Comments for HIST 380: US Since 1945

Comment on The 1980s by admin

admin — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 03:13:36 +0000

I do not do power points for student projects; I just do comments.

I tried to help Ryan post his project when there was a problem with its appearing on the front page.

Comment on Watergate Scandal Glossary by dwienkan

dwienkan — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 16:31:31 +0000

Great general overview of the terms and people involved in the scandal Shauna. The ordeal being so widespread, it is difficult to cover all of the terms and figures involved in a 600 word essay. However, you do a wonderful job of including the most important pieces of information. I chose this project option as well but I noticed you give more information regarding some of the important figures involved, such as the two reporters. You also focused more on specific terms like wiretapping and espionage which give the reader a clearer image of the criminal activities committed. Your explanation of the FBI and CIA also assist in explaining how serious the situation was. In hindsight, an important figure I omitted that you included was Judge Sirica who played an important role in pushing for further investigation of the conspicuous event. Without his urging the dishonorable actions of those involved may have gone completely unnoticed and unpunished. “I pledge” (Word Count 157)

Comment on Nixon’s 1969/1973 Inaugural Addresses by jbaker8

jbaker8 — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 13:15:01 +0000

I enjoyed reading your post this week. I think it is interesting that we took on the same project prompt and presented it in a similar but different manors. I agree with you in the case that Nixon’s two terms were fairly different when looking at the world around it. However, I was amazed at how similar both of the inaugural addresses were. Both showed the American people that national, and world peace were both at the top of his list. Saying things along the line of Peace Maker is the best title history can give, and we must work together or not at all. There is no doubt that Nixon was definitely an interesting President, even without the over looming of the Watergate scandal. (I pledge… Word Count: 125)

Comment on Nixon’s 1969/1973 Inaugural Addresses by ssanfor3

ssanfor3 — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 05:14:08 +0000

Hello Christine! Great analysis of Nixon’s two inaugural addresses. Did you do any research into how these inaugural addresses compared to his campaign platforms? Were they in line with the ideology he represented during his bid for President or did anything change? Nixon seems to be preaching a similar platform that Republicans are still arguing. The idea that government cannot solve every problem whether it is for an individual or world wide. It has been almost 50 years, but we are still arguing the same issues only reworded. I would be interested to compare his inaugural addresses with those of other republican and democratic presidents since then. Either way great summary and analysis! (I Pledge 113)

Comment on Ronald Reagan by CamKost

CamKost — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 22:43:17 +0000

It is interesting how you note Reagan’s opinion of the government, and how it changed over his two terms. He is more anti-government in his first inaugural address in 1981, but that makes good sense, considering the 60s and 70s was a time where Americans began to seriously lose trust in their politicians. President Richard Nixon, in 1973, was forced to resign from office due to his involvement in the Watergate scandal, and became the first U.S. President ever to just leave his job as Commander in Chief. Americans during that time, preceding Reagan’s first election, had experienced the first war in U.S. history that we as a country had lost. Our government had failed us and as a result, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers lost their lives. So the fact that Reagan openly criticized the government is not very surprising considering the events that led up to his election.

It is also interesting how similar many of Reagan’s arguments sound to the anti-government arguments made by people today, especially by some in the Republican party, and to a more extreme degree, those in the Libertarian party. Reagan’s dislike of taxes and government programs, which he significantly reduced over his tenure, is something conservatives today constantly use in their arguments against the future increase of taxes.

(218)
(I Pledge)

Comment on Week 5-1, Nixon’s Inauguration Speeches by cmontgo2

cmontgo2 — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 20:00:39 +0000

I did my project on Ronald Reagan’s inaugural speeches and I find it interesting that two vastly different individuals put great emphasis on the fact that the America was built by the people and not by the government and that the government was meant to serve the people. You are most definitely correct in saying that the Watergate Scandal will overshadow Nixon’s presidency but from your analysis of his speeches I can see that he had high hopes for a nation that was recovering from many stresses. From your analysis I can see that Nixon focused on raising the hopes of the American people for a better future; Reagan went about his second speech a little differently and focused on what he was proud of the American people for achieving thus far-inventions, walking on the moon, and so on. It is very interesting that two different presidents with two different time periods of problems to address both stressed great importance on what kind of role they felt the government should play in the United States.
(Word Count 175)
“I pledge…”

Comment on Nixon’s Inaugural Address Paper – Jonathon Baker by jsmith37

jsmith37 — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 05:39:04 +0000

What puzzles me about Richard Nixon’s speeches in 1969 and 1973 is that he claims peace should be one of the goals of America, but yet he continues to advocate fighting in Vietnam. While many younger Americans in the late 1960s did not want to be involved in the war, Nixon continues the war. He states, “I want the North Vietnamese to believe I have reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war” (Matusow, 623) in order to make them believe that he was an unstable American leader. If Nixon were truly worried about enforcing peace, why did he continue to enable the Vietnam War?
I believe that you are right when you said Nixon knew what Americans wanted, but as Dwight Eisenhower said, Nixon was “placing his self-interests” (Malsberger, 546) before the American peoples’ interests. I also think he continued to remain an advocate for the war because he was an older American, and as we have seen, older Americans in the 1960s believed it was their duty to defend their country. Oddly enough, U.S. soldiers were sent there to diffuse a civil war, not to defend America.

