Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Blog #13 - Tie it all together

Since we're doing history backwards, I want you to think about tying up any loose ends that you might have hanging since we're just past the halfway point in the semester.

There are a couple of things I'd like you to think about as you write blog #13:


1. Pick at least two areas / time periods - economics, energy, terrorism, Cold War, foreign policy, etc. - that we have studied and explain how the recent past(last forty years) has influenced current events within the past ten years or so (for instance, how has the Vietnam War impacted the way American Presidents have planned for future military engagements like the first Gulf War, Somalia, and the Iraq War). Be specific with your two examples as you trace the development of a theme or an idea through time and show how it has developed over time;

2. Evaluate your two time periods and the themes involved and explain why you think these have improved, stagnated, or devolved. For instance, has America learned its lessons from Vietnam? Why or why not?

300 words minimum. Due Monday, May 4 (25 points).

36 comments:

Tim T. said...

When we are thinking about the cold war, we see 42-44 years of troubling conflict with the communist. These were some different times for the U.S and for the U.S government. The government only wanted to defeat the Soviet Union and their missile threats. When we were talking about the Vietnam War, you asked us if we thought the government was a lack in thinking or was it a different time. It was a different time for the U.S because all they had in mind was to get rid of the communist party. They did not want to have the domino effect happen. When the U.S invaded Vietnam, the government thought if they started with a small country and built up then they could defeat the Soviet Union. We were in shock because we did not expect this war to take 16 years. We went in and had no plan of attack because we could not bomb factories because there weren’t any. We just destroyed their forest, it a lot of damage but there was just too much forest to destroy. There was no exit plan and the U.S has never seen this type of fighting before. For some of the war in after Vietnam it seems that we don’t learn are lesson. The Iraq War same kind of fighting as the Vietnamese and the government has no plan to get out. Then in Somalia when we have to act as the world police and go get the warlord leader. The U.S is know for going into stuff that they have no business in, we did learn are lesson in Rwanda by not going in the stop the genocide but the American people were not happy with the government decision. For the U.S it seems that we learned are lesson and we having some moments that it does not seem like we learned form that blood bath. In the back of minds of the president and the whole government they still worry if they go into a war they might have another Vietnam situation, it does seem like they hesitate before jumping into a war. There are moments that we just don’t think and go in because the U.S always has to jump in and act as the Police. Are foreign policy is strong with a lot of allies, but we have to let some countries solve there own problems. We all hope that we never have to go into another Vietnam and Iraq situation, and never have another Cold War.

Anonymous said...

CHANEL JOHNSON:

EX 1:THE COLD WAR

The cold war has led to numerous wars and many new developments in the neuclear weapons all because of the Cold War. Numerous countries in the world today possess nuclear weapons that give a great threat to other countries around the world. The Cold War also led to significant effects in neighboring countries as well as those far away. Many countries around the world have experienced massive losses in wealth in these times because of this war. The Cold war has hurt the American way of life and has caused our country to decrease a greed of obsession. The cold war has brought us so much of nuclear weapons which we are still trying to figure out how to manage them. The cold war had a dubious effect of creating a new entitlement class in large business that participated in supplying the military with war material A.K.A weapons.

EX 2: TERRORISM

Te attacks of 9/11 put the American economy into a recession. There are always Pro's and Con's of any subject. Those Pro's and Con's are that terrorism has ruined the financial side of part of the world but now America id more careful with who they let in and out of the country to make safety the main priority for people of America. Terrorism has also affected our allies and the countries who once trusted us. When you think about it terrorism has been around like forever. Depsite all that 9/11 is the most significant attack in this time period. It has taken away the "ok" life that most of the world once had and put us all in recession and struggling.

Evan Fried said...

He first time period I picked was how the 9/11 attacks flipped the nations thinking and airport security upside down. Before 9/11 you could bring pocketknives on board an airplane, bringing a water bottle on board was no issue, even during flights metal knives were given with in flight meals. Post 9/11 everything changed, sharp points, knives box cutters, etc. were immediately banned. Checked bags were not checked for explosives, and now they were. The 9/11 attacks also changed everyone’s thinking. People were now aware of their surroundings when traveling. None of this is a bad thing although; it took America 9/11 to realize that planes could be used, as a weapon of mass destruction against us was sad. 9/11 spawned the Iraq war but it changed the Americas safety for the better, something like this was bound to happen eventually and it could have been far worse. Another time period I chose that changed thing of today was The Vietnam war and protesters. During the Democratic convention in Chicago there were massive protests between the doves and the hawks going against the police. The protesters started riots night after night over the war and who was going to be picked to represent the democrats. Because of this it was changed so that a representative of the party was picked before the convention to prevent riots like this. Another tragedy of the Vietnam war protesting was the Kent State massacre where the national guard shot and killed 4 people, only a few protesters. We don’t see this today, even over the Iraq war, there aren’t people going to the pentagon and burning themselves to death like a Quaker did under McNamara’s office. In the end America learned its lesson from all the looting and rioting from the Vietnam War days.

Brandon Kauth said...

The United States has developed a kind of hatred against Communism due to the fact that the United States does not ever get along with communists. This hatred I believe started with the Cold War. Tensions between the US and the Soviet Union raged through the mid-1940s to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The United States was striving to become more superior in just about everything, from the nuclear arms race, to the space race. The US fears of overwhelming Communism taking over the world, which the US stands for the total opposite of Communism. I believe that this has struck a fear inside the United States. That’s why we as a country chose to invade Vietnam to stop the spread of Communism and to try and prevent the domino theory across the world. The Korean War brought the US and Russia further apart, and the fear of communism would later lead the US to throw itself into Vietnam, to avoid another North Korea. Today, we are not currently in a war or will we soon to be in a war with a Communist country. North Korea has been trying to develop nuclear missiles to maybe one day strike on US soil. This could spark a new colonial cold war. I think the United States has kept a constant steady relationship with all Communist countries. Granted we do not like them, we try and keep the relation neutral. But if the time rises and we have another conflict with a communistic country, I believe the US will stand its ground. The only true candidate I can see for this is North Korea. They have been pushing our buttons for years now, but hopefully this will not result in an all-out war with NK. Besides I don’t think the US society or economy can stomach another major battle over seas.

