Various Movements of the 1960s and U.S. Involvement in World War II

Various Movements of the 1960s

The 1960s saw an eruption of Civil Rights Movements that were seen on the television and on all the newspapers across the nation (Agar, 2008). These movements included protests against the Vietnam War, the student's movement, women's movement, gay rights movement and the environmental movement. All these movements played a key role in changing policies that are still being implemented to date. Some of the issues that the 1960 America faced like white and black children being forced to go to different schools, appear foreign and cruel to the current American citizen (Agar, 2008). The election of President John F. Kennedy as the new president of the United States in 1961 came with the promise that the government was going to make changes and solve everyone's problems. His agenda termed the "New Frontier" was the most ambitious agenda ever seen in U.S history and it sought to eliminate forms of injustices and inequality in the U.S (Agar, 2008). Although it promised change, it was not enacted immediately and people continued to suffer. The war on Vietnam was simply too expensive for the country and this led to projects proposed in the new frontier agenda like poverty eradication, to be dropped as the country decided to direct all its resources towards the war. This angered most Americans as they took to the streets to demand that the war be over and done with. Others took extreme measures of fleeing to Canada to avoid being drafted for the war (Agar, 2008). The civil rights movement began in February 1960 when four black students sat at a whites-only section in a dinner in Greensboro, North Carolina. This sparked a movement that saw thousands of people storm into segregated restaurants and shops in protest. The decade also saw a rise in student activism, women rights protests and the crown of it all is the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy which sparked more violence and protests (Agar, 2008). The decade will forever be remembered in history as the decade that brought change and liberation.

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U.S. Involvement in World War II

Twenty years after World War I ended, the world found itself deep into another war. World War II begun in 1939 and ended in 1945 in almost all parts of the world including; Europe, Russia, Northern Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific (Vitale, 2010). The war resulted in millions of deaths of both soldiers and innocent civilians. It begun at the brink of America becoming a superpower and it led to the transformation of the American economy into a more productive and thriving economy (Vitale, 2010). The spark that resulted into the war was introduced by Nazi Germany when they attacked Poland in 1939. The U.S did not initially want to join the war but they were forced to when the Japanese bombed Perl Harbor (Vitale, 2010). President F. Roosevelt in 1940 instigated the passing of the Selective Training and Service Act bill that stipulated that men who had reached their 18th birthday and were below the age of 45 were required by law to enlist in the military service. The president also played a key role in persuading congress to repeal the neutrality law allowing for arms to be supplied to France and Britain (Vitale, 2010). America also supplied Britain with aid which contributed to America becoming the biggest supplier of military tanks, airplanes and ships to its soldiers and also its allies. Operation overload also known as D-Day was designed by President Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin to liberate occupied Europe following the surrender of Germany in 1943 (Vitale,2010). America experienced turning points throughout the war with the battle of Midway in 1942, the invasion of Italy in 1943, the battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 and finally the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in 1945 (Vitale, 2010). The war ended in 1945 after the surrender of Germany and Japan with heightened tension being experienced between allies and enemies leading to a long period of uncertainty known as the cold war.

References

AGAR, J. (2008). What happened in the sixties? The British Journal for the History of Science, 41(04), 567. doi: 10.1017/s0007087408001179

Vitale, P. (2010). Wages of War: Manufacturing Nationalism During World War II. Antipode, 43(3), 783-819. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00824.x