Movie Review: Congressional Powers And The Cold War

The film portrays the government in a very negative light and shows how the senators have no real influence on lawmaking. Mr. Smith’s struggles as a senator gave the impression that the government functions completely on bribery, blackmail, and lies. The film gives a very strong message about the lack of democracy in American government and politics, along with the ignorance of the American people. Mr. Smith portrays the average American citizen: he is naïve, has faith in the democracy, and is ignorant

Daisaku Ikeda, a spiritual leader for Japan once commented, ‘Japan learned from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that tragedy wrought by nuclear weapons must never be repeated and that humanity and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.’ The world has experienced the bombings of Japan, of Pearl Harbor and the conflict of the Cold War, but even with these conflicts present in our history, warning us of the effects, these meaning have not carried through into society today. Currently in the Middle East, we are witnessing the elements of a modern day cold war starting to appear. Israel and Iran have been in arguments and disagreements about nuclear weaponry since 2012. Their different religious view and ideologies has flourished into more than a religious tension but that of a modern day cold way.

During the Cold War, the United States was deeply enthralled in fears of a Communist takeover. The Cold War, a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States, lasted from 1945 to 1990. As the Cold War progressed spies and individuals of the communist party were uncovered and put on trial. Joseph McCarthy, a Wisconsin senator, took advantage of the United States fear of communists by making up false evidence and accusations against innocent people. Americans feared that there were roots of Communism throughout communities in the United States, and more specifically, in the government. In February of 1950, McCarthy made a radical statement announcing he possessed a list of 205 government officials that were involved in the communist party. This sparked the beginning of the McCarthy era. Because this list was made up, McCarthy had to keep his lie going to maintain spotlight attention from the media and its millions of viewers. His false accusations led to tension and outbreak among numerous communities in the United States. McCarthy generated the Red Scare and the Hollywood Blacklist, these two events ruined thousands of innocent peoples lives. Joseph McCarthy was driven by the need for power and, briefly, accomplished his goal through the use of fear and accusatory tactics.

The Cold War took a lot of affect on the United States Domestic Policy and American society. Domestic Policies were changed due to the world affairs, and the American society had a dramatic change from the war. The United States Government became extra secure and protected. Many new political cartoons were created from the fear of Communists and other big events and things that were happening during this time period. War was the leading problem in the US during this time period. Many citizens became upset and protested. Also, many American citizens were scared because they heard many people talking about the war,and what was happening and took as many measures on safety as they possibly knew and could. Later, through science, we have learned that many of their tactics when it came to protecting themselves would not even have worked.The United States spend a lot of extra money during this time period to keep up with the war. (DBQ questions)

Research this week was fruitful and my bibliography grew substantially. A large part of the reason for this growth was the mining of the bibliography of other sources. One of the most fruitful was, The Cold War in a Cold Land: Fighting Communism on the Northern Plains. The book provided me with a variety of both primary and secondary sources. The list of sources includes, books, articles, and government reports. A second book that provided more sources was, How We Forgot the Cold War. The bibliography provided some sources created by the North Dakota State Historical Society. In addition to these sources, I have been looking into newspapers. I have ordered some rolls of microfilm of the Griggs County Sentinel-Courier and am still waiting for them to arrive. I started with these rolls because they came from the paper closest to the geographic center of my research, as well as the dates of my research. In addition to the rolls, I have ordered The Cold War in a Cold Land, which provided a list of other newspapers that may be useful. In addition to ordering more microfilm reels that I will have sent to me at school, I will also have the opportunity to examine many more when I return home for spring break. Many are housed at the State Historical Society, just twenty minutes

In The Rise of the Washington Establishment, Fiorina says that Congress partakes in 3 certain things; one is lawmaking. Another is pork barreling. He describes this as the government spending money on projects, primarily around their own area, that will bring money to their district. Lastly is case work. As the passage continues he goes more into depth about his thoughts on all three of these duties.