Anonymous said...

Kyle Dewald
We learned many things from the vietnam war. we learned how bad war really was during the vietnam war. there was over 6 million people dead. we also learned that chemical warfare is also very harsh. we used Agent Orange to kill the vegitions in North vientam so we could see the Viet congs coming out of the trees. we learned many things from the gorrila war that the vietcong was using against us. we used to just march into places and blow stuff up. we couldnt really do this in vietnam but we tried. we drop tons of pounds of bombs the land. we also learned to make a plan before invasion a place that we have no clue about. we also learned that we need to find out who is supplying the vietcong. so we can stop the shipments of weapons to them.

In somilia we learned alot of things too. we learned that we need to do research about a place before protectign it from the warlords in it. we also need to stop doing things for the UN that someone easly could do for them. we learned that somilia need to get there freedom from the rebel groups that was controling them and the goverment.

Lisa S. said...

When looking back at the good and bad things that the United States has done over the past forty year, it’s easy to pick out the situations our government has learned to do differently in a way to not fit the saying that “history repeats itself.” Two major changes our country has made since the Vietnam War includes taking away the draft, and learning to pick and choose the battles we enter ourselves in more carefully. Going back to when the Vietnam War started, the draft caused a lot of uproar on our own soil. This was one of the main reasons why people began speaking out so much against our involvement in Vietnam. People didn’t have the choice whether or not they wanted to fight for their country or show their support in other ways. With the Iraq war now, the talk about starting up a new draft was shut down because congress knew that with a draft comes a lot of problems and criticism against whether or not we should be there in the first place. Another mistake we made during that era was the choice to go into Vietnam in the first place. The government’s ultimate reason was to stop the spreading of communism to another country so the domino effect was put to a halt, but it was more like the United States trying to solve another countries civil war. With our bad tactics and lack of reason to be there, ultimately, we failed to do what we went there for and communism took over South Vietnam. From that, the War Powers Act was created to make the president notify congress 48 hours before anyone is sent somewhere and it is voted on to declare war on a country especially when it is over seas. With Iraq, parallels can be formed from Vietnam to this recent war, but with our prior knowledge, I think that the United States picks and chooses its battle more wisely and has a better shot in succeeding in what it went there to do.

Sarra Serhane said...

The United States of America has been through a lot of tough times. From wars to economic problems, we have experienced many tragic events. Because of these numerous events, we have improved and changed how we take situations on. After evaluating many different time periods throughout the United States’ history and comparing two of them by showing how things have improved, stagnated, or developed, I decided the best events to compare were the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq. I chose these two events because we are currently learning about the Vietnam War in class and the War in Iraq is currently going on. Also, these are two epic events. One of the most memorable parts of the Vietnam war was the draft. A draft is a selection or drawing of persons, by lot or otherwise, from the general body of the people for military service. This upset many people because they did not want to have not other choice but to go into war. The draft caused violence and riots. An example of the violence and riots is the Tragedy at Kent State. Students were rioting because of the draft. Nine were injured and four were killed because of this this. The United States Army no longer has a draft in effect; the military is only open soldiers who volunteer. Also, during the Vietnam War, about five hundred American soldiers were killed a week. In the Iraq war about the same amount of soldiers were killed but over the period of a year. Furthermore, we have improved the weapons that are being used. Though we have improved a number of things that we did during the Vietnam War in the War in Iraq, there are many things we still need to improve. A few examples of these are using less or no deadly chemicals, having a better long term plan, and fighting other people’s wars.


sarra serhane 5th

Allison Smart said...

There have been many events that have occurred in the past that have affected the outcome of events in the future. Some of the Specifics are how Reaganomics effected our economy today and what the Vietnam war did for Americans.
Ronald Reagan was a well known and loved president but he also had one major error in his term as president. Although his policies and his idea of Reaganomics was good for the time he left our country in a huge debt that will take who knows how long to pay off. Reaganomics did improve the economy at the time but worsened it for us today. It will take many generations to be even close to getting rid of the United States debt.
The Vietnam war was a big lesson on what the US should prepare for and do in a war of the kind. After a few years of fighting many Americans wanted to soldiers to pull out. There were many unnecessary casualties and the strategies were lacking in the will and planning to complete them. There were also many Vietnamese civilians that had to pay the price for the US’s misunderstandings and lack of experience in the country. After the Vietnam war the US now takes care to successfully complete what they came to do without a ton of casualties. There are some things that the US has now learned after Vietnam that they have used in the Iraq war. The big difference between the wars is that there was no draft for the iraq war. After all the riots and protests from the Vietnam war we knew that we couldn’t have another draft as to worry about splitting the country up. I think that the US has improved on our war strategies and understanding. We now know what to do from our previous mistakes and will hopefully improve even more throughout the years to come.

Allison Smart
5th hour

Donavin Camarata 5th hour said...

