American history from 1948 to 1988

And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.. Today, we continue the story of the thirty-seventh preside[r]

Dewey Defeats Truman in 1948 Oops,

Make It Truman Defeats Dewey

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THE MAKING OF A NATION – a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

Presidential elections are exciting events in American politics Few elections for the White House have been as exciting as the one in 1948 And few have had such surprising results

Four candidates were nominated for president in the 1948 election One was the man already

in the White House, the candidate of the Democratic Party, President Harry Truman Truman had been the party's successful vice presidential candidate in 1944 When President Franklin Roosevelt died a year later, Truman became president

Truman did not do well during his first few months in office He made several serious

mistakes He had trouble with the economy and organized labor His party lost control of the Senate and the House of Representatives in the congressional elections of 1946

Most Americans had little faith in Truman's ability as a leader They expected that he would lose the presidential election in 1948 if he chose to be a candidate

President Truman chose to run for another term in the White House And he planned to win

In the months following the democratic defeat in the congressional election, he took several strong steps to show his leadership

Truman called on the Congress to pass a number of laws to help black people He took firm actions in his foreign policy toward the Soviet Union And he began to speak out with much more strength to the American people

Truman succeeded in winning the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party "I will win this election," Truman told the Democratic convention that nominated him "And I will make the Republicans like it!"

The Republicans nominated New York state Governor Thomas Dewey

Dewey was a wise and courageous man He also was very serious Truman campaigned by telling the voters that Dewey did not understand the needs of the average American He calledDewey a candidate of rich people

One day, Dewey got angry at a railroad engineer because his campaign train was late for a speech Truman charged that this proved that Dewey did not understand the problems of railroad engineers and other working Americans He tried to make the election a choice between hard-working Democrats and rich Republicans

Two other men also were candidates for the presidency Both were from newly created parties

One was Strom Thurmond of the state of South Carolina He was the candidate of the States Rights Democratic Party, also known as the Dixiecrat Party Most of his supporters were

white Americans from the southeastern part of the country They opposed giving full rights to black people.

The other candidate was Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party His supporters believed that Truman had turned away from the progressive ideas of Franklin Roosevelt

Both Thurmond and Wallace had broken away from the Democratic Party Most political experts believed those two candidates would take votes away from President Truman They believed Republican candidate Dewey surely would win the election This seemed especially true because President Truman did not have strong public support

Harry Truman, however, was a fighter He did not believe the election was lost He took his campaign to the American people

"I had always campaigned," said Mr Truman, "by going around talking to people and

meeting them Running for president was no different

"I just got on a train," Truman said, "and started across the country to tell people what was going on I wanted to talk to them face to face When you are standing there in front of them and talking to them, the people can tell whether you are telling them the facts or not."

Truman campaigned with great energy He made hundreds of speeches as his train moved across the country He spoke to farmers in Iowa He visited a children's home in Texas And

he discussed issues with small groups of people who came to visit his train when it stopped in rural areas of Montana and Idaho

Dewey and the Republicans laughed at Truman's campaign They said it showed that Truman needed votes so badly that he had to spend his time looking for them in small villages

Truman said the criticism proved that Republicans did not care for the average American.Dewey also campaigned across the country by train But he showed little of the fire and emotion in his speeches that made Truman's campaign so exciting A reporter wrote:

"Governor Dewey is acting like a man who has already been elected and is only passing time, waiting to take office "

Dewey had good reasons to feel so sure of being elected Almost every political expert in the country said Truman had no chance to win The Wall Street Journal newspaper, for example, printed a story about what Dewey would do in the White House after the election And the New York Times said that Dewey would win the election by a large vote

Truman refused to accept these views Instead, he spoke with more and more emotion against Dewey Most Americans still believed that Truman would lose But they liked his courage in fighting until the end At the end of one speech, a citizen shouted, "Give them hell, Harry! Wewill win!" And soon, Truman supporters across the country were shouting, "Give 'em hell, Harry!"

Truman campaigned until Election Day He made a special appeal to working people, Jews, blacks, Catholics, and other traditional supporters of the Democratic Party In his final radio speech, he promised to work for peace and a government that would help all people Then he went to his home in the state of Missouri to wait with the rest of the country for the election results

Republicans across the country greeted Election Day happily They were sure that this was theday that the people would choose to send a Republican back to the White House after 16 years.

Some of the early voting results from the northeastern states showed Truman winning But few Republicans worried They were sure Dewey would be the winner when all the votes were counted

The editor of the Chicago Tribune newspaper also was sure Dewey would be the next

president He published a newspaper with a giant story that said "Dewey Defeats Truman."The Chicago Tribune was wrong Everyone was wrong Everyone, that is, except Harry Truman and the Americans who gave him their votes Truman went to bed on election night before all the votes were counted He told his assistant that he would win

Truman woke early the next morning to learn that he was right Not only did he defeat

Dewey, but he won by a good number of votes And he helped many Democratic

congressional candidates win as well The Democrats captured both houses of Congress

Harry Truman would go on to serve four more years in the White House He would make many difficult decisions as America moved into the second half of the twentieth century

Many of the decisions were necessary because of America's new responsibilities as leader of the Western world

Mr Truman would send American troops to South Korea to help the United Nations defend South Korea against aggression from North Korea He would join other Western leaders in establishing a new alliance, NATO, to provide for the joint defense of Europe and North America Mr Truman and later presidents would make decisions to send economic and military aid, in huge amounts, to countries all around the world

These worldwide responsibilities produced many changes in the United States, especially in the policies and actions of the United States government But the system of the government did not change It remained the same as that created by the Constitution in 1787 Only a few details were changed to better protect and represent the people of the United States

You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English

by the Voice of America Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt Our program was written by David Jarmul The Voice of America invites you to listen again next

week to THE MAKING OF A NATION.

Truman Faced Communist Fears, Real or Imagined

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This is Doug Johnson

And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English

program about the history of the United States

Before the election of 1948, Harry Truman sometimes was called an accidental president That meant the citizens had not elected him to lead the nation He became America's thirty-third president because he was vice president when Franklin Roosevelt died Today, we tell about President Truman and events during his second term in office

In 1948, Harry Truman had been America's leader for more than three years The people now voted for his return to office They chose him over Republican Party candidate, Thomas Dewey, governor of New York The voters also elected a Congress with a majority from Mr Truman's Democratic Party

The president might have expected such a Congress to support his policies It did not,

however, always support him Time after time, Democrats from the southern part of the United States joined with conservative Republicans in voting Together, these lawmakers defeated some of Truman's most important proposals This included a bill for health care insurance for every American

Fear of communism was a major issue during Truman's second term After World War Two, Americans watched as communists took control of one east European nation after another They watched as China became communist They watched as the leader of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin, made it clear that he wanted communists to rule the world

At this tense time, there were charges that communists held important jobs in the government

of the United States Many citizens accepted the charges The fear of communism, real or imagined, threatened the American legal tradition that a person is innocent until proven guilty

A Republican senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, led the search for communists in America In speeches and congressional hearings, he accused hundreds of people of being communists or communist supporters His targets included the Department of State, the Armyand the entertainment industry in Hollywood

Senator McCarthy often had little evidence to support his accusations Many of his charges would not have been accepted in a court of law But the rules governing congressional

hearings were different So he was able to make his accusations freely

Some people denounced as communists lost their jobs Some had to use false names to get work A few went to jail briefly for refusing to cooperate with him

Joseph McCarthy continued his anti-communist investigations for several years By the early 1950s, more people began to question his methods Critics said he had violated democratic traditions In 1954, the Senate voted to condemn his actions Soon after, he became sick with cancer, and his political life ended He died in 1957

In addition to the problems caused by the fear of communism at home, President Truman had

to deal with the threat of communism in other countries

He agreed to send American aid to Greece and Turkey He also supported continuing the Marshall Plan This plan had helped rebuild the economies of Western Europe after World War Two Historians agree that it prevented Western Europe from becoming communist

The defense of Western Europe against communism led president Truman to support the North Atlantic Treaty This treaty formed NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in

1949 In the beginning, NATO included the United States, Britain, Canada, France and eight other nations More nations joined later

The NATO treaty stated that a military attack on any member would be considered an attack

on all of them

Truman named General Dwight Eisenhower to be supreme commander of the new

organization General Eisenhower had been supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe inWorld War Two

