This is the last regular section of the on-line US History curriculum for the school year.  Your English instructor will be providing you with all necessary materials and activities for the remainder of the school year.  As this is the last section of the on-line program, it is important to wrap up a few loose ends of US History in the more modern era. 

         If you were to think back to the earliest sections that we studied, regarding the development of the American union and country with the development of the Constitution and other major events, you will recognize that we have come very far.  We have come very far both as a country - but also more personally as a class and our own understandings of the background - both good and bad - of our nation.  Before he was assassinated, President John F Kennedy (JFK) once said in a speech about his dedication to having Americans be the first to the moon and having that happen within ten years (hear the speech by clicking here) that "the greater our knowledge, the more our ignorance unfolds."  Essentially what he means by this is that the more we learn and study - the more that we realize we do not yet know or understand.  Hopefully this course has not only given you answers, but as you have moved through the material, we hope that it has also made you wonder and want to learn about more things in our past than you ever knew about.

          This section will cover three major points.  The first is the end of the Cold War.  Famous speeches such as JFK's "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) and Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" which are both below for you to watch are infamous because of the strength and solidarity they show by American Presidents visiting Berlin and challenging Communism at touchy times during the Cold War. 

         This section will also look at one of the most embarrassing and well-known political scandals in American history.  This issue is known as "Watergate" and it was so serious, that it caused President Nixon to resign from (quit) being the President of the United States. 

          We will wrap up this section with essentially were present time picks up at.  The struggles of Islamic fundamentalism and the US relationship with Islamic fundamentalism.  22 years before the attacks of 9/11 American forces were already involved with such groups, and at one time even providing them weapons.  One of the other landmark events looked at will be US involvement in the Middle East (Southwest Asia) in the first war in Iraq, known as the Persian Gulf War.  The most familiar aspect of that war is referred to as Operation Desert Storm.  There is even an Extra Credit opportunity for you at the very end!

Ich Bin Ein Berliner

Tear Down his Wall

          The Cold War was one of the longest episodes in American History.  It began after World War II in 1945 and officially ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union fell apart.  The Cold War began as two different ideologies for how government should run.  The side of the West (The United States and its allies) believes in individual liberty, the right to make money and freedom to think, speak, write and worship as one pleases.  The side of the Soviet Union believed in communism and that the whole was more important than the individuals in a country.  They punished and suppressed attempts at people speaking their minds, they had a history of collectivization and at times food and other supplies were either in short supply, or citizens had to wait hours in line to get things such as bread.  Throughout the European communist countries, people put their names on lists to get government built, owned and run apartments. 

           These two different ideologies faced off with the United States as the leader of one side and Soviet Union as the leader of the other.  Both sides feared that any sense of weakness may provoke the other into attack so that they may gain the upper hand with the number of countries "on their side" throughout the world.  The situation grew more tense as a complicated chess match as the nuclear weapons capabilities of each country expanded.  The Americans and the Soviets were in a race to get to space, and to have as many weapons as possible.  The idea of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) reigned supreme, and on several occasions that concept insured peace between the two sides because the fears of "if we try to destroy them, they will retaliate by trying to destroy us." 

            Eventually, the race to have the most weapons (also referred to as the Arms Race) caused the Soviet Union to fall into economic ruin.  It simply cost the Soviets too much money to try and keep up with the spending on weapons and technology that President Reagan was doing during the 1980's.  That, paired with the liberal reforms called perestroika and glasnost of the last Soviet ruler, Mikhail Gorbachev, saw the Soviet Union crumble away.  While it took the actual Soviet Union until 1991 to crumble, the seeds of destruction started in 1989 with major events such as the Berlin Wall being taken down and other reforms throughout the Soviet Bloc countries.  If you would like more information on the end of the Cold War, please visit the World History lesson by clicking HERE for a quick review.

            The end of the Cold War brought an interesting new twist to American thought, politics and foreign policy.  During the Cold War, the United States had a very clear enemy.  The Soviet Union.  Even the satellite countries of the USSR who the US did not get along with usually had the shots called for them by the Soviets.  Even looking back at World War I and World War II - or even going farther back to the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and such ~ America has always known who its enemies were, and why those enemies hated us or why we were in conflict.  Many Americans became confused at the end f the Cold War.  Because the "evil communists" were essentially gone, it appeared that there were no enemies in the world and that the United States was the sole Super Power left in the world (which was correct).  There was another force which many Americans did not understand, however, and because that force had no "home country."  Because MAD did not exist with that enemy, we were not really prepared to deal with them.  That force was international terrorism and Islamic Fundamentalism....  We will address this in the latter part of this section.

          "Watergate ... a major United States political scandal that began with the burglary and wiretapping of the Democratic Party’s campaign headquarters, later engulfed President Richard M. Nixon and many of his supporters in a variety of illegal acts, and culminated in the first resignation of a U.S. president.

         The burglary was committed on June 17, 1972, by five men who were caught in the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate apartment and office complex in Washington, D.C. Initially, the break-in garnered little media attention. But persistent investigation by two reporters for the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, eventually helped uncover a White House-sponsored plan of espionage against political opponents and a trail of complicity in attempts to cover up how the burglary was planned and financed. The reporters relied heavily on anonymous sources, including a key source who became known as Deep Throat. It was not until 2005 that Deep Throat was revealed to be W. Mark Felt, the deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at the time of the Watergate investigation.

          The Post’s reports and those by other newspapers and media outlets eventually pointed to involvement by many of the highest officials in the land, including ... President Nixon himself.

           In May 1973 the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Activities opened hearings.  A series of startling revelations followed. Dean testified that Mitchell had ordered the break-in and that a major attempt was under way to hide White House involvement. He claimed that the president had authorized payments to the burglars to keep them quiet. The Nixon administration vehemently denied this assertion.

           The testimony of White House aide Alexander Butterfield unlocked the entire investigation. On July 16, 1973, Butterfield told the committee, on nationwide television, that Nixon had ordered a taping system installed in the White House to automatically record all conversations; what the president said and when he said it could be verified. Cox immediately subpoenaed eight relevant tapes to confirm Dean’s testimony. Nixon refused to release the tapes, claiming they were vital to the national security. U.S. District Court Judge John Sirica ruled that Nixon must give the tapes to Cox, and an appeals court upheld the decision.

           Nixon held firm. He refused to turn over the tapes and, on Saturday, October 20, 1973, ordered Richardson to dismiss Cox. Richardson refused and resigned instead, as did Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Finally, Solicitor General Robert Bork discharged Cox.

          A storm of public protest resulted from this Saturday Night Massacre. In response, Nixon appointed another special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, a Texas lawyer, and gave the tapes to Sirica. Some subpoenaed conversations were missing, and one tape had a mysterious gap of 18 minutes. Experts determined that the gap was the result of five to nine separate erasures.

          In March 1974 a grand jury indicted Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and four other White House officials for their part in the Watergate cover-up and named Nixon as an “unindicted co-conspirator.” In April the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the tapes of 42 White House conversations. At the end of that month, Nixon released edited transcripts of the White House tapes. The conversations revealed an overwhelming concern with punishing political opponents and thwarting the Watergate investigation. The Judiciary Committee, however, rejected Nixon’s edited transcripts, saying that he did not comply with their subpoena.

          In April 1974 Sirica, acting on a request ... issued a subpoena for the tapes of 64 presidential conversations to use as evidence in the criminal cases against the indicted officials. Nixon refused, and it was appealed to the Supreme Court to force Nixon to turn over the tapes. On July 24, the Supreme Court voted 8-0 in the United States v. Nixon that Nixon must turn over the tapes.

           On July 29 and 30, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment, charging Nixon with misusing his power in order to violate the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens, obstructing justice in the Watergate affair, and defying Judiciary Committee subpoenas. For Nixon to actually be impeached, however, required a vote of the full House of Representatives.

