TAKING SIDES: Clashing Views in United States History Since 1945, Third Edition
UNIT 1 AMERICAN HIGH: 1945-1962
Issue 1. Was It Necessary to Drop the Atomic Bomb to End World War II? YES: Robert James Maddox, from American Heritage (May/June 1995) NO: Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, from Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan (Harvard University Press, 2005)
Professor of American history Robert James Maddox contends that the atomic bomb became the catalyst that forced the hard-liners in the Japanese army to accept the emperor’s plea to surrender, thus avoiding a costly, bloody invasion of the Japanese mainland. Professor of American history Tsuyoshi Hasegawa argues that the Soviet entrance into the war played a greater role in causing Japan to surrender than did the dropping of the atomic bombs.
Issue 2. Was President Truman Responsible for the Cold War? YES: Arnold A. Offner, from “ ‘Another Such Victory’: President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War,” Diplomatic History (Spring 1999) NO: John Lewis Gaddis, from We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (Oxford University Press, 1997)
Professor Arnold A. Offner argues that Harry S. Truman was a parochial nationalist whose limited vision of foreign affairs precluded negotiations with the Russians over cold war issues. John Lewis Gaddis argues that after a half century of scholarship, Joseph Stalin was uncompromising and primarily responsible for the cold war.
Issue 3. Did Communism Threaten America’s Internal Security after World War II? YES: John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, from Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (Yale University Press, 1999) NO: Richard M. Fried, from Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective (Oxford University Press, 1990)
History professors John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr argue that army code-breakers during World War II’s “Venona Project” uncovered a disturbing number of high-ranking U.S. government officials who seriously damaged American interests by passing sensitive information to the Soviet Union. Professor of history Richard M. Fried argues that the early 1950s were a “nightmare in red” during which American citizens had their First and Fifth Amendment rights suspended when a host of national and state investigating committees searched for Communists in government agencies, Hollywood, labor unions, foundations, universities, public schools, and even public libraries.
Issue 4. Should President Truman Have Fired General MacArthur? YES: John S. Spanier, from "The Politics of the Korean War," in Phil Williams, Donald M. Goldstein, and Henry L. Andrews, Jr., eds., Security in Korea: War, Stalemate, and Negotiation (Westview Press, 1994) NO: D. Clayton James with Anne Sharp Wells, from Refighting the Last War: Command and Crisis in Korea, 1950-1953 (Free Press, 1993)
Professor of political science John S. Spanier argues that General Douglas MacArthur was fired because he publicly disagreed with the Truman administration’s “Europe first” policy and its limited war strategy of containing communism in Korea. Biographer D. Clayton James and assistant editor Anne Sharp Wells argue that General MacArthur was relieved of duty because there was a lack of communication between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the headstrong general, which led to a misperception over the appropriate strategy in fighting the Korean War.
Issue 5. Was Rock and Roll Responsible for Dismantling America's Traditional Family, Sexual, and Racial Customs in the 1950s and 1960s? New! YES: Glenn C. Altschuler, from All Shook Up: How Rock and Roll Changed America (Oxford University Press (USA), 2003) New! NO: J. Ronald Oakley, from God's Country: America in the Fifties (Dembner Books, 1986, 1990)
Professor Glen C. Altschuler maintains that rock and roll’s “switchblade beat” opened wide divisions in American society along the fault lines of family, sexuality, and race. Writer J. Ronald Oakley argues that although the lifestyles of youth departed from their parents, their basic ideas and attitudes were still the conservative ones that mirrored the conservativism of the affluent age in which they grew up.
Issue 6. Was President Kennedy Responsible for the Cuban Missile Crisis? YES: Ronald Steel, from Imperialists and Other Heroes (Random House, 1971) New! NO: Robert Weisbrot, from Maximum Danger: Kennedy, the Missiles, and the Crisis of American Confidence (Ivan R. Dee, 2001)
Political analyst Ronald Steel believes that President Kennedy mishandled the Cuban missile crisis when his hastily organized decision-making committee of 14 experts emphasized military ultimatums over diplomatic solutions. Historian Robert Weisbrot argues that the new sources uncovered the past 20 years portray Kennedy as a president who had absorbed the values of his time as an anti-Communist, cold warrior who nevertheless acted as a rational leader who was conciliatory toward his opponent in the Soviet Union in resolving the Cuban missile crisis.
