Berlin Wall Episode

Today in class we watched a documentary on the Berlin Wall and the drastic measures in place and how people escaped Eastern Berlin into Western Berlin.  The first progress of the wall was just rows of barb wire along with it being watched over by soldiers on the Eastern Side to try to prevent the spread of communism within the area.  While this wall was up many found it the time to escape jumping the barb wire into Western Berlin before it was to late.  But soon a brick wall was to be built and People on the inside had little to no time to escape. Searching for the last openings People ran to safety as officers shot at young children, men, and women in attempt to escape. Soon windows and all the wall would become brick and those who didn't make it out would be trapped for years to come. In the end the West part of Berlin was a welcoming civilization who helped those wanting to escape make it.

Do you think the people behind the Berlin Wall will soon come to regret their decision of staying on the eastern side?

Consumer Demand Spurs Economic Growth

During World War II Americans saved a large sum of money when they where forced to rationalize there necessities for soldiers in battle. With all this money and factories slowly begin to produce consumer goods Americans were ready to spend money.  As the economy grew so did income. Such as real income which was measured by the amount of goods and services that sum of money could buy.  With new goods and services being built Americans wanted everything new.  Leading to competition, American soon began to try to one up or buy the better product of that of their neighbor or friends.Americans would base each other off the goods they bought.  This became known as Planned Obsolescence and was used as a marketing technique to help encourage this outrageous consumption.

McCarthyism and the Soviet Union

One thing many people disliked about the Soviet Union was that, in the Soviet Union, people were often arrested and sent to labor camps, or even killed, for opposing Stalin or the Soviet government. However, in a way, McCarthyism was similar to this. While people were not killed by McCarthyism, it did ruin their careers, and put them in a lot of trouble because they could have potentially opposed the United States government, which is similar to what Stalin arrested people for. As such, some say that during McCarthyism, the United States was acting very similarly to the Soviet Union. However, others say that McCarthyism did not directly kill or hurt people, only their reputation, and that it's nowhere near as bad as the Soviet Union's actions.
I believe that while the United States' actions were bad during McCarthyism, they weren't quite as severe as the Soviet Union, and comparing their actions should not be used to justify American actions.

Do you think the United States' actions during McCarthyism were equivalent to the actions of the Soviet Union?

Super Bowl LI

Super Bowl LI took place on Sunday, February 5, 2017. The two teams involved in the spectacular game were the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. The Atlanta Falcons had only appeared in one Super Bowl (Super Bowl XXXIII) prior to the one that took place this past Sunday.  This left them with two appearances and two losses. Although the Atlanta Falcons had an outstanding regular season, which gave them a first round bye in the post-season, they were unable to finish out against the New England Patriots. The Patriots are one of the best known franchises in football history. They have appeared in the most number of Super Bowls with nine appearances. The Falcons gave them their fifth Super Bowl championship in Super Bowl LI. Something to note is that prior to the Super Bowl merge that took place in 1970, the "Super Bowl" was known as the APFA/NFL Championship game. During this era, the Falcons still did not win a single championship. Needless to say that the two franchises were not comparable.

Focusing more on the game itself, it was a very intense game near the end. For the first half of the game, it was a complete blowout. The Falcons were up 21-3 at the end of the first half. The Atlanta defense was showing tremendous pressure against the arguably greatest quarterback of all time Tom Brady. Patriots running back, LeGarrette Blount, was stuffed at the line of scrimmage by the Falcons. With the offense scoring touchdowns and the defense completely shutting down the Patriots, everything was looking great for the Atlanta Falcons. The halftime show was irrelevant. As the second half began the Patriots were looking for a way to get back into the game but they could not, as the Falcons scored once again. The score was then 28-3. As the second half progressed, the Patriots would pull off the unbelievable and take the game into overtime. For those that do not know what overtime is, basically the Patriots were able to pull a comeback and tie up the game at the end of the final quarter of regulation. Since the score was 28-28, the victor must be decided in overtime. The Patriots would receive the ball first in overtime and they would march down the field, where running back James White would score the game winning touchdown.  

Communism

One of the major concepts related to the Cold War is the difference between capitalism and communism. In communism, no individuals own property or things, but the people as a whole own everything. This is different from capitalism, where people can own property and do business with it. One common criticism of communism is that because all property is owned by the overall population of a country, nobody can get ahead in life through hard work and dedication or any other means. Under capitalism, however, people can became very rich and improve their own life. As this is directly contradictory to the American Dream, this is likely one of the reasons why the United States has always disliked communism.
However, it is unlikely that basic ideological reasons like this were the reason for the divide between communism and capitalism in the cold war. While in theory communism has no government or classes or anything stopping equality, in reality, communist countries like the Soviet Union always ended up with a small ruling class or political party who controlled the country. These people might come into power to start communism in their country, but these people would often want to stay in power, and would be able to use propaganda and other techniques to do so. They would end up being the only political party, and nobody would be allowed to resist them. This was probably the scarier part of communism to the United States and other western countries, and why the United States was so opposed to communism in the cold war.

The start of the Space Race

The Space Race between Russia and the US began when the Russians launched their first satellite, Sputnik 1 into space. Because of the current situation between America and Russia, this made Americans think, "Hey, aren't we supposed to be the most technologically advanced country in the world? Why are the Russians in space before us?". This created a sense of urgency, a feeling that we had to get into space soon, because no one wanted to lose in anything to the Russians. Because of this, the US's satellite program was rushed into action and hurried the creation of their first satellite which, when launched, crashed back down to the ground, only reaching a few feet above the Earth's surface before coming back down and exploding. This disheartened the American people and made them think that the Soviets were better than them, because at the same time of the crash of the US's first satellite, the Russians were putting another satellite, the Sputnik 2, into space. This put the US even farther behind in the Space Race, but it also motivated them to put more resources into their satellite program. If Russia had not gotten ahead in the Space Race, would the US have focused on their space program as much as they did?

Homefront / Soldiers' Morale

For my research paper, I looked at the psyche of American soldiers as well as Americans at home. From my research, I concluded that the second world war, despite its horrors, was able to unite Americans and lift the country out of its depression into prosperity and a higher sense of national pride. Before the war, the country was suffering a depression, but it emerged as one of the most powerful countries in the world. In the home front, Americans became united and dedicated to the war effort because their common goal motivated them and they felt empowered to be a part of the group. Rationing was implemented, everyone worked to increase production, and everyone had a high sense of nationalism. There was a lot of racism, which came from this high sense of nationalism. Despite the drawbacks, the nationalism did manage to unite the country. Soldiers were traumatized from the war, but many of them returned having a new appreciation for America and all that it meant to be an American. They were proud to fight for their country and their fellow soldiers, despite how scared they were. Even though the war was awful, it did have the positive result for the United States of Uniting the country and making it stronger than ever.