INDUSTRIALIZATION was booming with inventors such as Henry Ford and commodity speculators such as John D. Rockefeller. Ford invented the mass production concept and Ford’s concept was propelled by the Standard Oil founder’s black gold. Every industry remotely pertaining to vehicle production and performance developed unencumbered during the America’s most flamboyant and subsequent darkest economic era. Rockefeller, Ford, previous inventors such as Edison and contemporary elitists prospered exponentially prior to the depression, while the labor force achieved only marginal improvement. After the stock market crashed in October 1929, the elitists continued to thrive while the rest of the country’s quality of life diminished drastically. The capitalist objective for industrialization was to increase production while lowering production costs. Ultimately, industrialization helped to restabilize the economy rather than handicap it, by offering jobs, developing new technologies and infusing the collapsed banking network with operating capital. FDR appropriated taxes from those entities capable of paying taxes, into [his] WPA programs that benefited the ‘unemployable’. Industry, and not politics, put America back in business.

BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC, Charles A. Lindbergh, MAY 1927 – departed New York for Paris, flying solo across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis. The Atlantic crossing had been attempted by others; most of whom died in a failed attempt, none of them successful. President Coolidge dispatched a battleship to retrieve Lindbergh from France and deliver him to a hero’s welcome in America. Lindbergh’s pro-Nazi sympathies made him unpopular when America’s entry into WWII became inevitable. Lindbergh suffered the kidnapping and murder of his first born son and later vindicated his loyalty to America by engaging Japanese Air Forces as an Army-Air Force pilot. He was credited with one kill in the Pacific Theater.

MEDIA/FILM, Cecil B. DeMille/D.W. Griffith – migrated from New York through Flagstaff, Arizona onto Hollywood, California to distance themselves from over-regulation and a controlled/closed film industry in New York. DeMille wanted to open shop in Flagstaff, but the weather [here] compelled him to reboard his train and continue west. After Griffith’s Birth of a Nation was released, theatre attendance nationwide skyrocketed. By 1920 there were 20,000 theaters in the US. That number increased to 28,000 by the end of 1929. Film stars such as Gretta Garbo, and the star-system in general, assured film’s survivability in American culture and propelled it to the Nation’s 5^th largest industry. The American media’s reach expanded in 1926 when RCA, an Edison spin-off, introduced broadcast radio in New York.

PROHIBITION passed on 18 December 1917 and was ratified the following January. Prohibition was a three-dimensional model of the word ‘contradiction’ and supplemented psychology texts with an expose’ on Human nature. The Chicago gangster, Al Capone forged a violent underground empire that profited on the experiment’s depravity. Prohibition created a live platform for training FBI agents through which domestic dysfunction could be analyzed and better contingency plans composed. Prohibition defined the key difference between organized crime and Congress; that Congress could pass legislation that sanctioned what it did illegally. The amendment was embarrassingly ineffective and repealed in December 1933.

HEALTH & SEX, Charles Atlas, 1929 – described how isometric exercises could transform a 98 pound weakling into a super stud, and the response to his ad campaign had him laughing all the way to his Swiss account.

Option B. Political, religious, economic and cultural leaders response to the opportunities and challenges of the 1920’s; evidence of fear and tension:

POLITICAL -- THE KLU KLUX KLAN, glamorized in Birth of a Nation and founded as a reactionary movement against the looting practices of Carpetbaggers after the Civil War, attracted popular American sentiment with their radical fusion of religion, politics and White preservation. Anyone non-White was to be feared. Any religion non-Protestant was to be feared. Any thought of non-Klan origin, was to be destroyed. The Southern court system defended Klan activity as a legitimate reprisal to centralized Northern government. Emancipated black Americans were brutalized and lynched on trumped-up charges. Southern lawyers, magistrates and law enforcement officers also participated in Klan activities. DuBois, a literate black American, accelerated Federal reaction to southern racial injustices by devoting himself to the advancement of colored people. His effort to spearhead social conscious became the fountainhead for the NAACP. Although M.L. King resumed DuBois work and improvements today are evident, this topic still represents America’s gravest failure as we approach 2000.

RELIGIOUS -- HUMAN PERCEPTION. Sigmund Freud attempted to liberate the masses from religious indoctrination. Psychologists were perceived as a threat to the social and moral fabric of theological institutions in much the same way that the Government dismisses UFO reports today. The concept of independent thought; rationale and reason, separate and apart from religious prescription was unthinkable. Science, technology and leisure time, unbridled the hedonistic agenda of American culture, through which the vanity of psychologists and philosophers could be contemplated. All three factions still fight for supremacy of the metaphysical realm that by their own standard, can be neither proved nor disproved.

