Some of Reagan's Jokes

My Top 10 Personal Favorites In Order 

1. "A hippie is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane and smells like Cheetah."

2. "I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself."

3. "I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency -- even if I'm in a Cabinet meeting."

4. "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"
5."Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."

6. "Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying."

7. "My fellow Americans. I'm pleased to announce that I've signed legislation outlawing the Soviet Union. We begin bombing in five minutes." (joking during a mike check before his Saturday radio broadcast).

8. "Well, I learned a lot....I went down to (Latin America) to find out from them and (learn) their views. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries."
9. "Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards. If you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book."
10. "If you're explaining, you're losing."

For more visit: http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/quotethis/a/reaganquotes.htm

Notes: Berlin to Vietnam

While we watched a lot of documentaries this quarter, Mr. Stewart gave some nice presentations as well. Here's a recap:

Sources of tension in the early cold war

• Capitalism vs communism
• Perception of motives for each side
• Sphere of influence? Elections? 
• Disagreement at Tehran ‘43, Yalta ‘45, and Potsdam ’45

Europe

• East bloc is in direct control of the Soviet Union in 1948
• Yugoslavia is actually communist, but doesn't like stalin
• Greece is in a civil war revolving around communism
• Western Europe is in economic shambles
• Could lead to communism…

Asia

• Japan is occupied by the US since September 1945
• Korea is split into two halves- North (Soviet) and South (US)
• Chinese civil war —> communist vs. anti-communist (Soviets support the communist side…)
• Imperialist powers move back into their former colonies—> uprisings and rebellions and independence movements start

Middle East

• Iran —> The British leave, but the soviets don't
• Turkey allows Soviet naval bases and access to the Mediterranean 
• Greece is fighting a civil war with the British funding the anti-communist side

The United Nations

• Membership was originally any nation who declared war against the axis powers
• Security Council and the General Assembly
• Promote peace, security, humanitarian assistance, economic development

Global Situation 

• US—> Cooperate with the UN
• USSR —> focused on a security zone
• Asia—> is in shambles…
• Many nations begin to resist 
• western imperialism 

Mr. X and the Long Telegram

• Control and contain the Soviet Union, because they are a rapidly expanding force

The Marshall Plan (June of 1947)

• Massive aid program to Western Europe
• Influence them so they reject communism and trade with the western world
• Make sure they kept faith n democracy and capitalism
• Emotional: demonstrate would stand by its allies in Western Europe

Truman Doctrine 

• Aggressive and expansive form of containment 
• Becomes the guiding force of American foreign policy for the next 25 years
• Out of fear that Greece and Turkey would be lost to the Soviet cause
• Yugoslavia had already been lost

The Berlin Airlift

• Stalin blockades Berlin to cut off the West 
• Cuts coal, electricity, food, etc. 
• The allies then fly in supplies and airdrop it in for a year (plane taking off/landing every 13 seconds)

Formation of Nato

• April 1949
• Mutual defense alliance
• “Keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down”
• Originally 12 nations, 26 today
• Representative of America’s commitment to Europe

The Atomic Arms Race

• August 29th, 1949 the Soviet Union successfully detonated an atomic bomb
• Ended the American atomic monopoly 
• US still dominates an advantage in numbers and delivery systems

The Spread of Communism

• 1948 the Eastern Bloc is under soviet control 
• 1949 the Chinese Communists defeated the Chinese Nationalist 
• Mao Zedong becomes the communist leader

CIA/National Security Council Memorandum-68

• Designed to combat communism and to fight covert operations
• Recommended that the American Military be put into a wartime state (even though they were at war)
• Called for the American people to be more informed about the Soviet threat 
• Considered the blueprint for American foreign policy until the 1970’s

The Korean War (June 1950-1953)

• North Korea (communist) invades South Korea (Not communist)
• Condemned by the UN
• Lead by the US and almost wins, until China comes in (all in 1950)
• US decides against wider war, conflict ends

The Hydrogen Bomb

• Thermonuclear fission-fusion device
• Test detonation on Eniwetok Atoll— the island disappears 
• “Mike” H-bomb = 10.4 mega-tons (“Little Boy” was 20 kilotons)

Changes in the Cold War

• Eisenhower ends the Korean war
• Change US policies in the Cold War
• Stalin dies and is succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev in 1955

Fast forward to Kennedy

American Changes

• Kennedy
• Aggressive foreign policy, hawkish
• Attempt to distance himself from Eisenhower 

Berlin Wall

• During the 1950’s, 2 million East germans had fled to the West through West Berlin
• Soviets constructed a wall to prevent the migration of East Germans
• US did not challenge as it did not interfere with West Berlin 