President Truman believed that other problems in the world could be settled by cooperative international efforts In his swearing-in speech in 1949, he urged the United States to lend money to other countries to aid their development He also wanted to share American science and technology

Months later, Congress approved twenty-five thousand million dollars for the first part of this program

In 1951, President Truman asked Congress to establish a new foreign aid program The aid was for some countries in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia and South Asia, and Latin America These countries were threatened by communist forces President Truman believed the United States would be stronger if its allies were stronger

Harry Truman supported and used military power throughout his presidency

On June twenty-fifth, 1950, forces from North Korea invaded South Korea Two days later, the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution on the conflict It urged UN members to help South Korea resist the invasion President Truman approved sending

American planes and ships Then he approved sending American ground forces

The president knew his decision could start World War Three if the Soviet Union entered the war on the side of North Korea Yet he felt the United States had to act Later, he said it was the most difficult decision he made as president

General Douglas MacArthur was named commander of all United Nations forces in South Korea By the autumn of 1950, the UN forces had pushed the North Koreans back across the border People talked hopefully of ending the war by the Christmas holiday on December twenty-fifth

In late November, however, troops from China joined the North Koreans Thousands of Chinese soldiers helped push the UN troops south General MacArthur wanted to attack Chinese bases in Manchuria President Truman said no The fighting must not spread outside Korea Again he feared that such a decision might start another world war

General MacArthur believed he could end the war quickly if he could do what he wanted So

he publicly denounced the American policy In April 1951, the president dismissed him

Some citizens approved They believed a military leader must obey his commander in chief Others, however, supported General MacArthur Millions greeted him when he returned to theUnited States

Most of the fighting in the Korean war took place along the geographic line known as the thirty-eighth parallel This line formed the border between the North and South Many

victories were only temporary One side would capture a hill Then the other side would recapture it

Ceasefire talks began in July 1951 But the negotiations failed to make progress By the time the conflict ended two years later, millions of soldiers on both sides had been killed or

wounded

Nineteen fifty-two would be a presidential election year in the United States Harry Truman was losing popularity because of the Korean War At the same time, the military hero of World War Two, General Dwight Eisenhower, was thinking about running for president

The need to make difficult choices had made Harry Truman's presidency among the most decisive in American history In March, he made another important decision He announced that he would not be a candidate for re-election

Truman said: "I have served my country I do not think it my duty to spend another four years

in the White House."

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced

by Paul Thompson This is Doug Johnson And this is Phil Murray Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

War Hero Is Elected President in 1952

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This is Doug Johnson And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION a

VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

America's presidential election campaign of 1952 probably opened on the day President HarryTruman said "no." He said he would not be a candidate for re-election

In later years, Harry Truman would be called one of America's better presidents Near the end

of 1951, however, he had lost the support of many Americans

The continuing war in Korea, and economic problems at home, had robbed him of much of his popularity His Democratic Party needed a new candidate for president

In the spring of 1952, Mr Truman named the man he wanted the party to nominate His choice was Adlai Stevenson, governor of Illinois

Mr Stevenson, however, said he was not interested in any job except the one he had

It appeared that he meant what he said Someone asked what he would do if the Democratic Party chose him as its presidential candidate Mr Stevenson answered, "I guess I would have

to shoot myself."

So, President Truman and other party leaders discussed different candidates Each one, however, seemed to have some political weakness.

The Republican Party also was discussing possible candidates It was much easier for the Republicans to choose Earlier, General Dwight Eisenhower had said he would campaign

"Ike" Eisenhower was the hugely popular commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War Two Many members of both parties wanted him as their candidate General Eisenhower agreed to campaign as a Republican

His closest competitor for the Republican nomination was Robert Taft, a senator from Ohio

He was the son of a former president, William Howard Taft

Senator Taft sometimes was called "Mr Republican." He had strong party support for his conservative policies However, he did not receive enough votes at the party's national

convention to defeat Eisenhower for the nomination

In his acceptance speech, Eisenhower told the convention delegates that they had called him

to lead a great campaign He described it as a campaign for freedom in America and for freedom in the world

Eisenhower chose Senator Richard Nixon of California as his vice presidential candidate By that time, Mr Nixon was known throughout the United States for his strong opposition to communism

Earlier, as a member of the House of Representatives, he had led the investigation of a former State Department official, Alger Hiss Hiss was accused of helping provide secret information

to the Soviet Union Hiss denied the accusation He was never officially charged with spying But he was tried and found guilty of lying to a grand jury and was sentenced to prison

The Democratic Party held its national convention ten days after the Republicans Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson welcomed the delegates The words of his speech made it seem that he did not want to be a candidate for president This made the delegates want him even more

They voted two times No one received enough votes to win the nomination On the third vote, Governor Stevenson did And he accepted In his acceptance speech, he urged

Democrats to campaign with honor

After the conventions, a political expert wrote about the differences between Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower The expert said Stevenson was a man of thought, and Eisenhower was a man of action

The Republican Party quickly employed an advertising company to help its candidates Advertising companies mostly designed campaigns to sell products In the presidential

election of 1952, the company designed a campaign to "sell" Mr Eisenhower and Mr Nixon

to the American public

Eisenhower did not always agree with the company's advice One time, he became very angry He said, "All they talk about is my honesty Nobody ever says I have a brain in my head!"

There was no question that the Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, had a brain He was known as an intellectual or "egghead" When he launched his campaign, he dismissed some traditional political advisers and replaced them with eggheads.

Communism was the biggest issue in the campaign Governor Stevenson said America needed

to guard against it Yet he repeatedly criticized the actions of Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin For years, the senator had been denouncing government officials and others as communists

Eisenhower did not criticize McCarthy, even when the senator accused Eisenhower's good friend, General George Marshall, of being a traitor

The Republican campaign went smoothly until someone discovered that Richard Nixon had received money for extra campaign costs Some newspapers said Nixon should withdraw That led to his famous "Checkers" speech

Nixon made the speech on national television In it, he defended his decision to keep a specialgift from a political supporter That gift was a dog, named Checkers He said he kept the dog because his two little girls loved it

The speech was a success Thousands of voters told the Republican Party that Nixon should remain as the vice presidential candidate

A few weeks before the election, Eisenhower made a powerful speech He talked about ending the war in Korea

DWIGHT EISENHOWER: "Now, where will a new administration begin It will begin with its president taking a firm, simple resolution That resolution will be to forego the diversions

of politics and to concentrate on the job of ending the Korean War, until that job is honorably done That job requires a personal trip to Korea Only in that way could I learn how best to serve the American people in the cause of peace I shall go to Korea."

Adlai Stevenson ended his campaign with a powerful speech, too In it, he told of his vision ofAmerica

I see an America where no man fears to think as he pleases, or say what he thinks I see an America where no man is another's master where no man's mind is dark with fear I see an America at peace with the world I see an America as the horizon of human hopes

The people voted in November Eisenhower won almost thirty-four million votes That was more votes than a presidential candidate had ever received Stevenson won about twenty-seven million votes

Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in as America's thirty-fourth president in January, 1953 He was sixty-two years old Many problems awaited him

Republicans had only a small majority in Congress Many Republican lawmakers were very conservative They probably would not vote for the new president's programs The cost of living in America was rising Senator Joseph McCarthy was still hunting communists And the war in Korea was not yet over

President Eisenhower did not seem troubled by these problems After all, he had been called

on many times to help his country

Eisenhower came from a large family in Abilene, Kansas His family did not have much money He received a free university education when he went to the United States military academy at West Point, New York

He remained in military service for many years By the time the United States entered World War Two in 1941, he had become a top officer In 1944, he led the allied invasion of Europe

In 1950, president Harry Truman named him supreme commander of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

When Dwight Eisenhower ran for president, people shouted, "I like Ike!" Voters liked him because he always seemed calm, even in difficult situations As the country's president, he would face a number of difficult situations One of the first was the continuing war in Korea.That will be our story next week

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced

by Paul Thompson Stan Busby read the words of Adlai Stevenson This is Phil Murray And this is Doug Johnson Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Conflict in Korea Spills Over Into

Eisenhower's Presidency

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This is Doug Johnson And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION a

VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Today we tell about the Korean War

The biggest problem facing Dwight Eisenhower when he became president of the United States was the continuing conflict in Korea

Eisenhower was elected in November 1952 At the time, the United States had been helping South Korea fight North Korea for more than two years About twenty other members of the United Nations were helping South Korea, too They provided troops, equipment, and medicalaid

During the last days of the American presidential election campaign, Eisenhower announced that he would go to Korea He thought such a trip would help end the war Eisenhower kept his promise He went to Korea after he won the election, but before he was sworn-in as president Yet there was no permanent peace in Korea until July of the next year, 1953

The war started when North Korean troops invaded South Korea Both sides believed they should control all of the country.

