Thursday, May 17, 2012

Eisenhower and Civil Rights

President Eisenhower wasn't to involved when it came to the Blacks trying to reach equality. The President majority of the time would just study and investigate their grievances, and if he wasn't doing that he was playing golf with business men in the south. For instance, Raplh Bunche recieved an award for being a distinguished African American diplomat. The award was proceeded by a dinner with the President and to Eisenhower, enjoying dinner with a Black man sitting next to you at the same dinner table was foreign. The president was blind to racial intolerance and didn't even publicly endorse desegregation in school after the Brown v Board case. President Eisenhower believed the prospect of the black would be hurt and southern hearts of the white man would harden if integration was forced. Eisenhower didnt serve the country well when it  came to problems of race and racism, the man took a more "sit back and watch" posistion.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

McCarthyism

A) One thing the author said that I think is important is when he said to Harry S. Truman, "you named hundreds that are listed as dangerous to the nation." A second thing he said that I think is important is, "we have been able to compile a list of 57 communists in the state department." A third thing he said that I think is important is, "failure on your part will label the democratic party of being the bed-fellow of inter-national communism."

B) I think this document was written to confront and address the fear, problem, and investigation of communist members working in our government. Also, to help Joe McCarthy to gain supporters.

C) Evidence from the document includes Joe McCarthy saying "we have been able to compile a list of 57 communists in the state department." Also confronting President Truman that he knows that he is aware of more communists in the government by saying, "you named hundreds that are listed as dangerous to the nation" because of communist connections. Also McCarthy had said, "one group approximately 300 certified to the secretary for discharge and only discharged approximately 80."

D) One thing the document tells me about life in the United States at this time is the people were terrified of our country's government turning communist. Another thing is even though people of the United States were watching our governments decisions, we didn't really know if we could trust them or not.

E) Why did President Truman ban state departments giving congress any information in regard to disloyalty or communistic connections of anyone in that department when Alger Hiss was exposed?

F) February 11, 1950

G) Senator Josepg McCarthy

H) Address President Truman about the concerns of communist advocates working in the government, particularly in the state department.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

WWII

Soldiers day:
          I'm not sure what today's date is or what day of the week it is either. After a while, the days just begin to blur together one after the other. I always wondered how I would feel after my first kill and to be honest, you don't think to much about until the adrenaline dies down and you find yourself unwinding on either a cot or 2-3 foot deep hole reading family letters acting as an antidote to slip you back down into reality. I haven't slept in almost 3 days knowing this time of rest I'm spending on writing this letter could turn into another sleepless night if there are any signs of the enemy. Our location as of now resides somewhere in German territory. Yesterday, my platoon came across a sight words can't describe and my mind won't ever forget. Behind 16 foot fences of barbed wire was an evacuated 20 plus acre area of dead bodies everywhere. They were either burned, dismantled, poisoned in what seemed to be a chamber or starved to death. After reporting everything and reaching the limit of what our own eyes could take we quickly and steadily marched south and slipped into enemy lines battling for a solid 2 hours of war. We lost 7 of our men and won the battle but are still pushing to win the war.

Character in detail:
          One character in the movie that is probably written about the most is Captain  John H Miller. He didn't just wear the clothes on his back and his supplies but he carried and fought for his country and all the men he lead in battle. In the very beginning of the movie, he was probably the most nervous soldier the camera showed but knew what had to be done. His soldiers had all odds against them but even after the hundreds of men they lost he continued to push on. Captain John H Miller even said that after every kill he had, the further away from home he felt. Someone who was just an elementary school teacher with a wife back home found himself fighting to save a Private he didn't even know resulting in his own life being taken.

What would I have done:
          Honestly, I don't think anyone can truly respond to this section truthfully because know matter how much of the enemy we say we would kill and how brave we say we would be we will never know unless we are really in the war. It's easy to watch people die on a screen in front of you and get all hyped up but until a screenplay of reenactment turns into reality and that man beside you who just was shot dead and is your best friend, situations become real. Since I've obviously never been to war the best I can say is that I hope I would be one of the best soldiers when it came to getting the job do when it needed to be done. And when it then came time for war, a switch that only gunfire can trigger would change my mentality and I would enter a zone that I could only find myself in as entered the battle zone.