Research paper
America is the greatest country of all time. It has had many important years and each and every one of those years have been eventful. But there lies a question… What is the most important year for America in the Twentieth century? The answer to that question would happen to be the year, 1962.
There are many reasons why 1962 is one of the most important years for America in the twentieth century. The first reason why 1962 is one of the most important is because of the Baker vs. Carr Supreme court case. In the case, Charles Baker (plaintiff) was a resident of Shelby County, Tennessee. He filed a lawsuit against Joe Carr, a Secretary of State for Tennessee. Baker said that the Tennessee legislature had not drawn its legislative districts since 1901. If the statement made by Charles Baker was true, it would be a violation of the Tennessee State Constitution. The Tennessee State Constitution requires redistricting according to the federal census every ten years. Because of this rule, Baker claimed that his vote was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment. Baker sought an injunction prohibiting further elections, and sought out to seek the remedy of reapportionment at large scale elections. The district courts denied this claim because redistricting presented a political question and would ultimately not be heard by the courts. The case had to be put over for re-argument because no clear majority emerged for either side. Almost a year later, the opinion was finally handed down. The court was split 6:2 coming to the ruling that Baker’s case was justiciable. Justice William J Brennan reformulated the political question doctrine, identifying six factors to help in determin...
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...stro accused the Russians of backing down to the Americans and deserting the Cuban revolution. Allies of the U.S. were also irate. They were upset because the Kennedy administration kept them out of the negotiations that might have led to war.
The year 1962 was definitely an eventful one. It contained Supreme Court cases, civil right movements, and almost a nuclear war between two powerhouse countries. If none of these events had happened, America would not quite be the same country that it is today. We wouldn’t be known as the most bad-ass country if these events did not happen. Hell, we even scared away the Big Bad Wolf, A.K.A the Soviet Union. With all of the events that had happened within a single year, proves the point that the year 1962, is amongst the most important years of the twentieth century in the United States of America.
...roposed that if the U.S. removed its missiles from Turkey then Russia would remove its missiles from Cuba. Robert Kennedy wanted Soviet missiles and offensive weapons removed from Cuba under UN inspection. Later that same day, a U.S. U-2 was shot down over Cuba. Bombardment of Cuba was the initial reaction, but JFK calmed everyone down. The next day on October 28, Russia agreed to withdraw their missiles from Cuba. If they had not, war may have begun.
The 1960s were turbulent years. The United States was unpopularly involved in the war in Vietnam, and political unrest ran high at colleges and universities across the country.
...ity of the blame went onto Kennedy's record as not being the one that had planned it out and not giving the go ahead for the second air raid. It was later proven that no matter what the outcome of the second air raid would have been, it would not have mattered. The CIA also released a document taking the full responsibility and blame for the incident at the Bay of Pigs. The Cuban Missile Crisis not only worried the U.S. but also worried the rest of the world as to how it would turn out. The Soviet's backed Cuba as an ally and fed them missiles and the supplies to build the missile silos in Cuba. The Soviet's said they did this as a counter measure incase we did in fact invade Cuba. Between these two major conflicts of the time, it can be said that the two countries were not battling over Cuba in itself, but more or less battling over the belief of Communism.
Cuba was recovering from the Bay of Pigs invasion. They held off the American forces and were able to avoid the invasion. They weren’t sure if the United States would attack again. Cuba’s dictator (Castro) wanted to convert Cuba into communism. In doing this they allied themselves with the USSR while being dangerously close to the “enemy,” the USA. Cuba was now in the middle of the Cold War. Although they believed getting involved with the USSR would protect them, at the same time it put them in more danger. Castro did not think it would get Cuba tangled into the Cold War. In an interview he said, “Our problem is above all of national sovereignty. Cuba does not mean to get involved in the Cold War.”(Beck 551)
...ed the rest of his life. My grandfather told me that the sixties were some of the best years of his life. He married the love of his life at the beginning of the decade and by its’ final few years he had three beautiful children that would all go on to live happy lives. The decade had several near disasters but none of them materialized. Overall the sixties was a great time for America. The people were happy, technology was on the move, and the economy was booming. It was also a time where it finally looked like the U.S. was finally pulling ahead of the Soviet Union. We defused a crisis that forced the Soviets to stand down during the Cuban Missile Crisis. They may have beaten us into putting a man into space, but we won the final battle when we landed on the moon. The sixties no doubt had their lows, but they were outweighed by all the highs they brought with them.
The U.S. had just elected President Kennedy two years prior to this very threatening occasion, and every nation thought he was a weak leader who just craved attention. During this time, the Soviets and the U.S. were right in the middle of the Cold War (1947-1991): the period of time when both nations were trying to spread their type of government and become superior, making us enemies. Just a year before the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. had made a failed attempt at invading Cuba at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow their communist dictator, Fidel Castro. Once Russia caught wind of this failed invasion, they quickly jumped at their chance at becoming allies with Castro, and started building nuclear bombs in Cuba. Kennedy had recently placed bombs in Turkey, Russia’s neighbor probably leading the soviets to place some of theirs in Cuba, because of how close it was to America; one nuclear bomb could reach Washington D.C. in 30 minutes.