The dream of a united Korea was a powerful one

From 1910 until World War Two, Japan ruled Korea In an agreement at the end of the war, Soviet troops occupied the North They accepted the surrender of Japanese troops and set up amilitary government American troops did the same in the South The border dividing north and south was the geographic line known as the thirty-eighth parallel

A few years later, the United Nations General Assembly ordered free elections for all of Korea With U.N help, the South established the Republic of Korea Syngman Rhee was elected the first president

On the other side of the thirty-eighth parallel, however, the Soviets refused to permit U.N election officials to enter the North They established a communist government there, called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Il-sung was named premier

Five years after the end of World War Two, the United States had withdrawn almost all its troops from South Korea It was not clear if America would defend the South from attack South Korea had an army But it was smaller and less powerful than the North Korean army

North Korea decided the time was right to invade On June twenty-fifth, 1950, North Korean soldiers crossed the thirty-eighth parallel

The U.N Security Council demanded that they go back Two days later, it approved military support for South Korea The Soviet delegate had boycotted the meeting that day If he had been present, the resolution would have been defeated

The U.N demand did not stop the North Korean troops They continued to push south In a week, they were on the edge of the capital, Seoul

America's president at that time, Harry Truman, ordered air and sea support for South Korea

A few days later, he announced that American ground forces would be sent, too Truman wanted an American to command U.N troops in Korea The U.N approved his choice: General Douglas MacArthur

Week after week, more U.N forces arrived Yet by August, they had been pushed back to the Pusan perimeter This was a battle line around an area near the port city of Pusan in the southeast corner of Korea

North Korean forces tried to break through the Pusan perimeter They began a major attack August sixth They lost many men, however By the end of the month, they withdrew

The next month, general MacArthur directed a surprise landing of troops in South Korea They arrived at the port of Inchon on the northwest coast

The landing was extremely dangerous The daily change in the level of the sea was as much

as nine meters The boats had to get close to shore and land at high tide If they waited too long, the water level would drop, and they would be trapped in the mud with little protection The soldiers on the boats would be easy targets

The landing at Inchon was successful The additional troops quickly divided the North Koreanforces, which had been stretched from north to south At the same time, UN air and sea powerdestroyed the northern army's lines of communication.

On October first, South Korean troops moved into North Korea They captured the capital, Pyongyang Then they moved toward the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China China warned against moving closer to the border General MacArthur ordered the troops to continue their attacks He repeatedly said he did not believe that China would enter the war in force

He was wrong Several hundred thousand Chinese soldiers crossed into North Korea in October and November Still, General MacArthur thought the war would be over by the Christmas holiday, December twenty-fifth

This was not to happen The U.N troops were forced to withdraw from Pyongyang And, by the day before Christmas, there had been a huge withdrawal by sea from the coastal city of Hungnam

In the first days of 1951, the North Koreans recaptured Seoul The U.N troops withdrew about forty kilometers south of the city They reorganized and, two months later, took control

of Seoul again

Then the war changed The two sides began fighting along a line north of the thirty-eighth parallel They exchanged control of the same territory over and over again Men were dying, but no one was winning The cost in lives was huge

General MacArthur had wanted to cross into China and drop bombs on Manchuria He also had wanted to use Nationalist Chinese troops against the communists

President Truman feared that these actions might start another world war He would not take this chance When MacArthur disagreed with his policies in public, Truman dismissed him

In June, 1951, the Soviet delegate to the United Nations proposed a ceasefire for Korea Peacetalks began, first at Kaesong, then at Panmunjom By November, hope was strong for a settlement But negotiators could not agree about several issues, including the return of prisoners The U.N demanded that prisoners of war be permitted to choose if they wanted to

Eisenhower had campaigned to end the war He was willing to use severe measures to do this.Years later, he wrote that he secretly threatened to expand the war and use nuclear weapons if the Soviets did not help restart the peace talks

Such measures were not necessary In a few months, North Korea accepted an earlier U.N offer to trade prisoners who were sick or wounded The two sides finally signed a peace treaty

on July twenty-seventh, 1953

The treaty provided for the exchange of about ninety thousand prisoners of war It also

permitted prisoners to choose if they wanted to go home

The war in Korea damaged almost all of the country As many as two million people may have died, including many civilians

After the war, the United States provided hundreds of thousands of soldiers to help the South guard against attack from the north

Half a century has passed since the truce Yet Korea is still divided And many of the same issues still threaten the Korean people, and the world

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced

by Paul Thompson This is Doug Johnson And this is Phil Murray Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

1950s Popular Culture Helped Take Minds Off Nuclear Fears

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This is Phil Murray And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION a

VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Today, we tell what life was like in American during the 1950s

Imagine that you are visiting the United States What would you expect to see?

In the 1950s, America was a nation that believed it was on the edge of nuclear war It was a nation where the popular culture of television was gaining strength It was a nation whose population was growing as never before

After the terrible suffering of World War Two, Americans thought the world would be

peaceful for awhile By 1950, however, political tensions were high again The United States and the Soviet Union, allies in war, had become enemies

The communists had taken control of one east European nation after another And Soviet leader Josef Stalin made it clear that he wanted communists to rule the world

The Soviet Union had strengthened its armed forces after the war The United States had taken many steps to disarm Yet it still possessed the atomic bomb America thought it, alone, had this terrible weapon

In 1949, a United States Air Force plane discovered strange conditions in the atmosphere What was causing them? The answer came quickly: the Soviet Union had exploded an atomic bomb

The race was on The two nations competed to build weapons of mass destruction Would these weapons ever be used?

The American publication, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, always showed a picture of

a clock By 1949, the time on the clock was three minutes before midnight That meant the world was on the edge of nuclear destruction The atomic scientists were afraid of what science had produced They were even more afraid of what science could produce

In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea The Korean conflict increased efforts in the United States to develop a weapon more deadly than an atomic bomb That was the hydrogen bomb The Soviets were developing such a weapon, too

Many Americans were afraid Some built what they hoped would be safe rooms in or near their homes They planned to hide in these bomb shelters during a nuclear attack

Other Americans, however, grew tired of being afraid In 1952, the military hero of World War Two, Dwight Eisenhower, was elected president The economy improved Americans looked to the future with hope

One sign of hope was the baby boom This was the big increase in the number of babies born after the war The number of young children in America jumped from twenty-four million to thirty-five million between 1950 and 1960 The bigger families needed houses In ninetee fiftyalone, one million four hundred thousand houses were built in America

Most new houses were in the suburbs, the areas around cities People moved to the suburbs because they thought the schools there were better They also liked having more space for their children to play

Many Americans remember the 1950s as the fad years A fad is something that is extremely popular for a very short time one fad from the 1950s was the Hula Hoop The Hula Hoop was

a colorful plastic tube joined to form a big circle To play with it, you moved your hips in a circular motion This kept it spinning around your body The motion was like one used by Polynesian people in their native dance, the hula

Other fads in the 1950s involved clothes or hair Some women, for example, cut and fixed their hair to look like the fur of a poodle dog Actress Mary Martin made the poodle cut famous when she appeared in the Broadway play, "South Pacific."

In motion pictures, Marilyn Monroe was becoming famous Not everyone thought she was a great actress But she had shining golden hair And she had what was considered a perfect body Marilyn Monroe's success did not make her happy She killed herself in the 1960s, when she was 36 years old

Another famous actor of those days was James Dean To many Americans, he was the living representation of the rebellious spirit of the young In fact, one of his films was called, "Rebel Without a Cause." James Dean died in a car accident in 1955 He was twenty-four

The 1950s saw a rebellion in American literature As part of society lived new lives in the suburbs, another part criticized this life These were the writers and poets of the Beat

generation, including Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg They said life was empty in 1950s America They described the people as dead in brain and spirit

Jackson Pollock represented the rebellion in art Pollock did not paint things the way they looked Instead, he dropped paint onto his pictures in any way he pleased He was asked againand again: "What do your paintings mean?" He answered: "Do not worry about what they mean They are just there like flowers."