CULTURAL -- Margaret Sanger expanded social consciousness by publicly promoting BIRTH CONTROL. Sexual promiscuity was on the rise and so were unwanted childbirths. Sanger licensed promiscuity and reduced responsibility; this allowed her constituents to copulate more often without fear. The reaction of ice cream and pickle manufacturers is unknown.

ECONOMIC -- WWI REPARATIONS -- $10.5B in war debts was owed to the US by England and France for supplying both Nations with munitions and raw materials during the war. The US reduced the interest rate from 5.8 to 2.1%, which eliminated ½ of the debt, long-term, but the US would not dissolve the debt in spite of protests from France. France believed that their debt should be cancelled since France was protecting American interests in Europe during WWI. France forwarded German war reparations paid to France, onto the US. When Germany defaulted, France defaulted and Fascism took root in Europe. Japanese expansionist policies in the Pacific cast a disturbing shadow on America’s economic projections. Whatever doubt remained, was removed on 07 December 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and brought the US into the War. We went from one war, through a depression, straight into another world war within the space of 25 years.

GERMAN WAR REPARATIONS – the Treaty of Versailles was so severe that Germany could not regain an economic footing in Europe by French design. The US bailed Germany out with US investments and an infusion of cash. Germany prospered and Hitler didn’t during that time. When Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, anxiety in Europe reached new levels. Mussolini had marched on Rome in 1922 and had successfully assumed control of Italy. Emperor Hito’s regime was raising the Japanese flag on more and more Pacific basin territories. FASCISM had become a serious threat to the western world. America was caught between ISOLATIONISM and INTERNATIONALISM. Advocates on both sides had compelling arguments of equal validity: It is prudent to take care of ourselves, removed -- but we are also an international power. We should maintain our security -- while the world around us fall into fascism? Ultimately, the ‘Island of America’ was not the intention of Manifest Destiny and Pearl Harbor declared Internationalism the decisive winner.

Four Causes of the Depression:

In 1925-26, A BULL MARKET and speculative land boom occurred in Florida. Stocks were fashionably traded at INFLATED VALUES; credit was easily obtained and loans could be repaid with yields on appreciated stock value. MARGIN BUYING became trendy because easy money was assured. On 3 SEPTEMBER 1929, the market fell, leveled and fell. In the three weeks that followed, the market fell, leveled and fell. At first, speculators thought that it was the right time to buy low and enter a rebounding market. In the final two weeks before Black Friday, the abyss was evident, but the law of gravity had not struck home yet. Major banks combined funds to hold the market for 3 days, but it was hopeless. In the aftermath of BLACK FRIDAY, 29 October 1929, DOW JONES fell from $364.90 to $62.70; Public Utilities from $141.90 to $28.00; Railroads from $82.00 to $28.00 -- INVESTOR CONFIDENCE WAS DEMOLISHED -- THE DEPRESSION was here to stay, and it was the continued lack of ‘investor confidence’ that promulgated the depression.

After a series of administrative evolutions designed to get America working again, the WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION assumed responsibility for employing the unemployable. WPA, CCC and many FDR sponsored programs coupled with massive construction projects stretched American nerve long enough recuperate the economy.

What made FDR a successful politician?

FDR was a natural aristocrat, born in the upper crust of society in an isolated New York enclave. Franklin went to the best schools that money could buy; his classmates remember him as being somewhat reserved because he did not participate in sports. Franklin betrothed his 3^rd cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt. At the wedding, Eleanor’s uncle, President Teddy Roosevelt said, "It’s nice to keep the name in the family."

Destined for politics, FDR rose to assistant secretary of the navy under Wilson’s administration in 1912. He later became the first governor to provide statewide relief in reaction to depressed conditions and was reelected governor in 1930. He was elected President of the United States in 1932.

FDR was a true charmer in every sense of the word; eager to patronize and able inject humor into the gravest of situations. He was poised, good looking, fatherly and consistent. He loved his job as President. The country took graciously to his platform that offered the only hope to what otherwise meant moral and social destruction. Roosevelt did not trust businessmen and prioritized his agenda to meet the needs of the common man. FDR was a likable man among laypersons.

Roosevelt inherited a Nation that had barely acclimated to dust bowl conditions. Life for many was so utterly hopeless that suicide seemed like the honest definition of existence. To inspire the masses and soften the country’s frazzled nerves, FDR became the first president to utilized radio with his introduction of Fireside chats.

