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Impact of the Vietnam War
The impact of the Vietnam War on the United States
The impact of the Vietnam War on the United States
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1. What were the main features of Nixon's policy of "realism" in dealing with China and the Soviet Union? While he was a fierce anticommunist, President Nixon possessed a very “realist” mindset when it came to foreign relations during his presidency. Unlike his predecessors, Nixon was interested more “…in power than ideology” (Foner 1015), implying that he acknowledged the benefits of having a good relationship with powerful nations despite differences in ideology. He also “…preferred international stability to relentless conflict” (Foner 1015), showing that despite being an anticommunist, he would rather end tensions than keep headache known as the Cold War. This proved especially relevant seeing as how the Vietnam War was in full swing …show more content…
those who spoke out against him. Because of this, it is unsurprising that the events of the Watergate scandal were directly linked to President Nixon. In June of 1972, “…five former employees of Nixon’s reelection committee took part in a break-in at a Democratic Party headquarters” (Foner 1018), which was located in an apartment complex known as the Watergate. The break-in resulted in no robbery, however, for the perpetrators were arrested at the scene, and their motives and goals remain unknown. At the time, no one connected the attempted robbery to President Nixon, but in 1973 the judge who tried the intruders, Judge John J. Sirica, set out to discover who was behind the crime. Stories began to appear in the Washington Post, “…that made it clear that persons close to the president had ordered the burglary” (Foner 1018) and subsequently attempted to sever any connections to the President and the White House. Upon investigation conducted by Congress, it was discovered that “…a wider pattern of wiretapping, break-ins, and attempts to sabotage political opposition” (Foner 1018) were occurring as well. After refusing to release secret recordings of conversations held in his office, the Supreme Court ordered President Nixon to release them, stating that “…the president is not above the law” (Foner 1019), and the Watergate scandal …show more content…
However, this decline was not unwarranted, since there were multiple factors building up to bring an end to the United States’ “golden era”. First of all, Cold War policies resulted in economic downfalls for the country’s economy, since “…the United States promoted the industrial reconstruction of Japan and Germany and the emergence of new centers of manufacturing in places like South Korea and Taiwan” (Foner 1020). In order to strengthen their allies in the fight against communism, the United States ignored its own industrial industry, specifically by encouraging American companies to invest in foreign ones. In 1971, “…the United States experienced a merchandise trade deficit—that is, it imported more goods than it exported” (Foner 1020) for the first time in the twentieth century. With this sudden increase of overseas importation and declining profits, American corporations moved “…toward eliminating well-paid manufacturing jobs through automation and shifting production to low-wage areas of the United States and overseas” (Foner 1022). This shift of employment devastated once-booming industrial cities such as Detroit and Chicago, and the cities “…had lost more than half of the manufacturing jobs that had existed three decades earlier” (Foner 1022). In addition to this,
The question was whether the USA should pursue the same policy regarding communism in the Far East as in Europe, or should it concentrate on making sure that the Soviets couldn?t expand westward? Despite being a little too optimistic, MacArthur?s decisive policy addressed the global threat of communism better because it acknowledged that the U.S. shouldn?t just ignore one communist sector of the world, and because it recognized that we should eliminate an enemy that we are inevitably bound to come into conflict with.
The alliance formed between the US and USSR during the second world war was not strong enough to overcome the decades of uneasiness which existed between the two ideologically polar opposite countries. With their German enemy defeated, the two emerging nuclear superpowers no longer had any common ground on which to base a political, economical, or any other type of relationship. Tensions ran high as the USSR sought to expand Soviet influence throughout Europe while the US and other Western European nations made their opposition to such actions well known. The Eastern countries already under Soviet rule yearned for their independence, while the Western countries were willing to go to great lengths to limit Soviet expansion. "Containment of 'world revolution' became the watchword of American foreign policy throughout the 1950s a...
In the history of the United States, foreign policy has caused many disputes over the proper role in international affairs. The views, morals and beliefs of Americans, makes them feel the need to take leadership of the world and help those countries who are in need. The foreign policies of President Eisenhower will eventually lead to the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War. President Eisenhower’s role in these policies was based on his military-type strategies to safeguard a victory in the Global Cold War. President Eisenhower’s foreign policies led to an effective involvement in the Cold War and enviably the Vietnam War from an American perspective.
Reagan rose into power after years of turmoil and the American pride was dipping. About a decade before he became president, the war in Viet-Nam was winding down and the troops were returning home to negative demonstrations towards their duty. Then, during the Carter years, America transitioned into a détente policy, which meant that the United States would try to ease the tensions with the Soviet Union by not expanding the military, but not doing anything to acting ease the tension. The idea behind this became known as MAD, mutually assured destruction, (Hannaford) which meant that both the United States and Soviet Union would maintain and even number of nuclear weapons so that if one would fire, the other would be able to fire back equally. Reagan completely disagreed with this philosophy and created a whole new policy when he became president. The foreign policy he established was to create the Reagan Doctrine. According to a speech by Peter Hannaford, the Reagan Doctrine was that America would support democratic movements in any Communist country until that country could enjoy the fruits of freedom (Hannaford). This meant that the United States would help any country who wanted to leave the influence of the Soviet Union and create their own democracy. Also, to counter the Soviet Union and end the Cold War, a race between the United State and Soviet Union to create the best technology and become the world powerhouse, Reagan increased military spending. Ronald Reagan knew that the Soviet Union was unable to keep up the United States in military spending and still having enough funds to fund their own economy to keep it stable. Reagan used this knowledge to convince Congress to increase military budget to build up technology, causing the Soviets decide on what to do. The United States had the funds to continue, but the Soviet Union could not keep up. The breaking point
The source from TeachingAmericanHistory.org gives me the background and discussions about this case. The case United States v. Nixon happened after the Watergate scandal. In 1972, when Nixon won the reelection, some burglars intruded the Watergate
On January 20, 1969, Richard Milhouse Nixon became the 37th president of the United States and faced great challenges at home and on the world front . Richard Nixon selected Henry Kissinger to be his assistant for National Security Affairs. Under their control for the next 6 years, they oversaw the formation of détente and the creation of Triangular Diplomacy. The Nixon-Kissinger strategy in approaching the Soviet Union was full of contradictions and risks. One of the most severe and most notable risks was the potential preemptive nuclear strike that the Soviets were threatening to take against China; an attempt by the Soviets to bully the Chinese into negotiating the Sino-Soviet border. Becoming involved in the Soviet affairs was very dangerous, because as Kissinger observed, the balance of power due to missile strength was shifting from the United States holding the upper hand to that of the Soviets being in control . Kissinger, upon realization of this fact, ...
There was a break-in in 1972 at the Watergate Office Complex of the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters and Ronal Reagan was involved. This crime was committed on June 17, 1972 in the very early morning, which will prove that it will be the end for President Nixon. Seven burglars were found inside the Complex and they were arrested inside the DNC, this was a planned out robbery and was linked to to President Nixon’s re-election campaign, the burglars were trying to steal top secret documents and to wiretap the phones. History can't surely say that Nixon took part in this. However, he did take part in covering this up and raising hush money for the burglars, and even trying to stop the FBI from investigating. So in August of 1974, after the conspiracy had become public, President Nixon resigned and was pardoned by Gerald Ford.
On the heels of war, new technology caused a decrease in prices of goods in the 1920’s and in the 1950’s the GI Bill increased income. The bureaucratization of business in the 1920’s meant that more people could be employed in higher paying white-collar jobs than before, including, for the first time, housewives. This new income combined with the reduced prices for goods that resulted from mechanized production, assembly lines and a general decrease of the cost of technology created a thriving consumerist middle class that went on to fuel the economy in all sectors, especially the upper classes. Likewise, during World War II Americans saved up around 150 billion dollars, and this sum combined with the income of the GI Bill allowed normal people to buy expensive things, from houses to cars to electronics to educations at a rapid rate, fueling the trademark prosperity of the 1950’s. The new automobile culture of the 50’s spawned new businesses that catered to mobile Americans, such as nicer and more standardized hotels like Holiday Inn, and drive-up restaurants like McDonalds. Just as the culture of the 1920’s was transfo...