In music, the rebel was Elvis Presley He was the king of rock-and-roll

Elvis Presley was a twenty-one-year-old truck driver when he sang on television for the first time He moved his body to the music in a way that many people thought was too sexual

Parents and religious leaders criticized him Young people screamed for more They could notget enough rock-and-roll They played it on records They heard it on the radio And they listened to it on the television program "American Bandstand."

This program became the most popular dance party in America Every week, young men and women danced to the latest songs in front of the television cameras

During the 1940s, there were only a few television receivers in American homes Some calledtelevision an invention for stupid people to watch By the end of the 1950s, however,

television was here to stay The average family watched six hours a day

Americans especially liked games shows and funny shows with comedians such as Milton Berle and Lucille Ball They also liked shows that offered a mix of entertainment, such as those presented by Arthur Godfrey and Ed Sullivan

People from other countries watching American television in the 1950s might have thought that all Americans were white Christians At that time, television failed to recognize that America was a great mix of races and religions

Few members of racial or religious minorities were represented on television Those who appeared usually were shown working for white people

A movement for civil rights for black Americans was beginning to gather strength in the 1950s Many legal battles were fought to end racial separation, especially in America's schools By the 1960s, the civil rights movement would shake the nation

Dwight Eisenhower was president for most of the 1950s He faced the problems of

communism, the threat of nuclear war, and racial tensions He had a calm way of speaking And he always seemed to deal with problems in the same calm way Some citizens felt he waslike a father to the nation

With Mr Eisenhower in the White House, they believed that even in a dark and dangerous world, everything would be all right

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced

by Paul Thompson This is Phil Murray And this is Rich Kleinfeldt Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

A Freeze Hits US-Soviet Relations After

World War Two

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This is Doug Johnson And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION a

VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Today, we tell about the period known as the Cold War

The Cold War began after World War Two The main enemies were the United States and theSoviet Union

The Cold War got its name because both sides were afraid of fighting each other directly In such a "hot war," nuclear weapons might destroy everything So, instead, they fought each other indirectly They supported conflicts in different parts of the world They also used words as weapons They threatened and denounced each other Or they tried to make each other look foolish

Over the years, leaders on both sides changed Yet the Cold War continued It was the major force in world politics for most of the second half of the twentieth century

Historians disagree about how long the Cold War lasted Some believe it ended when the United States and the Soviet Union improved relations during the 1960s and early 1970s Others believe it ended when the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989

The Cold War world was separated into three groups The United States led the West This group included countries with democratic political systems The Soviet Union led the East This group included countries with communist political systems The Non-Aligned group included countries that did not want to be tied to either the West or the East

Harry Truman was the first American president to fight the Cold War He used several policies One was the Truman Doctrine This was a plan to give money and military aid to countries threatened by communism The Truman Doctrine effectively stopped communists from taking control of Greece and Turkey

Another policy was the Marshall Plan This strengthened the economies and governments of countries in Western Europe

A major event in the Cold War was the Berlin Airlift In June 1948, the Soviets blocked all ways into the western part of Berlin, Germany President Truman quickly ordered military planes to fly coal, food, and medicine to the city

The planes kept coming, sometimes landing every few minutes, for more than a year The United States received help from Britain and France Together, they provided almost two and one-half million tons of supplies on about two hundred-eighty thousand flights

The United States also led the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949 NATO was a joint military group Its purpose was to defend against Soviet forces in Europe

The first members of NATO were Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy,Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States.

The Soviet Union and its east European allies formed their own joint military group the Warsaw Pact six years later

In 1953, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died His death gave the new American president, DwightEisenhower, a chance to deal with new Soviet leaders

In July, 1955, Eisenhower and Nikolai Bulganin met in Geneva, Switzerland The leaders of Britain and France also attended

Eisenhower proposed that the Americans and Soviets agree to let their military bases be inspected by air by the other side The Soviets later rejected the proposal Yet the meeting in Geneva was not considered a failure After all, the leaders of the world's most powerful nations had shaken hands

Cold War tensions increased, then eased, then increased again over the years The changes came as both sides actively tried to influence political and economic developments around theworld

For example, the Soviet Union provided military, economic, and technical aid to communist governments in Asia The United States then helped eight Asian nations fight communism by establishing the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

In the middle 1950s, the United States began sending military advisers to help south Vietnam defend itself against communist North Vietnam That aid would later expand into a long and bloody period of American involvement in Vietnam

The Cold War also affected the Middle East In the 1950s, both East and West offered aid to Egypt to build the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River The West cancelled its offer, however,after Egypt bought weapons from the communist government of Czechoslovakia

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser then seized control of the company that operated the Suez Canal A few months later, Israel invaded Egypt France and Britain joined the invasion

For once, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on a major issue Both supported a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire

The Suez crisis was a political victory for the Soviets When the Soviet Union supported Egypt, it gained new friends in the Arab world

In 1959, Cold War tensions eased a little The new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, visited Dwight Eisenhower at his holiday home near Washington The meeting was very friendly But the next year, relations got worse again

An American military plane was shot down over the Soviet Union Eisenhower admitted that such planes had been spying on the Soviets for four years In a speech at the United Nations, Khrushchev got so angry that he took off his shoe and beat it on a table

John Kennedy followed Eisenhower as president in 1961 During his early days in office, Cuban exiles invaded Cuba They wanted to oust the communist government of Fidel Castro

The exiles had been trained by America's Central Intelligence Agency The United States failed to send military planes to protect them during the invasion As a result, almost all were killed or taken prisoner.

In Europe, tens of thousands of East Germans had fled to the West East Germany's

communist government decided to stop them It built a wall separating the eastern and

western parts of the city of Berlin Guards shot at anyone who tried to flee by climbing over

During Kennedy's second year in office, American intelligence reports discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba The Soviet Union denied they were there American photographs proved they were

The Cuban missile crisis easily could have resulted in a nuclear war But it ended after a week Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles if the United States agreed not to interfere inCuba

Some progress was made in easing Cold War tensions when Kennedy was president In 1963, the two sides reached a major arms control agreement They agreed to ban tests of nuclear weapons above ground, under water, and in space They also established a direct telephone line between the White House and the Kremlin

Relations between East and West also improved when Richard Nixon was president He and Leonid Brezhnev met several times They reached several arms control agreements One reduced the number of missiles used to shoot down enemy nuclear weapons It also banned the testing and deployment of long-distance missiles for five years

A major change in the Cold War took place in 1985 That is when Mikhail Gorbachev becameleader of the Soviet Union Gorbachev held four meetings with President Ronald Reagan He withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan And he signed an agreement with the United States

to destroy all middle-distance and short-distance nuclear missiles

By 1989, there was widespread unrest in eastern Europe Gorbachev did not intervene as thesecountries cut their ties with the Soviet Union

The Berlin Wall, the major symbol of communist oppression, was torn down in November Inless than a year, East and West Germany became one nation again A few months after that, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved The Cold War was over

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced

by Paul Thompson This is Doug Johnson And this is Phil Murray Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

The Space Race Heightens Cold War

Tensions

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This is Phil Murray And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION a

VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Today, we tell about the race to explore outer space.

On a cold October day in 1957, the Soviet Union launched a small satellite into orbit around the Earth Radio Moscow made the announcement

RUSSIAN: "The first artificial Earth satellite in the world has now been created This first satellite was today successfully launched in the USSR."