Fireside chats allowed the President to personalize himself with the public. His image became as common as Christ’s in lower income homes. In his inaugural fireside message, FDR won the confidence of citizens by reassuring them that their money would be federally insured if they would support the Emergency Banking Act. By the close of business the following day, $10M more was deposited than withdrawn. This was clear evidence that American’s had confidence in their President and that his use of media was effective.

FDR’s legacy describes a series of federal relief programs, beginning with the Civilian Conservation Corps to provide work for unemployed Americans. As each pilot program was refined, legislation created newer agencies such as the Federal Emergency Relief Act, the Civil Works Administration, National Recovery Administration and the Works Progress Administration. All of these represented components of The New Deal under which the government would never own the means of productions, but America would work under federally subsidized programs.

By 1936, the economy had returned to pre 1929 levels, but some New Deal programs had to be continued in order to maintain economic stability. By 1938, the severest part of the depression had concluded while conditions in Europe were failing.

How was the US involved in WWII prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and how was the attack influential?

"We have to lend our neighbor a hose to put out a fire," FDR said to Congress to rally support behind Lend-Lease. The Lend-Lease Act permitted the President to loan war materiels to England understanding that said materiels would be returned after the war. Congress had passed previous legislation that forbade the US to negotiate trade with Nations in default on existing loans. Lend-Lease was FDR’s way around the isolationist-lobbied Law.

As the US became increasingly alarmed at European appeasements to Hitler in the form of relentless land concessions, Internationalists foreshadowed an America surrounded on all sides by fascism. Roosevelt assured Churchill that America would wage war against the Nazi regime, but not declare it. Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, FDR had dispatched the navy to escort transatlantic merchant vessels for their safety. To counter, Hitler ordered U-boat commander’s to sink every ship in the Atlantic theater; that included American ships.

To deter Japanese expansion, the US gradually cut off supplies of oil, wood and raw metals to Japan. Japan had to import said materials because the Japanese mainland did not contain sufficient resources for industrial production per se. Japan issued a series of letters to Roosevelt beginning 9 months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, stating that continued sanctions could lead to war.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese pacific fleet launched an aerial attack on American warships anchored at Pearl Harbor. None of our aircraft carriers were in port that day. Interestingly, Japan avoided bombing a conspicuous refueling and oil storage facility that would have made it impossible to refuel and launch the surviving warships.

At this point in American history, internal division and petty disagreements were mind boggling. There were more than 4 lawsuits before the Supreme Court over disagreements. Political divisions between isolationists and internationalists and every graduation in-between were reaching the ceiling. Pearl Harbor transformed America into one cohesive entity, resolved to destroy the enemy that had attacked us. The Interstate lawsuits were dropped. Petty grievances were abandoned and the US morphed into a wartime economy with blitzkrieg speed. 4 days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the US. Roosevelt no longer needed to back door his agenda.

The wartime economy is noted especially for its riveting nostalgia in music, materiel production and mind-boggling employment. Women replaced men in every single capacity so that the men could be deployed. Rosie the Riveter became a famous wartime image at home – from aircraft to aircraft carriers – American women built them. WWII embodied the zenith of the feminist movement and it was the women who started it [-5 for accuracy]. The cantankerous spirit of war production at home and gradually improving successes abroad, in this writer’s opinion, leaves WWII as the crux and ultimate fruition of American Will and sense of purpose: The aesthetic symbolizes the apex of American moral epistemology.

There is finally the grievous construction of Japanese Relocation Centers, in which Japanese Americans’ were interred for the duration of the war. Where the German prisoners of war were given a stipend and released into American society after the war, the Asian Americans became the single casualty of our justice system. The war afforded every ethnicity to make improvements in race relations; the Navajo Code Talkers elevated the status of Native Americans, but resident Asians were reduced to last place on the melanin scale.

What were successful and unsuccessful parts of containment and how did it relate to the Cold War?

To prevent the spread of communism through diplomatic, economic and military means, England acquiesced the protectorates of Turkey and Greece to the United States; England could no longer finance an ongoing deployment.

The Soviet Union sought to insulate itself with friendly governments, conceding to the election of noncommunist/coalition regimes in Hungary and Czechoslovakia to impress the west with their political objectivity.

In 1946, Maoist Revolutionaries swept across mainland China and seized control of the entire nation by 1949. The Emperor was reeducated as a commoner and Maoist China gained certain footing in the political arena, albeit, unrecognized for a time.

The CIA was established in 1947.

