings about the purpose and worried about the effects it would have in the future. When President Nixon decided to expand the war beyond Vietnam into Cambodia, his decision started some of the most horrible antiwar protests between the American people and the government (Davidson, et al., 2006). The people of the counter-cultural era were already expressing themselves in different ways that were more social and not political, so this move by the President only made matters worse (Davidson, et al., 2006). On, November 15, 1969, the largest anti-war protest in American history took place in Washington, D.C., over 250,000 Americans rallied to ask for the government to send the troops home (www.history.com/topics) The Vietnam War paved the way for political leaders as an example not to follow in future foreign alliance policies (history1900s.about.com).

1970’s The Watergate Scandal The Watergate Scandal marked the most remembered and worse scandal in American history that ruined the reputation of President Nixon (www.pbs.org). The Watergate Scandal began when a break-in occurred in the Democratic Party headquarters in 1972. The Scandal came about as the break-in was covered up in an attempt to overturn the political process. President Nixon was directly involved in the Scandal and knew firsthand about the planned break-in. Hotel security guard noticed tape on the lock of door leading to the National Democratic Headquarters (www.corporatenarc.com). “The foiled break-in attempt at the Watergate scandal was part of a larger campaign by Nixon supporters to tarnish the reputation of Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party (www.corporatenarc.com). Nixon used money from his supporters to pay for the cover-up in an attempt to hide the truth from Congress and the American people (www.corporatenarc.com). The president had committed the worst crime ever in the eyes of the public. He abused his powers as a leader to obtain what he wanted regardless of how it affected the country. Nixon knew that because of his involvement he no longer would have the support of the American People to remain in office. President Nixon became the first President to resign to avoid impeachment (www.corporatenarc.com). Nixon was later pardoned by President Gerald Ford, while his supporters lost their jobs and faced different charges for their part in the scandal. The Watergate scandal was now over, but its effects were ongoing. The scandal caused an increasing lack of faith and trust in the government that still exists to this day (www.pbs.org).

1980’s Mikhail Gorbachev In the late 1980’s, a young Soviet Union President was ready for reform and saw the need as he aligned with Regan, as he valued Reagan’s world opinions(Davidson, Gienapp, Heymann, Lytle & Stoff, 2006). Gorbachev was ready for restructuring and welcomed fundamental ideas to improve relations with the United States (Davidson, et al., 2006). Gorbachev was desperate as his country was in a great economic and political trouble (Davidson, et al., 2006). He knew that substantial improvements had to be made in ordered for the country to survive. Gorbachev presented policies of reform which included a policy of glasnost or freedom of speech and a program of economic reform known as perestroika, or rebuilding (www.coldwar.org) Gorbachev freedom of expression set free emotions and political feelings that had been built up for decades, and which proved to be extremely powerful when brought out into the open(www.coldwar.org). Although it seemed like a success for Gorbachev’s reforms to come into effect, it was not what he expected. The new freedom of speech of the Soviet people brought much criticism towards Gorbachev for not restoring the economy (www.coldwar.org). Even though he reduce nuclear arms with the United States, remove the troops from Afghanistan, and tore down the Great Wall none of these events prevented the downfall of the Soviet Union. The United States watched as one of the most feared communism countries was brought down to its knees. All these events lead to the end to the Cold War which had hung over these two superpowers since the end of WWII (www.coldwar.org). This allowed the United States to remain the super power country, as the world’s political, economic, and military alliances were changed all over the world(www.coldwar.org)..

1990’s Welfare Reform The 1990’s marked the beginning of a way to benefit low income Americans, especially children. (www.heritage.org).During the 90’s President Clinton made a proposal to balance the budget and the deadline was aimed for the year 2002. The proposal was called a sweeping reform for welfare that was a big change from the past welfare policies of the more liberal democrats of our day (Davidson, Gienapp, Heymann, Lytle & Stoff, 2006). The reform wanted to revoke the 60 year old social safety net for the poor and require welfare recipients to work (sourcewatch.org). The President received severe criticism from different organizations for embracing this Republican-led effort to change the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (sourcewatch.org). He wanted to make welfare reform effective by helping to create new jobs by the year 2000, with tax credits for companies who hire welfare recipients and from state plans which may utilize savings from welfare program cuts to create jobs for recipients (sourcewatch.org). The new policy would end guarantees of federal aid to poor children and make the states responsible. Food stamps were cut, and a five-year limit on payments to any family was brought into effect (Davidson, et al., 2006). The reform program requires that recipients find work within two years or perform community service, mandates a minimum of 30 work hours per week for parents with children over age 6, imposes a lifetime limit on receipt of aid, and rewards states with financial bonuses for reducing their caseloads (sourcewatch.org).

In conclusion, due to the changes that has made a grave impact on the United States in the past decade, I hypothesize that even with all the advances that have taken place and the ups and downs our economy has seen, I foresee social, economic, and political ruin in the next ten years. It appears that even with all the past lessons learned from our history, our country is experiencing yet another recession and seems to be getting worse. We are still at war, as the United States continues to become the peace makers for all foreign policy that directly affects our economy and takes away what Americans have worked so hard for in the past 50 years. Our elderly can see history repeating and the same events taking place all over again. Budget cuts are taking place in all areas and there is no funding for welfare reform, education, Medicaid/Medicare, and poverty and crime is increasing daily. People are just trying to survive, while millions and trillions of dollars are being spent overseas and on unnecessary expenses, like exporting goods. Our natural resources are depleted and we are more dependent on foreign aid than ever before. Our country is not the “super power” that we use to be. Americans are even more mistrusting of our government as in the Watergate Scandal and just as angry during the Vietnam War. Many Americans will agree that there is still hate and segregation and division among minority groups, just as much as in the Civil Rights movement.

References
Davidson, J., Gienapp, W., Heyrmann, C., Lytle C., & Stoff, M., 2006).
Nation of Nations: A concise narrative of the American Republic (3). Columbus, Ohio. United States: McGraw-Hill. history1900s.about.com/od/vietnamwar/a/vietnamwar.htm library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/ruby_bridges.htm sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=1996_Personal...and...Act www.coldwar.org/articles/90s/fall_of_the_soviet_union.asp www.corporatenarc.com/watergate.php www.heritage.org/research/testimony/the-effects-of-welfare-reform www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war www.pbs.org/johngardner/chapters/6c.html