The world's first satellite was called Sputnik One Sputnik was an important propaganda victory for the Soviets in its Cold War with the United States

Many people believed the nation that controlled the skies could win any war And the Soviet Union had reached outer space first

The technology that launched Sputnik probably began in the late 19th century A Russian teacher of that time, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, decided that a rocket engine could provide power for a space vehicle

In the early 1900s, another teacher American Robert Goddard tested the idea He

experimented with small rockets to see how high and how far they could travel In 1923, a Romanian student in Germany, Hermann Oberth, showed how a spaceship might be built and launched to other planets

Rocket technology improved during World War Two It was used to produce bombs

Thousands of people in Britain and Belgium died as a result of two rocket attacks The two rockets were launched from Germany

V-After the war, it became clear that the United States and the Soviet Union allies in wartime would become enemies in peacetime So, both countries employed German scientists to help them win the race to space

The Soviets took the first step by creating Sputnik This satellite was about the size of a basketball It got its power from a rocket It orbited Earth for three months Within weeks, the Soviets launched another satellite into Earth orbit, Sputnik Two It was much bigger and heavier than Sputnik one It also carried a passenger: a dog named Laika Laika orbited Earth for seven days

The United States joined the space race about three months later It launched a satellite from Cape Canaveral, in the southeastern state of Florida This satellite was called Explorer One It weighed about 14 kilograms Explorer One went into a higher orbit than either Sputnik And its instruments made an important discovery They found an area of radiation about nine hundred-sixty kilometers above Earth

The next major space victory belonged to the Soviets They sent the first man into space In April, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched in the vehicle known as Vostok He remained in space for less than two hours He landed safely by parachute near a village in Russia Less than a month later, the United States sent its first astronaut into space He was Alan Shepard Shepard remained in space only about 15 minutes He did not go into Earth orbit That flight came in February, 1962, with John Glenn

By 1965, the United States and the Soviet Union were experimenting to see if humans could survive outside a spacecraft In March, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first

person to do so A special rope connected him to the spacecraft It provided him with oxygen

to breathe And it permitted him to float freely at the other end

After about ten minutes, Leonov had to return to the spacecraft He said he regretted the decision He was having such a good time!

A little more than two months later, an American would walk outside his spacecraft

Astronaut Edward White had a kind of rocket gun This gave him some control of his

movements in space Like Leonov, White was sorry when he had to return to his spacecraft

Later that year, 1965, the United States tried to have one spacecraft get very close to another spacecraft while in orbit This was the first step in getting spacecraft to link, or dock, together.Docking would be necessary to land men on the moon The plan called for a Gemini

spacecraft carrying two astronauts to get close to an unmanned satellite

The attempt failed The target satellite exploded as it separated from its main rocket

America's space agency decided to move forward It would launch the next in its Gemini series Then someone had an idea: why not launch both Geminis The second one could chase the first one, instead of a satellite Again, things did not go as planned

It took two tries to launch the second Gemini By that time, the first one had been in orbit about eleven days Time was running out The astronauts on the second Gemini moved their spacecraft into higher orbits They got closer and closer to the Gemini ahead of them They needed to get within six hundred meters to be considered successful

After all the problems on the ground, the events in space went smoothly The two spacecraft got within one-third of a meter of each other The astronauts had made the operation seem easy

In January, 1959, the Soviets launched a series of unmanned Luna rockets The third of these flights took pictures of the far side of the moon This was the side no one on Earth had ever seen The United States planned to explore the moon with its unmanned Ranger spacecraft.There were a number of failures before Ranger Seven took pictures of the moon These pictures were made from a distance The world did not get pictures from the surface of the moon until the Soviet Luna nine landed there in February, 1966

For the next few years, both the United States and Soviet Union continued their exploration ofthe moon Yet the question remained: which one would be the first to put a man there In December, 1968, the United States launched Apollo eight with three astronauts The flight proved that a spacecraft could orbit the moon and return to Earth safely

The Apollo nine spacecraft had two vehicles One was the command module It could orbit the moon, but could not land on it The other was the lunar module On a flight to the moon, itwould separate from the command module and land on the moon's surface Apollo ten

astronauts unlinked the lunar module and flew it close to the moon's surface

After those flights, everything was ready On July sixteenth, 1969, three American astronauts lifted off in Apollo eleven On the twentieth, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin entered the lunar module, called the Eagle Michael Collins remained in the command module, the Columbia

The two vehicles separated It was a dangerous time The Eagle could crash Or it could fall over after it landed That meant the astronauts would die on the moon.

Millions of people watched on television or listened on the radio They waited for

Armstrong's message: "The Eagle has landed." Then they waited again It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations needed to leave the lunar module

Finally, the door opened Neil Armstrong climbed down first He put one foot on the moon Then, the other foot And then came his words, from so far away:

NEIL ARMSTRONG: "That's one small step for (a) man; one giant leap for mankind."

Armstrong walked around Soon, Aldrin joined him The two men placed an American flag

on the surface of the moon They also collected moon rocks and soil

When it was time to leave, they returned to the Eagle and guided it safely away They reunitedwith the Columbia and headed for home The United States had won the race to the moon

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced

by Paul Thompson This is Rich Kleinfeldt And this is Phil Murray Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Election of 1960 Brings Close Race Between Kennedy, Nixon

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This is Richard Rael And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION a

VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in 1952 By 1960, he had served two terms The twenty-second amendment to the Constitution said he could not be re-elected Eisenhower was hugely popular when he first came to office And his first term was considered

successful

He created a new government agency for education and health care He led a congressional effort to improve the tax system And, under his leadership, a peace treaty ending the Korean War was signed

Eisenhower also met with Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev This began a tradition of meetings between the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union Experts believe these meetings probably helped prevent a nuclear war between the two countries

At the end of Eisenhower's first term, he was still very popular He had suffered a heart attack.But he felt strong enough to campaign again His Democratic Party opponent was Adlai

Stevenson They had been the candidates in the presidential election four years earlier This time, Eisenhower won almost ten million votes more than Stevenson That was an even biggervictory than in 1952.

Eisenhower's second term, however, presented problems The Soviet Union launched the space age by putting the world's first satellite into earth orbit Fidel Castro established a communist government in Cuba Many white Americans were fighting the Supreme Court's decision to end racial separation in schools And the American economy suffered a recession Eisenhower's popularity dropped during his second term This would make it more difficult for the Republican Party's next candidate for president

The delegates who attended the Republican nominating convention in the summer of 1960 feared that the party would lose the election in November They had to find the strongest candidate possible Many believed that Richard Nixon was the strongest

Nixon had been a senator and a member of the House of Representatives He had been

Eisenhower's vice president for eight years When Eisenhower suffered several serious

illnesses, Nixon had a chance to show his abilities to lead the nation He showed great

strength while facing an angry crowd during a trip to South America He also gained support when he defended the United States in an unofficial debate with Khrushchev during a trip to the Soviet Union

Nixon's closest opponent for the Republican nomination was Nelson Rockefeller Rockefeller was governor of New York He came from one of the richest families in America At the convention, Richard Nixon easily won the support of the Republican Party The delegates elected him on the first vote He accepted the nomination And he called for new efforts for peace and freedom around the world

The race for the Democratic nomination was much more difficult He Democratic Party thought it would have no problem winning the presidential election Many candidates entered the competition for the nomination One was Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota

Another was Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts

Humphrey had been elected to the Senate three times He was a strong activist for civil rights, peace, and social improvements Kennedy was a Navy hero in World War Two He was handsome and only forty-three years old He also was a member of the Roman Catholic Church And no catholic had ever been elected president of the United States

Kennedy and Humphrey began to enter local primary elections in different states The

purpose of the primaries is to test voter support for candidates Kennedy won an important primary in the state of Wisconsin However, the Protestant Christian areas of the state did not support him The question then became: Could he win in West Virginia? Most of the voters inthat state were Protestants

On the last night of the primary campaign in West Virginia, Kennedy spoke about his

religion He said the president of the United States promises to defend the Constitution And that, he said, includes the separation of the government from any religion or church

Kennedy won a large victory in West Virginia He then went on to win many votes in other primary elections He received the nomination on the first vote of the Democratic Party convention

In his acceptance speech, he said he would ask Americans to help their country He said he would ask them to sacrifice for their country.

After the party conventions, the two candidates Kennedy and Nixon began to campaign around the nation Nixon charged that Kennedy was too young to be president He said Kennedy did not know enough about governing Kennedy attacked the Republican record of the past eight years He said president Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon had not done enough to bring progress to the nation

Protestant groups expressed concerns about Kennedy's religion They wondered if he would

be influenced by the Pope They asked if the leader of the Roman Catholic Church would try

to make policy for the United States Kennedy answered by repeating his strong support for the constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state

Public opinion studies showed the election campaign to be very, very close Then, the

candidates agreed to hold four debates The debates would be broadcast on television

In the first debate, they showed they did not differ too widely on major issues Kennedy, however, appeared calm and sure Nixon, who did not feel well, appeared thin and tired Many people who had not considered voting for Kennedy now began to change their minds

To them, he looked like a president

In the fourth debate, they expressed widely different opinions about whether the United Stateswas making progress Kennedy believed there had been little progress under Eisenhower and Nixon He said:

KENNEDY: "Franklin Roosevelt said in 1936 that that generation of Americans had a

rendezvous with destiny I believe in nineteen sixty and sixty-one and two and three, we have

a rendezvous with destiny And I believe it incumbent upon us to be defenders of the United States and the defenders of freedom And to do that, we must give this country leadership And we must get America moving again."

