Write an essay exploring the main events over that time
History Essay, NO MORE THAN 5 PAGES, double spaced; over one of the following topics: Sources can be: Alan Brinkley’s; The Unfinished Nation Part 2.
1. Arguably, the most intense period of the civil rights’ movement took place from World War II up through the late 1960s, and the movement was characterized by African-Americans taking matters into their own hands and forcing officials in Washington to act in their behalf. Discuss the main events/developments that took place in behalf of civil rights during that era. You could examine WWII as a catalyst for the movement, the role of the Supreme Court led by the Brown v Board of Education decision of 1954, the southern reaction to the Brown verdict, the Montgomery bus boycott, the sit in campaign, the Freedom Rides and demonstrations in Birmingham during John Kennedy’s time as President, the enactment of the Civil Rights’ Acts of 1964 and 1965, and the white backlash against the movement once more militant groups formed and race riots broke out.
2. The United States became involved in Vietnam during the World War II era, and continued to be involved into the early 1970s. Write an essay exploring the main events/developments over that time span pertaining to American involvement there during the Presidencies of Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. Some of the highlights that you may want to address. Could include: containment and the Korean War under Truman, Vietnam being divided into a communist north and democratic south through the Geneva agreement in 1954 and the Eisenhower support of the South Vietnamese President Diem, the deployment of more military advisers under Kennedy and the assassination of Diem, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, search and destroy missions, operation Rolling Thunder, and the Tet Offensive under Johnson, and how Nixon’s Vietnamization policy eventually ended American involvement in Vietnam. You could discuss some of the long-term impacts of the American experience in Vietnam as well.
