Overview of the 1950's

The 1950's was a time of change and realization. People started realizing that america was not this perfect country that is was described to be, but they were definitely convinced america was a country full of advances and opportunities but wasn't for all of them.
The 50's was a time of change for industries such as music, rock n' roll was the most popular style listened. Besides being a type of music, it was also a euphemism for sex. The war had just been over therefore many soldiers had come home, this also led to the baby boom, a time period between the 40's and 60's of sudden increase of births in the united states.
Although whites were having the time of their lives, and the post-war adrenaline was rushing through their body, blacks were being segregated more than ever. They were denied th right to ride on buses, to drink from water fountains, they and their own bathrooms. Rosa park was an African american women who was incarcerated after she refused to give her seat to a white male. This caused the people to start questioning what was going on outside of their own lives, and later in the 60's led to the civil rights act.

Tension Arises Between the Soviet Union and the West

Immediately after World War I, decades before the Cold War is thought to have begun, Soviet leaders would have been suspicious of Western Powers. The American and British tried to break up the communist revolution. Later on in history, Stalin became a totalitarian leader. Stalin took private fields as government owned land and killed poor workers. Stalin's comrades were arrested in order to create fear and make people follow him. The truth was kept secret because people knew that they could be shot for defying Stalin. However, despite this, Western Powers still became suspicious of Stalin's leadership in the Soviet Union. President Roosevelt described the Soviet Union as a dictatorship like no other, attacking countries that were no threat to them. Graves of Polish officers were found in 1940 likely to have been killed by the Soviet Leadership. However, British and American government's ignored the finding because they needed an alliance with the USSR. At the Tehran Conference, it was agreed that Stalin will be able to control part of Eastern Europe and Poland and then give Poland part of Germany. However, later, the Poles were encouraged to rise up only to be stopped by the Soviet Union. At the Yalta conference, it was agreed that all three powers would govern Germany, the Soviet Union came in against Japan, and Stalin agreed to keep the Polish Elections fair. But, their was still tension between the Western Powers and the USSR. This tension arose at the Potsdam conference. The conference was supposed to be to negotiate terms for the end of World War II, but the allies couldn't agree on different reforms. This caused strains between countries relationships and lead to Potsdam being characterized as a "bad-tempered conference." The tension increased between the United States and the Soviet Union eventually leading to the Cold War.

Notes on Cold War

Stalin saw that controlling these certain country it would enhance their goal of creating security for Russia. The countries needed to be under Soviet Control, so that they wouldn’t be attacked. Yugoslavia is a communist country. World War 2 is over however everything is not calm. Western Europe is struggling economically. As a result of the war, many parts of these countries are being destroyed which means things have be rebuilt and restored.

Situation in Asia: Japan is being occupied by the United States. Korea is split into two parts North and South occupied by the USSR and US respectively.

The Mediterranean and the Middle East: In Iran the USSR remains in control. In Turkey: they are being pressured by Stalin to have naval bases for Russia in the Mediterranean.

The United Nations: In order to get into the first United Nations you had to be fighting against Germany or Japan.

The United Nations Goals: Promote Peace, Security, Human Rights, social and economic development, cooperation and collective action amongst members

Marshall Plan: Aid program to help out Western Europe, and it was funded by the United States. The political goal was to keep them out of communism.

The Formation of NATO: a mutual defense alliance to keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down.

War in the Pacific

We recently watched a documentary about how the US fought Japan in the Pacific during World War II. I knew basically nothing about it before watching the documentary, so it was pretty interesting to learn about a smaller section of WWII. At first, the Japanese were better equipped and trained. They were "battled hardened" from their battles with the Chinese. However, the US started "leapfrogging," a strategy in which they overtook island after island. The US military learned several lessons from their attack on Tarawa. The attack planners hadn't properly done their job, so when the attack took place, the tides were so low that the boats couldn't get past the coral reefs. The soldiers had to get through a quarter mile of chest-high water to get to shore, and all along the shore, Japanese machine guns were shooting at them. It was obvious that they needed to have significantly detailed plans and reconnaissance for these types of battles. Iwo Jim was an important island because it used radar to give Tokyo a warning that the B29's were on their way. When the American planes fly up to Tokyo, Iwo Jima alerts Tokyo, and when the American planes are flying back, Iwo Jima sends up Japanese planes to shoot the enemy.

Recap of Cold War Learning

Essentially Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union form a sort of alliance to prep against how they are going to attack and consequently defeat the Germans and Japanese. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, meet in the Soviet's embassy in Tehran, Iran and create a strategy to essentially have a second front up against the Nazi's.

2/10/16

Today we finished the documentary on WWII and went into detail about the use of nuclear bombs.

The we started the documentary from the beginning of the Battle of Iwo Jima.  Iwo Jima, an island in the Pacific between where the US was stationed and sending bombers and Japan, was being a strong interference as the bombers went to do their bombing runs. Although not necessary to win the war, it was necessary to save resources and to save men from crash landing back at base. After the battle, the famous picture of the Americans raising the flag was taken and it now one of the most famous pictures of WWII.

Following Iwo Jima was the continued bombing of Tokyo. But instead of doing high-altitude bomb runs, they began to do low-flying firebombing runs, setting fire to the susceptible buildings and causing a giant firestorm. But Japan still wouldn't surrender.

Near the end of the war, we all know what happened. The United States had created, tested, and had clearance to use nuclear weapons from President Truman (Roosevelt had died before his 4th term was completed). Bombing Hiroshima with the Little Boy and Nagasaki with The Fat Man, this undoubted caused massive damage and massive civilian casualties, leading the emperor of Japan to surrender.


The slideshow that we looked at talked about questions to keep in mind while deciding to use the bomb; such as Projected Casualties for using/ not using, and how quickly you wanted to end the war.
We also went into depth as pros and cons for using it and how people would argue future use of it.

2/10

Today in class, we finished the documentary about the war in the Pacific, talked about the atomic bombs, and finished off the class by working on our research projects in class and get help from Mr Stewart.

In the documentary, we saw that the atomic bomb was devastating, but many of the American troops were in favor and believed that it was payback for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Americans also believed that since the Japanese would have fought to the death to keep Americans out of Japan, the atomic bomb would actually save more lives, both Japanese and American, than if there was a land invasion. The main idea why the Americans bombed the Japanese with the atomic bomb because they were refusing to surrender, and it was believed that the Japanese would have never surrendered and would keep fighting to the end. But, it is also believed that the Japanese could have surrendered eventually after the Japanese were starved out, which was actually happening prior to the dropping of the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Another idea why the Americans dropped the bomb was to show the rest of the world how powerful the Americans were.