Nixon disagreed sharply He believed the United States had not been standing still Yet he believed it could not rest, either He said:

NIXON: "It is essential with the conflict that we have around the world that we not just hold our own, that we not keep just freedom for ourselves It is essential that we extend freedom, extend it to all the world And this means more than what we've been doing It means keeping America even stronger militarily than she is It means seeing that our economy moves forwardeven faster than it has It means making more progress in civil rights than we have, so that we can be a splendid example for all the world to see."

Another issue of the 1960 presidential debates was the Chinese attack on the islands of

Quemoy and Matsu in the Formosa [Taiwan] Strait Another was how to deal with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev Most people seemed to feel that Kennedy won the first debate Experts thought Nixon probably won the second one And both men did about the same in thelast two

After the debates, the presidential candidates campaigned around the country again Nixon proposed a trip to Eastern Europe and a meeting with Khrushchev, if he were elected

Kennedy proposed what he called a Peace Corps The Peace Corps would be a program to send Americans to developing countries to provide technical aid and other help

On Election Day in November, the voters chose John Kennedy His victory, however, was a close one Almost sixty-nine million people voted He won by fewer than one hundred twenty thousand votes The United States now had its thirty-fifth president He was the youngest and the first Roman Catholic The beginning of John Kennedy's administration will be our story next week.

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced

by Paul Thompson This is Doug Johnson And this is Richard Rael Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Kennedy Begins His Presidency With

Strong Public Support

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This is Rich Kleinfeldt And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION a

VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Our program today is about the beginning of the administration of President John Kennedy.January twentieth, 1961 John Kennedy was to be sworn-in that day as president of the UnitedStates

It had snowed heavily the night before Few cars were in the streets of Washington Yet, somehow, people got to the ceremony at the Capitol building

The outgoing president, Dwight Eisenhower, was seventy years old John Kennedy was just forty-three He was the first American president born in the twentieth century

Both Eisenhower and Kennedy served in the military in World War Two Eisenhower served

at the top He was commander of allied forces in Europe Kennedy was one of many young navy officers in the pacific battle area

Eisenhower was a hero of the war and was an extremely popular man Kennedy was

extremely popular, too, especially among young people He was a fresh face in American politics To millions of Americans, he represented a chance for a new beginning

Not everyone liked John Kennedy, however Many people thought he was too young to be president Many opposed him because he belonged to the Roman Catholic Church A majority

of Christians in America were Protestant There had never been a Roman Catholic president

of the United States John Kennedy would be the first

Dwight Eisenhower served two terms during the 1950s That was the limit for American presidents His vice president, Richard Nixon, ran against Kennedy in the election of 1960

Many Americans supported Nixon They believed he was a stronger opponent of communism than Kennedy Some also feared that Kennedy might give more consideration to the needs of black Americans than to white Americans.

The election of 1960 was one of the closest in American history Kennedy defeated Nixon by fewer than one hundred-twenty thousand popular votes Now, he would be sworn-in as the nation's thirty-fifth president

One of the speakers at the ceremony was Robert Frost He was perhaps America's most popular poet at the time Robert Frost planned to read from a long work he wrote especially for the ceremony But he was unable to read much of it The bright winter sun shone

blindingly on the snow The cold winter wind blew the paper in his old hands

John Kennedy stood to help him Still, the poet could not continue Those in the crowd felt concerned for the eighty-six-year-old man Suddenly, he stopped trying to say his special poem Instead, he began to say the words of another one, one he knew from memory It was called "The Gift Outright."

Here is part of that poem by Robert Frost, read by Stan Busby:

The land was ours before we were the land's

She was our land more than a hundred years before we were her people

Something we were withholding made us weak

Until we found out that it was ourselves

We were withholding from our land of living

Such as we were we gave ourselves outright

Soon it was time for the new president to speak People watching on television could see his icy breath as he stood He was not wearing a warm coat His head was uncovered

Kennedy's speech would, one day, be judged to be among the best in American history The time of his inauguration was a time of tension and fear about nuclear weapons The United States had nuclear weapons Its main political enemy, the Soviet Union, had them, too If hostilities broke out, would such terrible weapons be used?

Kennedy spoke about the issue He warned of the danger of what he called "the deadly atom."

He said the United States and communist nations should make serious proposals for the inspection and control of nuclear weapons He urged both sides to explore the good in

science, instead of its terrors

KENNEDY: "Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce Let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved."

Kennedy also spoke about a torch a light of leadership being passed from older Americans

to younger Americans He urged the young to take the torch and accept responsibility for the future He also urged other countries to work with the United States to create a better world

JOHN KENNEDY: "The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it and the glow from that fire can truly light the world And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can

do for your country My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

John Kennedy's first one hundred days as president were busy ones

He was in office less than two weeks when the Soviet Union freed two American airmen TheSoviets had shot down their spy plane over the Bering Sea About sixty million people

watched as Kennedy announced the airmen's release It was the first presidential news

conference broadcast live on television in the United States Kennedy welcomed the release as

a step toward better relations with the Soviet Union

The next month, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev made another move toward better relations

He sent Kennedy a message The message said that disarmament would be a great joy for all people on earth

A few weeks later, President Kennedy announced the creation of the Peace Corps He had talked about this program during the election campaign The Peace Corps would send

thousands of Americans to developing countries to provide technical help

Another program, the alliance for progress, was announced soon after the peace corps was created The purpose of the alliance for progress was to provide economic aid to Latin

American nations for ten years

The space program was another thing Kennedy had talked about during the election

campaign He believed the United States should continue to explore outer space

The Soviet Union had gotten there first It launched the world's first satellite in 1957 Then, inApril, 1961, the Soviet Union sent the first manned spacecraft into orbit around the earth

The worst failure of Kennedy's administration came that same month On April seventeenth, more than one thousand Cuban exiles landed on a beach in western Cuba They had received training and equipment from the United States Central Intelligence Agency They were to lead

a revolution to overthrow the communist government of Cuba The place where they landed was called Bahia de Cochinos the Bay of Pigs

The plan failed Most of the exiles were killed or captured by the Cuban army

It had not been President Kennedy's idea to start a revolution against Cuban leader Fidel Castro Officials in the last administration had planned it However, most of Kennedy's advisers supported the idea And he approved it

In public, the president said he was responsible for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion In private, he said, "All my life I have known better than to depend on the experts How could I have been so stupid."

John Kennedy's popularity was badly damaged by what happened in Cuba His next months

in office would be a struggle to regain the support of the people That will be our story next week

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced

by Paul Thompson This is Phil Murray And this is Rich Kleinfeldt Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

The Presidency of John Kennedy Begins

With Great Energy, but Ends in Tragedy

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This is Rich Kleinfeldt And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION a

VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Today, we continue the story of President John Kennedy

John Kennedy began his administration in 1961 with great energy to do good things After just three months in office, however, he had to take responsibility for a big failure

On April seventeenth, Cuban exiles, trained by America's Central Intelligence Agency, invaded Cuba Their goal was to overthrow Cuba's communist leader, Fidel Castro Most of the exiles were killed or captured

The last administration had planned the invasion But Kennedy had approved it After the incident, some Americans wondered if he had enough experience to lead the nation Some asked themselves if the forty-three-year-old Kennedy was too young to be president, after all

Kennedy soon regained some public approval when he visited French leader General Charles

de Gaulle The French were very interested in the new American president They were even more interested in his beautiful wife The president said with a laugh that he was the man whohad come to Paris with Jacqueline Kennedy

In Vienna, Kennedy met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev Their relations would always

be difficult

Khrushchev did not want to compromise on any issue He threatened to have the East

Germans block all movement into and out of the western part of the city of Berlin

Not long after, the East Germans, with Soviet support, built a wall to separate the eastern and western parts of the city President Kennedy quickly announced a large increase in the number

of American military forces in Germany He said the United States would not permit freedom

to end in Berlin

About a year later, in October, 1962, President Kennedy said the United States had discoveredthat the Soviets were putting nuclear missiles in Cuba He took several actions to protest the deployment.

