Golden Age Essay

Essay 1: The recession ended the Golden Age There are many events that are arguably mark the end of the Golden Age. Many people say that the downfall was caused by the Vietnam War. Others say that the Golden Age ended because of the change in foreign policy. And some say that it ended because of the decline in the economy. The end of the Golden Age was actually signaled by the recession.

The Golden Age is known for happening during the Cold War. During the Cold War, people put their support into the government, fearing that if they didn’t Communism would take over the country. People believed that their government would do their best to help other countries fight Communism. When the United States went to war with Vietnam, it’s citizens thought

In the 70’s the national deficit rose from an average of .8% to 2.1% (Fink, April 13). This high of a national deficit was unheard of. The government tried to decrease this without raising taxes and ultimately failed, causing inflation. As inflation rates continued to raise, the unemployment rate steadily rose along side it. Ford’s “WIN” campaign helped to reduce inflation, but the unemployment rate continued to increase. By 1974 unemployment rates passes 9% (Fink, April 13). There were 2 major reasons that the unemployment rate rose. The first reason is that there were thousands of solders returning from Vietnam in 1973. Soldiers did needed jobs, but there were fewer and fewer jobs available. The second main reason is that with the war over, there was no need for all of the manufacturing of weapons and things needed for war. Because of this, the positions created for this were eliminated and therefore there were less jobs. While the unemployment rates grew, there was an energy crisis. The countries of OPEC, the oil producing nations, cut off all oil shipments to the countries that supported Israel during the Arab Israeli war, causing oil shortages all over the nation (Fink, April 13).

The Golden Age was a time of economic rise and trust in the government. The Vietnam War caused the United States citizens to lose trust in the government. This began the slow end of the

There were many changes in the military because of World War 1. One major change was that the navy was expanded. The naval act of 1916 and the policy of “preparedness” in 1915 allowed a large amount of money to be put into the navy in order to expand it (Foner, 777). The United States Navy was not very big before World War 1. Because most of the wars that America fought in were on land, the United States did not need a big Navy. Right before joining World War 1, the United States realized that they need a better Navy if they were going to be fighting against the significantly larger navy’s of European countries, specifically Germany’s