Here is my recommended song for this post.
So with PLP this year we have following the course of history, starting right after WWII and going up to the end of the 60’s. For the past month we have been looking at how the World was on the brink during those times. We’ve also been heavily practicing writing, sadly.
There are two ways you can look at the World being on the brink. Politically and Socially. A lot of social change occurred throughout those centuries and politics was quite heated in America as well as International relations.
For the unit we spent one week learning about the events of the Cold War and the motives behind each country, one week crafting our thesis, introduction and conclusion, as well as learning about citations and researching (the proper way). Then we spent a week of putting together our body paragraphs and another week of tweaking them. In the end we had a complete essay based around how the Cold War put the world on the brink.
The U2 Incident and The Impact on Soviet-American Relations
Alex Hutchison
PLP 11
Ms. Willemse
April 29, 2019
Government deceit is a commonality in the course of history. All in the name of the greater good or to protect an administration. The US is well versed in lying especially during the time of the Cold War. When the CIA launched an aerial reconnaissance plane to go over the Soviet Union it was quick to be shot down. Then ensued a web of lies laid out by the Americans. These lies and deceit lead to increased Soviet distrust in the US.
On May 1,1960 Francis Gary Powers was flying high above Soviet land. Despite the altitude abilities of the U2 spy plane, it was still discovered by the Soviets as “an unmarked but clearly identifiable American Plane”(Malesky). The plane was shot down and never reached its final destination. This set in a motion of events leading to aggravated Soviets. On May 3 the US issued a statement “a high-altitude weather plane was missing inside Turkey”(Malesky), the plane was said to have been flying for NASA and had oxygen problems causing the destruction of the plane and death of the pilot. The cover up was hastily put together to cover the tracks of the flight, which was run by the CIA. For the next few days it seemed the cover up had worked, no one knew it was a covert operation to get photos of nuclear sites in Russia. The Soviets, also, had not released an official statement saying they had shot down a spy plane. This came crashing down when Nikita Khrushchev spoke on May 7: “‘we have the remnants of the plane–and we have the pilot”’ (Malesky). After that announcement to the USSR tensions began to rise. Khrushchev expressed huge distrust in the US, his thoughts reflected his nation as well. Everyone knew the US had lied, there was proof, from the pilot and wreckage, that the plane was a spy plane tasked with taking photos of key nuclear facilities. The USSR was angry with the actions of the Americans: “the United States of America aggravates the situation even more”(U2 incident). Both countries have expressed their interests in resolving the tensions between western and eastern powers. The Soviets saw this as a move that was contradictory to what the US has said in the past. It was now the job of the US to fix what they had started, to prevent things from getting worse.
After Khrushchev had released that he and his advisors had evidence the plane was used for photography of nuclear sites, the US had the ball in their court. The US released a statement: “ the flight was pursuing aggressive purposes.” (Historical Papers) They forcibly admitted the flight was contradictory to their intentions of peace. President Eisenhower had no idea the operation had happened until the incident began to escalate. His advisors encouraged him to blame the CIA and put them on the chopping block. Despite those views Eisenhower disagreed “[he] took full responsibility for the spy plane, and refused to apologize for it”(Siegel). The Americans claimed the flight was for the purpose of being prepared for any surprise attacks or military operations against their country: “No one wants another Pearl Harbour”(U2 incident). They used the justification of national security to cover their tracks. Most Americans saw it as a fair statement but many saw it as a weak fall back option. The Soviets demanded a formal apology from President Eisenhower. They would never receive one. The American response to the incident effected the Paris Summit that took place at the end of May. The aim of the summit was to have talks and hopeful form agreements on discontinuing nuclear arms testing. If the summit was successful the Cold War would have been closer to coming to a close, or at least cooling the tensions between countries. In the end Khrushchev walked out of the summit due to the actions of Eisenhower and his administration. Eisenhower did make a promise to the Soviets, in an attempt of reconciliation: “Eisenhower announced publicly that the United States would not, in the future, conduct clandestine aerial overflights of the Soviet Union” (Cargill). The anger expressed by the USSR did not subside due to this statement and they would remain angered for some time.
Due to the actions of the Americans, what could have been a peaceful resolution turned into escalated tensions. The web of lies created for just one plane was extensive but only amounted to a negative impact on the Cold War. This event, like many others in the time period, did little to resolve the conflict between east and west, it increased the conflict. Those lies lead to increased distrust in the US. This incident lengthened the Cold War.