One was to send American ships to the area They were to prevent Soviet ships from taking missile parts and related supplies to the Cuban government In a speech broadcast on

television, Kennedy spoke about the seriousness of the situation

JOHN KENNEDY: "It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile

launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States."

No fighting broke out between the United States and the Soviet Union because of the Cuban missile crisis The Soviet ships carrying missile parts to Cuba turned back And President Kennedy promised that the United States would not invade Cuba if the Soviet Union removedits missiles and stopped building new ones there

The two sides did, however, continue their cold war of words and influence

In Asia, the Soviet Union continued to provide military, economic, and technical aid to communist governments The Kennedy administration fought communism in Vietnam by increasing the number of American military advisers there

The United States and the Soviet Union did make some progress on arms control, however In

1963, the two countries reached a major agreement to ban tests of nuclear weapons above ground, under water, and in space The treaty did not ban nuclear tests under the ground

On national issues, President Kennedy supported efforts to guarantee a better life for Americans One man who pushed for changes was his younger brother, Robert Robert Kennedy was attorney general and head of the Justice Department at that time

African-The Justice Department took legal action against Southern states that violated the voting rights acts of 1957 and 1960 The administration also supported a voter registration campaign among African-Americans The campaign helped them to record their names with election officials so they could vote

As attorney general, Robert Kennedy repeatedly called on National Guard troops to protect black citizens from crowds of angry white citizens Incidents took place when blacks tried to register to vote and when they tried to attend white schools

President Kennedy said the situation was causing a moral crisis in America He decided it wastime to propose a new civil rights law The measure would guarantee equal treatment for blacks in public places and in jobs It would speed the work of ending racial separation in schools

Kennedy wanted the new legislation badly But Congress delayed action It did not pass a broad civil rights bill until 1964, after his presidency

In November, 1963, Kennedy left Washington for the state of Texas He hoped to help settle alocal dispute in his Democratic Party The dispute might have affected chances for his re-election in 1964

He arrived in the city of Dallas in the late morning of November twenty-second Dallas was known to be a center of opposition to Kennedy Yet many people waited to see him.

A parade of cars traveled through the streets of Dallas Kennedy and his wife were in the backseat of one Their car had no top, so everyone could see them easily Another car filled with Secret Service security agents was next to the president's

Suddenly, there were gunshots Then, many Americans heard this emergency report from television newsman Walter Cronkite:

WALTER CRONKITE: "Here is a bulletin from CBS news In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting."

The cars raced to Parkland Memorial Hospital But doctors there could do little Thirty minutes later reporters, including Walter Cronkite, broadcast this announcement:

WALTER CRONKITE: "From Dallas, Texas the flash apparently official President Kennedy died at one p.m., Central Standard Time "

As the nation mourned, police searched for the person who had killed John Kennedy They arrested a man named Lee Harvey Oswald Oswald worked in a building near the place whereKennedy had been shot People had seen him leave the building after the shooting He had a gun

Lee Harvey Oswald was a man with a strange past He was a former United States Marine Hewas also a communist He had lived for a while in the Soviet Union and had tried to become aSoviet citizen He worked for a committee that supported the communist government in Cuba

Police questioned Oswald about the death of president Kennedy He said he did not do it After two days, officials decided to move him to a different jail

As they did, television cameras recorded the death of Lee Harvey Oswald Oswald was being led by two police officials Suddenly, a man stepped in front of them There was a shot, and Oswald fell to the floor

The gunman was Jack Ruby He owned an eating and drinking place in Dallas He said he killed Oswald to prevent the Kennedy family from having to live through a trial

President Kennedy's body had been returned to Washington After a state funeral, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River A gas flame burns at his burial place, day and night

An official committee was formed to investigate his death It was headed by the chief justice

of the United States, earl Warren, and was known as the Warren commission In its report, theWarren commission said that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone It said there was no plot to kill the president

Many Americans did not accept the report They believed there was a plot Some blamed Cuban leader Fidel Castro Some blamed extremists in America's Central Intelligence

Agency Others blamed organized crime

The truth of what happened to John Kennedy may be what was stated in the Warren

Commission report: that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone Or, perhaps, the complete truth maynever be known

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced

by Paul Thompson This is Rich Kleinfeldt

And this Stan Busby Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Johnson Takes Over Presidency After

Kennedy's Murder

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This is Phil Murray And this is Richard Rael with THE MAKING OF A NATION a

VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Today, we begin the story of President Lyndon Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson became America's thirty-sixth president very suddenly It happened

on November 22, 1963 On that day, President John Kennedy was murdered

Kennedy and Johnson his vice president were visiting Dallas, Texas Kennedy was shot

to death as his open car drove through the streets of the city Within a few hours, Johnson wassworn in as president on a plane that would take him back to Washington The new president said, "I will do my best That is all I can do I ask for your help, and God's."

Before being elected vice president, Lyndon Johnson had served for many years in both the Senate and the House of Representatives He liked making decisions And he loved politics

He grew up in small towns in Texas After completing high school, he traveled and worked for a while He said he was afraid of more studying But after a few years, he entered

southwest Texas State Teachers College There he was a student leader and political activist.Johnson went to Washington as secretary to a congressman in 1931 Four years later,

President Franklin Roosevelt named him to a leadership position in a national social program for young people Two years after that, he decided to campaign for a seat in the House of Representatives

When World War Two began, Johnson was the first member of Congress to join the armed forces

He served in the House for twelve years After the war, he campaigned for the Senate, where

he also served for twelve years As a senator, he became an expert in the operation of

government

Lyndon Johnson would need all of this knowledge as president On the day he was sworn in, American faced serious problems Communist forces in Vietnam were fighting troops

supported by the United States There was a continuing possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union At home, there was racial conflict Many Americans did not have jobs And there was a threat of a major railroad strike

President Johnson began his White House days by working hard for legislation President Kennedy had proposed Although he had voted against civil rights legislation when he served

in the Senate, he now urged Congress to pass a civil rights bill Congress did

The 1964 Civil Rights Act was a law to help guarantee equal chances for jobs for all

Americans It also helped guarantee equal treatment for minorities in stores, eating places, andother businesses

When Johnson signed the bill, he said:

JOHNSON: "We believe that all men are created equal Yet many are denied equal treatment

We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights Yet many Americans do not enjoy those rights We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty Yet millions are being deprived of those blessings not because of their own failures but because of the color of their skin."

The president said that such a situation could not continue in America To treat people

unfairly because of their race, he said, violated the Constitution, the idea of democracy, and the law he was about to sign

Lyndon Johnson succeeded in getting Congress to pass more civil rights legislation in 1965 and 1968 The 1965 bill said states could not prevent citizens from voting just because they did not do well on reading or other tests The purpose of the law was to make sure all black Americans could vote

The civil rights law of 1968 dealt with housing For many years, black Americans could not get the home they wanted in the place they wanted Many times, property companies forced them to pay a lot for poor housing The purpose of the bill was to guarantee free choice and fair treatment in the housing market

Political experts said president Johnson succeeded with Congress in a way that President Kennedy could never have equaled Because Johnson was from the South, he could talk easilywith Southern members of Congress He was able to get them to agree that African

Americans were treated unfairly In addition, his own years in Congress had taught him how

to get people to do what he wanted

President Johnson gave a name to his dream of a better America He called it the "Great Society " He spoke about it in a speech at the University of Michigan:

JOHNSON: "The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time But that is just the beginning The great society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents "

The Great Society was both an idea and a goal To reach that goal, Johnson created several government programs One was the "war on poverty " The war on poverty was a series of bills to help poor people It was designed to create new jobs and build the economy.