Charlie Wilson’s War is an exciting behind the scenes look of the United States covert activities during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Charlie Wilson, played by Tom Hanks, grieved that America did the noble thing in Afghanistan, but unfortunately messed up the endgame. This is a classic historic reenactment of how Charlie Wilson, a Washington insider and congressman from Texas, used CIA resources and government assets. He had a big attitude and illusive tactics. His actions helped fund the Mujahedeen to fight the Soviets in the 1980’s. The main political points demonstrated in this film were the large government oversight, corrupt politicians, and greed associated with power. These themes carry on and evolve throughout, as Charlie Wilson gets the CIA, with the help of Gust Avakotos, on board in the funding. They worked together to move more resources that were secretly bought from the Israelis and given to the Afghans to fight the Soviets. Charlie Wilson is a greedy alcoholic politician in the film, who thinks he is helping the Afghans by giving them weapons to fight their enemies instead of food, healthcare, and infrastructure development. His long-shared hate for Communism fueled his actions with the foreign affairs. He is naive when he goes along with his friend Joanne Herring’s friend, President of Pakistan, Zia. Zia took over the country of Pakistan in a military coupe replacing his predecessor with a trial and execution. Zia, like the Mujahedeen, used Charlie Wilson to get funding from the U.S. to fight their war. Another key factor of the political greed and corruption is the importance of oil as pointed out by Joanne Herring, who coincidentally gained her fortune from an oil and gas company in Houston, Texas. The Texas congressman Charlie Wilson, secretly heightened funding from $5 million to $1 billion to run out the Red Army from Afghanistan, a trigger to the collapse of the USSR.

The role of America at the end of World War II was where the origins of policing the world originate. America had been engaged in a very costly war in terms of dollars as well as lives. But, despite the expense the United States came out of World War II better than any other nation that was involved. The Second World War was a battle between the Allied and Axis Powers. The Allied Powers consisted of the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and France. This war was seen as the fight against Nazi Germany, and therefore resulted in a majority of the battles fought on German and Russian soil. The aftermath left the Soviet Union in bad shape. Close to twenty million Russians

With this book, a major element of American history was analyzed. The Cold War is rampant with American foreign policy and influential in shaping the modern world. Strategies of Containment outlines American policy from the end of World War II until present day. Gaddis outlines the policies of presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, including policies influenced by others such as George Kennan, John Dulles, and Henry Kissinger. The author, John Lewis Gaddis has written many books on the Cold War and is an avid researcher in the field. Some of his other works include: The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947, The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War

In 1993, President Bill Clinton?s Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin, outlined a defense plan for the future, The Bottom-up Review. The Cold War had ended and Aspin was tasked with defining a defense strategy to fit the economic cuts promised by the newly elected President. Aspin penned a new defense plan. One that did not quite match up to the imposed budget constraints, but more importantly, he afforded himself the use of many assumptions while devising his plan.

According to Stephen Whitfield, the Cold War put limits in popular culture. Put people on radio and television, music, writing and other forms of entertainment in the menus may make them communists or simply because they are supposed Communist explicitly. Communism extract more from the fear of "organized crime", and that "distorted and weak" American culture because of the other constant that can be claimed as a communist or a threat of a nuclear war might start at home is located on the land of the United States. Cold War caused "suffocation and degeneration of the same culture of freedom", and made even the smallest possibility of extremist thought people at risk called communism, creating a fear which was much greater than any possible

The Cold War: A New History written by John Lewis Gaddis (a professor at Yale University who wrote other books such as The United States and the Origins of the Cold War and Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security) delivers a summarized, yet skewed interpretation of what had happened during the era known as the Cold War. Throughout the book, the author attempts to provide history of the Cold War, while adding in generalizations, incomplete facts, as well as flat out bias.

“Charlie Wilson’s War” directed by Mike Nicholas is based on a true story of the early 1980s. This politically themed movie was released in the year 2007. The main components of the movie are politics, stubborn politicians, national leaders, war, international policies, national security and most importantly, funds. The movie depicts how funds are gathered through which Afghanis people acquired the weapons and required training to fight against the Russians. It is a story of a liberal democrat, a beautiful socialite, and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent, who made a pact to conquer the Russians in the Afghanistan. The main characters were played by Tom Hanks as a Congressperson Charlie Wilson, Julia Roberts as Texas socialite Joanne Herring and Philip Seymour Hoffman as CIA Agent Gust Avrakotos. All three of them played an extraordinary role in shaping the history of Afghanistan.

Director DeMonaco was described to have wileded his satirical ideas with recklessness when it comes to close combat and sniper shots. Set in Washington, D.C., he draws on the symbolic function of the state. “The soul of our entire country is at stake,” declares Sen. Charlie Roan (played by Elizabeth Mitchell). Mitchell plays a presidential candidate

After World War II, the United States had effectively become the most powerful and influential country in the world both militarily and politically. During America’s rise to power, however, hostilities mounted between America and the Soviet Union, resulting in a fierce rivalry. The Cold War, which never involved direct military confrontations between the two nations, involved of the struggle to contain the spread of communism, extreme anti-communist attitudes in America, and a reemergence of the civil rights issue.