Significance of the USA in the 20th Century Essays -

Significance of the USA in the 20th Century The United States of America has been an influential superpower since the beginning of the 20th Century. They lead the world in education, aviation, medicine, and economic prosperity. Throughout the 20th century their role would shift from a more passive, isolated stance, to an aggressive, almost warmongering one. Before WWI the USA was referred to as the "sleeping giant" by many European nations. This was because the USA practiced a system of isolationism, taking care of all it's needs locally, and only sparingly trading with it's neighbors. That started to change when the US answered the call of war, and sent troops to support the Allies. Even though the American people didn't like the idea of fighting a European war, the support of the US did tilt the war in favour of the Allies. After the war ended, the US went back to it's old ways of isolationism, albeit with more contact to the rest of the world. Since the US was fighting so far away from home, it didn't take that hard of a hit on its resources, and because of that, the she flourished as the rest of the world was rebuilding. When charming man with a moustache (Adolf Hitler) decided to expand Germany's borders under a totalitarian regime, the world went to war once more. As they did with the first world war, the USA decided not to send troops to fight in Europe. All they did was offer financial aid to those affected by the war. That was until Pearl Harbour (1941). After the Japanese bombed the American fleet at Pearl Harbour, the people of the USA decided enough was enough. They sent troops to both fight the Japanese on the Pacific, and help the Allies get the German army back into Germany. With the help from the US, the Allies won WWII, and America looked amazing again. After Adolf Hitler died and the war ended, the focus turned on to the communist land of the USSR. America, being the extremely capitalist nation they are, naturally didn't like communism or those who practised it. The Cold War (1947-1991) was when America started going downhill. The US government didn't like how fast communism was spreading over in Europe, and did everything outside of starting a war to stop it. In this time US's media was flooded with pro American propaganda. Tensions only rose between the US and the USSR with events like the Cuban Missile Crisis, where America almost did start a war with Cuba, due to Russian missiles given to them by the USSR. In the end, Russia took its missiles back, and a war didn't break out, not for a lack of trying though. As the years progressed, and communism became more popular in Asia, the US set their sights on Vietnam. They had sent military advisors to South Vietnam to train the local forces. However the government eventually gave the order to deploy active combat units in order to fight the Vietcong and the NVA. The Vietnam war was the first time that America wasn't doing so hot in a war. The enemy was hard to distinguish, and knew the terrain better than the American forces. Because of this, there was unbelieveably low morale, and shockingly high levels of PTSD. Eventually the Americans evacuated all their ground forces, and just stuck to launching strikes from the air, with extremely limited success. After a while the Vietcong and NVA took over South Vietnam and the Americans had lost the war. This was a sort of wake up call for the US, reminding them that they can still lose a war. Over history the US has always had a spotlight on it. They were innovators in business and science, and had a culture revolving around the production of consumer goods. In the first half of the 20th century, they were the ones who started to throw away restricting traditions and start fully embracing the idea of freedom and prosperity. The US has seen many civil rights movements, such as the women's suffrage movement, to black rights movements. They're a good example of a nation which accepts change based on