Bert the Turtle

Bert the Turtle was an icon that arose during the cold war.  Because of the threat of nuclear war, preparations were to be made.  Bert the Turtle was a cartoon character that taught kids to "duck and cover", which was a way of safety from the shockwave.  Of course, we know that doing so would not prevent one from dying from a nuclear blast because they are much more powerful than an earthquake for example, where ducking under a desk and covering your neck would actually protect something from damage.  The Bert the Turtle cartoon was directed towards students, telling them what to do during a nuclear blast.  He came from the video "Duck and Cover" which was a civil defense training film.  The need for this video arose in the first place because of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.  Both nations were testing powerful bombs that could destroy a city in a matter of seconds.  The fear of having to deal with nuclear war caused people to stock up on food and also build bomb shelters in their basements.  Today there are still remnants of those shelters.  The video shows people in different situations when an atomic bomb supposedly explodes, and it explains how to duck and cover in different places.  Though this may help a little bit, it is no match against the shockwave of an atomic bomb.  The video may have been helpful if the people were very far away from the explosion site, but not much elsewhere. 

The Baby Boom and the Typical American Family

    Following the second World War, the United States was seeking a period of peace.  Fortunately, they got what they wanted, as the 1950's brought peace and prosperity.  Soldiers returned home from war, and immediately looked to marry.  Newlywed men and women moved into the suburbs, or the suburban area surrounding a city, and began to form families.

    This influx of couples were having children had a considerable effect on the birth rate at that time.  For this reason, it is said that during the 1950's, there was a 'baby boom'.  A baby boom is a period marked by significant increase in birth rate.  Between 1944 and 1961, 65 million children were born in the United States.  In addition, the average age of marriage dropped 2 years, from age 22 to age 20, and couples were eager to have children as soon as they married.

    These young families tended to follow a similar path in terms of the family structure.  Now in the suburbs, kids would often have opportunities to engage in learning music and playing sports after their school day was over.  So, the mothers were responsible for staying home and taking care of the children, while the fathers would work and earn money to support the family.

The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy and his wife rode in a motorcade. In the car with them was the governor of Texas, John Connally and his wife. As they were driving down the streets of Dallas, people cheered and waved at them, all hoping to shake the president's hand. All of a sudden, gunshots rang out. Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin, was waiting on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. As the motorcade was driving by, Oswald fired three shots. Two of them hit President Kennedy in the head and neck. One hit Governor Connally, who survived.
A few hours after being rushed to the hospital, Kennedy was pronounced dead.

 Oswald was taken to jail by Dallas police, but when they were moving him to a different location, he was shot and killed by a man named Jack Ruby. Now that he was dead, it was harder to find out if he had acted alone, or planned the assassination in a group.

Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States. While he was president, he created a special commission to investigate the assassination. The leader of this commission was Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. At the end of the investigation, the committee had found no evidence that Oswald had acted with others, so they said that he acted alone. However, we may never know the full story of the assassination because Oswald cannot speak for himself.

The Cold War at Home: Affecting Everyday Life

             During the Cold War, the increasing fear of nuclear attack drove the United States to stock up their nuclear arsenal and develop new technologies to help prepare for such an event. These included the early development of ICBM's, submarine launched nuclear weapons, satellites, spaceships, and defense systems. 

             These projects didn't magically materialize, and thousands of Americans were involved in one of the most technologically progressive eras that eventually sent a man to the moon, albeit all part of a nuclear standoff and arms race. My uncle was one of these people, and his experiences during this time allow for a glimpse into the lives of the people during this time. 

             The Cold War era men and women grew up during war. In 1943, when WWII was at a peak, my uncle was a senior at Fairfax High School in LA and part of the Junior Civilian Air Patrol. Everyone was either joining the army or getting enlisted. He tried to join the Navy Flight Program but was not the required 5'5" to see over the fighter cockpits; he tried doing the Army Air Corps but was fifteen pounds below the 125 lbs mark to qualify. The Navy started the Eddy program around this time for radar defense, so instead he studied for tests to join the program and was inducted into the Navy where he worked as an Aviation Electronics Technician. The nation's focus on this new radar technology and pressure to educate the young people at the time about this tech is indicative of the push for STEM education at the time and in the coming years. 

             His long work with radar and defense systems led to a career as part of the Missile Defense Alarm System early warning program and RAND cooperation that became increasingly important during the Cold War and arms race. For years he worked on the systems, performing even the final validations on the MIDAS software before satellites were placed into orbit. These satellites were part of a larger initiative to try and alert the US if the Soviets attempted any sort of launch using heat mapping. Because geocentric orbit used today was not yet feasible at the time, a collection of a dozen satellites would be sent into polar orbit for this USAF program, each one over the Soviet Union for a brief time. These Agena space vehicles could not utilize the previous canister collection method where actual data and pictures were intercepted in midair, so instead relied on radio transmissions that sent locations of launches. 