Cuban Missile Crisis

• Fidel Castro tis brought to power after a US imposed leader in overthrown
• He nationalizes American industry
• Declared a Communist revolution and allies with the USSR
• The Bay of Pigs- US backed Cuban exiles try to overthrow Castro…it’s a fiasco
• Khrushchev sent military aid to Cuba (medium range nuclear missiles
• US wants the missiles out! (potential first strike capability)
• US “Quarantines” Cuba
• USSR denied the existence of the missiles
• U-2 spy planes had already taken photos of the missiles
• Question- How to get the missiles out before they are operational 
• USA Options: Military action (airstrikes, invasion) or Diplomacy
• USSR Options: Don’t back down because it will make the USSR look weak
• Khrushchev decides to back down and remove the missiles from Cuba
• Soviet leaders base their decision on American nuclear superiority 
• Khrushchev is replaced in 1964

Mad and the Arms Race

• SALT limited delivery systems, but not MERV’s
• Both sides have to deter the other side and convince them that their first strike wouldn’t work 
• $50 million/day spent on the arms race
• Strategic Triad (Submarines, Missiles, and Bombers)

Detente

• “Relaxation”
• Both sides were tired of the arms race and constant tension
• Proposal to have a “thaw” in the Cold War
• USA, China, and the USSR
• Ultimate Result: SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty)

SALT

• Called for a limitation on nuclear delivery systems (mainly missiles, but also submarines and bombers)
• ABM treaty: Limits the amount of antiballistic missiles (would upset MAD)

Other Events

• Iran (1953)
• Guatamala (1954)
• China-Taiwan Conflict (1965)
• Dominican Republic (1965)
• Six Day War (1967) Israel vs. Arab Nations 
• Yom Kippur war (1973) Israel vs. Arab Nations
• Chile (1973)

VIETNAM!

Eisenhower 

• Dien Bien Phu
• Geneva peace conference 
• Elections will be held
• US stops elections in fear that a communist leader will come to power
• Rise of Diem and SEATO
• US sends in advisers 
• The Domino effect (communists will take as much as they can)

Kennedy 

• Shifts policy from “mass retaliation” to “flexible response”
• Use of american troops, counter insurgency 
• America could win the cold war by getting third world nations to buy into the American View
• Increases advisers sent to South Vietnam (16,000 by 1963)
• Coup of Diem’s government in 1963

Vietnam- Johnson

• Continued Kennedy’s policies, but wanted to be hard on communism (election coming up)
• The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• Rolling Thunder- bombing the hell out of north Vietnam 
• Pacification: “Search and Destroy”
• Body counts = attrition = favorable kill ratios
• Limited War = attrition

Vietnam- Nixon

• “Peace with Honor”
• Vietnamization and withdrawal of major US combat forces 
• Cambodia and Laos
• Mining of Haipong Harbor
• Intensified bombing campaign (ex. Christmas Bombing)
• Paris Peace Accords (January 1973)
• Enables the US to withdraw and the South Vietnamese to be ‘safe’
• The peace accords failed, but allowed the US to withdraw

Vietnam- Legacy

• Pais accords failed —> South Vietnam in complete disarray and defeated by the North in April
• Southeast Asia is unstable (Cambodia: Khmer Rouge)
• War between Vietnam and Cambodia, skirmished with China
• In retrospect the Soviet leaders admitted after the Cold War that it sent a message about American commitment to containment
• Caused America to be more suspicious not only to their government but also to committing troops abroad

Kennedy and the Mob

Hey guys!

I was doing the reading (I think in the textbook but I don’t remember for sure) and I learned that President John F. Kennedy may have been involved with the mob.  This, of course, caught my attention and I did a little more digging.  I don’t know how much of this is fact (or just speculating) but I found it to be interesting and thought other people might as well.

The first link is JFK’s father, named Joseph Kennedy, Sr. who was most likely involved in the bootlegging business during Prohibition.  Joe Kennedy (supposedly) did business with the well-known gangster from Chicago, Sam Giancana.  He stood back to allow his sons to succeed in politics, but his connections may have helped JFK win the election.

The second link is through Frank Sinatra, who was close friends with JFK as well as associates with Giancana.  (Some sources I found say that Sinatra was actually a kind of liaison between the two men.  In fact, one source quotes Tina Sinatra, Sinatra’s daughter, who says that Kennedy first approached her father because he knew that Sinatra had connections to Giancana and because it would be dangerous for Kennedy to approach Giancana directly.)

Finally, John F. Kennedy and Sam Giancana even had similar taste in women.  They both had relationships with a woman named Judith Campbell Exner.  In fact, she claimed to have passed envelopes from Kennedy to the mob carrying payoffs or instructions for vote-buying and even witnessed one of the exchanges herself.

Check out the websites, especially the National Geographic article, for more information.  It’s actually really interesting.  People even think that these relationships led to Kennedy’s assassination, though the House Select Committee on Assassinations could not find any connection.

Side note, something I find somewhat odd is that Robert Kennedy took such an aggressive stance against organized crime.  What do you guys think?  Was this linked to his family’s involvement?

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/killing-kennedy/articles/jfks-secret-mafia-history/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/kennedys-bio-joseph-patrick/

http://www.biography.com/people/sam-giancana-9542088#imprisonment-and-murder

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tina-sinatra-mob-ties-aided-jfk/

http://nypost.com/2013/11/10/all-the-presidents-women-3/

Visual Learning

For those of you who, like me, love visuals, interactive maps can be really interesting and an easier way to absorb data and information than text or other statistics. Recently, I've been reading a lot of Ezra Klein's Vox, and came across list of 70 maps that detail different parts of American history. The table of contents at the beginning divides the maps up by time period and topic.

