The History of the USA II

The 20th century is regarded as the "American Century", as the USA determined world events on multiple fronts. For example, after the First World War in 1919, when Woodrow Wilson traveled to Europe to implement his ambitious program for a new world peace order; As the victorious Allied power in the Second World War, which split the world into East and West. So, in the Cold War, when the USA upgraded its military hardware with nuclear weapons in a contest of systems and waged bloody proxy wars. This did not remain without consequences in terms of domestic politics: Nationwide protests took place against the war in Vietnam - and coalesced with the goals of the black civil rights movement.

1917: The United States enters the First World War and brings victory to the Allies. During peace negotiations, US President Woodrow Wilson seeks to participate in shaping a new political order: A League of Nations to prevent future wars. But there is no majority in the US Congress for Wilson's vision – thus, the USA does not join the League of Nations. At the same time, the Peace Movement is growing in the USA, which also includes many female activists. But since the October Revolution in Russia, pacifists are suspect and persecuted as Communists. The Red Fear (Red Scare) is spreading. Economically, however, things are on the rise: industry is booming - until the Great Depression of 1929, which plunges the country into a deep social crisis.

Due to the global economic crisis, millions in the USA are without work. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s reform program (New Deal) initially provides work and bread. At first, the USA stays out of the Second World War - until the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1941. Germany and Japan capitulate in 1945. The victorious Allied powers, the USA, the Soviet Union and Great Britain, negotiate the post-war order. In addition to the trials of major war criminals, the USA focuses on converting the world to democracy (re-education) and economic reconstruction. The Marshall Plan brings funds and the American way of life to Western Europe – if only to contain communism in the Soviet sphere of power (containment policy). Two opposing ideologies now shape a bipolar world, formally sealed by the founding of NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

August 1945: US planes drop atom bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Over 150,000 people die. The nuclear arms race begins. By 1962, the superpowers are on the brink of nuclear war: The Soviet Union has deployed missiles with nuclear warheads in Cuba, within striking range of major American cities. President Kennedy and Soviet leader Khrushchev manage to avert an impending nuclear war at the last minute. In Vietnam and Afghanistan, on the other hand, the East-West conflict is escalating; the USA and USSR join in, deploying troops to fight for their respective spheres of influence. Not until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, does the dissolution of the Communist power bloc begin – and, at least for the time being, the USA remains the world’s sole superpower.

Strict racial segregation is still widespread throughout public life, especially in the southern states. Violent attacks are repeatedly enacted against the black population. The Ku Klux Klan is committed to preventing the equal treatment of African Americans at all costs; But they no longer accept discrimination without resistance. In 1955, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus for a white passenger. With Martin Luther King Jr. the Civil Rights Movement gets a charismatic face. During the 1963 "March on Washington", he gives his most famous speech - with success. Shortly thereafter, discrimination against blacks is prohibited by law. April 4th, 1968: Martin Luther King is assassinated. Forty years later, Barack Obama is the first African-American to be elected president.

"Here is Germany", a US propaganda film originally intended for US soldiers, aimed at convincing them that the occupation of Germany after the Second World War was necessary to prevent the defeated nation from fomenting a new war. The film corelates Germany’s present with Germany`s past - with National Socialism as a consequence of the country`s aggressive, militant tradition. However, due to the changing US policy towards Germany, with which the West Germans were to be won as allies in the fight against communism, the film was only shown to a limited audience.

Reverend Samuel Billy Kyles (1934-2016) was pastor of the Monumental Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He supported the garbage workers in Memphis when they went on strike in February 1968, because of low wages and abysmal working conditions and was able to persuade Martin Luther King to show his solidarity with the strikers. On April 3rd 1968, King gave his famous mountaintop speech in Memphis. The following day, Kyle witnessed King’s fatal assassination. Kyle continued to be actively involvement in the civil rights movement and received numerous honors and awards, including the 1992 Tennessee Living Legend Award. The 14-minute interview can be used in both history lessons and English classes.