World War 2 Through the 1970's

World War 2 through the 1970s'

Therion L Banks

Stuart Collins

US History 105

There were several turning point in the period under discussion. The first being The Civil Rights Movement, this not only gave equality to African American's but also women. An example of this would be America having our first black president and women in politics reaching for the glass ceiling. The second would be Johnson's creation of "The Great Society" legislation that included laws that upheld civil rights, Public Broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental protection, aid to education, and his attempt to help the poor in his "War on Poverty." The legislations that were created under Johnson are still intact and helping Americans every day .

The United States was in the middle of the "Great Depression," and we had our hands full trying to recover from that great problem. We didn't need to add to our troubles by going to war. 

In our minds we had "won" the Great War (WW I) for the Allied side. Our president, President Wilson had suggested the "14 Points" which were so fair that it persuaded the Germans to ask to end the war. (Summarized it said the war should end with no winners and no losers). President Wilson personally traveled to Paris to help plan, not only the end of the war, but a way to end wars in the future. He was mostly ignored by the leaders of England and France that felt it was necessary to punish Germany and reward their own nations. In that way they could tell their people that those that died had gained something for their nations. Americans were aware of how Europe had ignored our president, and felt that World War 2 was their own fault for not following Wilson's plan. So if they ignored us, we would then ignore them. Our neutrality was in the period before Pearl Harbor. The attack by the Japanese against our fleet instantly ended all thoughts of neutrality. 

The women were given the right to vote in August 1920 after years of protests, but even...