             All of the planning and research being done at this time was completely classified. It took decades for some of these programs to become declassified where they could be talked about. Each day he would pass through clearance and go deep underground to work on these projects without any contact with the outside world, and then return to the surface and not speak about any of it. This does not mean nuclear attacks weren't on the minds of everyone during the time: they really did fear nuclear missiles coming down from the sky each day. For the people that were doing the work like my uncle's, they did believe that they were helping ensure a nuclear standoff that was backed on the idea of the enemy knowing of an attack and retaliating. They did believe they were saving their country, but also protecting the world from nuclear destruction. His level of dedication to US defense was a testament to the trustworthiness, loyalty, and hard work capable of an immigrant. 

Helped with the systems in things like this Atlas-Agena, and saw these launches first hand. 

Shifting: Suburbs and Sunbelt (Adrienne Mitchel)

           After World War II, there were two major population shifts — from cities to suburbs, and from the north to the Sunbelt.

          Returning veterans, with the aid of the GI Bill to assist with home loans at low interest rates, were ready to buy homes and start families. The suburbs were the perfect location for these new families to settle down, as men could commute to work in the nearby cities while children could safely play in the suburban neighborhood. From 1950 to 1956, the number of Americans living in suburban communities increased by 46%.

Besides this shift from cities to suburbs, Americans were also migrating from the north to the warmer-weathered south, also known as the Sunbelt. Attracted by low labor costs, manufacturers and other businesses began locating to the Sunbelt. Attracted by the sunny beaches and places like Disneyland, families also began locating to the Sunbelt. Not all Sunbelt states grew at the same rate — the Big Three (California, Texas, Florida) increased by over 13 million people from 1950 to 2000, the Booming Four (Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Georgia) increased heavily, the Steady Four (Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina) increased at a similar rate as the rest of America, and the Lagging Four (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama) increased at half the rate as America overall. From 1950 to 1960, California's population, one of the Big Three, grew from 10.6 million to over 15.7 million people (50% increase). This large population shift to the Sunbelt was facilitated by two main factors — the creation of massive water projects in the arid Southwest and the creation of air conditioners for the homes. These inventions allowed for water conservation and temperature regulation, which increased the standard of living.    

Both sides of my family moved from the Northeast to southern California during this time period, attracted by the booming businesses and sunny weather. Looking at migration patterns today, we see a large influx of intellectuals locating into northern California to find work in the Silicon Valley. By analyzing migration patterns throughout history, we can learn interesting trends that give insight into the values present during the time period. What other migration trends do we see today?

Motorist Society: Impact of Franchises (Adrienne Mitchel)

    Cars are an essential part of our everyday lives. We drive them to school, to work, to restaurants, to anywhere we want to go. But cars haven’t always been such an essential part of our lives. It wasn’t until after World War II that America transformed into a motorist society. Although there were many factors that prompted this change, franchises like McDonald’s, Holiday Inn, and General Motors all played a role in the creation of a motorist society.

    Soon after brothers Dick and Mac McDonald opened a drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California in 1940, they realized that their business could be more profitable if they streamlined every aspect of it. In order to accomplish this task, they cut down their menu to just hamburgers, replaced waiters with a self-service order counter, and substituted paper wrappers and cups for plates and glasses. In 1954, a man named Ray Kroc persuaded the McDonald brothers to hire him as a franchising agent. Kroc’s franchise restaurants were highly successful, as the casual nature of the food chain was the perfect place for families with young children. The rise of McDonald's perfectly paired with the rise of automobiles. Both complemented each other — McDonald’s needed people to drive to their locations, and automobile manufacturers needed desirable locations for people to drive to.  

    A similar relationship occurred between automobiles and motel chains. When Kemmon Wilson took his family on a road trip to Washington, D.C. in 1951, he struggled with finding a good place for his family to sleep overnight in. This trip inspired Wilson to start the Holiday Inn chain. Hotel chains like the Holiday Inn complemented America’s highway systems, as tired drivers could easily merge off the highway and spend the night at a quality, inexpensive motel before heading back out on the highway again.

    Another company that contributed to the motorist society was General Motors. This is perhaps the most obvious company to aid in America’s dependence on automobiles, since General Motors was the biggest and best-known manufacturing company. In 1955, General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to earn over $1 billion a year. They managed to turn such a profit by changing the style of and introducing new features to their automobiles each year, making consumers feel the need to continuously buy new vehicles.  

    Today we not only see McDonald's, Holiday Inn, and General Motors everywhere, we also see the effect they have on society. What other franchises have impacted our everyday lives? Where can we see this impact today?

