Lets Discuss History
Hyssop2016
SAMPLESOFTHECOMPETITIONtotop.docxSAMPLES OF THE COMPETITION ON “EARLY WARNING SIGNS” DISCUSSION!
Emerging Sense of Downfallfj
1.The notes for this unit provides quite a few early warning signs: economic issues regarding textiles and the balance of payments, the growing counterculture (and British invasion somewhat fueling this), domestic issues (such as the Civil Rights Movement) and the Vietnam War.
These all had profound effects on the emerging sense of failure and doom. The economy began to slow down after the major boom of the 1950’s. After World War II, the United States was in an artificial economic position. With major world economies still reeling from destruction of the war (primarily in Western Europe), the United States was really the only viable manufacturer and producer of many goods for a while. Once other nations began rebuilding (thanks in part to the Marshall Plan), their domestic production increased and there was less reliance on needing goods from the United States. This set the stage for some issues with “stagflation” that would occur in the late 1960s and into the 1980s: the increase of inflation and unemployment while growth remained constant, or stagnant.
The movie and book for this unit certainly show the importance of other parts of impending American demise. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas shows the creation of “gonzo” journalism as Hunter S. Thompson goes into the dark side of Las Vegas and the newly found drug culture in America. The book describes Thompson searching for the American Dream and what that actually meant in present day. The view of the American Dream in this book is far removed from what many might have believed. The American Dream might have been positive to many people, but this book shows the dark side to it, with the increase of counterculture and resulting drug usage and violence. Cheating to win becomes a common theme in the book. In addition, Vietnam is obviously a major part of the sense of American demise (definitely shown in The Deer Hunter). Americans had become accustomed to winning conflicts, but now innocent men were drafted and sent to Vietnam to be killed for what did not matter to a great deal of Americans. The images shown on television regarding the Tet Offensive went contrary to General Westmoreland’s proclamation that there was “light at the end of the tunnel.” After Richard Nixon put forth his “Vietnamization” plan and began to withdraw American forces, the failure seemed imminent: the South Vietnamese government would soon collapse and be taken over by the North Vietnamese. The questions of why America was there in the first place and resulting scandals began to criticize American’s trust with government.
I would like to offer one opinion of a very important moment that signaled the end of American dominance and supremacy. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into orbit – the first satellite into space. This effectively started the space race between the Soviets and the Americans. However, the significance of this should not be understated. Americans, who were used to being the first in many technological advances, were no longer the first: they were beaten by the Soviets. This quote from a book titled Ways of War describes this fully:
“Barely twice the size of a basketball, the 183-pound Sputnik did not directly threaten the United States. However, the Soviets could improve this technology to the point of placing nuclear bombs in intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) capable of striking targets anywhere in the United States in a matter of minutes. This new delivery system struck fear in every American and deluded Americans’ sense of technological superiority, from President Eisenhower in Washington to hometown neighbors. Indeed, in schools, children started practicing how to hide under their desks in the event of a nuclear attack.” [1]
The fact that Americans were beaten in this way severely undermined the appearance of safety and prosperity. This directly contributed to the decreasing temperature of the Cold War. With satellite technology, rockets could be developed to launch weapons anywhere in the world. Americans had to live with that fear. All of a sudden, they were not at the top of the technological chain. I think this is probably the moment in American history when the realizations occurred that the Cold War was a much bigger threat than most anticipated and fear ran rampant.
[1] Muehlbauer, Matthew S., and David J. Ulbrich. Ways of War: American Military History from the Colonial Era to the Twenty-First Century. New York, NY: Routledge, 2014, 443.
THE RECEDING of AMERICAN OPTIMISMsw
2.The late 1960s and early 1970s signified a pivotal transition in American cultural identity. Society and individual Americans' place within it was reevaluated in the onset of challenged that we still face in the 2010s.
