American History

The last six decades have seen tremendous political, economic and social changes in the United States of America than ever before. The beginning of the twenty first century came with new changes in the world both politically and socially. By the middle of the century, the world had already experienced two serious world wars and this was instrumental in changing the state of the world. Every other decade has seen events that shaped and affected public opinion. The 1950s were marked by unprecedented economic boom which culminated in better living standards especially after the problems of the great depression and the two world wars. The 1960s were mainly characterized by the vibrant civil movements especially by the African Americans after long years of racial discrimination and segregation. At the height of the cold war in the 1970s, the Vietnam War was the hallmark of American life. Many families were affected by the war in one way or another and the political agenda was centered at the course of the war. As the cold war came to an end, it was mainly marked by the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the 1980s. The fear and tension that had characterized the cold war within the American society took a new dimension. The end of the century in the 1990s was mainly characterized by influx of contemporary immigrants into the USA.
This paper aims to look at the events in the United States that had profound impact on its citizens in the past five decades.
Post World War II economy
    The interwar period had featured the great depression and economic hardships never seen before and many people feared that this might be replicated after the Second World War. On the contrary, restricted consumer demands of the previous years stimulated a strong economic growth in the post war era. The automobile industry recovered immediately to produce more cars as the aviation grew at very high rates. The housing industry was stimulated by the accessibility of mortgages to the ex-soldiers leading to massive expansion of other related industries.  The Gross Domestic Product of the USA had doubled by 1960 (Vatter, 1996). The number of consumers had increased with increased births of the baby boom generation and these increased markets for many industries. The business entered a new period that was characterized by consolidation and the telecommunication industry that was taking root with the introduction of the television in homes. The countrys workforce was also rapidly changing as the number of service providers increased to surpass those engaged in production and manufacturing. The advent of the cold war sustained the military industry as the government tried to maintain its fighting capacity. Economic assistance trickled to the European economies that had been ravaged by the war through the Marshal Plan. By the end of the 1950s, majority of Americans had joined the middle class population (Spulber, 1989).
The civil rights movement of the 1960s
    There were a lot of social protests during the 1960s in the USA. The attempts to create racial justice and equality in the American society since the end of the civil war had born little fruits. The previous decades had seen attempts to give Africans more rights and freedom but by the 1960s, most public facilities were still segregated. The end of the 1950s were marked by efforts to desegregate public and private facilities especially the schools.  The African American Civil Rights Movement was mainly a reform movement geared towards fighting racial discrimination against African Americans and gaining voting rights in the southern states. The campaign gained momentum in the 1960s as several groups became vibrant in the fight for black rights.  Some of them like the NAACP, congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLS) advocated for non-violent means to advance this course while others like the Black panthers, the Nation of Islam and the Black Nationalist movement used violence method in their campaigns. The famous Washington march of 1963 attracted close to 300,000 demonstrators who gathered at the Lincoln memorial where King delivered the I have a dream speech. The event attracted nationwide attention due to massive media attention (Raymond, 2001).
     During this decade, there were many marches, rallies, strikes, riots and boycotts leading to vicious conflicts with the police. Many people lost their lives including the assassination of the leading civil rights crusaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X while many others were killed during the violence protests. The first major campaigns began with the student protests in the early sixties as they organized sit-ins in segregated restraints. They formed the student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) that successfully campaigned for the desegregation of hundreds of lunch counters. They later teamed up with CORE to organize Freedom Rides in 1961 that were aimed at testing the Supreme Courts decision that had outlawed segregation in interstate transportation. The participants were arrested, beaten and even one of the buses burnt but they eventually emerged victorious when the court decision was enforced by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The period saw the passage of several laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination in employment and public hotels, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights ACT of 1968. After the assassination of King in 1968, the movement started to lose its momentum but it had already made great achievements. It had managed to open up new economic, social and political opportunities for African-Americans and altered the way people acted and thought in the American society (Button, 1993).


1970s The Vietnam War
    From the 1950s, the USA began to send troops to Vietnam. The Vietnamese gained independence from the French in 1954 but the country was divided into two by the Geneva peace Agreement as anti-communist south and communist north.    The south refused to participate in unification elections in 1956 leading to the second Indochina war as the Viet Cong guerillas battled the Couth Vietnam authorities. The USA was forced to support the south by sending military advisors and by 1963, they numbered over 16,000. In 1965, President Johnson escalated the war by starting air attacks against the north and sending ground forces. The American government intended to reduce the impact of the war on domestic culture by waging a limited war. Unfortunately, the war ended up having a major impact on the daily life of the American people. As more soldiers left to Asia and more deaths were reported from the protracted war, the government started to meet the full force of the anti-war emotions. Protest erupted on college campuses and in the major cities indicating that all corners of the country had felt the impacts of the war (Schulzinger, 1998).
