Regional Studies Übung USA, Homework for Week 14

Thanks for your great contributions on the topic of the inauguration today. I really enjoyed the multifaceted and fruitful discussion.

In preparation for next week, please have a look at this brief timeline of US-Iranian relations: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-24316661

And complete the following study questions for Chapter 24: The Clinton Presidency:
1. What were the effects of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 and out of what context did it emerge?
2. (pgs. 650-651) Assess Zinn's analysis of the term "big government".
3. (pgs. 660-661) What was Bill Clinton's strategy in the war in Kosovo?

Nixon's "great silent majority" speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ZO-niTg18
Luz Long's letter to Jesse Owens: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2016/08/tell-him-about-his-father.html
Nice clip by NDR on their friendship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DhhmroflsU

Useful dates:

•       Reconstruction ends in 1877

–      1865: „40 acres and a mule“

–      contentious 1876 election Hayes (Republicans) vs. Samuel Tilden (Democrats)

–      Electoral Count Act of 1877: special recount committee established

–      Compromise of 1877: Democrats accept Tilden‘s defeat, complete withdrawal of federal troops from South

–      Post-1877: rise of Jim Crow 

Civil Rights Act (1960, Eisenhower): penalties for those who obstruct another‘s right to vote

Civil Rights Act (1964, Lyndon B. Johnson): outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin

Voting Rights Act (1965, LBJ): outlaws discriminatory practices such as literacy test

•       1964: Gulf of Tonkin and escalation

•       Late Jan. 1968: Tet Offensive

•       March 1968: Johnson announces he will not seek reelection

•       July 1968: Nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed

•       1968: My Lai massacre

•       1969: Nixon delivers “silent majority” speech

•       1969-1972: draft lottery for men registered with selective service

April 1971: Vietnam Veterans Against the War March on Washington

June 1972: Watergate break-in

December 1972: peace talks between US and North Vietnam fail

1973: Roe vs. Wade

August 1974: Nixon resigns

April 30, 1975: NVA tanks enter Presidential Palace Gate in Saigon ending war

1970: first “Earth Day”, Nixon establishes EPA

1972: Apollo 17 full view photograph of Earth from space; EPA bans DDT

1980: Superfund program established by Congress to clean up toxic waste sites

1984: Green Party of United States founded

1987: US signs Montreal Protocol

1997: Kyoto Protocol, US agrees to reduce emissions by 7%

2005: Kyoto Protocol is ratified by 141 nations, but not US

2006: Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth