Contemporary+America

Korean War

The Korean War was a conflict between North and South Korea. While the UN supported South Korea, the Soviet Union supported North Korea. As North Korea leaned heavily toward communism, South Korea's democratic desires led to its succession from North Korea. This split created enormous tension between the two countries.

On June 24, 1950, President Harry S. Truman was informed that North Korea had crossed the 38th parallel, invading South Korea. It was immediately decided that due to the unprovoked nature of the attacks, the United States would intervene. General Douglas MacArthur commanded 480,000 troops, and $12 billion dollars were authorized to be spent in Asia. 15 nations were placed under U.S. command by the UN, and President Truman appointed MacArthur supreme commander of all forces.

As the war progressed and North Korea was forced to retreat, China joined the North Korean forces, which were able to take the offensive again. Eventually, the fighting returned to the 38th parallel, and because neither side was able to make progress, and armistice was reached.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba during the Cold War, and was the closest the War came to becoming nuclear. The conflict began when in 1961 the Soviet Union, looking to expand communism, aligned with Cuba. The United States was strongly opposed to this alignment, and this, coupled with the fact that in becoming involved with Latin America, the Soviet Union violated the Monroe Doctrine, resulted in America's involvement with Cuba's and the Soviet Union's relationship.

In 1962, the United States launched and economic embargo against Cuba. The U.S. Congress also authorized the use of military force if America was threatened. In response, Castro and Nikita Khrushchev secretly placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. U.S. reconnaissance discovered the missiles being built there, and the tension between the countries increased dramatically. The crisis reached an end when the United States offered a resolution in which the Cubans would dismantle their weapons, and the U.S. would not invade Cuba.

Vietnam

The Vietnam War was a conflict from 1959 to 1975 between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was backed by its communist allies, largely China, the Soviet Union, and North Korea. South Vietnam's largest proponents were the United States and South Korea.

France had occupied Vietnam since 1859. Ho Chi Mihn and the People's Congress finally declared Vietnam independent in 1945. British forces invaded the area to restore power to the French. Fighting went on until 1956, when the French withdrew. In the 1950s, the United States began getting involved with the war, as part of the large strategy of containment--the effort to prevent Communism from becoming a widespread form of government. In 1965, combat troops were deployed. The conflict was finally resolved in April of 1975, when North Vietnam captured Saigon, and North and South Vietnam were reunified as a single-party Communist state.

Cold War

 Great Depression

Many factors played roles in bringing about the Global Great Depression. The Western world, especially the United States, faced a massive overproduction of food, and because of that, very low prices. Because of the recent war, production had risen greatly: farmers bought new, more efficient equipment with the belief that demand would remain steady. However, New Zealand began exporting large amounts of food, and this, with the already massive production of the Americas and Europe, created far more supply than demand, sent prices down to extreme lows. The food production issue was worsened in the 1930s when the Dust Bowl occurred. The Dust Bowl was a time period in which many dust storms hit the American and Canadian Midwest, the result of severe droughts, compounded by a lack of erosion-prevention techniques in farming. The catastrophic damage of the storms resulted in the displacement of over 2,500,000 Americans.

The Post-War situation in countries like France and Germany still had not recovered by the late 1920s. These countries had still not paid off wartime debts to the United States, and timid governments were slow to respond to any issues involving money. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which placed record-high tariffs on thousands of goods, was passed by the United States in 1930. The Act was supposed to raise money for the United States, but instead backfired, as, in enraged retaliation, the rest of the world raised tariffs on American goods. The Act played a part in the skyrocketing unemployment rates in the 1930s and was a huge factor in the massive contraction of international trade--the world experienced a 33% decline in the years following the Act.

The most influential contributor to the Global Great Depression is the one that is often incorrectly believed to be synonymous with it--the Wall Street Crash of 1929. From Thursday, October 24 1929, to Tuesday, October 29 1929, the Stock Market plummeted, marking the beginning of the worst stock market crash in the history of the United States. The crash followed the "Roaring Twenties," a decade of great prosperity. The American economy transitioned at this time from a wartime economy to that of a peaceful nation, thereby bringing great prosperity. The 1920s were a time of great economic growth, which translated to high stock prices, which were mistakenly believed to have the ability to remain high. Irving Fisher, the first celebrity economist, epitomized America's optimism when he proclaimed "stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."

Pearl Harbor

The Japanese navy engaged in a surprise attack against the US Navy on December 7, 1941. This attack was intended to prevent the United States navy from intervening in Japan's planned war against Southeast Asia. The attack had an entirely opposite effect, as it brought the United States into World War II. Japanese planes sunk 4 US navy ships and damaged 3 more, and created 2,402 casualties and left 1,282 wounded.

The attack consisted of two aerial waves striking Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Japan's intentions were both to neutralize American naval fleets and to decrease American morale, both were to lead to little interference in Japan's planned invasion of Southeast Asia. After the attacks, both Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy declared war against the United States, stating that they finally feel "compelled...to carry on the struggle against the U.S.A." (Hitler). Fortunately for America, their naval aircraft carriers were not destroyed; otherwise America's navy would be unable to conduct offensive operations against any other countries. Due to this fortunate result for the United States, the navy was able to make repairs on 5-8 of the ships, and US submarines halted Japanese economy by stopping transportation of oil and raw materials.

World War II

 End of World War I


 * World War I had waged on throughout continental Europe for a good four years before it came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June of 191