UNIT 2 FROM LIBERATION THROUGH WATERGATE: 1963-1974
Issue 7. Did Lee Harvey Oswald Kill President Kennedy by Himself? YES: President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, from "The Warren Report," President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (September 24, 1964) NO: Michael L. Kurtz, from Crime of the Century: The Kennedy Assassination from a Historian's Perspective, 2nd ed. (University of Tennessee Press, 1993)
The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy argues that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin of President Kennedy and that he was not part of any organized conspiracy, domestic or foreign. Professor of history Michael L. Kurtz argues that the Warren commission ignores evidence of Oswald’s connections with organized criminals and with pro-Castro and anti-Castro supporters, as well as forensic evidence that points to multiple assassins.
Issue 8. Was Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Leadership Essential to the Success of the Civil Rights Revolution? YES: Adam Fairclough, from “Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Quest for Nonviolent Social Change,” Phylon (Spring 1986) NO: Clayborne Carson, from "Martin Luther King Jr.: Charismatic Leadership in a Mass Struggle," Journal of American History (September 1987)
Professor of history Adam Fairclough argues that Martin Luther King, Jr., was a pragmatic reformer who organized nonviolent direct action protests in strategically targeted local communities, which provoked violence from his opponents, gaining publicity and sympathy for the civil rights movement. Professor of history Clayborne Carson concludes that the civil rights struggle would have followed a similar course of development even if King had never lived because its successes depended upon mass activism, not the actions of a single leader.
Issue 9. Did the Great Society Fail? New! YES: Charles Murray, from Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980 (Basic Books, 1984) New! NO: Joseph A. Califano, Jr., from "The Ship Sail On," in Thomas W. Cowger and Sherwin J. Markman, eds., Lyndon Johnson Remembered (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003)
Conservative social critic Charles Murray argues that the Great Society removed the stigma of poverty, blamed the system instead of the individual for being unemployed and created a permanent underclass of inner-city African-American welfare recipients. Joseph A. Califano, Jr., a former aide to President Lyndon Johnson, maintains that the Great Society programs brought about possible revolutionary changes in the areas of civil rights, education, health care, the environment, and consumer protection.
Issue 10. Was the Americanization of the War in Vietnam Inevitable? YES: Brian VanDeMark, from Into the Quagmire: Lyndon Johnson and the Escalation of the Vietnam War (Oxford University Press, 1995) NO: H. R. McMaster, from Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies That Led to Vietnam (HarperCollins, 1997)
Professor of history Brian VanDeMark argues that President Lyndon Johnson failed to question the viability of increasing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War because he was the prisoner of America’s global containment policy and because he did not want his opponents to accuse him of being soft on communism or endanger support for his Great Society reforms. H. R. McMaster, an active-duty army tanker, maintains that the Vietnam disaster was not inevitable but a uniquely human failure whose responsibility was shared by President Johnson and his principal military and civilian advisors.
Issue 11. Has the Women's Movement of the 1970s Failed to Liberate American Women? YES: F. Carolyn Graglia, from Domestic Tranquility: A Brief Against Feminism (Spence, 1998) NO: Sara M. Evans, from "American Women in the Twentieth Century," in Harvard Sitkoff, ed., Perspectives on Modern America: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century (Oxford University Press, 2001)
Writer and lecturer F. Carolyn Graglia argues that women should stay at home and practice the values of “true motherhood” because contemporary feminists have discredited marriage, devalued traditional homemaking, and encouraged sexual promiscuity. According to Professor Sara M. Evans, despite class, racial, religious, ethnic, and regional differences, women in America experienced major transformations in their private and public lives in the twentieth century.
