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The US increased in influence. In the early 1900s, William McKinley was assasinated, Theodore Roosevelt became President and was vigorous in pursuing international relations, and the airplane was invented. In the late 1900s, the plastics industry began, Ford began making his famous "Model T", and US steel industry led the world. Roosevelt was succeeded by Taft as President. In the early 1910s, there were numerous other inventions. Motion pictures becam popular. In government, Roosevelt ran against Taft, but only succeeded in splitting the Republican party, and Woodrow Wilson won the election. The US provided for direct election of Senators, an income tax, and created the Federal Reserve system. When World War I began, the United States was slow to get involved. In the late 1910s, there was some trouble associated with the Mexican Revolution, and US troops were sent into Mexico, without success. Wilson won reeelection in 1916 with the slogan "he kept us out of war", but in 1916, the US entered the war. The entry of fresh troops proved decisive for the Allies and the war soon ended. Wilson's attempt to ensure the peace would be settled according to his terms offended the Europeans and the armistice rejected was by the US Senate. The Leage of Nations was created, but the US did not join.
The early mid 20th century was divided between two contrasting decades, the "Roaring twenties" and the Great Depression. In the early 1920s, numerous figures in various forms of culture bacame prominent. The US imposed Prohibition (a ban on sales of alcohol) as an amendment to the Constitution, but enforement was lax and criminal activty became rampant. Warren G. Harding was elected President, followed by Calvin Coolidge. In international affairs, it was isolationist. In the late 1920s, various forms of culture continued to flourish. Calvin Cooiidge was followed by Herbert Hoover. In 1929, however, a bubble of speculation in stocks burst and the economy crashed, plunging the country into the Great Depression. In the early 1930s, a high tafiff (tax on imported goods) was enacted, which only made matters worse. (1932) Roosevelt was elected as US President and began establishment of numerous welfare and relief programs to combat the depression. Prohibition was repealed. In the late 1930s, the US remained preoccupied with the Depression and isolationist, though Roosevelt was concerned with the growing military threats of Japan and Germany, and offered generous financial and material assistance to Britain when World War II began, which did more than all the economic progrms to end the Great Depression
In the mid 20th century, it came to be recognized as one of the world's two superpowers.
In the early 1940s, it entered into World War II late,on the side of the Allies, after being attacked by Japan in December 1941, and was closely involved in the surrender of both Germany and Japan.
c. 1938 - 1945. World War II. Germany under the rule of Hitler and Japan attempt military conquest of Europe and Asia. England led by Churchill, the United States led by Roosevelt, and Russia (the USSR) under Stalin are the chief opponents and combine to defeat Germany and Japan.
c. 1938 - c. 1945 Physicists including Einstein warn the United States government of the possibility that Germany could develop nuclear weaponry. Fermi heads the Manhattan project which demonstrates controlled nuclear fission and develops an atomic bomb.
In the late 1940s, it was involved in creation of the United Nations and promoted the various decolonization movements that took place.
c. 1945 - 1953 Stalin establishes USSR as a major world power, and begins a largely ideological struggle with the United States and allies known as the "Cold War".
In the early 1950s under Presidents Truman and later Eisenhower (elected 1952), it was involved in the Korean war, helping secure the independence of South Korea from Communist rule. A cease-fire was arranged in 1953.
c. 1950s Korean War. Korea is divided into Communist and non-Communist parts. A Chinese-backed attempt to forcibly unify the country was resisted largely by the United States.
In the late 1950s, it was at its most vigorously anti-Communist. Eisenhower was President of the US, succeeded by John F. Kennedy.
The history of the United States in the late-mid 20th century has been eventful. In the early 1960s, it was involved in the Cold War, which nearly came to nuclear warfare in the Cuban Missile crisis. In about 1962, The United States began to send military aid and US troops to the aid of South Vietnam in its struggle against the Communist-ruled North Vietnam. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, succeeded by his Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
c. 1960 - 1963. Kennedy was elected US President, and led the US in various Cold War incidents and conflicts.