Fear of Nuclear War

During the Cold War, Americans were in fear that they would be bombed by the Soviets. Russia finally built a successful nuclear bomb. Bomb safety was taught in schools to young children. The mascot was Bert the Turtle, and he told the children to duck and cover their necks. This is similar to what we are told now as children to protect from earthquakes. Even when walking down the street if a bomb is dropped you need to drop and cover your neck. Of course, this would not protect you from a nuclear bomb. This was most likely released to calm people down and make them feel safer. During the hysteria, many Americans built bomb shelters in their homes. All of this was caused because the Americans were scared the Russians would bomb them. However, the same fear was happening on Russia's side. Russia feared that any second the Americans would bomb them. Both countries were in an arms race. America believed that Russia was way ahead of them in the number of bombs and plains. In reality, the gap was way bigger than what the Americans thought, and it was in their favor. 

McCarthyism

    Following World War II, relations between America and the Soviet Union were extremely tense.  An overwhelming sense of distrust from either side to the other caused for many issues on both home fronts.  Particularly, in the United States, many Americans quickly grew a distrust for Communism, as their government had ingrained it in their minds that Communism was a horrible thing.

    Senator Joseph McCarthy was among the leading Americans who deeply hated Communism and what it offered.  He became so well known for this opinion, there was a term coined off of his name: McCarthyism. 

    Supporters described the term, "McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeved rolled"  McCarthyism was a practice of making subversive accusations towards Americans of either being Communist or of having sympathy for Communist people.  Millions were affected by McCarthyism, whether they were questioned, accused, or were accusing each other.  Many accused their neighbors and friends because the best way to appear to hate Communism is to accuse others of liking it.  It often felt like an "accuse or be accused" scenario for many.  The intense distrust during this time worsened the quality of live for many.

Fear of Communism and McCarthyism

Americans, at the time after WWII, were afraid of communism because it stood against everything that America believed in, capitalism. This was where McCarthyism started to set in. There were less than 1% communists in America but there were spies in America who were communists and helped the Soviets to steal the atomic bomb secrets. After that ordeal, Americans began to blame communists even more, even though they were supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. This was the whole idea of McCarthyism, to put forth blame with opinions and rumors being spread. They started to question anyone who was suspected of being a communist. They questioned those people and those who didn’t reply were put in jail alone while those who answered yes, were put in jail and their relatives and anyone they knew also went along with the person. The government exploited the fear that people had of Communists and used it against their political opponents. Because of this, people started avoiding communists altogether, started suspecting each other, FBI tailed people who they suspected were communists and harassed them, and etc. McCarthy made up the number of those people who he “suspected” of being a communist, which was basically anyone who tried to go against him. But when officials asked for that very list, McCarthy couldn’t provide that list and outright blames them for being communist when they weren’t. He was considered a man of recklessness fueled by alcoholism. He was stripped of his Chairmanship and taken away his Senator position in the government at the time. He died in 1957, in shame as well.

D-day 2/12/18

Women in the Early Mao Years

When Mao, the new leader of communist China, first began his rule, many were happy for the relief from fighting. Women were especially excited to see the new laws that were being put into place that would improve their quality of life.

Women in the beginning of the Mao Years were given new rights and were seen as equals to men in the eyes of the law for the first time. Arranged marriages dwindled into obscurity so women could finally marry for love. Women and girls were now able to be more independent of the men in their lives. The traditional structure of women having to obey their fathers, then their husbands, then their sons was all but irradiated as far as the law was concerned.

Women were given the right to divorce their husbands and were finally able to work out of the home and pursue careers of their own. They could become nurses, labor workers, any number of things. This also opened up the door for women to get a better education and even educate others themselves as teachers.

While the communist party still controlled some aspects of people's lives, it was no doubt a major improvement for many women in China.

Operation Mincemeat and its Significance

In April of 1943, the Nazis found a corpse floating in southern Spain. The man had paperwork identifying him as Major William Martin of the Royal Marines, and a briefcase was found attached to his dead body. Inside of the case, the Nazis found war plans describing a future attack where the Allied forces would cross the Mediterranean and attack Greece, which at the time was occupied by Nazi Germany. As a result, Hitler sent many troops from France to Greece, fearing a large invasion. However, the identification and war plans were fake, an intentional trick by the British to catch the German army by surprise. Instead of attacking Greece, almost 200,000 Allies invaded Sicily. This was significant in the downfall of Italian dictator Mussolini. Gaining control of Italy helped to swing the war in Europe to the Allies' favor. How would the war have been different if Operation Mincemeat never took place?