(I Pledge, Word Count: 189)

Comment on The Peoples History – 1980 by Brian Branigan

Brian Branigan — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 04:25:13 +0000

In reply to conger87. Thank you for your comments on my project. For me selecting the 80s made sense, I was born in the 70s but grew up in the 80s. The project gave me a chance to relive childhood while gaining a better understand of the political environment my parents dealt with while growing a family. I cannot disagree with you that the 70s political and social agendas were appealing, it just came down to what moved me. The 80s won over the 70s. I see you point with the video game angle, that was a miss on my part. Unless a multi-billion-dollar industry is a fad, they were wrong. I appreciate your comments I hope you enjoy my reply. “I pledge” (118)

Comment on The Peoples History – 1980 by Brian Branigan

Brian Branigan — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 04:24:21 +0000

Comment on The Peoples History – 1980 by Brian Branigan

Brian Branigan — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 04:23:32 +0000

In reply to rhasting.

Comment on The Peoples History – 1980 by Brian Branigan

Brian Branigan — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 04:05:42 +0000

In reply to rhasting. I thought I saw you name either on the upload or within the project. I know I have seen it on the sign in sheet at the Writing Center, which is a great thing. I agree that the fashion of the 80s was painful to view. I notice that a large amount of the items I remember for the 80s are resurfacing in fashion today. I guess fashion trends are cyclical. I will have to check out “The Goldbergs.” “I pledge” (82)

Comment on Week Five Section One Ronald Reagan Inaugural Speech by rpratt

rpratt — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 23:57:46 +0000

Hey Crystal! I really enjoyed your analysis of Ronald Reagan and his speeches. Question: was his views on the change since George Washington viewed as a positive for Reagan? It really is remarkable concept to transfer power from one head of state to another during the founding fathers time. The the fact that GW started the precedent of two terms (I know that was not actually a rule until later in our history) had to be a revolutionary concept for the time.How close was the election of Reagan? How did Reagan look to have a fresh start for America? They could not have been that keen on presidents thanks to Richard Nixon.Was the tone the main difference between the two speeches? Nixons were pretty similar too. Once again great work and I enjoyed all that you put into this course this summer session. Have a great rest of the summer.
“I pledge..”
(Word COunt 150)

Comment on The Peoples History – 1980 by conger87

conger87 — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 19:34:07 +0000

Now that is a very well done Power Point. The 80s were a mythical time to me (I am a 90’s kid), and I always remember how growing up everybody said the 80s were better. I feel like the 80s are most well remembered for TV shows, fashion, and music, with little attention to policy both foreign and domestic. Why did you select the 80s over the 70s? To me the 70s has more appeal: end of Vietnam, Iranian Revolution, Watergate, and funk music. On my project you asked if there was anything I would have liked to have included, so I will ask you the same on yours. One thing I would suggest to have been included is the video game “crash” of 1983. That was when the Atari 2600 bottomed out on the market, and it looked like household video game consoles may have just been a fad: oh how wrong they were.
(I pledge 155)

Comment on Jeffrey Conger 5-2 by conger87

conger87 — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 19:13:01 +0000

In reply to Brian Branigan. I did want to include more pop culture aspects, like Michael Jackson's solo debut album, but limits obviously made me have to be more selective. I was seriously considering a "Sports" slide with the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the birth of MLB's free agency, and Secretariat winning the Triple Crown. Internationally, I thought about including the Angolan Civil War and Yom Kippur War. Another possible topic was the birth of Microsoft in 75 and Apple a year later, but as you can see, these list could go on and on.

Comment on The Peoples History – 1980 by rhasting

rhasting — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 12:12:40 +0000

Hey Brian, that project that you thought was mine was mine. There was a little problem in posting it yesterday. Thank you for your comment. Yes, our two projects do look quite different, I think mainly that is because thepeoplehistory.com was a pretty useless website. It only offered very shorts sentences for each year’s event, which in my opinion, did not suffice. And in many instances, it was missing some pertinent yearly info. For instance, on 1982, thepeopleshistory had no mention of the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial in D.C. Instead, I used that website as a metric/guide and extrapolated what I needed and found the rest from outside sources, as you can see from my bibliography.

Being a child of the 1970s and 1980s, I enjoyed reading your presentation. It did not even occur to me to include a bullet on the fashions of that decade. I think that it is because the hair and clothing fads were so painful to look at, then and now. If you do not watch the ABC show “The Goldbergs,” you should. It is a funny show that portrays the life of a suburban family growing up in the 1980s. (I pledge, 197)