    The increasing consequences of the war led to the defeat of the Democrats in the 1968 elections. The Nixon administration adopted the Vietnamization strategy which involved increasing air strikes and reducing ground forces. The conflict continued even after the signing of the Paris accord in 1973 until the south was defeated in 1975 by the communist forces. The long conflict led to stiff domestic and international opposition and poor civilian and military relations in the USA. A lot of resources were pumped into the war which led to serious economic consequences as the prices of commodities sky-rocketed. The value of the American currency dropped leading to inflation and eventually a recession as economic activities slowed. The Vietnam War also led to the change of approach of the USA in the ensuing cold war. The Nixon administration specifically altered the nature of superpower relations as it began dtente with the USSR and rapprochement with China. On the other hand the failure of the American government to win the war led to lose of confidence in the leaders by the American people. The country also lost its international standing and power (Sitikoff, 1999).
1980s The fall of Communism in Eastern Europe
    The end of communism in eastern and central Europe in the 1980s was remarkable due to its speed and the consequences around the globe. The previous three decades had been characterized by the war of words and ideologies between the USA and the Soviet Union and at times turning hot in Korea and Vietnam. A lot of resources had been spent on the war mainly drawn from the taxes which had severe consequences of the counties economy. The American society had been engulfed by fear at all times of a possible strike being made on the country by the enemies. The Red Scare period had a profound impact on the lives of ordinary citizens as the atmosphere of fear and anxiety of un-American activities prevailed. All this changed dramatically with the fall of communism is Eastern Europe which ultimately marked the end of the cold war. The cold war had shaped the foreign policy of the United States with more emphasis given to efforts to contain the spread of communism. The collapse of the communist east left the USA as the sole superpower in the world (Hogan, 1992).
1990s The immigration influx
    The history of the United States has been defined by the immigration of diverse groups of people into the country over very many years. The country was established in the 17th and 18th centuries by the first immigrant settlers from Britain. Over the years, the ethnic component of the country has been broadened to include virtually all peoples of the world. The assimilation of more immigrants has blurred the ethnic racial definitions of the countrys population. In the recent past, there has been continued immigration of more people especially from the developing countries and this has posed a serious challenge to the country. The influx of new immigrants peaked at the end of the 21st century mainly from Latin America. The increase in the number of immigrants was influenced by the 1965 Immigration Act which altered the immigration policies.  It abolished the preference for western hemisphere immigration and increased the number of visas allocated to other regions of the world (Dougherty, 2004). The new waves of immigrants have brought about new social and economic challenges. The most profound effect is coming from the Hispanic immigration which has been the highest growing population group in the recent past. This group of immigrants has been coming with a new set of culture (Hispanic) and language (Spanish). Due to massive immigration, the population of the United States increased by about 14 over the 10 year period between 1990 and 2000 (Huntington, 2004). Immigration has been the main determining factor of population growth with a big percentage of the increase accounted for by the immigrants. The increasing number of immigrants has also held some political consequences. Most of the immigrants are minority groups and their increasing numbers has influenced their political power in many ways. They have come to influence the political agenda in the recent past as the major political parties are forced to consider issues of affirmative action for these groups. The main problems with increased immigration include more poverty levels, increase in crime and prison populations and huge burdens to the taxpayer as welfare programs increase (Huntington, 2004).
The future
    Since the 1950s, the USA has experienced different economic spells with hard economic times during the 1970s and better times in the 1990s. This changed in the first decade of the 21st century with the worst economic crisis in 2008. There is increased competition from emerging economies like China and Japan coupled with bigger challenges in global issues. There is no doubt that the economic future of the USA is going to be more challenging than before and definitely the country needs to do more to remain a world economic power. The civil rights movement gave the minority groups more freedom in the USA and that has steadily improved over the years. The epitome of the change was the election of the first African American President in the USA in the 2008 presidential elections. The minority groups are going to play a more pivotal role in the American society in the future than before. This will be reinforced by the increasing number of immigrant population who are poised to increase considerably in the coming decades. The American culture is going to be transformed by the new immigrants who are likely to avoid the long tradition of assimilating newcomers. The Vietnam war had considerable influence on the history of the USA. In the recent past, the USA has been engaged in the war against terror which has equally been protracted. The underlying problem is equally ideological combined with religious fundamentalism and the problem is likely to remain around for some time. The future of the USA will be shaped more by global issues than domestic problems.