Two areas I would like to elaborate on would be energy, and the Vietnam war. Energy since the beginning has been focused on the primary use of fossil fuels. However in the past 40 years we have begun to change our energy habits due to global warming. The first step for us would be nuclear energy, though it is more beneficial than oil it also has a very high threat level to terrorist attack, and dangerous to the nearby population. Also for energy we have begun to harvest the earths natural energy resources, such as solar, and hydro. In addition to all the new sources of energy we have begun to make more fuel efficient cars that helps reduce the impact on the environment and save consumers more money. The second topic that I would like to talk about, being the Vietnam war has greatly impacted the way the United States has gone about dealing with any given conflict. First to start off, we now have much more intelligence than before about the whereabouts of the enemy. A comparison would be in Vietnam we didn’t know exactly where enemies were due to the lush jungles provides them with cover, and we didn’t know exactly how to react to this(excluding Agent Orange), but now we have enough intelligence for conflict to prevent events like this from occurring. Also we no longer have the draft like in the Vietnam war. This particularly is a very good thing because a lot of people didn’t support the war but were forced to serve in it or face the consequences which unlike now we no longer have a draft. Unlike the Vietnam war we are not destroying and killing so many innocent and “destroying towns to save them”. Lastly we don’t use chemical weapons anymore like in the Vietnam war so we do not affect the nearby population, and to protect the environment.

Anonymous said...

Tyler DeWald

From my point of view, as a sixteen year old American, we as a nation have learned very few good lessons from the Vietnam War. In situations of the Vietnam and Iraq war, we really don’t know what we are doing. May I ask why are we in Iraq right now? Most people will say, we are looking for WMD and rebuilding the country, as a Democracy. Looking back to Vietnam, we invaded it because we, as America, were scared it was going to fall into a Communist country. Then, after Vietnam falls into Communism everyone will be come a communist; in the theory of the domino effect. Did it happen? No… it did not. Let’s face it, America cannot run another country with military forces. People are going to fight back, like it or not. America, wants to spread democracy back long ago before the Vietnam war and today we still are trying to spread it, back then Vietnam and today Iraq. In the meantime, other then the war in Iraq, if it is still called a war, we are trying to “help out” Somalia. Recently, as in about 17 years ago we sent aid to Somalia and to stop Mohammed Farah Adid, who pretty much took over Somalia in 1992. Mohammed Adid was a powerful war lord, he controlled most of the food shipments sent from U.N, he used the shipments as barding chips to get more soldiers, or no one will eat in the village. And today because we did not help Somalia back in 1992, it is still in famine and is a civil war zone. Some of you may remember, like a month ago where one of our own boats was taken over by pirates? Well, yes it was Somalians trying to take it over and sell it for money. If we helped Somalia back in 1992, that probably would of never happened and many more people will be alive today. Looking from that point of view, it was nessary that we invaded Iraq to control Saddem but the government did not need to lie about it. As an American, I believe America has learned some key lessons from the past but we need to learn from many more past mistakes.

Joe Wallace said...

I think that the US learned more from the Vietnam War than any other war in the history of the country. Going into the war the US thought that it was only going to take a couple quick easy battles to occupy the country. The government could not have been more wrong and I think the whole country learned a lot from this. When American forces arrived it was far from what they expected. First of all they couldn’t even tell Vietnamese friends apart from the enemy. Second the enemy fought with gorilla tactics which the US had never seen before and were not prepared at all for this type of fighting. Seeing these tactics in Vietnam really helped the soldiers prepare for the type of fighting that they would be facing in Iraq. Another similarity between the Iraq and Vietnam Wars are that the government really had no plan for getting out of these countries. They should have learned from the Vietnam War, but it seems that the government has run into the same problem trying to find a way out of Iraq. Even though the US should be used to Fighting against terrorism by now, it seems like the government still has trouble in dealing with these terrorist groups. The army has had plenty of experience in this type of fighting but it seems like they can never figure out a good way of defeating terrorism. I think that another important thing that the government learned from the Vietnam War is that the draft system does no work very well to get soldiers for the army. The draft caused all kinds of problems inside the country like riots and even caused many people to flee the country. It also proved to be very ineffective to send thousands of soldiers into battle that didn’t even want to be there and didn’t believe in what they were fighting for.

Luke Szczurek said...

When we look back in the past i think that the United States has learned from a lot of wars and situations. I think that the United States learned most from the Vietnam war though. We learned that it probably wasnt the smartest war to get involved with. A lot of Americas did not support the war. At a certain time around 60 percent of america didnt support it anymore. We took away the draft to after this war. There were thousands of people that didnt join the army when there got drafted. They didnt enter it or they moved to canada. In Vietnam the Viet Cong used gurilla war attacks on us. This was the first time that american soldiers had seen this. This is a common way that the iraqies are attacking us now in Iraq so we learned that from the past. This war put America in a pretty large debt to. Hopefully the goverment has learned from the past not to do this again on a war the over half the country thinks we shouldnt be in.

Jack DiLaura said...

1.a. Vietnam War- The Vietnam War has had a large impact on our history. It has had a great impact on our wartime tactics, and our foreign policy. It also caused much of the US population to lose trust in the government. Some things that have affected the Iraq War and previous wars we were a part of in the 90s was the strategies we used. Our tactics (hit and run) seemed to work, but our strategies didn’t work as well. One of the major things we learned was that aerial attacks couldn’t always work as well as we thought. We implemented that into our new strategies, as we can see from Iraq. We didn’t bet on aerial attacks as one of our major paths to victory.
1.b.Terrorism- Terrorism has had a major effect on the last 10 years in the US. Much of this terrorism was indirectly caused by our training of soldiers in Iran. We taught them how to make bombs and tactics used in hit and run warfare. After the Cold War many of these soldiers became part of terrorist organizations. Then they were part of terrorist acts like 9/11. 9/11 has directly affected the way we deal with airplane transportation, among many things. Rules have been tightened a lot over the past ten years.
2. I think that America has learned from Vietnam. I think that we now realize that we can’t underestimate any enemy, no matter how small. I also think that we now put more though into our wartime tactics and strategies, so they benefit us more than in Vietnam. I think that we have also learned from the terrorism that has occurred in the past 10 years. We have realized now that we should pay more attention to people we train in times of war. We should be careful with the people we choose to train.

