Hey there everyone!
Before I get too far into this post, I’d first like to warn you that we’re going to be dealing with some pretty heavy topics like segregation and nuclear war. I won’t hold it against you if you decide not to read the rest of this post.
Alright, on to the learning!
So, for this new unit we continued our look into the 1960’s. Specifically, how the world was “on the brink”. To kick this unit off, we began by watching the movie ‘13 Days‘ which follows John F Kennedy‘s perspective of the Cuban Missile Crisis. We also saw a few primary sources such as digital copies of the letters Kennedy sent to Khrushchev (the leader of the Soviets) during the crisis. The thing I found the most interesting about this movie was Kennedy’s scepticism of his joint chiefs of staff. They where constantly pushing him to go to war against Cuba and, by extension, Russia. To be fair though, Kennedy most likely became of this group after the failed Bay Of Pigs Invasion in which the CIA underestimated their enemy’s strength.
Now we all know that the Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest our world has ever come to nuclear war, but what lead us to the brink? What event truly lead us to nearly start a nuclear war? Well that was the question we were asked in our second section of this unit. To answer it, we needed to use our skills as writers and create a research paper explaining our thoughts. Here’s mine:
Once we finished looking at the political side of the 60’s, we dove more into the social side. We checked-out an episode about social change called The Times They Are A-Changin’, which talked about important social events that were happening in the sixties. For instance, the women’s rights movement, the push for environmental awareness, the united farm workers Latino civil rights movement, the events of Stonewall and the gay rights movement, and the conservative movement. After we watched and took notes, we were asked to create a piece of media that bridged the gap between one of these events and our World On The Brink Paper. I chose to do mine on the Conservative Movement.
Now let me just explain what you see here. On the right is John F. Kennedy in front of a missile with a red background. This symbolizes The Cuban Missile Crisis. The Missile, I think, is relatively self explanatory. It symbolizes the ballistic threat while the red symbolizes the Soviet Union. On the left side is Barry Goldwater placed over a KKK member and a brown background. This symbolizes something very similar to the right side, specifically Goldwater’s struggle with the KKK, represented by the KKK member behind him, and the rural areas in which this issue took place, represented by the brown background.
As I mentioned in my research paper, the simple act of West Germany joining NATO put the world on the brink of nuclear war. This mirrors the effect of Goldwater opposing the Civil Rights Act Of 1964 (this act makes it illegal to discriminate on sex, religion, or race when hiring employees). By doing so, he created something of a “rebirth” of the KKK. However, Goldwater’s reason for opposing the Act, he claimed, was to ‘protect’ rights and freedoms. His actual intention behind opposing the Civil Rights Act Of 1964 had nothing to do with him being a racist, in fact he supported all civil rights bills prior this one. The reason he opposed this Act was because he believed it interfered, to much, with private business and could, potentially, result in too much focus on filling racial quotas rather than hiring the best person for the job. Unfortunately not everyone understood this. The KKK and other segregationists were rallying to Goldwater’s banner even though he had publicly stated he was against the goals of the Klan.
Its been fun looking at the 1960’s. The political side has been taught with suspense and nerve racking moments and the social side has been full of interesting revelations and rebellions, some positive, some negative. I can’t wait to start on the 70’s.