           Soon after the Watergate scandal came to light, investigators uncovered a related group of illegal activities: Since 1971 a White House group called the “plumbers” had been doing whatever was necessary to stop leaks to the press. A grand jury indicted Ehrlichman, White House Special Counsel Charles Colson, and others for organizing a break-in and burglary in 1971 of a psychiatrist’s office to obtain damaging material against Daniel Ellsberg, who had publicized classified documents on U.S. activities during the Vietnam War (1959-1973) called the Pentagon Papers.

           Investigators also discovered that the Nixon administration had solicited large sums of money in illegal campaign contributions—used to finance political espionage and to pay more than $500,000 to the Watergate burglars—and that certain administration officials had systematically lied about their involvement in the break-in and cover-up. In addition, White House aides testified that in 1972 they had falsified documents to make it appear that President John F. Kennedy had been involved in the 1963 assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, and had written false and slanderous documents accusing Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of moral improprieties.

          Throughout this period of revelations, Nixon’s support in Congress and popularity nationwide steadily eroded. On August 5, 1974, three tapes revealed that Nixon had, on June 23, 1972, ordered the FBI to stop investigating the Watergate break-in. The tapes also showed that Nixon himself had helped to direct the cover-up of the administration’s involvement in the affair.

            Rather than face a vote in the full House of Representatives that would almost certainly have resulted in his impeachment, Nixon resigned from office on August 9. He was the first U.S. president to resign. A month later his successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him for all crimes he might have committed while in office; Nixon was then immune from federal prosecution.

           In April 1996 after more than two decades of bitter court battles that continued beyond Nixon’s death in 1994, attorneys for the estate of the former president agreed to begin releasing more than 3000 hours of secret Nixon White House tapes. The recordings had been stored in the National Archives after Nixon’s resignation, and had not been available to the public.

           The Watergate scandal severely shook the faith of the American people in the presidency and turned out to be a supreme test for the U.S. Constitution. Throughout the ordeal, however, the constitutional system of checks and balances worked to prevent abuses, as the Founding Fathers had intended. Watergate showed that in a nation of laws no one is above the law, not even the president" (www.encarta.com).

     In 1991, not only did the Cold War end, but America took on a foe other than communists with all of the weaponry and technology that was developed for a potential war with the Soviet Bloc.  In 1990, the former leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, invaded a neighboring country named Kuwait.  Both Iraq and Kuwait are oil-rich nations with predominantly large Muslim populations. 

       Look at the map to the left.  The country of Iraq is much larger than the country of Kuwait.  The reason why Iraq invaded Kuwait is because they wanted better access to the Persian Gulf.  The Persian Gulf is a very strategic waterway that countries in the Middle East (Southwest Asia) use to ship oil out to the rest of the world for large profits.  Furthermore, if Iraq took over Kuwait - then Iraq would get that much ore money for the oil there if they owned it!  If you notice, Kuwait is pretty much in the way of Iraq and getting to the Persian Gulf.  At the time of the invasion, Iraq was feared to have one of the largest armies in the world.

        Saddam Hussein claimed that Kuwait was stealing its oil from Iraq, which was a lie, but he used that lie as a reason to invade their far-smaller neighbor to the south.   

     But why would the United States care about the problem that these two countries had between them?  Besides the torture, loss of human rights, imprisonment and murders that the Iraqi Army was thrusting onto the Kuwaiti people; the United States and the United Nations were concerned about the global economy which is built on oil and the amassing of power that Iraq was doing under Saddam Hussein.  They feared that his next target would be Saudi Arabia which is the LARGEST oil producer in the world. 

     The United Nations formed a coalition of forces, led and mainly supplied and manned by the United States to expel Iraq from Kuwait. 

     Make sure that you do not confuse this earlier war with Iraq to the one being fought today.  Also don't be confused by the Presidents.  The current President Bush's father launched that war.

      See the video to the left about the start of hostilities. 