BOBBY HAAG said...

Since the last forty years, there have been some influenced ideas from past decisions. For one, the Vietnam War has impacted the U.S. I think it has impacted the American’s behavior and feelings about war. I also think it could have impacted the way the Presidents have planned for wars. The Vietnam had no plan to it at all, according to the video we watched. So maybe the results of the U.S. loosing because of this caused them to try to plan a plan out so things would work out better in the long run. The police beatings on the protesters could have changed people’s attitudes towards wars because it can bring some chaos and violence. Also, people who come back from war are different than when they entered war. Now, I’m not sure if we have learned our lesson from Vietnam. Considering the Iraq War and all the money spent on it with many people opposing it. I think there is some to learn from decisions made forty years back that the presidents now could learn from or disagree from.

Tyler Porritt (5th) said...

I think that the Cold War has had a large impact on not just the U.S. today, but also the rest of the world. It changed the way that all countries fight their wars, and conduct their foreign policies.
A crucial segment of the Cold War was the Vietnam War. The Soviets were supporting communist North Vietnam, while the U.S. was supporting democratic South Vietnam. North Vietnam wanted to take over and convert South Vietnam to communism. We sent troops to Vietnam to stop the North Vietnamese. It was a disaster though, killing about 58,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. Vietnam taught the U.S. many things. The Viet Cong were fighting in their own county, on their own terrain. It was very hard for the U.S. to keep track of what was going on. Also, they used guerilla tactics against us, just like Iraq is using today. This is the American military’s only weakness, and the Vietnamese exploited it.
North Vietnam was a very important component of the Soviet Union. Our government thought that if we didn’t succeed in Vietnam, there would be a “domino effect”. This meant that if North Vietnam prevailed, other countries would quickly convert to communism. This was the exact opposite of what the U.S. wanted.
The Cold War in general also taught the U.S. many things. We realized that we could never have a nuclear war. It would destroy the world. When we defeated the Soviets, we emerged as the world’s only superpower. This has been more of a curse than a blessing. We are looked at as the world’s policeman, and we have to help every country in need. We also get almost no help from other countries; we have to rely on our own strength to get us through tough times.

Katie Nicholls, 5th Hour said...

In my opinion, I think that the economy has drastically changed in the past forty years and influenced current events within the past ten years. In the past forty years, economics have gone up and down and back up and again and then plummeted once again, and on and on. Around 1998, the economy started to rise up though, resulting in a good economic status. Around the year 1997, the economy seemed to be sky rocketing, and around mid-2000 the economy seemed to be at the highest it’s ever been. But then around mid-2001, things started going downhill and it’s been raising and going downhill ever since. I think that the past economic failures haven’t really prepared us for what’s happening today. Yes, we’ve had our share of falling stocks and other economics, but I think that today we are at our worst. At this rate, we’ll be hitting rock bottom by at least 2010, 2011, I think. There have been more layoffs and shut-down companies in a long time. I think that with all of the job layoffs and companies closing, it’s a huge impact on how the economy is changing; if there are more layoffs, there will be more people without jobs which will mean less cars sold, more house foreclosures, all because people lost their jobs and it’s so hard to find a new job in such a harsh economy. Between 1970 and 1982 things seemed to be staying at a constant rate. I don’t think we’ve prepared ourselves for what is happening and what might happen. Who knows, we might end up crashing and burning in our economy, if we already aren’t. But if this isn’t the lowest we can get, what is?

Gauri Gupta said...

Terrorism- this has always been an issue of concern for the US government. When the 9/11 happened it alerted the government to ensure greater checks for security .it made the laws stricter as to who should be allowed in the country but at the same time it caused widespread destruction the human life and property. It also caused a lot of financial stress. It put our country in the era of recession. From back then to present date terrorism has always been an important issue and now when the Iraq war is on there are more chances of attacks on the US land.
Cold war- because of the cold war there has been hug development in the production of nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union used it against us and so did we. The US had himself supplied the weapons to many countries that now have a potential threat to use it against us. The cold war encouraged a whole new warfare method (nuclear weapons/ WMD).because of that we now face a possibility of nuclear war in future as so many countries now possess it.

Anonymous said...

Melanie Eiten
The Vietnam War has had an impact on how Americans view today’s war in Iraq and our policies. In the beginning of both wars there was support from the American people. But both wars are now viewed by people as being mistakes and wars that we had no business getting involved with. Both wars have been seen by the American public as being illegal wars and during both wars the people have felt that they have been deceived by the President’s Johnson and President Bush. Both Presidents told the world that we were fighting for democracy or the countries would not survive and in both wars we were fighting for democracy in countries whose cultures, warfare style, and history is not the same as ours. Like the war in Vietnam, there were opposing political parties. During the Vietnam were there were the Hawks and the Doves and in the Iraq war we have the Liberal Democrats opposing the war and the conservative Republicans saying that we cannot loose in Iraq. The economics of both of these wars have been costly to the United States. Although the U.S. government has claimed that it will never forget the mistakes made during the Vietnam War, it does not appear that they have really learned any lessons from that experience. The Vietnam War has influence the way our leaders talk about the Iraq war and other wars but it really hasn’t changed the United States behavior when it come to war. Over the past forty years energy issues have also influenced the way we behave. Then the cost of energy was low and easy to get we could buy lots and it was not be an issue. Today the cost of energy is high and the demand is much greater. This has influenced our relationships with other countries. Many say that the reason that we are fighting in the Middle East is all about energy and our dependence on foreign oil. The US has failed to make itself energy sufficient and now we are dependent.

