Kennedy and Eisenhower speeches

Do these speeches show basic agreement or disagreement a bout the goals of national policy? Use specific examples from the speeches to illustrate your ideas.


"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society".

Eisenhower wanted to improve the arms that the united states had by becoming more technologically advanced and making the US stronger by increasing the amount of supplies we had.

JFK wanted to use mental tactics and well thought out moves before using weapons.
In this sentence he states that arms are necessary and we will have to eventually fight but the reason that we are fighting is also impoartant and it is good to be smart in the decisions that we make.

"Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself".

Eisenhower and Stevenson campaign ads

As I watched all of the Eisenhower campaign ads, the notion of the family man who was a brilliant and strong general is reinforced through every means possible. The ads portray a man who is quick but decisive and can make decisions that will be wise but also morally strong. With the Korean War being fought at this time, the people of the United States were looking for a leader that was familiar with war but would also bring the men who the constituents loved home, so that they could be with their family. The point that Eisenhower was trying to get across was that he had the knowledge and experience of battle and could bring a peaceful ending to the war. One of Eisenhower's ads has a black male asking him a question and Eisenhower has a response that is summarized to say that the American people are facing all kinds of problems and that life isn't as good as people lie about. By posing and answering this question, Eisenhower tries to show the people that he recognizes the problems and will not just look over them hoping that they will go away over time. With the cheerful chants of "Ike", I also noticed that this catchy song hooked the viewer and made it almost seem as if the viewer would be happy like the song if they voted for Ike.

For the first clip for Stevenson, the reader is drawn in by an attractive woman singing. This tactic was used to show women that other women had an interest in Stevenson and this add lured men into watching it because the woman has a low cut dress on. The image of a housewife saying that Stevenson would be good is reinforcing the notion of the wives at home helpfully suggesting to their husbands what would be good for them, just as all mothers do. With the seductive winks and nods and eye lash flickers, the woman's appearance is focused more on than the rhyming of the lines within the song.

The tactics of rhyming, attractive women, and television ads just show how technology and campaigning is evolving. These ads show us that in 1952, the world was becoming for technologically advanced and also more deceptive, since now they not only could deceive the audeince not just through the radio, but also visually. The use of attractive women singing and catchy rhyming songs helped to get the tunes stuck in someones head which having an image to go along with the tunes certainly helped also.

Cold War Blog Post

Truman Doctorine:
His main point is that he is worried about foreign policy and how the Greeks and Turkish are threatening it. Spreading democracy is our main goal and with the threat of Communism "riding our tails" the fight so actually spread democracy becomes threatened. Truman addresses Congress to find ways to protect the nation as a whole and how to get involved with other countries and protect them. The economic situation of the world is starting to become more upward looking and Truman wants to keep the world in a more positive direction. Truman asks Congress to give him aid in helping the Greek government who is begging for our help. This document helps us to understand that America was against Communism and wanted to approach the situation in a frienly, helping manner, while remaining within the bounds of the constitution. Truman wanted to plan his moves and make them as decisive as he could so that a full war did not break out between Democracy and Communism.

Kennan's Telegram:
Just as Truman was trying to find the smartest ways to approach the request in aid with Greece, Kennerman tries to do the same for the Soviet union. In a world where Communism reigns and where Capitalism is wished to be, again the US is faced with the fight against forgien ideals. While trying to keep peace around the world by spreading democracy and captialism, the US attempts to battle an ideal which they are strongly against. Just as Truman addresses that he wants to keep peace in his address to Congress, Kennan also reiterates that peace in the world should be maintained while spreading our ideals.