Issue 12. Was Richard Nixon American's Last Liberal President? YES: Joan Hoff-Wilson, from “Richard M. Nixon: The Corporate Presidency,” in Fred I. Greenstein, ed., Leadership in the Modern Presidency (Harvard University Press, 1988) NO: Bruce J. Schulman, from The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
According to professor of history Joan Hoff-Wilson, the Nixon presidency reorganized the executive branch and portions of the federal bureaucracy and implemented domestic reforms in civil rights, welfare, and economic planning, despite its limited foreign policy successes and the Watergate scandal. According to Professor Bruce J. Schulman, Richard Nixon was the first conservative president of the post-World War II era who undermined the Great Society legislative program of President Lyndon Baines Johnson and built a new Republic majority coalition of white, northern blue-collar workers, and southern and sunbelt conservatives
UNIT 3 POSTINDUSTRIAL AMERICA AND THE END OF THE COLD WAR: 1974-2007
Issue 13. Did President Reagan Win the Cold War? YES: John Lewis Gaddis, from The Cold War (Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2005) NO: Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry, from "Who Won the Cold War?" Foreign Policy (Summer 1992)
Professor of history John Lewis Gaddis argues that President Ronald Reagan combined a policy of militancy and operational pragmatism that perplexed his hard-line advisers when he made the necessary compromises to bring about the most significant improvement in Soviet-American relations since the end of World War II. Professors of political science Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry contend that the cold war ended only when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev accepted Western liberal values and the need for global cooperation.
Issue 14. Were the 1980s a Decade of Affluence for the Middle Class? New! YES: J. David Woodard, from The America That Reagan Built (Praeger, 2006) New! NO: Thomas Byrne Edsall, from "The Changing Shape of Power: A Realignment in Public Policy," in Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle, The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930-1980 (Princeton University Press, 1989)
According to Professor J. David Woodard, supply-side economics unleashed a wave of entrepreneurial and technological innovation that transformed the economy and restored America’s confidence in the Golden Age from 1983 to 1992. Political journalist Thomas B. Edsall argues that the Reagan revolution brought about a policy realignment that reversed the New Deal and redistributed political power and economic wealth to the top 20 percent of Americans.
Issue 15. Is George W. Bush the Worst President in American History? YES: Sean Wilentz, from "The Worst President in History?" Rolling Stone (May 4, 2006) NO: Conrad Black, from "George W. Bush, FDR, and History," The American Spectator (April 2005)
Bancroft prize-winning historian Sean Wilentz argues that the current president ranks with Presidents James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Herbert Hoover in having divided the nation, governed erratically, and left the nation worse off than when he came into office. FDR biographer Conrad Black believes that President Bush is, with the exception of FDR, the most important president since Lincoln in accomplishing a highly successful domestic and foreign policy.
Issue 16. Should America Remain a Nation of Immigrants? New! YES: Tamar Jacoby, from "Immigrant Nation," Foreign Affairs (November/December 2006) NO: Patrick J. Buchanan, from The Death of the West (Thomas Dunne Books, 2002)
Social scientist Tamar Jacoby believes that legal immigration quotas should be increased to over 400,000 per year because the newest immigrants keep America’s economy strong because they work harder and take jobs that native-born Americans reject. Syndicated columnist Patrick J. Buchanan argues that America is no longer a nation because immigrants from Mexico and other Third World Latin American and Asian countries have turned America into a series of fragmented multicultural ethnic enclaves that lack a common culture.
Issue 17. Is the Environmental Crisis "An Inconvenient Truth"? New! YES: Jim Hansen, from "The Threat to the Planet," The New York Review of Books (July 13, 2006) New! NO: Kevin Shapiro, from "Global Warming: Apocalypse Now?" Commentary (September 2006)
NASA scientist Jim Hansen believes that the world will become a more desolate place to live in the foreseeable future unless we reduce or sequester the carbon emissions that are warming the atmosphere. Kevin Shapiro, a research fellow in neuroscience at Harvard University, believes the increase in CO² in the atmosphere is significant but not a cause for panic because what we “know” about global warming comes from computer-simulated models that have various biased built-in assumptions.