In the late 1960s, a civil rights movement with some civil unrest, resistance to the draft and the Vienam war, and other institutions of society was taking place, and Richard M. Nixon was elected president. In the early 1970s, Nixon negotiated an end to US involvement in the Vietnam war and made a major shift in US policy toward China, and announced a policy of "detente", or peaceful coexistence with the USSR. but was forced to resign as a result of the Watergate scandals, and was succeeded by his appointed vice president, Gerald Ford. I do not yet have details of 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, or 1975. In the late 1970s, Jimmy Carter was elected president, and began withdrawing support from US allies that had opposed Communism but were highly authoritarian. An Islamic revolution in Iran was among the most unfavorable outcomes of this new policy. I do not yet have many details of 1976, 1977, 1978, or 1979. In 1980 Reagan was elected as 40th US President.
The United States continued to go through significant social and political changes in the late 20th century.
The early 1980s are known principally as the Reagan years. In 1981, Reagan began a program of budget reform. Taxes were cut Military spending was significantly increased and many social programs had funding cuts, but the major entitlement programs were not cut. He also adotped a hard line against the USSR and sent military aid to anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan. In 1982 there was an economic recession. The government resorted to borrowing from foreign sources, and the US became a net debtor nation. The US supported Israel in an unsuccessful attempt to remove the PLO from Lebanon. He also supported movements in Central America in opposition to communist-backed revolutionary governments. The Democratic Party gained substantially in mid-term Congressional elections, and ipposition to Reagan grew. In 1983, the US attempted to intervene in the Lebanese civil war, but withdrew after a barracks was bombed. It invaded the island of Grenada to establish a democratic government after a reformist government proclaimed its affiliation with Cuba. In 1984 Reagan was re-elected as US President. In 1985, the Iran-contra affair, in which funds from arms sales to Iran in an usuccessful attempt to free US hostages in Lebanon were illegally diverted to the "Contras" in Nicaragua, for which Congress had cut off support.
In the late 1980s reform movements in the USSR began to signal an end to the Cold War. In 1986, President Reagan began to relax his opposition to the USSR, as the younger Mihkail Gorbachev began to enact reforms. In 1987, relations began to improve and an Intermediate Nuclear Forces arms limitation treaty was signed with the USSR. In 1988, George H.W. Bush, who had been Reagan's Vice president, was elected as 41st US President. In 1989, there was a series of governmental collapses in Communist -dominated Eastern European nations. The Berlin Wall, an important symbol of the Cold War, was torn down. The liberalization movement this promped in China, however, was supressed. In 1990, when Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait, President Bush organized and led a multinational coalition of forces to expel him.
In the early 1990s, the Cold War came to an end, and the United States turned largely to internal matters. In 1991, the ground phase of the Persian Gulf war (Also known as Operation Desert Storm, and the Kuwait liberation war) was a military victory for the US. The formal dissolution of the USSR at the end of the year is considered to mark the end of the Cold War. In 1992 Bill Clinton was elected as 42nd President of the United States. In 1993, Clinton stirred controversy by announging that he would permit openly declared homosexuals to serve in the US military. In 1994, he proposed a national health care plan, which was not adopted, and the Republican party gained a majority in Congress for the first time in some 40 years. In 1995, a botched raid on the headquarters of the Branch Davidian cult in Texas, and the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma city, gathered national attention.
A few events of the late 1990s are identified. In 1996 Bill Clinton was elected for a second term as President of the United States. In 1997, the US reported a good economy and low unemployment, and a balanced national budget for the year. In 1998 US President Bill Clinton was impeached in the Lewinsky scandal, and threatened warfare with Iraq for concealing weaponry and violating restrictions on its military activity. In 1999, the impeachment trial ended with his acquittal, and the United States participated with NATO in air strikes in Yugoslavia during the Kosovo conflict. In 2000 George W. Bush was elected President of US by an extremely narrow margin
Events of the early 21st century are too recent for adequate historical perspective, but some facts can be determined. The early 2000s, late 2000s, and early 2010s can be connected.