In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed with 11 charter members. The objective was to rehearse joint military maneuvers against foreign invasion by non charter Nations. The Soviet Union organized a counter to NATO in 1955 called the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact’s objective was to deter a post Trizonia mobilization.

North Korea sent an armed covert militia to assassinate the South Korean head of State in 1951. It was believed that the successor could be bulled toward reunification. The assassination coup failed but North Korean gunboats did capture the USS Pueblo monitoring Korean shores only 10 miles off of the Korean coast. The Pueblo was the most sophisticated naval surveillance vessel ever built, and was in fact, a refitted trawler in disguise.

The Soviet Union already possessed virtually every US naval secret in existence through the cooperation of the infamous traitor Walker. The only item missing in the Soviets archive on America was the KC-7 cryptography machine that the Pueblo provided. Had the US gone to war against the USSR at that time, there is a strong possibility that the US would have lost: Between Walker and the Pueblo, every vital secret was lost.

Viet Nam had been a French Protectorate since 1947. When Ho Chi Minh applied to the UN to grant Viet Nam status as a sovereign Nation, the US revoked his request on the grounds that Minh was a Communist. Minh solicited the support of communist China and his request was amply supplied. The US began limited deployments to Viet Nam in 1967 and by 1969 had sent over 100,000 American soldiers to SE Asia. It was believed that all of SE Asia would become communist if Viet Nam fell. It fell. We lost and today Viet Nam prefers the US dollar to other currencies. Their road signs are also written in English.

When the American-friendly Shaw of Iran was voted out of office by popular election, the US, aided by the Mossad, instigated the Shaw’s reinstatement as head of State. This was unacceptable to the Iranians and when Kohmanni took over, he said, "Let’s throw the evil America out altogether." Meanwhile, Manuel Noriega had been supplying Cost Rican Contras with weapons so that the Contras could overthrow the newly established dictatorship there. When the CIA-bankrolled Noriega began thwarting America’s interests in pursuit of his own, the CIA sought to capture him. Meanwhile, Kohmanni made a deal with Jimmy Carter that he would return the hostages in exchange for weapons to be used against Iraq.

In order for the CIA to fund the Contras, extrabudgetary revenue was procured through the use of drug trafficking, in which Noriega was quite deft. Noriega agreed to continue supplying the Contras in exchange for a ‘blind-eye’ on his cocaine trafficking. The CIA agreed. Carter attempted to exonerate his arms deal with Kohmanni by ordering a rescue attempt that failed miserably. Kohmanni, in reprisal to Carter’s brashness, leaked to Washington that Carter has actually negotiated an arms deal in exchange for the hostages. The money funding the Iranian arms deal was coming from the same extrabudgetary fund used to arm the Contras and when modest indiscretion was uncovered, John Poindexter was called to give accountability. A new cocktail had been invented by Washington bartenders during the Iran-Contra hearings called the Poindexter – when you asked the bartender what was in it, he would say, "I don’t know." A ‘Reagan’ had the same ingredients.

Ollie North was the most knowledgeable person who fully comprehended the whole operation. Since Panama’s creation in 1903, the Canal Zone has been of paramount importance to American military and security interests. Carter gave the canal to the Panamanians by treaty, and Bush sought to revoke the instrument that would surrender control of the canal to Panama by 2000.

With Gorbechev’s Glastnos in full swing, the Bush Administration installed Endora as the American backed candidate in Panama’s first democratic election. As early election results revealed that Endora was winning, Noriega halted the election. The CIA misled anti-Noriega nationals into seizing control of the government under the assumption that the US would stand behind them. The anti-Noriega coup succeeded and Noriega was apprehended but the US would not respond. Noriega loyalists recaptured control of the government and reinstalled Noriega. After Bush ordered the Panama invasion, Endora was taken to an American military installation and sworn in as President of Panama. When the mission concluded, Endora passed legislation that eliminated the PDF. Bush passed legislation stipulating that, since Panama no longer has an Army to protect the canal, the US would maintain a military presence in Panama indefinitely.

The following year, Gorby told the East German government that Russia would not come to their aid if they attempted to prevent German reunification.

After the Marxist/Communist platform failed, Bush tested American war technology on Iraq to demonstrate, for the benefit of the collapsing Soviet Empire, how our weaponry would fare against theirs. The demonstration clearly proved in our favor. Now the former KGB chief grants candid interviews to any western correspondent that asks and the affair is quite congenial.

Now the mission of containment is more grievously concerned with the scores of miniature Nations that are obsessed with building their own nuclear bomb as a rite of passage to G7 status. If the objective of containment can be applied toward insanity, we might a less hostile future for our children. If not…