Anonymous said...

Mary Seymour
3rd hour
Our government tends to repeat the same mistakes over and over again throughout history and continue to bring us down. We made a few huge mistakes though that we decided to not do again. One of these mistakes was the draft. The draft was an awful mistake and it brought tons of problems to the US that could have very easily been avoided. From the protests and riots on the streets, to the violence, to the distorted views or the government, there’s tons of proof that shows us that the draft was an awful mistake that brought together radical Americans for all the wrong reasons. It gave the government more problems than they had before and it was an awful tactic to win the war. I believe we should have stayed out of the war because it was just another country’s problem that once again we tried to fix. We should try to let other countries figure things out sometimes, without completely interfering and making things worse for our country. It was just giving everyone more problems and we need to think more before we jump into things like Vietnam. The draft influenced the recent past a ton and taught us to not bring it back. I think we have been much better off without it and im glad it hasn’t came back. We have definitely proved that we don’t always make the same mistakes several times, and we have learned from some of our mistakes. I think we haven’t completely learned our lessons from Vietnam though and we shouldn’t throw ourselves into huge problems like the Iraq war, because it wasn’t our job to be there and we should have never gone. We have learned a little bit though and were being told that we are taking the troops out of Iraq sooner than we took them out from Vietnam.

Sydney Hirsch said...

1. The Vietnam War influenced wars such as the Iraq war because it showed the country to remove the draft. American people were very unhappy with the draft, for the most part, and the country learned that instead of forcing their citizens to fight, they would have them volunteer. Another way the Vietnam war has affected more recent wars is the fact that the US has become more understanding of those fighting and their family members, however, it is not shown as honestly in the media as the Vietnam war was.

Another event that occurred that has affected today’s economy and energy was the Three Mile Island incident that happened in Pennsylvania in 1979. This accident has caused Americans to be more wary of nuclear power, and although we are looking into it more and more, it is still a big issue. Since then, no nuclear power plants have been built in the US.

2. I don’t think America has learned its lessons from Vietnam. This war is a little too long and people are waiting for the soldiers to come home, such as their family members and friends. Thankfully, less soldiers are being killed and there was no draft, but the administration insists that we are winning the war, although other reports show this is untrue. We also did not think about a plan or time table for the first few years of the war.

When it comes to Three Mile Island, I do think Americans have learned a lesson. Since the incident, they have been much more careful and have not built any more nuclear power plants. They are considering putting more in the country, or looking for alternative energy sources, but they would make the facilities a lot safer, for both the people who worked there and the people who lived in the area.

Katie Robinson said...

Mr. Wickersham-
I answered all of question 1, but when I looked at question 2, I found that I had already answered it in my response to 1, and had already filled the required 300 words. I hope you’ll accept this combined answer for full credit.

1. The Vietnam War is remembered as a great loss to the American people. In the 1960’s, The U.S. went into Vietnam with the hope of uniting a broken country, and helping rebuild it from the ashes of a city that it was. Vietnam is an oppressed country that has been fighting for its freedom practically since it was created. The U.S. embarked with high hopes of defeating the evil that was occupying Vietnam (Communism). The U.S. was also in a “Cold War” with the Soviet Union at the time, and was hoping that they would be able to strike a blow to the Soviets through a miraculous defeat in Vietnam.
However, after a short time of battle, it became obvious that the U.S. had bitten off more than it could chew. We didn’t know their land- they did. We couldn’t control their tactics- they could. And, most importantly, we couldn’t even tell apart the evil and the good.
During the Vietnam War, people were shocked back home when they saw horrible images on their television screens, and heard all the atrocities of the war over the radio.

In a somewhat similar situation, the U.S. seems to have been making the same mistakes as recently as the past decade. After the terrorist group Al-Qaeda’s attack on the twin towers in 2001, the U.S. embarked on a War on Terrorism. Like the Vietnam War, most of the U.S. agreed with the president when he decided to go after the attackers. And, like the Vietnam War, the U.S. now ventured into unknown territory- Iraq.

Now, years after the war had begun, most of the U.S. is disillusioned with The Iraq war- the same situation as in Vietnam.
There has also not been nearly as many soldiers killed in battle in Iraq as there had been in Vietnam.

Allison Woodberg (5th hour) said...

Terrorism is one major concern today, mostly because of what happened on September 11th. That tragedy has shaped what life is like today, and the precautions that are taken in hopes to avoid another terrorist attack. There is tighter security at airports, it is not as easy to obtain a drivers license and other things, you need more proof of identification, and stricter limitations have been put in effect. This is done because we have learned from the terrorist attacks that we need to be more careful. Not only are more precautions being taken in places like airports, but our foreign affairs have gotten trickier. We were the ones who supplied Sadam with the weapons and war training in the first place, so we need to be more careful of who we help out, in order to prevent another backfire like we have had in the past with terrorism. The main theme involved in preventing another nine eleven is stricter security. If we are more strict with who we allow to have United States benefits (like drivers licenses, citizenship, work visas, ect.) and who we allow into the country by airplane, then we reduce the chances of another terrorist attack on the United States.
Another major concern today is economics. With today’s failing economy we have to reflect back on the past economic successes and hardships, to figure out what worked, what didn’t and where we went wrong. We see that we overspent and gave out subprime mortgage loans and other things like that which is a large part of what caused today’s economic downfall. I think that we have partially learned from that, because now people aren’t spending as much of what they don’t have like before. However some people would probably still be overspending if they could, but the banks are taking measures to try to reduce their debt, by not giving out loans to people, so they can’t lose their money from people not paying loans back. This however is just creating trouble for businesses like the car companies, so in this case I think that we have learned from the errors of our past, but not enough to turn it around.

