Film Lesson: The Right Stuff

In the Film The Right Stuff the US and the USRR were competing in the Space Race. They were both trying to see who would get the first man up into space. In my perspective the Russians were the winners becasue they were the first to send up a satelite nd the first again to said a human being into space. The US had an advantage of about two weeks to send there first man in Space but they wasted time and the Russians received that oppurtunity. The US was a bit embarassed by this because while the Russians were sending a real man; we sent a chimp. That was not a good look for us. We had to be in the forfront with or technology. We had to show the World that we were the best in this Cold War. We had to come out on top. After a few years and a few failed rocket designs the US finally got there rocket to fly. They were able to send Alan Sheperd a fighter pilot into space. We finally passed the USRR in the race because he orbited the earth more times than the Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin did.

There were many scenes from this movie that will remind me of the Cold War. One scene that really stuck to me was the breaking of the sound barrier. This really put the US in advantagous position. Anoter scene that will help bring back memories to me is the failed attempts of the US to get rockets to launch. This scene was both informative and funny. The scene with Russia sending there man to space first will also stick with me ad remind me of the race of the Cold War. This moview really helped me out alot it gave me a new spin and perspective to the Cold War it showed me the intresting aspects that I will always remember.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban missle Crisis was the closest the world ever came to a NUCLEAR war. In 1962 the Soviet Union was far behind the US in the arms race. The Soviet missles were only powerful enough to be fired at Europe but the United States bombs could be fired and hit the entire Soviet Union. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev got the idea that the Soviet Union could set up missile bases in Cuba and that could bring some potential harm to the US in an attck of the Soviet.

Fidel Castro the Prime Minister of Cuba agreed to Khrushchev proposal becasue he was afraid of a second attack from the US after the failed Bay of Pigs attack. In 1962 US spy planes flew over the Cuba and revealed the Soviet missle installations. President Kennedy was then informed of the events and called together the EX-COM a group of his twelve best advisors to handle the crisis. After seven days of debate, President Kennedy informed the public of his findings. He told them of his plans to quarantine the island to avoid the sending of anymore Soviet offfensive weapons.

This was the hottest moment in the cold war becasue Kennedy said if any missles were launched from Cuba it would be an attack against US by the Soviet. To Combat the Crisis Kennedy demanded and instant removal of the weapons. He ordered low level renaissance misons every 2 hours. Kennedy pulled back the quaratine and raised military to DEFCON 2 or Defence Condition 2. The US were urged not to invade Cuba in return for removing Soviet missles based there by Khrushchev in an impassionate letter. EX-COM received a second letter pn the 25th after a U-2 spy plane was shot dwn over Cuba. The letter demanded that the US remove missles in Turkey and in return the Soviet would remove from Cuba.

On October 28 Khrushchev agreed to dismantle the bombs in Cuba in ship them back to the Soviet only with assurance that the US would not invade Cuba under any cirumstances at all.

CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS LINK

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO was officially established on April 4, 1949 with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty. It was formaed because Western Europe found themselves too weak politically and militarily to prevent the spread of the communist "iron curtain" on a national level. The NATO or North Atlantic Treaty Organization was a a defensive military alliance set up because of the fears of Soviet Aggression in Europe after the Berlin blockade. They feared that this blockade would heightened The Soviet Union to retaliate and then attack. The organization was made up of ten western European nations, United States and Canada. If any of these NATO memebers were attacked the situation would be met with armed forces by all member nations. The nited Staes suplied the western European Nations with arsenal to keep the Soviet ground invasion under control. NATO technology became so advanced that the Soviet power was totally diminshed. After Communism ended the NATO became political instead of military.



The Warsaw Pact was set up 5 years after the formation of NATO. The Soviet Union saw NATO as a threat and as a security blanket formed there own alliance. The Pact included the Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslavakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. The prompt for this organization was to remilitarize. The Soviet Union had very good ground control. Although they were much more powerful than NATO there techhnology soon fell behind which was not very advantagous to them. The Pact lasted throughtout the Cold War but later was ldissolved because coutries dropped out.

LINK TO NATO AND WARSAW INFO

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

Although I was unable to see this film I was able to get a picture of what it was about, from reading reviews and other factual information from sources on the internet. I also got information from fellow classmates who were there to watch the film and from what they have told me it was very grusome.

The film was based of the post-Holocaust concentration camp at Aushwitz with the events that occurred there during World War 2.It deals briefly with their conditions and focuses mostly on questions of hate and human blame. The film shows disturbing and distressing film footage of prisoners and victims from the camp.

