The Cold War Essay Example for Free

The Cold War Essay The foundations for the Cold War were laid in the closing days of World War II, as Western and Soviet armies met in the ruins of Germany. America’s wariness of the Soviet Union resulted in part from Stalin’s attempt to capture as much territory as possible with total disregard for the lives of his soldiers. Many Americans perceived Stalin’s actions to be land grabs rather than liberations. The Cold War in Europe was focused mainly on the frontline of Berlin. Here the superpowers stood face to face, and the Berlin Wall came to be the physical representation of the Iron Curtain that cut off Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe from the West. Throughout the Cold War, American leaders adopted the premise that a massive deterrent military force must remain in Europe to prevent the Soviet Union from invading and dominating Western Europe. This doctrine, first articulated by Truman with his adoption of NSC-68, was known as containment. In Asia, the Cold War centered on China after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power in 1949. For decades, American leaders mistakenly assumed that the CCP was subservient to the Kremlin. The CCP, while technically allied with Moscow early on, had its own interests. The CCP was the dominant force in mainland Asia, and when American armies intervened in Korea and Vietnam, the CCP aimed to drive Americans from the border regions of China. In general the Cold War in Asia was bloodier than the Cold War in Europe. Korea and Vietnam were two large scale Cold War conflicts in which over 100,000 Americans and millions of Asians died. There was no comparable bloodshed in Europe during this period. The Cold War’s effect on the world was far-reaching. After World War II and the Chinese Civil War, the lines were essentially drawn in Europe and mainland Asia. The rest of the world, however, was emerging from European and Japanese colonialism. These newly independent nations were where much of the Cold War would be played out, as both superpowers aimed to add new nations to their respective spheres of influence. Some scholars argue that the Cold War has not ended yet, since China, Indochina, North Korea, and Cuba are still nominally communist countries. The Cold War in Europe, however, ended with the demise of the Soviet Union from 1989 through 1991. When a new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, made it clear that he would not use force to keep the Soviet empire together, it dissolved in a matter of months. The speed and peaceful nature of the collapse shocked many. The most common explanation for the collapse of the Soviet Union is the inefficiency of the communist system, which could neither provide for its people nor keep pace with Western military buildups. The Cold War had immeasurable effects on America both domestically and internationally. Domestically, the American republic was changed beyond recognition. The National Security Act of 1947 created the Pentagon, the National Security Council, and the CIA. America had never had a standing peacetime army before. It had never had a permanent intelligence service, which was necessarily very secretive. It had never had such a powerful executive, and it had never entered into foreign alliances, which it did with NATO in 1949. In terms of international relations, the Cold War put the United States on the world stage in a way it had never been before. During the Cold War, the United States was far more popular than it is today. Partly this is because during the Cold War many people felt that the American system was far preferable to the Soviet system, and they believed that the United States valued freedom. After the Cold War, the United States found itself the lone superpower. Without the Soviet enemy to contain, many former allies of America came to see it as a domineering and arrogant nation.

The Perpetuation of Negative Images of African Americans through Mass M

The Perpetuation of Negative Images of African Americans through Mass Media Works Cited Not Included Why as white people have we been lulled into thinking its safe to be around other white people. Why have we been taught since birth that it’s the people of that other color we need to fear? They’re the ones that will slit your throat (Moore 57). The mass media has played and will continue to play a crucial role in the way white Americans perceive African-Americans. As a result of the overwhelming media focus on crime, drug use, gang violence, and other forms of anti-social behavior among African-Americans, the media is fostering a distorted public perception of African-Americans. Looking at past examples of African Americans treatment in the media, one can see that the media has become the main perpetrator through which oppression, discrimination and the treatment of African Americans as second class citizens is carried out. As a result of this media bias, white America has suffered from a deep uncertainty as to who African-Americans really are. The media stereotype of bad guys wearing black or that anything that is black is evil has been fostered for decades. Looking at one of the oldest sources in the media (the dictionary) you clearly see racist overtones in the definitions of any words starting with black or white. Black is defined as opposite to white, African American, soiled or stained, and evil or wicked just to name a few of the definitions (Webster 68). I believe this not only fosters a subconscious negative view of African Americans, but also makes many white people think they are some how better than blacks. The defense put on by the four white Los Angeles police officers accused of beating Rodney King in 1991, and the recent case in Ohio, are very telling of this. They claimed that they were scared and felt they might have been attacked or even killed (88). This is a legitimate excuse in a w hite American society that perpetuates negative images of African Americans. Whites have come to believe that their life is in danger every time they’re confronted with a black person and that some how their life is worth more than a black person’s life. Their fear and their bias is a manifestation of a deep-rooted media bias that anything black is bad and anything white is pure and good. This media bias has also been illustrated in the Susan Smith cas... ...image we have seen, read, heard and ultimately come to believe of Malcolm X which is far from the truth. In short Malcolm X is much more than the violent man he is made out to be. To me, he is a prophet the media should portray him that way. â€Å"The mass media is the most powerful entity on the earth. The media has the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent; and that’s power. They control the minds of the masses†¦ You don’t have to lie to them you just have to be selective about what you tell them-because human beings gather information and they form opinions based on the information you have given them† (Malcolm X 56). Until the spoon fed white America opens their eyes to this injustice, the media will continue to portray a self-serving negative stereotype of the African-American community. Until the public acknowledges the media’s influence in the perpetuation of negative images of African Americans, white America will continue to oppress, and African Americans will continue to be looked upon as second class citizens. In the words of rap star Chuck D. of Public Enemy, â€Å"Don’t believe the hype,† or more concretely, don’t selectively n ot believe the hype.

Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies Essay

In 1887 Lord Acton wrote in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, â€Å"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.† It has often been noted that this is the primary theme in both Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies. In addition, these books share two sub-themes related to this primary theme. One sub-theme is that people will often abuse power when it’s not earned. The other is that when given the opportunity people will often degrade others to ensure their own security. Both books rely heavily on symbolism, as well as the actions of their characters, to express these ideas. Consequently, both these novels show us what a frightening place the world can become if people ignore the principles of civilization as we know it. In both books, for different reasons, the characters create their own governments, and some of them soon begin to usurp and abuse power. For example, in Animal Farm seven commandments were written on the wall, a few of them were: â€Å"No animal shall sleep in a bed, No animal shall kill another animal, No animal shall drink alcohol.† When one of the pigs, named Napoleon, took over he gradually changed the commandments. For instance, he changed the commandment â€Å"No animal shall kill another animal.† to, â€Å"No animal shall kill another animal without cause.† In Lord of the Flies there are several examples of characters abusing power. One of the characters, named Ralph, had originally started a democratic form of government. Two of the boys, Roger and Jack, eventually started there own form of government and took over. Jack fell in love with his new found power and became dictator to the boys. He even started a hunt to kill Ralph simply because he felt Ralph was a threat to this power. Because several of the characters in both books were insecure, they would often degrade others to improve their own security. This occurred in Animal Farm several times. For instance, there were two characters who always seemed to disagree (Snowball and Napoleon). Whatever one said the other would put it down or find something wrong with it, even if he actually agreed. Napoleon even urinated on Snowball’s plans for a windmill and ruined  them. In Lord of the Flies there are several examples of insecure characters downing others to improve their own security. For example, Roger, Jack, and even Ralph make fun of one of the other boys they call â€Å"Piggy† because he is overweight. Roger is so insecure he even kills Piggy because Piggy makes him feel threatened by contradicting his ideas and putting forth his own ideas that were sometimes better than Rogers. These books are both amazingly written and similar in several ways, but there is one major difference. The two books end with completely different views of civilization. Animal Farm ends with the animals not being able to tell the humans and the pigs apart, showing that evil had won. However, in Lord of the Flies, Ralph realizes when he sees the pig’s head (which is used to represent evil) in its pristine state, that even in all this savagery and evil some good may occur. Right after he realized this, a ship pulled up and rescued the boys. The themes of both books are true to the dark side of human nature. Golding holds out a tiny thread of hope; Orwell lets us see the bad things that could happen and leaves us to figure out how to prevent them.

Economics - 2050 Words

Firm Behavior, the Organization of Industry, and the Long Run Real Economy Instructions: 1) For each topic area studied (and listed below), respond to one or two problems (equal to a total of 10 problem responses for module three) and post to your group discussion board. Note: Please copy the entire question you are responding to at the beginning of your responses. 2) In addition, as you know by now, please discuss your group members’ postings and respond to the comments made on your postings during the discussion period (see the course syllabus for the due dates and a more detailed discussion of the course grading scheme). The Costs of Production Select one or two of the following questions to answer. 1. What†¦show more content†¦Why might the government create one? Give an example. Also, what is the defining characteristic of a natural monopoly? Give an example of a natural monopoly. 2. In the market for home heating consumers typically have several options (e.g., electricity, heating fuel, natural gas, propane, etc.) yet we often think of firms in this industry as behaving like monopolists. Using your understanding of monopoly, discuss the context in which your electricity provider is a monopolist. Is this characterization universally applicable? Carefully explain your answer. 3. There has been much discussion of deregulating electricity and natural gas delivery companies in the United States. Using your understanding of monopolies, discuss the likely effect of deregulation on prices in these two industries. 4. Explain how a profit-maximizing monopolist chooses its level of output and the price of its goods. 5. Graphically depict the deadweight loss caused by a monopoly. How is this similar to the deadweight loss from taxation? 6. What is the deadweight loss due to profit-maximizing monopoly pricing under the following conditions: The price charged for goods produced is $10. The intersection of the marginal revenue and marginal cost curves occurs where output is 100 units and marginal revenue is $5. The socially efficient level of production is 110 units. The demand curve is linear and downward sloping and the marginal cost curve is linearShow MoreRelatedEconomics And Economics On Economics Essay1142 Words   |  5 PagesWhen we talk about economics we must first defined the word. Economics is a social science that studies human behavior and how to allocate our limited (scares) resources, efficiently and effectively to meet our unlimited human wants. Now as we dive deeper in to the field of economics we realized that there are two separate categories that the study of economics breaks off into. The first is macroeconomics, macroeconomics is the study of the whole picture when it comes to economics. 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