USA (798448), страница 6
Текст из файла (страница 6)
In 1941 after Japanese warplanes bombed, sank and badly damaged 8 American battleships in American base Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), killing over 2000 men, the USA declared war against Germany and Japan. They joined the countries of anti-Hitler coalition (The Soviet Union and Britain).
The USA government organized the whole American economy towards winning the war. “Old Dr. New Deal has to be replaced by Dr. Win-the-War”, said. Roosevelt. Controls on wages and prices were placed, and high income taxes were introduced. Gasoline and some foods were rationed. Factories stopped producing consumer goods such as cars and washing machines, and started making tanks, bombers and other war supplies. The USA war production became six times greater than the military output before the war. The overall effect of the war was a positive one for the economy in general and the business community in particular.
In November 1942 Combined British and American forces landed in North Africa, defeating the German general Rommel’s Africa Corps. 1943 they invaded Sicily, the mainland of Italy and months of bitter fighting freed Rome from German control.
At Tehran conference (Iran, 1943) Stalin met Roosevelt and Churchill to coordinate their military plans with the Allied cross-channel invasion. In 1944 the Allied troops opened so-called The Second Front in Europe and after hard fighting occupied France and liberated Paris. In September Allied forces crossed Germany western border. On the 25th of April the remarkable event took place – British and American soldiers met advancing Soviet troops on the banks of the River Elbe in the middle of Germany. In five days Hitler committed a suicide. German soldiers everywhere laid down their weapons and on the 5th of May 1945, Germany surrendered.
The final details of the war and plans for the postwar world were hammered out at the Yalta Conference in the Crimea in 1945. Russia was to become the guardian of the nations of Eastern Europe. Defeated Germany was to be divided into four zones of military occupation, and a conference was to be convened in San Francisco on April 25 to create the United Nations Organization and formulate its Charter.
Roosevelt left Yalta physically weak but pleased that he had brought Allied unity. Nine weeks after Yalta conference he had a stroke and died. His Vice President Harry Truman came into office. Truman participated with Stalin and Churchill in the final meeting at Potsdam, from which two declarations were issued. One of them confirmed the occupation zones in Germany and settled the reparation issue.
The second was an unconditional surrender ultimatum to Japan. In 1945 American bombers made devastating raids on Japanese cities. In June the island of Okinawa fell to the Americans. On August 6 an American bomber dropped an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A few days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Both cities were devastated and nearly 2000000 civilians were killed. Even the scientists who had been working on the bomb were shocked by the result. On August 14 the Japanese government surrendered. The Second World War was over.
The Cold War and the McCarthy Witch Hunts
The Cold War was an ideological struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States over control of the world. Americans was the only nation in the world that the Second World War had made better off. Their homes had not been bombed or their land fought over like the homes and land of the Russian people. Busy wartime factories had given them good wages. Americans became the most prosperous people in the world. But despite economic prosperity during the years under president Truman (1945-53) and then president Eisenhower (1953-61) there was a constant anxiety in America and fear of the Russian influence on the afterward world. After two unpleasant surprises – the Soviet Union’s atomic bomb and the creation of communist China – a wave of panic swept across the USA. Due to the terrible propaganda some Americans started to see communist plots everywhere. When in 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea their fears became even stronger. An ambitious and unscrupulous politician McCarthy tried to use these fears to win fame and power for himself. He started the campaign that came into American history with the name a “Witch Hunt” – a search for people he could blame for supposed threats to the United States. For over five years, from early 1950s till the mid 50s McCarthy launched the serial of “hearings”, accusing a lot of people – government officials, scientists, and famous entertainers – of secretly working for the Soviet Union. He never gave proofs, but Americans were so much frightened by the threat of communism that many believed his accusations. They were afraid to give jobs or even to show friendship to anyone “suspected” in “Soviet sympathy”. In 1957 McCarthy died, but so-called McCarthyism did serious damage to the relations between the countries.
In 1961 a new President John F. Kennedy (1961-3) was elected, the most progressive president since A. Lincoln and F. Roosevelt. He was young, had a good education, energy and keen, quick wit. The unfulfilled promise of Kennedy’s thousand days in office is nearly impossible to measure. He told American people that they were facing a “new frontier” with both opportunities and problems. He announced policy of fighting poverty and giving civil rights to black people. He streamlined and pushed through the space program and new laws for pollution treatment, but his main merit was his foreign policy.
When J. Kennedy came to the office, foreign problems were numerous. Soviet Union power was growing and relations between two superpowers were as cold as ever. The incipient nations of Africa were rebellious. Fidel Castro had taken control of Cuba. Unrest was evident in all Latin America. Kennedy’s first two innovations – the Peace Corps and the Alliance for Progress – captured the imagination of much of the world. The Peace Corps sent thousands of young Americans abroad to assist underdeveloped countries. The Alliance for Progress was designed as a broad assault upon the economic and social problems of Latin America.
In June 1961 a group of anti-Castro Cuban exiles supported by the CIA attempted an invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Although the attempt was a dismal failure, the Soviet Union tried to install Soviet mediation-range ballistic missiles and bombers in Cuba. Kennedy met the Soviet Union challenge and displayed great mind in dealing with what was probably the most serious confrontation of the Cold War era. He gave the promise not to invade Cuba. The leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev also promised to recall the weapons from Cuba. The two leaders succeeded in setting up a “Hot Line” to facilitate a quick exchange of views in case of major crises, and in signing a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that halted surface atmospheric and outer space testing. While Kennedy was president he frequently said: “All I want them to say about me is what they said about John Adams, “He kept the peace”. In the speech he had intended to give in Dallas on November 22,1963, the day of his assassination, Kennedy declared: “We ask…that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of ”peace on earth, goodwill toward men”. Kennedy’s sensible policy not only reduced the tension between the two but also started the policy of so-called “détente”.