From what I have heard and read I think the film was not as powerful as he Shindler's List. Even though it was much more brutal and gross than Shindlers list it didnt show how the Jews really felt.

Film Lesson: "Shindler's List"

{Scene from Film: Shindler's List}

The movie "Shindler's List" was a very informative and disturbin film. It really showed me how the Jews were treated. The film depicted the harsh and rough circumstances the Jews went through. Being cleared out of ther homes with only a few treasurd items. Sent to the Ghettos havin to live with many other famiies in a jam packed apartment. Trying to survivr an make sure yuor family is alright. Not knowing what would happen to you in the coming days. That must have been extremly hard to deal with. The film showed how they were focefully taken out of the ghetto. They couldnt carry ne of ther personal belongings they were all thrown in the streets. The ones who tried to escape were killed. if you didnt have your paper you were shot most were shot execution style right in there heads. The jews who survived were asked to strip of there clothers and run. This was done to seperate the healthy from the sick. Then they were loaded into trains and carried to the concentration and death camps.

There were a few powerful scenes in this movie. One being the Jewish family in the Ghetto who rapped the jewelry and valuables in bread and ate them when they had to leave the ghetto. The did this so the Nazi would not take the valuables away. Another scene was the liquidation of the Ghetto when the Nazi went nd killed all the Jews who were hiding. It intrested me that the Jews could find such intresting places to hide. They taped themselves to beds. Made holes in the floors that ould not esaily be detected. Some hid in the roofs of the houses and children took refuge in the toilet pits and inside pianos and cupboards.

There are many imags that will stay with me but two that stuck out the most to me was the cicumstances the Jews went through in the trains goind to the concentrtion camps. Ther were crammed into the cars no food no water and it was extermely hot at first then they went into poland and it waz freezing. They were tryin to find hope inside themselves not knowing what was about to hapen. Not knowin that they were about to die. Another image that stuck out to me that will stay with me forever was the sight of the children being hurdled into the trucks being taken to be killed. They were not even aware of what was goin on. They were so happy thats the fact that saddens me the most. They were so young and neive. The sight of the mothers crying for there children as also very depressing and sad.

US Atomic Bombing of Japan in 1945

I disagree wih the article. No I do not think that the US Bombing of Japan should have been the number 1 news story of the century. Even though this bombing killed thousands of innocent lives there were many other top stories that are stil affecting our world critically today. The US misconception and stupidity was very important but wasnt really key to me. Thou many Japanese people still suffer from radiation and other defects caused by the war I still think there were many storeis that were happening in our own country that topped this. I cannot think of anything else that I would add to that list of New articles at this time.

A bigger story would be I feel the finding of the Aids epedemic #26. This event should be placed at the top of the list. This disease still affects many today. It is is world known disease and is very deadly if not handled and treated porperly. This disease still has no known cure.

On the List of 100 top stories I was shocked to find that the Holocaust of Germany was at #7. The findings of concentration camps should have been very important.Thousands of Jews were beong killed eveyday in a massive genocide. That story should be atleast #2 on the article list. Another story I was surprized to see at the bottom of this list was the Civil rights march in Washington, D.C.: Martin Luther King gives "I Have A Dream" speech. 1963. #50. This event in hisory changed millions of lives or ever. This was a timne when Blacks and Whites got together for a common cause. They wanted to end the feud between the races. I think this should have least made it to spot number 3 in my mind.

Germany at War - WWII

{NAZI PROPAGANDA POSTER}

Propaganda- information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause. Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation aimed at serving an agenda. At its root, the denotation of propaganda is 'to propagate (actively spread) a philosophy or point of view'. The most common use of the term (historically) is in political contexts; in particular to refer to certain efforts sponsored by governments or political groups.

The poster illustrated shows Germany in the fight of World War 2. Hitler was to invade England but after that plan fell through he decided to invade and conquer the Soviet Union. The poster depicts to me that Germany was trying to conquered Great Britain by the symbol of the cross with W. Churchill on it. The Iron in the picture shows that Germany is now shifting the attention to the East and Joseph Stalin. They were ready to attack in full force. The Crib in this propanda poster illustrates security for th German people and the Land meant prosperity of Germany and he Living Space the people would be proided. The factory pobably means that the Germans were buliding weapons and were ready to attack with full blow at anytime.

This propaganda poster basically is trying to say that Germany is superior to all other nations. It has prosperity, security and resources.