Many agree that the Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war; but exactly how close did it come? The Crisis was ultimately a showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union from October 16 to October 28, 1962. During those thirteen stressful days, the world'...

Cuban Missile Crisis John F. Kennedy's greatest triumph as President of the United States came in 1962, as the world's two largest superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, edged closer and closer to nuclear war. The Soviet premier of Russia was caught arming Fidel Castro with nu...

BAY OF PIGS It seems that the United States has been one of the most dominant, if not the most dominant, countries in the world, since the Declaration of Independence. Yet, on Monday, April 17, 1961, our government experienced incredible criticism and extreme embarrassment when Fidel Castro...

THESIS : " The United States didn't want to get involved in the Spanish-American War, but was dragged into it due to yellow journalism, they wanted to control the seas, and wanted complete control over Cuba." The Spanish-American War - "The Splendid Little War"...

It has been a 'splendid little war' wrote John Hay to Theodore Roosevelt after the fall of Santiago. Little, the Spanish-American War was; it was over in barely four months. Splendid? Maybe for those at home, reading the headline about its lucky victories. But for those men who fo...

Ventures in Power: The White House and its Machinations South of United States Borders "I look forward to a great future for America--a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose." ...

The Cold War was the term used to describe the intense rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of Communist and non Communist nations. It was called the cold war because it did not really result in fighting. According to the article on the cold war in the World Book 200...

Bay of Pigs who is to blame In any military operation there always have to be a plan drawn up to support the operation. So why was the Bay of Pigs operation such a failure? Some of the questions I will focus on is what and how much of a role did the CIA, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and...

Immigration is to come into a country of which one is not a native for permanent residence. People that immigrate usually leave their native country to escape political power, persecution, war, or poor opportunities (Alternatives for the Americas 1). The government in the native country is usually r...

In his introduction to The Lexus and the Olive Tree, published in 1999, Thomas Freidman states that "[t]he world is 10 years old. It was born when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The Cold War system was replaced by a new, very greased, interconnected system called globalization." As a...

The alternating struggles for political independence in Brazil and Cuba. One may be stating the obvious by saying that both Cuba and Brazil are both Latin American countries when asked to make a comparison between the two. But this is one of a very shortlist of similarities between these two very...

On August 6, 1945, the world changed forever. The United States had sent a B-29 bomber plane named "Enola Gay" to fly over the industrial city of Hiroshima, Japan and drop the first atomic bomb ever – "Little Boy" . The world had never experienced anything like it. One ...

Why were the sixties a importance to our country's history? The sixties were an exciting, revolutionary, turbulent time of great social and technological change: assassination, unforgettable fashion, new musical styles, Camelot, civil rights, women's liberation, a controversial and decisive ...

The Cold War was an extremely long war that last from 1945 until 1990. It did not clearly start until 1945, but strained relations remained between the United States and the Soviet Union since 1917. The ending of WWII and the struggle between Communism and Capitalism, led to this unique war. This...

Why do many highly trained people from developing nations seek employment in advanced countries? Why are these highly educated people apparently more productive and highly paid in these advanced countries than they are in their home countries? Over the years the United States has been called a...

Whya do many highly trained people from developing nations seek employment in advanced countries? Why are these highly educated people apparently more productive and highly paid in these advanced countries than they are in their home countries? Over the years the United States has been called ...

In the years following the end of the Cold War, many historians and social scientists have written accounts of what were some of the causes and effects of this period when the threat of war was almost always present. One such person was Melvyn Leffler and his work, The Specter of Communism, whic...

Preface: How has the ninth edition been updated? In this updated edition, certain chapters have in added in light of the attacks of September 11, 2001. There was a chapter added on the foreign policies of Clinton and Yelstin-Putin also, an introduction to the beginnings of George W. Bush's...

Deterrence is a theory of International relations based in Realism. Essentially, it tries to explain the situation of when two or more states threaten retaliation if attacked, in order to deter the attack. It is therefore possible to very simply state deterrence as "You hit me, I hit you." For t...

Neither the sure prevention of war, nor the continuous rise of world organization will be gained without what I have called the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth ...

TV in the 1950's Reflected/Created Culture How many hours per week do you spend watching television? The average American child or adolescent spends 22-28 hours per week watching TV, which is more than any other activity other than sleeping. Did you know that there are more television sets in...

The victorious forces at the end of the war divided Germany into four zones. They also divided Berlin into four zones. Each of the victorious nations controlled one zone and one sector of Berlin. The Allies (Britain, America and France) ran their zones differently to the areas controlled by Russia...

Was the invention of the atomic bomb the creation of just another weapon, or the creation of a doomsday device? For over fifty years, the controversy over whether or not it was necessary to drop the atomic bomb to conclude World War II has continued to question America and the rest of the world. In ...