Works Cited
Cargill, Hal R. “Denied Territory: Eisenhower's Policy of Peacetime Aerial Overflight.” Air Power History, vol. 56, no. 4, 2009.
Historical Papers. United States intelligence flights over the Soviet Union–the U-2 incident, 1960.
Malesky, Lann A. “Just One More U-2 Overflight of the Soviet Union Was One Too Many for Francis Gary Powers.” Military History, Dec. 2002.
Siegel, Robert. “All Things Considered.” 2003.
My focus for the Essay was all about the U2 incident in 1960. A couple years ago a movie came out called Bridge of Spies I really enjoyed the movie and it directly applied to what we were learning. So, when we had to start thinking about what our topic for our essay would be I immediately thought of the movie. Although the movie didn’t really touch on what I focused I used it to get a gauge for how the world was depicted at the time and get a feel for the incident in general.
Before this unit we had also done a couple weeks of writing. We learned some different tools to write different things. I found it was really hard to veer away from how I’ve written in the past, Wikipedia style. After the writing unit I was ready to try and practice some new things which I felt I did well with my essay. It was something that was a little out of my comfort zone and I was happy with how it went, by way of my own standards.
Now that was just on how the world was on the brink by way of politics and international relations. In America during the 60’s there was a lot of social change that drastically challenged millions’ worldview’s. Everything from Women’s rights to environmental activism. At the beginning of the year we looked at civil rights and recently we have looked at the remaining movements of the time. The one that really spoke to me, one I had never known about for the time period, was women’s rights.
It caused the change of all social norms within a household, in the workplace, the bedroom and every where else. Women fought to be equal with men and in the century they gained huge ground on the issue. It was cause for a lot of controversy and put America one edge, it was on the brink at some points due to the drastic events and changes that happened during the movement.
Women’s rights in the 60’s was known as the second wave of women’s rights. Previously they had fought for political stand point now they fought for their rights in society.
There were three really big things/areas that women fought for.
First was their rights and how they were treated in the workplace. Before, they received very low wages, compared to male colleagues, poor working conditions, less opportunities, and work was a common place for sexual harassment. The 60’s brought about a lot of awareness in the sense of women working. Many women were starting to work towards higher education and pursuing careers such as doctors, lawyers and various others. Although their have been females in high career roles before, in the 60’s more women than ever were working towards those same positions or higher. This brought about a lot of controversy as it wasn’t a normal sight, at that point in time, for a woman to be in a higher position within a company.
This all sort of began when a book came out. Feminine Mystique By Betty Friedan. In the book Betty talked about her life as a single woman. It became an instant hit and inspired millions of American women to pursue careers or to stay single a little longer. It really brought a new idea of how women could live their lives. Once again there were some serious amounts of controversy around the topic putting things on edge. Despite all of that many women began to pursue a different kind of life than what was thought of before.
In the household women, originally, did most of the child rearing, chores and maintenance of the house. Most didn’t have jobs either. After the book came out women started to consider life outside of the house. Some started to stay single and not settle down until later in life, or at all. Some pursued careers and began sharing the role of house upkeep with their spouses. That was a huge shift from the past that put a lot of people on edge, it was something new that had become a nation-wide occurrence.
Lastly, when women got married they were expected to have kids. A lot felt they didn’t have control over it. This all changed when the FDA approved the first oral birth-control pill. At first they weren’t legal in some states but women began to challenge that and eventually it was a legal pill. This gave women control and allowed them to live the lives they wanted.
I put together this comparison chart with Ethan and Ryan, it includes our topics and gives another way to show the differences caused by the movements in the 60’s. I made it in Comic Life.
Throughout the 60’s the world was pushed and pushed, almost to tipping point, over so many different things. It was a time to challenge the status quo, and many people did just that. With the Cold War, Women’s Rights, Civil Rights, Environmental activism and so much more.
This small unit was very large in information, for me, it really put into focus just how influential the 60’s were on modern times. I learned a lot about how the US acted during the time and I found the unit has summed up what we’ve learned so far this year, so moving forward we have the knowledge and understanding of the past and how they play into the future. On top of that I am proud of my development as a writer and I want to continue developing my skills, I’ve got a long way to go. Overall, definitely a useful unit that I enjoyed and found challenge in.