Richard Nixon's first term as president will always be connected with the Watergate scandal, the biggest political scandal in United States history. Various illegal activities were conducted including burglary, wire tapping, violations of campaign financing laws, sabotage, and attempted use of government agencies to harm political opponents to help Richard Nixon win reelection in the 1972 presidential elections. There were about 40 people charged with crimes related to the scandal. Most of them were convicted by juries or pleaded guilty. Watergate involved more high-level government officials than any previous scandal. It has been etched in the minds of millions and is still being recalled today when faced with the present day scandal of President Clinton. In All The President's Men, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, former Washington Post reporters, recount, illustrate, and analyze the Watergate scandal time and their work in reporting and revealing these events for the newspaper.
Nixon was long associated with American politics before his fall from grace. He was along time senator before finally being elected president in 1968. During his first term, his United States went through the Vietnam War and a period of economic inflation. In 1972 he was easily re-elected over Democrat nominee George McGovern. Almost unnoticed during his campaign was the arrest of five men connected with Nixon’s re-election committee. They had broken into the Democrats national head quarters in the Watergate apartment complex, in Washington D.C. They attempted to steal documents and place wire taps on the telephones. By March of 1973, through a federal inquiry, it had been brought to light that the burglars had connections with high government officials and Nixon’s closest aids. Despite Nixon and his lawyers best efforts, it was shown that the president had participated in the Watergate cover-up. On August 8, 1974 Nixon announced, without admitting guilt, that he would resign. He left the Oval Office the next day: an obvious fall from grace.
Despite the national attention the Watergate scandal had gained President Nixon, he won the second term presidency. The major problem for Nixon would come later. The investigations of the Watergate scandal lead to the discovery of other criminal acts by officials including Nixon. During the investigation many things begin to surface. It was discovered that documents had been destroyed that may have made a link between Nixon and the Watergate scandal. These documents may have shown that he had some acknowledgement in what had happened. There was evidence that people involved in the Nixon campaign had been wire tapping phones illegally for a long time according to “dummies.com”. The greatest issue would come to light during the 1973 Watergate hearings. During testimonies it came to light that every conversation was recorded in the Oval office according to “study.com”. It was demanded that these tapes be reviewed to learn how much involvement President Nixon had in the Watergate burglary. The President felt that he had the right to withhold these tapes through what he referred to as executive privilege. This means that if it is the best interest of the public the president has the right to keep information from the
(1993), The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations, Volume Four, America in the Age of Soviet Power, 1945 – 1991, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press · Froman, M.B. (1991) The Development of the Détente, Coming to Terms, London, Macmillan Academic and Professional LTD · Kent, J. and Young, J.W. (2004) International Relations Since 1945, Oxford, Oxford University Press · www.oed.com (Oxford English Dictionary online)
What we do know is that between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. on May 28, 1972, the burglars attempted to unscrew a lock on a door that would allow access to the National Democratic Committee office. The burglars never gained access because they got nervous regarding the presence of the security officers. There is some thought that the burglars were after negative information that could be used against Nixon’s opponent (“5 held in Plot to Bug Democrats’ office” par. 28. The aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid afore On June 7, 1972, the Watergate was broken into for the second time. The break in occurred about 9 p.m.
Aside from national security interests domestic thirst for oil boomed. The war brought us out of the Great Depression. During the Depression a traditionally capitalist American society embraced a kind of socialism with the New Deal. WWII transformed the bear turned in a raging bull. Capitalism was back with a vengeance, charging forward stronger than it had ever been before. The heavy industry built up to sustain the war effort was retooled to meet the demands of the emerging consumerist culture of the 1950s. The new explosion of industrial output became so pervasive that the decade ended with President Eisenhower warning of the dangers of the growing “Military-Industrial Complex.”
People’s ideas and assumptions about world politics shape and construct the theories that help explain world conflicts and events. These assumptions can be classified into various known theoretical perspectives; the most dominant is political realism. Political realism is the most common theoretical approach when it is in means of foreign policy and international issues. It is known as “realpolitik” and emphasis that the most important actor in global politics is the state, which pursues self-interests, security, and growing power (Ray and Kaarbo 3). Realists generally suggest that interstate cooperation is severely limited by each state’s need to guarantee its own security in a global condition of anarchy. Political realist view international politics as a struggle for power dominated by organized violence, “All history shows that nations active in international politics are continuously preparing for, actively involved in, or recovering from organized violence in the form of war” (Kegley 94). The downside of the political realist perspective is that their emphasis on power and self-interest is their skepticism regarding the relevance of ethical norms to relations among states.