War between the United States and North Korea
President Harry Truman
Sputnik I
President Dwight Eisenhower
Duck and Cover that was done in school during the Nucear Proliferation
Joseph McCarthy
The History of 1950
Can you remember what happened in the 1950s? This decade is composed of the threat of mass destruction and some breathtaking technological innovation. It all started with the introduction of the idea of communism to foreign nations, which resulted in the Korean War. The United States was forced into the war, trying to prevent the spread of communism. The Soviet Union, a communist nation, threatened the United States with Nuclear Proliferation. So as we can see, this would’ve been the first nuclear war. This decade was also filled with lies. This was when the Republicans believed Joe McCarthy’s claim that he was holding some of the world’s communist leaders. This was also the decade where Sputnik I, the first satellite in space, was launched by The Soviet Union. This then resulted in a distraction to the United States during the Korean War. This decade started under Truman’s rule and ended in Eisenhower’s power.
The Korean War can be considered as the highlight of the 1950s. This happened right after World War II, when the Soviet Union and the United States settled there in order for them to disarm the Japanese troops. Because of their desire to spread communism to the entire Korea, the North invaded the South. The northern part of Korea was under the Soviet’s power, and the other part was under the United States’ control. The United States did not support communism so we asked help from the United Nations to defend their territory. General Douglas McArthur sent the U.S. troops to North Korea without knowing that his troops were not well prepared to face the cold weather in Korea. There have been stories that before a soldier even hit the ground when he is shot; his body was as hard as ice. Due to the harshness of the activities that went on, people recognize this war as the “No-Win-War”, “Truman’s War”, “Democrat’s War”, etc. This loss resulted for General Douglas McArthur to get fired from his position as the general and was replaced by Former General Matthew Ridgeway. The Americans lost their trust on Truman’s ability being a president. On the other hand, this war brought something beneficial. This was the first time where people forgot racial separation, and militaries from different races become united and fought for their country. Segregation in this country has ceased momentarily and the Americans started working together not as a race, but as a nation, they worked together for the better of mankind. And this very memorable event happened under the power of Former President Harry Truman.
Harry Truman was the vice president of the United States and took office in 1945, due to Roosevelt’s death. Truman did not get any formal college education. He had never been into any university and his family used to live a normal American life. He was an honest, open and brave person, and because of this braveness that he possessed, he pursuit a career in the military. After World War II he quickly approved and promoted the reconstruction of Western Europe. He was the president during the Korean War and was blamed for the loss of American troops in Korea. This ended his presidency.
Aside from all the tension that was going on between the United States and the Soviet Union, Sputnik I was launched in October 4, 1957 by the Soviet Union. This served as a threat to United States and shows that Soviet is very powerful. Due to this discovery, the United States lost their confidence. Nevertheless, Sputnik made the United States military speed up with their nuclear production. Eventually, United States attempted to have an American version of the Sputnik I, which was called Explorer I and was launched in 1958. It started the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Another historical event that happened during 1950 was the BABY BOOM! Baby Boom took place right after the World War II, between 1946 and 1964. This event was due to the wives or a special someone of the soldiers who fought in the war. Before the soldiers left for the war, some of them promised to their loved ones that they will come back and have children. For this reason, an estimated sixty-five million babies were born in this time period. Just about one baby was born for every seven seconds. This was also the time where the government promoted family growth to the citizens and offered more benefits to help the parents support their family. This government that promoted the growth of different families in the United States was under the presidency of Eisenhower.
Eisenhower was the president of the United States from 1952 to 1961. He was also known by people as “Ike”. During his presidency he requested and invested more money for nuclear power research. This was because it has been proven that nuclear power although dangerous, is extremely inexpensive. Moreover, he promised to end the war in Korea, this made people loves him. In addition to this, he fought for black children’s rights, which was to go to the same school as whites. He believes in so called “dynamic conservatism” which means to balance economic conservatism to activism. His administration believed that business growth is very important for the nation’s success. But he did not support the school construction bill and as a matter of fact, he slashed government aid to public housing. Despite this mishap, he reduced taxes and during his presidency, transportation improved and more Americans owned cars. Because transportation was improved, people discovered and developed more efficient routes. One thing that people may remember him is that, under his presidency the Federal Highway Act was passed which, is the largest public work programs in American History! Just imagine all the freeways that are surrounding us in these times, most of them were commissioned in Eisenhower’s time. Sure it was great and productive and all, but what were the hardships that Eisenhower faced in his time?
One of the most famous controversies in this era was the Nuclear Proliferation. Nuclear Proliferation is the fear for the communism and the nuclear power that Soviet had at the time. This was the period where Americans got even more afraid regarding the nuclear war. To help children in schools to prepare for this so called nuclear war, they did different drills such as traumatic injury, duck and cover, air raid, radiation sickness and shock. In 1952, schools issued 2.5 million free nametags to help the government identify some missing people in case of any accident. Because of too much preparation, the people got used to it and they even viewed bombs as very friendly. People got more comfortable in their situation.
McCarthysim was a big issue and claimed that Joe McCarthy, a Senator, was keeping list of 205 people that belonged in the Secretary of State that were involved in the communist party. People didn’t think that it was fraud for he was just carrying his laundry list. This was pretty obvious for he never showed anyone the list and as he continued to give speeches to different states, the number of people in that list kept changing. Republicans didn’t believe that it was fraud after a long time of investigation and they thought that it was just the way of media to hide the communist traitors. Things then unexpectedly happened. When the Republicans got into power, they rewarded Joe McCarthy for his investigation and his so called braveness. Because of his lies, thousands of jobs were shed. Families and friendships were destroyed due to nation’s fear of communism.
In conclusion, this era can be considered as an era of new hope. This decade started with a great tragedy, which is the Korean War and ended with the discovery of different technologies that can be used for war efforts. This era made most Americans realize that there are many things out there that can still be developed. It made them realize that no matter how smart they think they are, there’s still a lot to learn. It finally opened the majority’s eyes to know that going to war and fighting for one’s belief isn’t the answer, but restraining one’s self, attaining discipline and fighting for peace is what matters. This decade made most people realize that no matter how weak or what crisis we are facing, there is always hope. This made most people realize that it doesn’t matter how they fell down, what matters is how they are going to stand back up.
Bibliography
"McCarthyism". http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthyism.htm, January 15, 2009.
"Korean War". http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0828118.html, February 6, 2009.