          "On the morning of August 2, 1990 the mechanized infantry, armor, and tank units of the Iraqi Republican Guard invaded Kuwait and seized control of that country.  The invasion triggered a United States response, Operation DESERT SHIELD, to deter any invasion of Kuwait's oil rich neighbor, Saudi Arabia.  On August 7, deployment of U.S. forces began.  United Nations Security Council Resolutions 660 and 662 condemned Iraq's invasion and annexation and called for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Iraqi forces.  On August 20 President Bush signed National Security Directive 45, "U.S. Policy in Response to the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait," outlining U.S. objectives - which included the "immediate, complete, and unconditional withdrawal of all Iraqi forces from Kuwait," and the "restoration of Kuwait's legitimate government to replace the puppet regime installed by Iraq."

         A U.N. ultimatum, Security Council Resolution 678, followed on November 29, 1990.  It stipulated that if Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein did not remove his troops from Kuwait by January 15, 1991 a U.S.-led coalition was authorized to drive them out.  Early in the morning of January 17, Baghdad time, the U.S.-led coalition launched air attacks against Iraqi targets.  On February 24, coalition ground forces begin their attack.  On February 27, Kuwait City was declared liberated, and with allied forces having driven well into Iraq, President Bush and his advisers decided to halt the war.  A cease-fire took effect at 8:00 the following morning.

        The history of the Gulf War has a multitude of components - including internal decision making as well as diplomatic, economic, and conventional military activities.  This briefing book primarily focuses on the intelligence, space operations, and Scud-hunting aspects of the war.  It also includes a report describing how Desert Storm affected China's view of future warfare, a document that raises questions as to what lessons other nations have drawn from U.S. military engagements in the Middle East and the Balkans" (www.gwu.edu).

         What other tidbits of information are needed for any student leaving this course?  Especially concerning the history of Islamic Fundamentalism?  Most students by now have heard the term, "Islamic Fundamentalism" because of 9/11 or the war against Al Queda (which means "base").  The first real brush with Islamic Fundamentalism that the United States when there was an Islamic Revolution in the country of Iran.  Iran is another major oil producing country in the world.  Like Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, it is located in the Middle East (Southwest Asia) and the majority of the population is Muslim. 

         Up to 1979, the United States had had a good working relationship with the leaders of Iran.  America influenced and paid a lot of money to the Shah of Iran (think king) and then he was overthrown in a religious revolution.  Revolutionaries in Iran were so crazed with anger about American support for the Shah and saw the US as an evil, immoral place and stormed the US Embassy in Tehran (the capital city of Iran).  70 Americans working in the embassy were taken hostage for 444 days.  President Jimmy Carter, who's picture is inserted on the cover of TIME Magazine from 1979 worked to get the American hostages released from the  Ayatollah Khomeini (supreme religious leader of Iran) - his picture is also on the cover.  He was unable to succeed.  When President Ronald Reagan took office from President Carter in January 1980, the hostages were released because of a deal he made with the Iranian leaders. 

           "On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took approximately seventy Americans captive. This terrorist act triggered the most profound crisis of the Carter presidency and began a personal ordeal for Jimmy Carter and the American people that lasted 444 days.

           President Carter committed himself to the safe return of the hostages while protecting America's interests and prestige. He pursued a policy of restraint that put a higher value on the lives of the hostages than on American retaliatory power or protecting his own political future.  The toll of patient diplomacy was great, but President Carter's actions brought freedom for the hostages with America's honor preserved.  Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, began his reign in 1941, succeeding his father, Reza Khan, to the

throne.

           In a 1953 power struggle with his prime minister, the Shah gained American support to prevent nationalization of Iran's oil industry. In return for assuring the U.S. a steady supply of oil, the Shah received economic and military aid from eight American presidents.

           Early in the 1960s, the Shah announced social and economic reforms but refused to grant broad political freedom. Iranian nationalists condemned his U.S. supported regime and his "westernizing" of Iran. During rioting in 1963, the Shah cracked down, suppressing his opposition. Among those arrested and exiled was a popular religious nationalist and bitter foe of the United States, the Ayatollah Khomeini.

           Between 1963 and 1979, the Shah spent billions of oil dollars on military weapons. The real price of military strength was the loss of popular support. Unable to sustain economic progress and unwilling to expand democratic freedoms, the Shah's regime collapsed in revolution. On January 16, 1979, the Shah fled Iran, never to return.