Congress did not approve a large amount of money for the war on poverty But it did strongly support the president's early proposals Support dropped, however, when Congress said the nation could not pay for both social programs at home and a war overseas

Vietnam was not the only place where Johnson used American troops to fight communism

He would send about twenty thousand soldiers to the Dominican Republic, too He feared that

a rebellion there would lead to a communist takeover of the country

Lyndon Johnson served the last 14 months of John Kennedy's term In 1964, he campaigned for election to a full term of his own His Democratic Party gave him the strongest support possible It accepted his choice of Hubert Humphrey to be the party's candidate for vice president Humphrey was a liberal senator from the state of Minnesota

Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans had a difficult time choosing their candidates for the election Delegates to the party's national convention finally chose Barry Goldwater to be their candidate for president Goldwater was a strongly conservative senator from the state of Arizona The delegates chose William Miller, a congressman from New York State, to be their candidate for vice president

The nation voted in November, 1964 Lyndon Johnson won more than sixty percent of the popular votes Strangely, however, he was not pleased He had wanted the largest victory in American history He had wanted proof that Americans were voting for him, and not for the shadow of John Kennedy

In his inaugural speech, Johnson talked of changes He said his Great Society was never finished It was always growing and improving To Johnson, this meant passing a health care plan for older Americans It meant appointing blacks to important national positions

He succeeded in these goals and more during the next four years Congress passed the Medicare bill to provide health care for older people And Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to be the first black justice to the Supreme Court

As Johnson went back to work in the White House, however, a huge problem awaited him Americans were fighting to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia More and more were being killed The war in Vietnam would become extremely unpopular among American citizens It would destroy Johnson's chances of being remembered as a great president

That will be our story next week

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced

by Paul Thompson This is Richard Rael And this is Phil Murray Join us again next week foranother VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Johnson Wins a Full Term in 1964, Defends Vietnam Policies

Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.)

This is Doug Johnson And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION a

VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Today, we continue the story of America's thirty-sixth president, Lyndon Johnson

After John Kennedy was murdered, Vice President Lyndon Johnson served the last 14 months

of Kennedy's term He then was elected to his own full term It began in January, 1965 Much

of his time and energy would be taken up by the war in Vietnam

By early 1964, America had about seventeen thousand troops in Vietnam The troops were there to advise and train the South Vietnamese military

Vietnam had gained its independence from France in 1954 The country was divided into North and South The North had a Communist government led by Ho Chi Minh The South had an anti-Communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem

In 1957, Communist rebels Vietcong began a campaign of terrorism in South Vietnam They were supported by the government of North Vietnam and later by North Vietnamese troops Their goal was to overthrow the anti-Communist government in the South

President Johnson believed that the United States had to support South Vietnam Many other Americans agreed They believed that without American help, South Vietnam would become Communist Then, all of Southeast Asia would become Communist, too

As Johnson's term began, his military advisers told him the Communists were losing the war They told him that North Vietnamese troops and Vietcong forces would soon stop fighting

On February sixth, however, the Vietcong attacked American camps at Pleiku and Qui Phon The Johnson administration immediately ordered air attacks against military targets in the North

Some observers in the United States questioned the administration's policy For example, a leading newspaper writer, James Reston, said President Johnson was carrying out an

undeclared and unexplained war in Vietnam

Johnson defended his policies He said withdrawal would not bring an end to the conflict He said the battle would continue in one country, and then another

In March, 1965, the first American ground troops arrived in South Vietnam Congress

supported the president's actions at that time However, the number of Americans who

opposed the war began to grow These people said the war was a civil war They said the United States had no right, or reason, to intervene

For six days in May, the United States halted air attacks on North Vietnam The

administration hoped this would help get the North Vietnamese government to begin

Writer James Reston commented that the anti-war demonstrations were not helping to bring peace to Vietnam He said they were postponing it He believed the demonstrations would make Ho Chi Minh think America did not support its troops And that, he said, would make president Ho continue the war

In December, 1965, the United States again halted air attacks against North Vietnam Again,

it invited the North Vietnamese government to negotiate an end to the fighting And again, theNorth refused

Ho Chi Minh's conditions for peace were firm He demanded an end to the bombing and a complete American withdrawal

Withdrawal would mean defeat for the South It would mean that all of Vietnam would become Communist President Johnson would not accept these terms So he offered his own proposals The most important was an immediate ceasefire Neither side would compromise, however And the fighting went on

In 1966, President Johnson renewed the bombing attacks in North Vietnam He also increasedthe number of American troops in South Vietnam He condemned those who opposed his policies He said: "The American people will stand united until every soldier is brought home safely They will stand united until the people of South Vietnam can choose their own

government."

Local and state elections were held in the United States that year The war in Vietnam had an effect on those elections The opposition Republican Party generally supported the president's war efforts Yet it criticized him and other Democrats for economic problems linked to the war

The war cost 2,000 million dollars every month The price of many goods in the United Statesbegan to rise The value of the dollar began to drop The result was inflation Then economic activity slowed, and the result was recession

To answer the criticism, administration officials said progress was being made in Vietnam But some Americans began to suspect that the government was not telling the truth about the war

Several news writers, for example, said the number of enemy soldiers killed was much lower than the government reported Opposition to the war and to the administration's war policies led to bigger and bigger anti-war demonstrations

Studies were done to measure Americans' opinion on the issue In a study in July, 1967, a little more than half the people questioned said they did not approve of the president's

policies Yet most Americans believed he would run again for president the next year

Johnson strongly defended the use of American soldiers in Vietnam In a speech to a group of lawmakers he said: "Since World War Two, this nation has met and has mastered many challenges challenges in Greece and Turkey, in Berlin, in Korea, in Cuba We met them because brave men were willing to risk their lives for their nation's security And braver men have never lived than those who carry our colors in Vietnam this very hour."

Then came Tet the Vietnamese lunar new year in January 1968 The Communists

launched a major military campaign They attacked thirty-one of the 44 provinces of South Vietnam They even struck at the American embassy in the capital, Saigon

Fifty thousand Communist soldiers were killed during the Tet offensive 14,000 South

Vietnamese soldiers were killed And 2,000 American soldiers were killed Thousands of Vietnamese civilians were killed, too

Many Americans were surprised, even shocked, that the Communists could launch such a major attack against South Vietnam For several years, they had been told that Communist forces were small and were losing badly As a result, popular support for the administration fell even more

Democrats who opposed President Johnson seized this chance Several ran against him in the primary elections held before the party's presidential nominating convention These included Senator Robert Kennedy of New York and Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota Kennedyand McCarthy did well in the early primary elections Johnson did poorly

At the end of March, 1968, the president spoke to the American people on television He told

of his proposal to end American bombing of North Vietnam He told of the appointment of a special ambassador to start peace negotiations And he told of his decision about his own future:

LYNDON JOHNSON: "I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office the presidency of your country Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the

nomination of my party for another term as your president."

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced

by Paul Thompson This is Phil Murray And this is Doug Johnson Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Civil Rights Movement: In the '60s, a

Struggle for Equality in US

Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.)

This is Richard Rael And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION a

VOA Special English program about the history of the United States

Today, we tell about the movement for civil rights for black Americans

The day is August twenty-eighth, 1963 More than two hundred fifty-thousand people are gathered in Washington Black and white, young and old, they demand equal treatment for black Americans The nation's most famous civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, is

of the war, slavery had been declared unconstitutional But that was only the first step in the struggle for equality

Most people of color could not get good jobs They could not get good housing They had far less chance of a good education than white Americans For about one hundred years, blacks made slow gains Widespread activism for civil rights did not really begin until after World War Two During the war, black Americans earned respect as members of the armed forces When they came home, many demanded that their civil rights be respected, too An

organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, led the way

In 1951, the organization sent its lawyers to help a man in the city of Topeka, Kansas The man, Oliver Brown, and twelve others had brought legal action against the city They wanted

to end racial separation in their children's schools At that time, two of every five public schools in America had all white students or all black students The law said all public schoolsmust be equal, but they were not Schools for white children were almost always better than schools for black children The situation was worst in Southern states

The case against the city of Topeka Brown versus the Board of Education was finally settled by the nation's highest court In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black children were not equal to schools for white children The next year, it said public schools must accept children of all races as quickly as possible

In September 1957, a black girl tried to enter an all-white school in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas An angry crowd screamed at her State guards blocked her way The guards had been sent by the state governor, Orville Faubus After three weeks, a federal court ordered Governor Faubus to remove the guards The girl, Elizabeth Eckford, and seven other black students were able to enter the school After one day, however, riots forced the black students

to leave

President Dwight Eisenhower ordered federal troops to Little Rock They helped black

students get into the white school safely However, angry white citizens closed all the city's public schools The schools stayed closed for two years

In 1962, a black student named James Meredith tried to attend the University of Mississippi School officials refused John Kennedy, the president at that time, sent federal law officers to