One event that signaled the receding optimism of our country caused gaping division was the Vietnam War. The purpose of American involvement in this war was the execution of Keenan's "Containment" doctrine against communist expansion. Though the USSR was our ally in WWII, the U.S., under Roosevelt and Truman, was suspicious of Soviet influence in eastern Europe and other locales. The Korean War was a preliminary proxy war against these two ideological opponents in the early 1950s; this pretext underscores later Cold War confrontations that America would face. The Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and of course, Vietnam. Whereas the anti-war protests were miniscule at best before Vietnam, they erupted into continental chaos, distrust, and violence. As the war continued, several events served to erode confidence in American government. President Johnson further escalated military involvement in Vietnam following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964. Hundreds of thousands of troops would step into southeast Asia. 58,000 plus would never return, thousands more would suffer from various physical and mental issues, along with an inability to cope with normal life. As evidenced in our assigned film for this unit, The Deer Hunter, only one of the three protagonists, Mike (played by Robert DeNiro), readjusted well; Steve (John Savage) lost both his legs and Nick (Christopher Walken) completely melted down in the years since their tour of duty. From their forced participation in Russian Roulette, it's quite understandable to me how this war can take a toll on these men - as well as the scarring on this country that it represents.
1968 saw other historical pivotal points, leading to deepening alienation between the factions. The Tet Offensive (began 30 January), and later the My Lai Massacre (16 March) in Vietnam further solidified opposition for the war, further widening the divide between conservatives and liberals. This was a constituent event in the decision for Johnson not to seek re-election. The assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. (4 April) and Robert F. Kennedy (5 June) saw the dashing of political optimism first seen by their speeches and ideals about change, equality, and opportunity (except by many Southern whites). The vocal opposition to the Civil Rights Movement in the South, especially with Alabama Gov. George Wallace's capture of five states' electoral votes, also exacerbated disharmony and turmoil.
With all the uncertainty in the U.S. going into the 1970s, it may be understandable that Hunter S. Thompson, in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, turned to chemical concoctions to make sense of, and survive, the madness. The "wave [that] finally broke and rolled back" (Thompson, 68) represented the alienation and disillusion that many Americans felt at the end of the 1960s. Yet as tides "roll back", they eventually return - and for many, they did a decade later upon Reagan's election.
3. EARLY W S wd
Early Warning Signs- "The Receding Wave"mr
Vietnam was definitely a sign that America was not the strong power house it had once believed itself to be, it also caused Americans to be distrustful of their own government. The OPEC oil embargo would prove that America had an energy consumption problem that began back in the 50’s, when house hold appliances started to became a social norm and convenience consumption became a necessity.
We can also look at Hunter S. Thompson’s work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and we see that as early as 1971, Thompson had a sense that America had peaked, “the kind of peak that would never come again” (p. 66). While Thomson’s work introduces a new, “Gozo,” style of journalism, the “wave” speech shows us how history works and gives us a glimpse of the nostalgia felt by Thompson. He claims that history at times can be hard do understand because of the, “hired bullshit.” This is true in the sense that history is always distorted by different perceptions and certain agendas that are always being pushed, without taking an immediate snapshot of the times, there is always going to be an altered view of what really happened, therefore one must have the “right kind of eyes” to view history. This aspect is represented in a good analogy with the character of Lacerda, the photographer assigned to Thompson for the Mint 400. The wave speech illustrates a time where despite what was going on or the lack of understanding of what was taking place there was sense that they “were doing right and that they were winning” (p. 68). Thompson demonstrates a sense of down fall in the closing lines of this well-known speech.
“So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark- that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.” (p. 68)
The down fall is the wave rolling back and the troubles that inevitably always occur with the ups and downs of history. The hope and confidence that was once present with the ones who were, “there and alive in that corner of time and the world,” (p.67) had now disappeared almost as quickly as it had happened.
4.EWSwd
Vietnam by far, weakened the international image of the United States as a world power, even the citizens of America, were against the war. The war was neither won or lost, one fact remained though, North Vietnam remained communist and the United States lost over 58,000 servicemen and 500-686 billion dollars in this unresolved conflict and there alone lies the problem. Once the Great Society plan of Lyndon B. Johnson failed, this shortcoming laid the ground work for the economic problems of the 1970s.