World War Two Museum Visit

I visited the World War II museum this past Saturday, December 12. What seemed as a fun trip to the museum turned into an unexpected journey. In line to buy my tickets, I ran into my new soccer coach, Mrs. Tilling's father-in-law. After saying hello, and parting, my mom and I walked through the exhibits looking at the artifacts enclosed in the glass cases and reading the captions while watching the videos projected onto the white oval shape, tilted object on the floors. We wound our way up the staircases from the European front to the Pacific front gawking at how different life was then to now. My mom and I talked about, just as we did in class, how easily it is to forget that there is actually a war in Iraq and Afghanistan if you do not know any one fighting there. My mom even pretended that I was an exhibit when she made me talk about World War II to a group of older ladies who said that I was "an adorable little thing". After explaining to this group that the decision to drop the atomic bomb wasn't just to end the war (thanks ATF, you saved me), the women walked away with a better understanding. (Which I thought was odd, considering they looked old enough to have survived WWI- not saying this in a derogatory way, just stating a fact.) After walking up and then down the staircases, my mom and I decided to end our tour with the movie. Although most people started with the movie and then looked at the exhibit, we got there right as a movie was starting and decided that our time would be better spent actually doing something instead of sitting and drinking coffee. My mom dropped out of the movie as we stood in line because she decided that it would bother her eyes to watch a 4-D movie. So, as my luck would have it, I ran into my soccer coach again. He invited me to join his wife and their friends in line and said that I should sit with them throughout the movie. While standing for about 15 minutes in line, the other 7 adults and I had a conversation about WWII and how the D-day Museum did an amazing job and depicting how the war actually was instead of trying to cover it up with encouraging propaganda that hid the reality of the war. The adults were surprised that I could keep up with them and their discussions on the policies of Wilson and Teddy that led to World War II and they also were surprised to know about how the atomic bomb decision was reached. To make a long story short, we watched the movie and said good bye shortly after.

On the ride home, I came to realize one thing. World War Two was not just a 4 year war that was fought on two different sides of the world and just won by the US because we're beast like that. World War Two was a tough war that caused the US to band together, men and women, to feel around in the dark without the protection or guidelines of Washington's Farewell Address to lead them. I don't think that dropping the atomic bomb caused the US to let go of WFA (Washington's Farewell Address), I think that entering the war caused them to. Nowhere in WFA does it state what to do with an atomic bomb or how to inform the vice president after the president who kept the project in secret dies. World War Two was a test that made the US realize that women were just as good at warfare as men were and that the US was very lucky to win the war because if you compare the number of troops in Japan and Germany to the amount in the US, the opposing sides should have crushed America, but this was not the outcome. The WWII museum not only showed me how intense the war was, but it took the terms and definitions that were memorized out of the book and put them into pictures and 3-D models and even a 4D movie. Now, I just wish that everything we cover in history could have such an amazing museum to match.

Possible Essay Questions

What caused the US foreign policy to change?

How and why did the role of the US chnage in the world?

The Decision to Drop the Bomb

"The New Mexico test of the first atom bomb marked the successful conclusion of the Manhattan Project, the code name for one of the largest scientific and industrial efforts ever undertaken".

I think that this quote is important because it shows just how major the creation of the atomic bomb was for the US. This under cover, secret creation not only changed the world forever, but also gave the US a leg in World War II. Davidson and Lytle show through this chapter just how big of a role government played in creating this weapon and how the balance of power shifted from Roosevelt to his advisers. The reason for the power shift was because of Roosevelt's death. I found it interesting that Truman, his vice president, was even debriefed of the project until after Roosevelt's death. The most interesting thing about this was that the person to debrief him was Stimson, who had worked underneath both Truman and Roosevelt. It seemed odd to me that a vice president would not be briefed by the president, but then again, this project was on a need to know basis, so Roosevelt obviously had a reason for not telling Truman.

"For three years, American, British, and émigré scientists raced against time and what they feared was an insurmountable German lead".

I liked this quote because of the irony. The Germans, who were supposedly beating the Americans at creating this atomic bomb, had actually given up. As I put in my seminar questions, I can't help but wonder if the US would have slowed down and not made as much progress if they would have known about the Germans. I chose this quote because I thought that it showed just how driven the Americans were to win the war. They sought out the nation's best mathematicians and scientists to create this bomb that would end the war for them. The government paired up with the scientific community and the end result was the most destructible weapons on the planet.

I thought this chapter was interesting. I like how the historians applied a model theory to the chapter to explain why everything happened. Since mathematicians and scientists use theories all the time to explain why things happen or happened, I think that it was interesting that Davidson and Lytle used a model theory to explain a the events in a chapter that revolved around science so much.

Obama's Afghanistan Plan

Last night, Obama addressed the nation saying that he would plan to withdraw all troops in late 2011, but he wants to give Afghanistan an " quick punch" before he even considers setting a more precise date of withdrawing. The public and big name officials surrounding Obama said that they do not believe that this plan will work. Although Obama said that this war will not be another Vietnam and that he will not be a clone of his predecessor, some say that he is making the same exact move.

I personally don't know a solution to what we should do in the war so I don't feel that I have an opinion. I think that there is a lot going on in Afghanistan that the public does not know about; information that the government has on a "need to know" basis. I can't help but feel bad for the families affected by the war, but at the same time I don't want another 9/11 to happen.