(I was absent thursday and friday, so i just got the assignment today, please dont mark it late)

Ismail K said...

The economy and foreign policy for the U.S. changed a lot during the 40 yr period we learned about. For the economy, during that time period we would spend a lot of money on weapons and the military. We used a lot of money on the cold war by stocking up on nuclear weapons and then in Vietnam we spent a lot of money on bombs and gasses to use on the Vietnamese and there land. Also we put more money in the military thinking it would boost our economy. Now for our economy was trying to put more money in big businesses thinking if they fail our entire economy will fail. It is not helping at all and we are just wasting money. We are still spending a lot of money in the military and in the Iraq war. Our foreign policy faced changes also, for the cold war all we would do is make a lot of nukes to scare the enemy but we wouldn’t shoot unless they did. For Vietnam we had a draft and we were sending many people to Vietnam to fight but we didn’t really have a policy or plan we just tried to kill the enemy hoping they would give up. In wars such as the gulf we had a huge strategic plan to get the enemy and we were planning it for a long time. Our foreign policy now is to start a war only if they pose a threat to the U.S. When we were attacked by terrorists on 9/11 we linked it to Saddam so we entered Iraq. When we entered we only wanted to get rid of Saddam and nothing else so we let the country to fall apart. Now we have to completely rebuild the country. So we faced changes in the economy and foreign in the 40 yr time span.

Anonymous said...

When looking back at the 40 years the U.S. has many good and bad things. We have seen wars and a stock market crash because of what has happened we have had to change our look on things differently. I decided to look at Vietnam and the Iraq war. Vietnam had to use the draft to get more men to fight which had some men and women fleeing to Canada. The draft is currently not in effect. Also 58,159 American Soldiers died 3 to 4 million Vietnam soldiers died. The use of chemicals was used Agent Orange was used to deforest Vietnam to find the Vietcong also it caused cancer and birth defects in the people and war veterans. The use of Chemicals isn’t used in Iraq. In both the Iraq and Vietnam War people are widely divided in rather the support or don’t support the war. We went to Vietnam to try to the spread of communism in Asia. The only reason we went Iraq was the stop WMD that weren’t even real. We have wasted millions of tax payer money on this war that we shouldn’t even be fighting in. Just like in the Vietnam War we can’t tell the difference between who is the enemy and who isn’t. There was no Timeline for how long we were going to stay there and fight.
Devonny Bell
3rd Hour

Jake Chmara (5th) said...

One area in the past that I really think has affected the present is energy. Forty years ago, the thought of running out of oil and limited energy was never really a problem. We never thought that we would ever run out and energy was used without regard. Today, many people are or are trying to be as energy conscious as possible because of the way it was used in the past. If we had conserved more energy earlier, we may not have encountered these problems today. Another example is the fear of nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is a very efficient and clean source of energy compared to the burning of coal. Nuclear energy would be very beneficial today, but because of accidents in the past like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, many people are afraid of the use of nuclear energy. If those accidents had not occurred, people may not have developed a fear of nuclear energy.
The Vietnam War changed many opinions about war for Americans. People who were pro-war turned anti-war and so on. The ruthless tactics used by both sides in the war really hit many Americans and made them feel different about the whole concept of going to war. I think the same thing happened with the Iraq war. Tens of thousands of Americans were in agreement that we needed to go to war in Iraq. But just a few years later, opinions of the war changed dramatically and people started to oppose it.
I think that the problem with energy has evolved slightly because of the need for it. We are finally realizing that we will not have oil forever and alternate sources of energy must be used. It is sad that this is what it takes for us to realize that we need change. The opinions of war on the other hand have not changed in my opinion. I don’t think people have really learned from the many wars that America has been involved in.

Anonymous said...

Throughout American history, there have been many events to occur. There have been events that had a positive effect on the culture, and there has also been some that had a negative effect on the culture as well. However both ways, they have shaped the American history, to become what it is today. One event that has definitely had a major effect on American history is the Vietnam War. In the Vietnam War, there were many casualties, along with deaths. In this War there were huge expenses that America wasn’t ready for. This war caused a major disruptions and problems all around the country. There were a number of riots that broke out from this war as well. Because of this war America had a lot to grow from. After the conclusion of this, America had a lot to learn, and then knew what they had to prepare for, for the future. Another event was the terrorist attacks. America was struck with surprise after being targeted by terrorists. America was not physically, or emotionally ready for this attack, and will now need to work on various tactics to be ready in-case something like this is to happen again in the future.
Allacia Gibson 3rd Hour

Anonymous said...

I think there were many major events that occurred in the last forty years that have changed the way the United states does things today. Such as a threat of a nuclear war. After the cold war ended I think everybody was happy that there no nukes set off. If the nukes would have been let off I might not be here today. Millions of people could have died. So this relates the Us and are involvement in the war on terror. We learned that some Middle Eastern countries have nukes and that there not afraid to use them. I think we realized that we have to stop these countries that have them right away.

