RMG Grand Expectations

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PART I - The "most powerful and vital nation in the world. "

Based on your advanced study of United States History, choose THREE events from 1945 to 1975 that can be used to support or illustrate the United States role the most powerful and vital nation in the world.

Event	Historical Context	Explanation/Justification
Hiroshima	After VE day, the problem of the Japanese still existed in the pacific. With American forces continually pushing towards the Japanese main land, causalities continued to rise. With the fear of Hitler creating a massive bomb, 'Merica started it's on path towards a weapon of mass destruction. The Manhattan project was created and soon the first atomic bomb was in the Hands of the newly raised to power President Truman.	A full scale invasion of the Japanese mainland would have caused for more causalities then the complete destruction of two Japanese cities. As American forces hoped from island to island, the fighting grew more and more fierce. Japanese citizens were rushing soldiers with whatever came to hand, seeing surrender as shameful. The Bombs that we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would ultimately save more lives than the alternative. We showed are ability to end a war with just a single weapon that we created, the atom bomb.
Marshall Plan	After the second world war, Europe was in shambles. In opposition to past American precedent, the US came to the aid of war torn Europe in hopes of stabilizing the area. We had learned from the aftermath of WW1 that an impoverished nation would often turn to radicalism.	Luckily for us, the was never reached the American homeland. Our country was intact in a world were much wasn't. We had the power and the resources available to help the rest of the world. We took our first step towards being the global police force that we are today. We flooded money into Europe, most going towards the nations were communism loomed near.
Berlin Airlift	With the soviet blockade fully raised, the free world was effectively cut off from eastern Europe, With the city of Berlin being spit in too, Stalin blockaded NATO forces from bringing supplies into west berlin.	America showed that we wouldn't back down from a little soviet blockade. The US lunched air drops night and day into west berlin, showing that we would not be bullied by the soviets. Stalin eventually lifted the blockade.

PART II - "collapsing sense of "global superiority"

Based on your advanced study of United States History, choose THREE events from 1945 to 1975 that can be used to demonstrate the United States collapsing sense of "global superiority"

Event	Historical Context	Explanation/Justification
Bay of Pigs	With our containment policy in full effect, it came as a huge blow to us when nearby Cuba, 70 miles from the countries southern tip, fell to communism. Eisenhower and the rest of America were desperate to remove the threat of communism from the area, and so devised a risky plan using Cuban exiles to over throw Castro's regime. JFK was only told of the plans after his inauguration, which had disastrous effects.	With plans of the invasion already underway, JFK made a disastrous decision. He got cold feet and at the last minute withdrew us air support as to cut all ties to us military involvement. This basically sign the death warrant for all of the troops, who were gunned down our captured with out us air support. The failure was still linked to America and our pride took a huge blow after being defeated by the fledgling Cuban communists.
Tet Offensive	As the war in Vietnam continued, America was drawn further and further into the war. With Americans finally believing the war was coming to an end, the Vietcong lunched the largest attack yet, showing they were anything but finished.	The military the Tet offensive was a victory for Americans, it achieved was the Vietcong wanted. It demoralized the American home front. What seem like a soon to be finished turned into an endless war. A small group of under armed soldiers had thoroughly embarrassed all of America.
Watergate	With an end to the war at hand and a strong leader in power, things began to look up in America. Unfortunately, lies continued to pour our from the presidents administration, causing a distrust in the government and protests to spread like wildfire across the country.	Despite the landside that was Nixon's reelection, a shock was about to come to America. Men were caught putting bugs in the democratic offices. All of these men would have close ties to Nixon and his reelection committee. Nixon preceded to use the CIA and FBI to cover his own tracks, but he was eventually discovered. America was demoralized with the realization that our own elected leader was a crook.