Even the long and bloody war in Vietnam (1965-73), finished by the victory of the latter, was not allowed to interfere into it. In May 1972 President Nixon flew to Moscow to sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) with the Soviet Union. The idea of SALT was to slow down the arms race as well as to make war between them less likely. When the Soviet troops marched into Afghanistan in 1979 American Congress refused to renew the SALT agreement. Both the United States and the Soviet Union continued to develop new, more deadly nuclear missiles and in the early 1980s détente looked dead. In the middle of the 1980s American military strength was increased so much that president Reagan realized the necessity to slow down the race M. Gorbachev, who came to power in 1985 in the USSR, also believed that the huge cost of the arms race was crippling the Soviet Union economy. In 1987 Gorbachev and Reagan signed the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force (INF) treaty. According to the treaty both countries agreed to destroy all their land-based medium and shorter-range nuclear missiles within 3 years. A hope was born that a new time of peaceful cooperation between the SU and the USA might be possible now. “I believe that future generations will look back to this time and see it as a turning point in world history. We are not in a cod war now” the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said in 1988.
Render the texts in English:
A) Победа северных штатов и модернизации во время гражданской войны принесли свои плоды. США получили стимул для мощного рывка вперед. За 10 лет, с 1860 по 1870 г, число промышленных предприятий выросло на 80%, а общая стоимость продукции – на 100%; за это время было проложено 20 тыс. км. железнодорожных путей.
К началу 20 в. США шли впереди всех других государств по уровню промышленного производства. К 1913 г. продукция черной металлургии и угледобывающей промышленности превышала то, что выпускали в этих отраслях Англия, Германия и Франция вместе взятые. Что же создало основу такого быстрого расцвета? Причин было много. Американские историки считают, что важную роль сыграли богатые сырьевые ресурсы; большой приток иммигрантов, которые обеспечивали растущую промышленность рабочей силой; хорошо налаженная система водного и железнодорожного транспорта; протекционистские пошлины, защищавшие американскую промышленность от иностранной конкуренции.
Превращение страны в самую сильную индустриальную державу в мире, при всех противоречиях этого процесса, произошло в значительной мере благодаря результативному диалогу между государственной властью и обществом. В ответ на волну возмущений против злоупотреблений монополий правительство Теодора. Рузвельта начало принимать меры по обузданию трестов и корпораций. Прошли шумные судебные процессы, на которых применялась тактика « беспощадной огласки». Нельзя сказать, что с произволом монополий было покончено, но он был существенно ограничен антитрестовскими законами.
В) Великая депрессия 1929 г. была первым звонком, возвестившим о наличии какого-то изъяна в либеральной экономики. Оказалось, что принцип «каждый за себя» не приводит автоматически к всеобщему благоденствию. Франклин Рузвельт стал инициатором целого комплекса реформ, призванных не только устранить последствия депрессии, но и оздоровить американское общество в целом. В рамках « нового курса» Рузвельта была организована помощь нуждающимся, миллионы безработных получили возможность принять участие в общественных работах, субсидировавшихся государством. Был установлен контроль над выпуском ценных бумаг, принят закон о социальном обеспечении, предусматривавший страхование безработных, введение пенсий, государственную помощь вдовам, сиротам и инвалидам. Закон о трудовых отношениях не только устанавливал систему государственного регулирования трудовых отношений, но и окончательно закреплял право рабочих на забастовки и организацию профсоюзов.
С) За две мировые войны были убиты и искалечены миллионы людей, погибли неисчислимые материальные ценности. Но пламя войн не затронули территорию Америки. Соединенные Штаты наращивали промышленную мощь, автоматизировали производство, производили оружие и продавали его другим странам. На военных поставках американские монополии наживали колоссальные капиталы. В период между двумя мировыми войнами США выросли в мирового банкира. После второй мировой войны в результате ослабления западных стран, участвующих в войне, США захватили их рынки, сильно увеличили экспорт товаров, за которые многие государства расплачивались золотом. Золото поступало в американские банки со всех континентов Подавляющее большинство стран Западной Европы стали должниками США. (Н.Карев. ).
1. Answer the questions.
1.What factors have contributed to the USA becoming the leading economic nation?
2.What role did tycoons play in American society?
3.Why were measures taken to control big business?
4.What were the main causes of the Great Depression?
5.Why were the World Wars so beneficial for the USA?
6.What were the main reasons of the “witch-hunt” of the 50s in the 20PthP century?
7.What is the role of John Kennedy in the détente?
2. Discussion Points:
1.Franklin Roosevelt and his role in American history;
2.John Kennedy and his peaceful initiatives,
LECTURE N 9. The Governmental and Political System
Mount Rushmore. Gutson Borglum memorial of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt.
The governmental systems of the United States – federal, state, country, and local are quite easy to understand. The operation of these systems is based on the US Constitution, which was adopted by US Congress in 1785. The Constitution the oldest still in force in the world sets the basic form of government: three separate branches, each one having powers (“check and balances”) over the others. It specifies the powers and duties of each federal branch of government, with all other powers and duties, belonging to the states.
To meet the changing needs of the nation, the constitution has been repeatedly amended. Ten amendments in the Bill of rights (1791) guaranteed the basic right of individual Americans. The other sixteen amendments included the one besides banning slavery (1865) to give women the right to vote (1920)
The Bill of Rights
The first 10 amendments to the Constitution and their purpose
Protections afforded fundamental rights and freedoms
Amendment 1: Freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly; the right to petition the government.
Protections against arbitrary military action
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