I really encourage you to check out the link for some great graphics, but if you'd rather not, here are some of my favorites:

(related to the Cold War)

#49. I can't post a screenshot because it's a gif, but the interactive map that demonstrates the path of the Vietnam War. 

#50.  A great way to visualize the extent to which countries identified either as communist or capitalist. The world was almost at a stalemate.

#54. "Another way to show America's status as the sole global superpower is its military budget: larger than the next 12 largest military budgets on Earth, combined. That's partly a legacy of the Cold War, but it's also a reflection of the role the US has taken on as the guarantor of global security and the international order."

#40. With the 50th Anniversary of Selma being timely at the moment, this map helps people visualize the route taken.

Basically all of them are super cool and you should check them out!! 

Dr. Seuss and the Cold War

So, a while back we talked about Dr. Seuss and the propaganda he drew during WWII. Now that we're pretty far into the Cold War, I thought I'd share another politically-motivated piece that he wrote in 1984, called The Butter Battle Book, which is basically just a huge metaphor for the war. In it, he alludes to a bunch of topics and points of interest from that time period, especially the arms race, mutually assured destruction, and nuclear warfare.

It was made into an animated TV special, which is linked below. It's pretty long, but if you're ever in the mood to watch a children's cartoon with very heavy Cold War themes, it's definitely the right choice.

Marijuana and the Environment

As I was surfing through facebook today, I saw an interesting post about medical marijuana and the effects it has on the environment. This immediately reminded me of the Silent Spring video we just finished today.

The outdoor growers often time use pesticides and rat poisons to ensure that they get a higher output, but the problem is these methods are damaging the ecosystem. In California, some of these marijuana growers are going into deep forest and spreading d-Con (rat poison) to protect their crop. Two endangered spotted owls have already been tested positive for having this poison in their system, and just like Rachel Carson's idea of how the system of life are all interrelated and are affected all together, a rat poisoned by d-Con is poisoning the Pacific Fisher (part the weasel family) when the Pacific Fisher eat the rats for food.

Lit. Patrick Foy from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife gets report from neighbors about dead fishes turning up. The growers are contaminating the water sources and destroying the local creeks. This relates to those reports in Carson's time where people started discovering dead birds after the wide spread of DDT.

When constructing a place for the marijuana to grow, some business build the place on mountaintops. They smooth out the hills and put the roads and dams, which can block the flow of the streams, cutting the water supply to the lower part of the area. Any living thing that requires water and lives between the top to the bottom of the mountaintop is now affected. Many people are unaware of this, and many businesses either don't know as well or choose to ignore it. It can take a while for the ecosystem to show obvious signs of damage, and by then, it might be too late.

In one of the article, it mentions about rabbits starting to get addicted to marijuana and losing their sense of ability to run away after ingesting it. This is dangerous, for these rabbits can be prey upon more easily and a decrease in their populations may decrease the predator which feed on them.

Sadly, even though DEA did inform it to a Utah Senate panel, the panel still approved the bill and sent it to the full Senate.This really reminds me of the abuse of pesticides in the 1960s, and how many people were not aware of the effects it has on the environment and how there are people in the government that do not seem to care much about it.

What do you guys think will happen? Do you think Utah will legalize medical marijuana? And for the states that have already legalized it, do you think the people should be informed of the effects it has on the ecosystems?

Sources/Read More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/02/dea-warns-of-stoned-rabbits-if-utah-passes-medical-marijuana/?tid=sm_fb

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/us/marijuana-crops-in-california-threaten-forests-and-wildlife.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&amp&

http://www.ibtimes.com/how-marijuana-farms-impact-environment-1729921

Impact of Greensboro Sit-Ins

The famous Greensboro "sit-ins", in which black students would occupy a place reserved for white students, started with a sit-in on February 1st, 1960 in Woolworth's store. Joseph McNeil, Izell Blair, Franklin McCain, and David Richmond, students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, planned and carried out this first sit-in. For the first hour, they remained unnoticed. The next day, they brought thirty students to the counter for about two hours, attracting local reporters. The following day, protesters occupied every spot at the counter. After several threats, the store manager temporarily closed the store. Woolworth's store in Greensboro eventually desegregated after losing more than $200,000.

Though making Southerners angrier than before, the impact the sit-in had over students resulted in over 54 sit-ins throughout the North Carolina by February 7th. Students wanted to speed up the pace of the movement and gain equality faster. Word of the sit-ins traveled fast as the press reported the event all over the country. 

Ella Baker organized a Southern Christian Leadership Conference, bringing in "sit-in" participants from all over the South. This Conference was held in Raleigh at Shaw University on April 16th and give birth to the Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC). As students had much less to lose, the younger generation began to join the SNCC while the NAACP appealed to an older generation. These sit-ins became a large element of the civil rights movement with over 70,000 people participating total. 

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/greensboro_1960.htm 

http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/sitin.html