The exiled Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran in February 1979 and whipped popular discontent into rabid anti-Americanism. When the Shah came to America for cancer treatment in October, the Ayatollah incited Iranian militants to attack the U.S. On November 4, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun and its employees taken captive. The hostage crisis had begun (www.presidentialtimeline.org).

           The major missile used was the Stinger Missile system.  The Soviets were relying heavily on attack and transport helicopters to supply and move its troops in the mountainous deserts of Afghanistan.  They were also using them to decimate entire villages of men, women and children.  The Islamic fighters were given the Stinger missiles as a way to combat the helicopters and as a major result of the missiles, the Soviet Union found itself in a quagmire and eventually left in defeat.  Many liken the exiting of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan like their version of America's Vietnam.   The mistake that the United States made, however, is when the Soviets retreated, they also left Afghanistan.  They had made friends and allies within the Islamic world and then they left the country where an army of holy warriors from across the world had gathered to fight.  The US did nothing to maintain any relationship with the Afghans and instead, chaos ruled the nation.  In response to the chaos, a very strict and violent religious wing called the Taliban took hold of the country.  Women and girls had very strong restrictions put on them and poverty ruled the street.  Afghanistan became a hideaway for bandits and terrorists.  20 years later, the United States invaded Afghanistan because of their support to Osama bin Laden....

          The movie trailer to the right is of Charlie Wilson's War.  This movie came out in December of 2007.  Because it is rated R, most high school Juniors have not yet been able to see it.  The trailer, however, does give an indication to the audience about how the CIA ran a covert war in Afghanistan, and it was essentially spearheaded by a Texas Congressman and with the support of American Christians who truly saw the Afghans as fighting a religious war against the evils of Communism - despite their religious differences.

           There is also a phenomenal book by Steve Coll called Ghost Wars that talks about American involvement with Afghanistan from the late 1970's to September 10th, 2001 (the day before 9/11).  Click here for a sample of the text.

          As the last regular week of this course, it seemed appropriate to offer an Extra Credit opportunity.  Fitting in with the material in this section is a story about America having another brush with Islamic Fundamentalism.  Some students may have seen the movie, Blackhawk Down.  The movie focuses on a country located at the Horn of Africa in Somalia. 

          Because the movie is rated R, it can be uploaded on this web-site, but there is a History Channel special about Blackhawk Down that can be viewed. The first clip is to the right.  In the caption area for that video, you may click for the remainder of the video series on the topic. 

          Somalia, which is located on the Horn of Africa, in Eastern Africa is an extremely poor nation.  The country had been rocked by years of drought and the government had fallen apart.  The country is mainly Muslim and Islamic Mosques are the only structures that really were not destroyed in a civil war that erupted amongst different War Lords or glorified gang leaders.  They were all vying for power in Somalia, which was one of the largest black-market countries for weapons (mainly old Soviet weapons). 

          The United Nations had begun to send food in to save the starving people.  These warlords, however, would steal the food.  The most powerful warlord was named Adid.  Because they would steal the food and viciously kill who ever they wanted, the United Nations asked the United States for help. 

          Since the Cold War was over and the US had had great success in the Persian Gulf War against Iraq, the President (George Bush's father - also named George Bush) felt confident sending 20,000 US Marines in to protect food shipments.  It was one of the last acts he did as President before Bill Clinton came on board.

          Once the Marines left Somalia, a United Nations force was left to protect the food distribution.  The United Nations force was very weak compared to the US Marines, and the warlords began to fight with them and even kill (slaughter) them.  President Clinton then sent in US Special Forces to get rid of the main warlord, Adid.  US Rangers and DELTA Forces were sent in.  The video series is their story....

For extra credit, write a 750 word response regarding this episode in American History.

Make sure to do it separately from this section's assignment, and write EXTRA CREDIT on the top of your paper.

National Security Archives - Operation Desert Storm

Activities / Assignments -- Credit 9; Section 2

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