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Travis Malizia

Mr. Buescher

U.S. History, Period 1

12 May 2017

Leading Up to Today

History is full of events that are incredibly impactful. These events shape the way citizens

view politics and many social aspects of life. Massive changes can result from this in the forms

of reforms or even drastic wars. Between 1945 and 1990, the three most significant events were

the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights Act, and the Berlin Wall. Without these three major

events, the entirety of the United States and the world could be different.

The Cuban Missile Crisis is the closest that the U.S. has ever come to Nuclear War. If

Russia and the United States had done anything differently, mutually assured destruction would

have been very likely. The U.S. and Russia were not friends and Russia deciding to have nuclear

weapons so close to the U.S. was a major threat. Thankfully the president at the time, John F.

Kennedy, was able to diffuse the situation. Without his actions and the extreme care the team at

the white house put in, everything we know may very likely be gone. Nuclear weapons are still a

large threat today. The Cuban Missile Crisis showed how absolutely threatening they had the

potential to be. Nowadays, things have cooled off with Russia quite a bit. Without such a crisis

occurring, a high tensions at a later date could very likely have ended in the way we feared they

were going to. The Cuban Missile Crisis is an extremely important event that still affects us

today, but the Civil Rights Act is something we all know of and talk about today.

The Civil Rights Act allowed for a higher sense of equality in the United States. Without

the actions taken by people in the 50’s and 60’s, African Americans might still be not treated
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fairly today. Many laws have been enacted that make all people in the States equal regardless of

their skin color and heritage. This has allowed for many African Americans to pursue the

American dream and become rich or simply live the happy and free lives that they deserve to.

Having such opportunities for all people has made innovation happen much quicker than

otherwise. Without having such a high portion of the U.S. population given equal opportunities,

many people’s talents and expertise would have been missed out on. Giving everyone an equal

playing field makes it so that the nation as a whole can gain from this. It also has let the U.S. to

set a good example to the rest of the world that freedom for all is a good thing. It is true that the

U.S. has many socioeconomic problems today involving racism and what people’s mindsets

should be, but without the Civil Rights Act, the U.S. would be so much farther away from the

free nation it is today.

The Berlin wall is not so much more than a physical change. The Berlin wall represented

the separation between two whole lifestyles and set of freedoms. One side stood for democracy

while the other completely stood for everything against that. The German people who lived there

would try to go to the democratic side simply because it was much more enjoyable to live on due

to the many benefits including ideology. People effectively had to risk their lives to get across

the walls built in between the two halves of the country. This wall being torn down no doubt

shows correlation to the end of the Cold War. This also represents an ending of massive fear and

competition. Although America and the Soviet Union did not come together, the separated

German people did. Americans and Russians could use this as an excellent example. Learning to

coexist helps make all societies better when all that is different is pride. This and many other

events lead the mid to late 20th century to be a real grand time of change.
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The Berlin Wall, Civil Rights Act, and Cuban Missile Crisis truly shaped the modern

world. All of these events seem distant to many of those alive today but they mustn’t be

forgotten due to their impact on history and the face of the world. Tensions with Russia and race

are again building up in modern society. Even through these tough times, everyone must work to

demolish the wall in front of them. These few events are insanely important and could have

greatly made the world a different place to live in. Even if these events were fueled by tension

and by uncomfortable things to speak about, they are some of the most important occourences in

all of history.