At the same time I think after the war in Vietmain the US realized we should only get involved in foreign affairs when its completely necessary. We lost almost 60,000 men and women in that war and I think we learned that getting involved over there wasn’t a good idea. Since then the US hasn’t been involved in that many foreign affairs. I not saying that we should just sit back and not fight I’m saying that we shouldn’t getting involved in issues that we don’t have any business in. Because that could lead to further issues with other countries down the line. An example of this today is that Osama Bin Laden is somewhere in Pakistan but the US isn’t allowed there. I think 30 years ago we would have said screw it and went right in and gotten Bin Laden, but today is different today we have to follow the rules and wait for the right time to get him. If not we could then get into trouble with the Pakistanis and we all know we don’t want that to happen.

Kevin L.

Anonymous said...

The economic collision about 40 years ago has affected today’s economy because in the past our country has borrowed a lot of money from other countries to pay for different things such as war and oil. Because of this the economy has been affected and is still in dept and thus the economy is still continuing to crash which makes more and more business go out of business which in turn makes the economy worse because then individual people go into dept and end up causing the economy more money to support them. Also the meaningless things that the government covers for the people of the united sates also causes the economy to go down because they are spending money that they really don’t have to spend on things that don’t matter to the people of the united states.
Terrorism also ties into the economy going down because of terrorism the united states is spending even more money on things that they use to prevent attacks such as more law enforcement and more advanced technology in airports and other transportation stations to help prevent or decrease the risk of another nine eleven happening in the future. Also the united states is spending money on the war in Iraq that we don’t have so that they could prevent terrorism in an entirely different country. Because of terrorism the united states is losing millions of dollars a day because of the constant threat of it when they could be spending it on improving the economy and helping out the united states of Americas people which in turn would turn the economy around so that it would be improving instead of going down daily.

Eric Bruning
Hour 3

Amanda Sloan said...

When I look back at the good and bad things that the United States has done over the past forty year, it isn’t hard to pick out the situations our government has learned to do differently in a way to not fit the saying that “history repeats itself.” Two major changes our country has made since the Vietnam War includes taking away the draft for wars, and learning to pick the battles we enter ourselves in more carefully. Going back to when the Vietnam War started, the draft caused a lot of chaos on our own soil. This was one of the main reasons why people began speaking out so much against our involvement in Vietnam. People didn’t have the option whether or not they wanted to fight for their country. With the Iraq war now, the talk about starting up a new draft was forgotten about because congress knew that with a draft comes a lot of problems and criticism against whether or not we should be there in the first place. Another error we made during that time was the choice to go into Vietnam in the first place. The government’s main reason was to stop the spreading of communism to another country so the domino effect was put to a halt, but it was more like the United States trying to solve another countries civil war. With our bad strategy and lack of reason to be there, in the end, we failed to do what we wanted to do there for and communism took over South Vietnam. From that, the War Powers Act was created to make the president notify congress 48 hours before anyone is sent somewhere and it is voted on to state war on a country especially over seas. With Iraq, parallels can be formed from Vietnam to this present war, but with our earlier knowledge, I think that the United States picks and chooses its battles. We have a good chance of becoming successful.

Anonymous said...

1. The Vietnam War influenced wars like the Iraq war because it showed the country that it needed to get rid of the draft. American people were very angry with the draft, for the most part, and the country learned that instead of making their citizens to fight, they would have them to volunteer. Another way the Vietnam war has affected more recent wars is the fact that the US has became more understanding of those fighting and their family members, but, it is not shown as honestly in the media as the Vietnam war was.
Another event that occurred that has affected today’s economy and energy was the Three Mile Island incident that happened in Pennsylvania in 1979. This accident has caused Americans to be more wary of nuclear power, and although we are looking into it more and more, it is still a big issue. Since then, no nuclear power plants have been built in the US.
2. I don’t think America has learned its lessons from Vietnam. This war is a little too long and people are waiting for the soldiers to come home, such as their family members and friends. Thankfully, less soldiers are being killed and there was no draft, but the administration insists that we are winning the war, although other reports show this is untrue. We also did not think about a plan or time table for the first few years of the war.
When it comes to Three Mile Island, I think Americans have learned a lesson. Since the incident, they have been much more careful and have'nt built any more nuclear power plants. They are considering putting more in the country, or looking for alternative energy sources, but they would make the facilities a lot safer, for both the people who worked there and the people who lived in the area.

Christen K.

johanna said...

Terrorism:
I think terrorism is one of the things that has come out of the past forty years. It started way back in the 1990s during the Persian Gulf War. The United States gave Iraq Billions of Dollars to fight against Iran, because of the revolution that had taken place earlier in Iran and overthrown the Shah. Iran now was an anti-American nation. However, Saddam invaded Kuwait, accusing them to flood the market. This was only an excuse since his real intention was to ease the debt with Kuwait in adding the country to Iraq and take its oil reserves. The U.S again stepped in, but left soon after the conflict was over. Saddam took over power and slaughtered people that were against him. We now know for a fact that many of the Iraqis who had been trained by the CIA in the 90s converted to terrorism and used their knowledge. If the United States would have stayed in Iraq and taken care of Saddam and stopped the slaughtering them we might not have the current war in Iraq.

Foreign Policy:
The Cold War is the most memorable thing to happen in the last forty years. The Soviet Union no longer exists but we have learned from it. President Reagan was the one man who worked hard during his presidency to get to know his “enemy”. He also pledged for Gorbachev to “tear” the Berlin Wall down.
Without these two men and their believe in a better, peaceful world we might still be in a Cold War. Since the 90s when the Soviet Union fell, the United States has improved foreign relationships with Russia and China. Also, the US and Russia have started to reduce their nuclear weapons drastically. There is no race more who has the most WMD and who might use them first.

Anonymous said...

