H) The Twentieth Century

In 1929 there began the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover proposed a moratorium on foreign debts, but this and other measures failed to prevent economic collapse. To meet the critical financial emergencies the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, instituted a “bank holiday”. Congress enacted a social security program, by which the state could promote economic recovery and social welfare. Roosevelt continued and expanded the policy of friendship toward the Latin American nations. This “good-neighbour” policy favoured Roosevelt to be reelected twice, even though he was breaking the no-third-term tradition.

By the late 1930s Germany, Italy and Japan had already disrupted world peace. America tried to keep the country neutral. But after the fall of France in June, 1940, it extended lend-lease aid to the British and the Russians. The threat of war had caused to build the armed strength of the nation. The U.S. government froze all Japanese assets in the United States. On December 7, 1941 Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbour, a U.S. naval base in Hawaii. The United States promptly declared war, and 4 days later Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The war underscored the prestige and power of the U.S. in world affairs. A series of important conferences outlined the policies for the war and the programs for the peace after victory; among them was the Yalta Conference, at which Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin planned for postwar settlement. Before the war ended with the defeat of Japan, the United States developed and used a fateful weapon of war, the atomic bomb.

Soon after the World War II, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union worsened, the cold war intensified. In 1948 the United States played the leading role in forming a new alliance of Western nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In the Korean War the U.S. played the chief part in combat actions between the North and South Korea. Thus, the United States cast off its traditional peacetime isolationism and accepted its position as a prime mover in world affairs.

In the race for technological superiority the United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb in 1952, but was second to the USSR in launching (Jan. 31, 1958) an artificial satellite and in testing an intercontinental guided missile. However, spurred by Soviet advances, the United States made rapid progress in space exploration and missile research.

In 1959 Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states of the Union. Despite hopes for “peaceful coexistence”, negotiations with the USSR for nuclear disarmament failed to achieve accord, and Berlin remained a serious source of conflict.

After breaking relations with Cuba, which under Fidel Castro had clearly moved within the Communist orbit, the United States supported an ill-fated invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro forces. In 1962, in reaction to the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, the United States blockaded Soviet military shipments to Cuba and demanded the dismantling of Soviet bases there. The two great powers seemed on the brink of war, but within a week the USSR acceded to U.S. demands. In the meantime the United States achieved an important gain in space exploration with the orbital flight around the earth in a manned satellite by Colonel John H. Glenn. The tension of the cold war eased when, in 1963, the United States and the Soviet Union reached an accord on a limited ban of nuclear testing.

On Nov. 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson was able to bring many Kennedy measures to legislative fruition. Significant progress toward racial equality was achieved. But Johnson pursued an aggressive policy, dispatching troops to the Dominican Republic during disorders there and escalating American participation in the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War provoked increasing opposition at home, manifested in marches and demonstrations in which thousands of people were arrested. An impression of general lawlessness and domestic disintegration was heightened by serious race riots and various racial and political assassinations, notably those of Martin Luther King, famous fighter for the Civil Rights, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. The new President, Richard M. Nixon, promised an end to the Vietnam War and began a slow withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.

10. Britain and the USA in the late 20^th century.

In the 1980s, Britain was governed by a strong Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher, who reversed the policies of her predecessors, returning nationalized industries to private control and cutting government expenditures. Benefiting from a military victory over Argentina in a war (1982) over the Falkland Islands, the Conservatives won reelection in 1983 and retained their majority over a divided opposition in 1987 and 1992. In 1990, Thatcher resigned after quarrelling with other party leaders over her opposition to European integration. Her Conservative successor, John Major, was more favorable to the European connection but was continually hampered by the “Eurosckeptics” in his own party, who shared Thatcher’s views. In May 1997 the Conservatives were voted out of office, and John Major was replaced by Tony Blair at the head of a moderate Labour government. Talks aimed at a peace settlement for Northern Ireland, sponsored jointly by the British and Irish governments, produced an agreement in April 1998. In 1999, Britain was a leading supporter of the NATO intervention in Yugoslavia.

In 1999 a Scottish Parliament with the power to tax and make laws was established for the first time since 1707; a Welsh Assembly with more limited powers was also created.

Republican Ronald Reagan promised to restore American supremacy both politically and economically. Reagan’s foreign policy was aggressively anti-Communist as he discarded the policy of détente employed by Nixon and Carter. He revived Cold War, referring to the Soviet Union as the “evil empire”, enlarged the U.S. nuclear arsenal and suggested the Strategic Defense Initiative, a plan popularly known as “Star Wars”. In 1981 Reagan imposed sanctions against Poland; he sought aid for counterrevolutionaries trying to overthrow the Marxist-oriented Government in Nicaragua; he ordered the invasion of the tiny Caribbean nation of Grenada. In 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff, killing the entire seven-person crew, including six astronauts and a civilian schoolteacher. Reagan improved his image before he left office, however, by agreeing to a series of arms reduction talks initiated by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachov.

In foreign affairs George H. W. Bush was as aggressive as his predecessor. In 1989, after a U.S.-backed coup failed to oust President of Panama, Bush ordered the invasion of Panama by U.S. troops. Bush’s major military action, however, was the Persian Gulf War. After Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, Bush announced the commencement of Operation Desert Shield, which included a naval and air blockade and the steady deployment of U.S. military forces to Saudi Arabia.

President Bill Clinton was generally considered a political moderate. The economy gradually improved during Clinton’s first year in office. Clinton withdrew U.S. troops from Somalia and helped in reestablishing democratic rule in Haiti. In April 1995, in the act of terrorism a bomb was exploded at the federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 169 people.

The 2000 presidential election brought George W. Bush to power. Internationally, the United States experienced some friction with its allies, who didn’t like the Bush administration’s desire to abandon both the Kyoto Protocol (designed to fight global warming) and the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (in order to proceed with developing a ballistic missile defense system). But the politics and concerns of the first months of 2001 became secondary on September 11, when terrorists hijacked four planes, crashing two into the World Trade centre, which was destroyed, and one into the Pentagon; the fourth crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Some 3,000 persons were killed or missing as a result of the attacks. The U.S. government sought to build an international coalition against Al Qaeda group and the Taliban and, more broadly, against terrorism, working to influence other nations to cut off sources of financial support for terrorism.

In October air strikes and then ground raids were launched against Afghanistan by the United States with British aid. By December the Taliban government had been ousted and its Al Qaeda’s fighters largely had been routed. A force of U.S. troops was based in Afghanistan to search for Bin Laden, the main leader of terrorists.

President Bush ordered the deployment of a ballistic missile defense system to be effective in 2004; the system would be designed to prevent so-called rogue missile attacks. In advance of this movement the United States had withdrawn from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Russia.

In 2003 Bush continued to press for Iraqi disarmament. In February, however, the nation’s attention was pulled away from the growing tension over Iraq by the breakup of the space shuttle Columbia as it returned to earth. Seven astronauts were killed in this second shuttle mishap.

U.S. weapon inspectors reported in January 2004 that they had failed to find any evidence that Iraq had possessed biological or chemical weapons stockpiles prior to the U.S. invasion.

In July the U.S. commission investigating the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, criticized U.S. intelligence agencies for failings that contributed to the success of the attacks, and called for reorganization of those agencies.

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B) The First English Settlements	\|	ASSIGNMENTS

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