THE OTHER SIDE OF AMERICA
Fear, coming from an economically divided society, causes a split in opinions on differences in government systems and directed the U.S. government actions throughout the cold war.
"To be sure, the other America is not impoverished in the same sense as those poor nations where millions cling to hunger as a defense against starvation... That does not change the fact that tens of millions of Americans are, at this very moment, maimed in body and spirit, existing at levels beneath those necessary for human decency. If these people are not starving, they are hungry, and sometimes fat with hunger, for that is was cheep foods do. They are without adequate housing and education and medical care." -form The Other America
POLITICAL
Most Americans had a capitalist view point leading to fear of a different style of government, especially a communist government. In the 1950's about 20% of the American people were not prosperous. Seeing as this was a minority and most Americans were very successful during the 1950's, political leaders did not see a change in government to be necessary. |
CONTEXT
"The capitalists and their henchmen remain coldly unconcerned about the suffering of the masses. They thing only about the profits of the rich. Their way out of a crisis is a way that will brig permanent poverty and misery to the workers and poor farmers, while the few rich bankers and manufactures, who control the country become still richer ans still more powerful."
ECONOMIC
By 1960 3 million African Americans had moved from the north to the south. They were searching for greater economic opportunity. However, for these migrants the economic growth that many Americans experience in 1950s did not occur. Many immigrants including the African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans were the last hired and the first fired. Generally these migrants had the worst-paying jobs. In 1958 the average African American salary was 51% of what whites earned. In the mid-1900s the average annual income for Native American families was $1,000 less than African American families. This led these minorities to want a change in government to possibly be more economical profitable. A communist government does not have a gap between the rich and the poor. This in turn made the rich fearful of the communist government. |
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"[Migrant laborers] work ten-eleven-twelve hour days in temperatures over one hundred degrees. Sometimes there is no drinking water... Women and children work on ladders and with hazardous machinery... Babies are brought to the field and are placed in 'cradles' of wood boxes."- from The Other American
GEOGRAPHY
During the 1950s many middle-class families migrated to the suburbs, leaving behind the poor and uneducated. As the middle class moved, the cities no longer had the tax money to provide public transportation and housing. The urban renewal programs, enacted during the 1950s, tore down slums and built new high-rise buildings. These buildings were cramped and often held an air of violence. In the end the urban renewal programs led to less housing space then they created. The government also wanted to have these residents to remain poor and removed them as soon as the earned a higher income. The split was now not just a figurative split but also a literal split of the rich and the poor. This created fear of the communist way of government. |
"By the end of the 1950s, many major U.S. cities were in decline. "White flight" and lowered tax revenues, as well as racial discrimination and lack of sympathy for the less fortunate, combined to create islands of decay and poverty in urban centers."
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
RECONSTRUCTION
After the Civil War America was in a state of reconstruction. That era in essence created the capitalist government we have today. African Americans were thought of as a minority and the idea that African Americans are uneducated and ill prepared for the rights, responsibilities and freedom that was given to them during the reconstruction has been carried through the years. |
US AS A WORLD POWER
In the late 1800s and early 1900s as the United States was coming into power, William Jennings Bryan, a congressman from Nebraska and three-time presidential candidate, did not believe it to be necessary to control the Philippian Government. Opposing Bryan, Albert J. Beveridge a United States Senator from Indiana that America had a duty to help "less civilized people". Similar to the Cold War fear drives this belief people are not civilized and need to be controlled. |
PROGRESSIVE ERA
Progressives tried to solve social problems. They noticed the poverty of the working class and noticed the social split between the wealthy and the poor. Similar to the Cold War during the progressive era there was debate over the poverty of some American people. Though a portion of Americans wanted to help the poor others did not. Though the cause of fear created by both situations was different (the root of the fear for the progressive era was the country collapsing collapsing and contradictory to the progressive era, the Cold War where the fear was communism) the result in a split of opinions was the same. |
WORLD WAR I CAUSES AND THE HOME FRONT
In the beginning of WWI, the United States was not yet involved though there was talk of entering. This created a split in opinions as to whether or not America should remain neutral, as they had been since America was in existence or whether they should change their foreign policies. Because of the difference in economic wealth, in both instances there was a split in opinions that led to a fear of change. |
ROARING 20's
The roaring 20's was a time of great prosperity for most Americans. Similar to the 1950s there was great economical growth for all but the minorities. The extremes of poor and rich resulted in the poor believing that they were stuck in their current social positions and leading the rich to speculate that the poor would want to revolt and demand a change in society and government. |
GREAT DEPRESSION AND NEW DEAL
Throughout the Cold War many liberal Americans who supported the Radical New Deal were blacklisted or lost their jobs as they were belied to be aiding the communist party. This was due to the irrational fear of Senator Joseph McCarthy. This fear of change was most strongly felt in the thoughts of the wealthy. They belied that the lower class would search for a new style of government and in turn, turn to communism, which would lead to redistribution of money. |
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COLD WAR
America is still a very economically divide society; very much like the 1950s. This gap continues to create fear between the rich and the poor. Not only is the United States a society divided by the rich and the poor, but also still a society where the people are afraid of change and differences. The similarities extend also to the War on Terror. Though the fear associated with the War on Terror is that of terrorism and that of the Cold War was communism, this fear in both cases drives the decisions of the American government.