Aftermath of WWII: Who Is the Real Victim? (Adrienne Mitchel)

           Perhaps the most intriguing piece of knowledge I’ve learned related to the topic of World War II was presented in one of our online supplemental readings, hidden among the seemingly endless debate regarding if the United States should or shouldn’t have used the atomic bomb.

In a small section titled “Who Were the Victims,” author Bryan McNulty quotes Ohio University Professor of History Donald Jordan, who says, “Until quite recently, there has been very little in the national school system and national textbooks in Japan about the Japanese as aggressors, but a lot of information about what happened in the dropping of the atomic bombs. There is a younger generation that knows very little about the Rape of Nanjing or the ‘comfort women’ issue, in which thousands of women in occupied countries were forced to become sex slaves for Japanese troops.”

I’ve always had an interest in the topic of censorship, and so the fact that Japanese history has enforced the idea in so many citizen’s minds that the Japanese are the victims and America is the enemy is fascinating. It is amazing that the Japanese managed to rewrite history so that Japanese troops didn’t kill 300,000 men, women, and children by hand in the Rape of Nanjing and the Japanese military didn’t systematically abuse and kill prisoners of war and slave laborers from Korea, China, and Southeast Asia, but the United States conducted acts of unparalleled cruelness when they dropped two atomic bombs.

But the Japanese aren’t the only ones who claim they are the true victims. Because of the Rape of Nanjing and other horrors the Japanese forced upon other parts of Asia, both China and Korea believe they are the victims and the Japanese are the enemies. To this day, my grandparents won’t buy Japanese products because of what the Japanese did to their homeland of China.

So it appears as if everyone is playing the victim card. Or are they? It seems as if the one exception to that is Germany. Unlike the Japanese, the Germans admit to the crimes committed in their history and instead of covering the gruesome truth up, study their true past to ensure it will never happen again.

So who is the real victim? Is it Japan? China? Germany? Or someone else?

Women's Army Auxiliary Corps: Digging Deeper (Adrienne Mitchel)

     The textbook briefly touches on Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), but doesn’t go into much depth. I decided to research more about the WAAC and share with you some of my findings:

     In 1941, Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers informed the Army’s Chief of Staff General George C. Marshal that she planned on introducing a bill to create an Army women’s corps, which would differ from the existing Army Nurse Corps. Rogers’ motivation for the creation of an Army women’s corps was that during World War II when female civilians had worked overseas with the Army under contract and as volunteers, they were given no benefit of official status. This meant they had to obtain their own food and shelter, were given no legal protection or medical care, and when they returned home, they weren’t given disability benefits or pensions. Therefore, Rogers’ ultimate goal was to give women serving in World War II the same legal protection and benefits as their male counterparts.

     In May 1941, Rogers introduced her bill in Congress, yet only until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December did her bill receive serious consideration. The final bill established the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942. This bill made it so the Army would provide up to 150,000 enlisted women, called auxiliaries, with food, uniforms, living quarters, pay, and medical care. Although women officers wouldn’t be allowed to command men, the director of WAAC was assigned the rank of major and the WAAC first, second, and third officers served as the equivalents of captains and lieutenants. However, these officers received less pay than their male counterparts of similar rank, and auxiliaries were not given overseas pay, government life insurance, veterans medical coverage, death benefits, or prisoner of war protection.

     Even still, over 35,000 women from all over the United States applied for less than a thousand anticipated positions. In order to apply, women had to be between ages 21 and 45, at least five feet tall, and weigh 100 pound or more. The average officer candidate was 25 years old and attended college. One out of every five women had enlisted because they wanted to end the war as quick as possible in order to bring a male member of their family home faster.

     The creation of WAAC was just the beginning for incorporating women into the military. Currently there are more than 200,000 women serving in active-duty military, and it is estimated that by 2020, 11% of the total veteran population will be women.

Hitler's Demise

In 1945 Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin. Hitler decided to remain in his bunker on the last siege of the war. He was warned by officers that the Russians were one day away, and they urged him to escape to Berchtesgaden. Instead, Hitler decided to stay and take his own life. He and his wife, whom he married two days prior to their suicide,  took cyanide pills that were tested on his dog and her pups. Just to ensure he would die Hitler also shot himself in the head with his pistol. The bodies of Hitler and Eva were cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors and later recovered by Russian troops. A German court finally officially declared Hitler dead, but not until 1956. But why would Hitler commit suicide instead of escape? It was clear by 1943 that the allies were going to win. Many theorists believe that Hitler and his wife did in fact escape and lived out their lives with their children in South America. The most reasonable explanation is because of the Nazi principle that death was better than dishonor. Hitler failed the German people and was close to defeat. He couldn't live a life with so much dishonor. He lived out his days just married and was able to say his farewells.