The space race, Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Peace Corps all help contribute to President Kennedy’s success as an influential person in history. Apollo 11, part of the space race, was set in place by President Kennedy in 1961 to perform a moon landing and to return safely to Ear...
Two of the more important events to come out of the sixties were the Vietnam War and the popularization of drug use. The Vietnam War was probably the most unpopular war in the history of American wars but there were still many positives that came out of the war. The war was fought to contain communism and keep Vietnam from becoming another China. Many Americans fought and died in Vietnam and the most important thing that America should have learned for the war was that we cannot just go into a country and bully them around, resistance will be fierce and support back home is needed to win wars.
Lots of things were happening in 1960 with John F. Kennedy was to be the president of the United States of America. America is going through a period of where they are scared and worried about what is going on in the world around them. They needed a strong leader to turn them around and get them back on top. John F. Kennedy gave them just what they need to hear with his inauguration address. He spoke of helping others, working together and protecting are freedom at all cost. It was exactly what the citizens of the United States needed to hear at exact moment.
This failure early in Kennedy’s presidency therefore, arguably, led to the escalation of the Cuban Missile crisis due to the determination of the Kennedy administration to ‘redeem themselves’ from the humiliating event; not only the failure of a CIA military organized operation, but also the loss of many US assets within Cuba during its
The first reason why the 1960’s is the decade of change is because of the political history. Some major political events included in the 60's, the decade of change is the civil rights movement, space race, and the Bay of Pigs. In the 1900's there was allot of bad stuff happening between blacks and whites. When the civil rights movement was passed it made major changes in the 1960's. The civil rights "movement began peacefully, with Martin Luther King and Stokely Carmichael leading sit-ins and peaceful protests, joined by whites, particularly Jews. Malcolm X preached about Black Nationalism. After his assassination, the Black Panthers were formed to continue his mission. In 1965, the Watts riots broke out in Los Angeles. The term "blacks" became socially acceptable, replacing Negroes"(Goodwin 4). MLK or Martin Luther King w...
Cuban mistrust and nationalism, was resulting to secret agreements allowing the Soviet Union to build a missile base on the island. The U.S. found out those plans setting off a fourteen-day standoff. U.S. shi...
In the 40s the 2nd World War caused a battle ground all over the globe but mainly in Europe and in the Soviet Union, this war remains one of the deadliest conflicts up to date. The allied powers defeated the Nazi Germans and the rest of the axis powers but caused many deaths and economic loss around the globe. Over 11 million people were killed during the holocaust alone. After WW2 the beginning of the cold war erupted where tension grew between the USSR and U.S and neither nation could trust one another but never got into a full out combat war with one another. U.S believed that the spread of communism was threatening democracy and capitalism everywhere. Nuclear war between the nations was a constant fear throughout the cold war. In the 50s where the civil rights movement really kicked off in 1954, in the Brown vs Board of Education case, the Supreme Court declared that the separation of blacks and whites in school was unconstitutional. 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person she caused boycotts all over america and lead to bus companies not discriminating blacks. 1950s/60s, Civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King little by little led americans into a nation without segregation. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ened the public segregation around the nation. These decades established big historical events in history for both the U.S and the
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the Soviet Union & the United States. According to The Real Cuban Missile Crisis the issue was that the USSR had placed 36 intercontinental ballistic missiles in Cuba, only ninety miles from Florida (Schwarz, 2013). When a U-2 spy plane discovered these missiles, President John F. Kennedy gathered trusted colleagues to discuss the issue. Many of them had contradicting ideas regarding what actions the country should take against the Soviet Union. As stated in the Cuban Missile Crisis, ultimately the President decided to quarantine Cuba in order to control the imports from the USSR, & saved the United States from a nuclear war.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union were the hegemonic powers of the world. The United States was being led by President John F. Kennedy while the Soviet Union was being led by Premier Nikita Khrushchev. During the crisis, each nation created respective allies. The United States had ties with Turkey and Italy while the Soviet Union became increasingly friendly with Cuba. This was a way of balancing power. These allies had a lot in common and were therefore able to link cohesively. First, The Soviet Union was interested in allying with Cuba because both nations resented the United States in some type of way. The next reason that the Soviet Union was eager to ally with Cuba was due to geopolitics. Considering Cuba is only ninety miles off the coast of Florida, it made for a perfect place to put nuclear missiles. Finally, the Soviets were quick to ally with Cuba because they both shared a common political identity, communism. This loyalty is obvious when Fidel Castro declared, “I am a Marxist-Leninist and I will be one until the last day of my life”. In no way was this bond a one way street. This alliance was mutually beneficial to both countries. Cuba was thrilled to be allying with the Soviets as it had plans to advance its own communist agenda. There’s no better nation to do this with than the Soviet Union, a communist hegemony. Similar to the Soviets, the Cubans also