VIETNAM WAR

The Changing Society after The Vietnam War

The changing Society of United States

Introduction

The Great Depression was an economic slump in North America? Europe? and other industrialized areas of the world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world.

Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier? the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall? until by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929. Besides ruining many thousands of individual investors? this precipitous decline in the value of assets greatly strained banks and other financial institutions? particularly those holding stocks in their portfolios. Many banks were consequently forced into insolvency; by 1933? 11?000 of the United States' 25?000 banks had failed. The failure of so many banks? combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy? led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production? thus aggravating the downward spiral. The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; by 1932? U.S. manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level? and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers? or 25-30 percent of the work force.

Changes in 1950's

"Reasonable doubt" was all that was necessary to accuse and sometimes convict someone of un-American activities in the late 1940's? early 1950's. This period of time was known for McCarthyism time of extreme anticommunism? lead by Senator Joseph McCarthy (McCarthyism). The United States pledged to contain the spread of communism globally? as well as locally? and did what it could to keep this promise. Americans began to fear that communism was leaking into the media? government? arts? schools? and other areas. This was called the "Red Scare" (Brinkley). One writer that used this era as a basis for his play? The Crucible? was Arthur Miller. He was able to capture the panic and mere insanity of many Americans in an allegorical way. The "crusade against subversion" played a significant role in the following: the actions and tactics of McCarthy? the reasons why Miller and other artists were targets of McCarthyism? and the relationship of his play The Crucible to the events of the late 1940's to the early 1950's (Brinkley).

Senator Joseph McCarthy used many tactics to persuade Americans to oppose communism and indict those who supported it. Communism had tangible shape? and Americans were worried that people in the U.S. would start leaning to the far left like several other countries such as the USSR and China (Schrecker). In order to prevent this? the Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was founded. The Committee's purpose was to investigate those organizations and individuals it deemed "un-American." They first went to Hollywood because the movie industry was considered ...