CHINA WELLS.
3rd hour

EX.1
TERRORISM: TIHS HAS BEEN AN ISSUE FOR MANY YEARS.SINCE THE COLD,WAR AND SINCE THE 9/11 ATTACK TERRORISM HAS BEEN A CONCERN FOR MANY PEOPLE ACROSS THE COUNTRY. SINCE THE YEARS HAS PASSED TERRORISM HAS HAD A VERY NEGATIVE IMPACT ON MANY PEOPLE IN COUNTRIES THAT ARE REALTED TO THESE SORT OF SITUATIONS. IT HAS ACTUALLY GOT WORSE OVER TIME BECAUSE DURING THE YEARS WE'VE COME UP WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN MAKE WEAPONS 10 TIMES MORE DISTRUCTIVE. I FEEL THAT WITH THIS IN MINE FUTURE WARS AND TERRORIST ATTACKS WILL ONLY GET WORSE DUE TO THE DAMAGE THAT THEY CAN CAUSE IN THE FLICK OF A DIME.I THINK RIGHT ABOUT NOW WE SHOULD STOP WHILE WE ARE AHEAD BEFORE THINGS BECOME TOO UNBAREABLE FOR THE WORLD TO TAKE, BECAUSE IF THINGS GET ANY WORSE AND WEAPONS GET ANY STROMGER. THIS WORLD IS GOING TO BE AT ITS WHITS END VERY SOON.

EX.2
COLD WAR: THIS HAS RESULTED IN THE USE OF MANY CHEMICAL WEAPONS. SINCE THE COLD WAR CHEMICAL WEAPONS ARE BEING USE TO FIGHT MANY WARS WHICH ARE LEAVING MORE BY STANDERS DEAD.

Alana Walker 5th said...

I think the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World trade center, and the Pentagon affects the way we travel. Security has stepped up at airports because of the fear of it happening again. The 19 Hijackers were able to pass the security checkpoint, with box cutter knives, without trouble, so this was a wakeup call. Since the attacks, airport security makes you take off your shoes before you walk through the metal detectors, you must put laptops and other electronic devices through a scanner, and we are unable to bring liquids through the security check point. You can tell there is a difference between the vibe of the NYC airport checkpoints, and the one in Detroit. Although the Detroit security is serious about their jobs, those who lived through the attacks on September 11th are much more serious about nothing getting past the checkpoints that are not supposed to.
Back when the nuclear power plant was built in Three Mile Island, people were against nuclear power. But know with the energy crisis that we are in, the nuclear power plant idea is being revisited. Nuclear power is emission free, so since the environment is being affected (global warming) by the method we use today, and people have more knowledge about nuclear energy, so it’s probably safer now and people know it, there is a strong possibility it will be more widespread in the coming years. Many people are calling it a solution to global warming. I think America learned its lesson that our current energy methods are only damaging the planet’s health. To my knowledge, I think President Barrack Obama has nuclear energy plans for his term in office, so we will see how it goes in the next four years of his first term. It probably won’t happen too soon because of the cost, but that is the only thing keeping us back.

Anonymous said...

The Vietnam War has had a great impact on America and the presidents of America and how they react to war situations. The Vietnam War it seems has made presidents double think their decisions and how they are going to act in war. In the past presidents where a lot less strict or worried about some of the things but I think since Vietnam the presidents like to avoid war at all costs even though we have been at in a war for the fast 8 or so years, dealing with the planning of the wars I think they take a lot more time and fully look at all options before they decide on one. I think in some aspects America has learned its lesson with Vietnam, I feel we realize that we have to strategize more and just overall look over a war before we enter it, but I also think that America has not learned its lesson because we have been in this horrible 8 year Iraq war and that has not done anything positive for us soldiers are dying, we are throwing all our money into this war and the reason we went in was incorrect. Jacob Silver

Anonymous said...

When looking at the past in America the two main events that influenced today the most is the Vietnam War & 9/11.
With the Vietnam War it’s changed America so much with how afterwards they got rid of drafts and how long the war lasted. The war was supposedly something that everyone thought would be good for the country, much like the Iraq war, but people realized later that it would go down in history and change us forever. The draft was a good thing because it was the way that we got more people to go into the War when soldiers were needed. I feel that now that it’s a choice rather than a duty everyone is much more willing to become a soldier. Yes, the country had suffering from this was and the draft but I feel that now we have learned from it and won’t let it get that far again. Although the talk of draft may be brought up I don’t think the government would let that happen because of the past and the lack of support from the majority of Americans.
As for 9/11 although it was much more recent I think this was most of the life changing things in our past. For instance even my friends as well as I have always remembered 9/11 as a day that began as exciting because we got to go home early, and turned into a tragedy when we were locked up in our homes with parents acting frantic. When a day such as this is affecting 8-year-olds I can’t imagine what it did to adults who could actually understand the terror and fright of this event. A few months later was the bands trip to London which my older brother had planned on going on. My mom though was terrified to let him on a plane because all she thought was what if the same kind of thing happens? What if he doesn’t come home? This wasn’t just the fear of my mother but many parents and some people even ending up not going because of this. To this day I still know people who are afraid to go on air planes. Although tragic, this day has made our country stronger and better at understanding that we must not take terrorism lightly.

Elaina G.

Anonymous said...

The past has effected today in many ways. Every single war we get into effects what's going to happen after war. Like how the economy will be affected and how much money in debt we will be in. Every time there's a new President, it affect history because you never know what there going to do until it happens (laws, wars, etc.) After wars, it seems that taxes are always raised to help pay off debt. Certain issues that have happened in the past affect our economy too, such as gas prices (can also be affected by war). The past in technology also affects our technology today. If someone never thought of cars, we wouldn't have them today. Technology also gets into defense such as new space crafts and missiles/bombs.

Danielle M.