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Homosexuals During The Cold War Case Study

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Why did Eisenhower administration officials consider homosexuals and other "sex offenders" national security risks during the Cold War? During the McCarthy era, from the late 1940’s to the late 1950’s, the United States government mobilized its resources at hand to remove all employees within the government that were suspects of being communist as they posed as risk for the American way of life. Among the list of national security risks, was homosexuality. The Eisenhower administration considered homosexual and other sex offenders national risk because “their sexual orientation (regardless of their loyalty to the US), supposedly made them susceptible to blackmail; once black mailed, they might give state secrets to the communist enemy. But sex, not communist, was behind this crackdown”. Pg. 167-168 What evidence did they present to justify firing these individuals? Besides all out government campaigns against homosexuals and spying on employees and regular citizens, the different agencies of government, also relied on anonymous’ tipping. For Americans, participating in this “hunt of homosexuals” was a civil duty, therefore, keeping the eyes open and reporting …show more content…

Agents interviewed many man and woman suspected of gender deviation. Besides the uncomfortable questioning, agents used tactics such as the good and bad cop technics to force individuals to provide names of other possible suspects or else they would made public their homosexuality. Additionally, agents also used the polygraph test or most commonly known as the lie detector, which is an apparatus that measures and detects deviances in an individual’s vital signs during interrogation. Eight out of ten people tested thru the lie detector was found suspect of immorality, which basically meant that he or she was

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During the period of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union entered into a conflicting era of confrontation. It created an environment of hostility, competition and security on both ends. It was a war on propaganda, economic, diplomatic haggling and intermittent military clashes. There was no actual warfare among the nations it was at a competition to see who's government ideology was the "strongest". The United States had many goals but one successful one was to prevent communism from spreading, so they took preventive measures to help prevent communism from spreading a lot more than it had been.

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The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman depicts the story of Matthew Shepard's murder, and the struggle to overcome hatred versus homosexuals in a town where it was common practice, encouraged, and then eventually overcame. The people of Laramie had forever lived by the simple rule of “live and let live.” While common and seeming harmless, this simple rule led

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Summary Chapter 3 of Freakonomics begins with a quote from John Kenneth Galbraith,who argued that ”we associate truth with convenience.” Then, the authors discuss way people exaggerate the concepts of different controversial things like sexual assault, homelessness, and even the corruption of the police department. The authors then go on to discuss factors in the wage determination and community jobs that have many open slots, but they do not pay well enough wages. Next, the chapter discusses University of Chicago student Sudhir Venkatesh, who follows the members of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation, and he gets to know a man named J.T. J.T. is a college educated “crack” dealer and he is also the gang’s head leader. The authors then describe the gang that J.T. is in charge of.

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Reflection of this conflict was apparent in the American ethos, in which Americans feared that if “world communism captur[ed] any American state…a new and perilous front…will increase the danger to the entire free world and require even greater sacrifices from the American people” (Document B). As illustrated by Eisenhower, “the hysteria” of communism propagating into American society and threatening the American way of life was a very prevalent fear at the forefront of the Cold War (Document A). McCarthyism, a system established by Senator Joseph McCarthy in which he made unsubstantiated accusations of subversion or treason to America, acted as the culmination of this hysteria, directly reflecting the sentiments driving the American people. Eisenhower did not engage in any domestic policies to quell these “multiplicity of fears” (Document A). Instead he compounded them with legislation such as the “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways…connect[ing] 209 of the 247 cities having a population of 50,00 more and [serving as] the country’s principal…defense” (Document D).

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The Cold War began around the time the wartime confederation between the United States and the Soviet Union broke down, during the years 1945 - 1950. The battle between the two dominions, communism and capitalism, battle for more than 40 years. The Cold War essentially began with empty threats about bombing each other with weapons including nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles resulting in nothing but a game of I guess you can say “one on one basketball”. There were two sides to this war the entire time but the main countries that were battling was the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States, along with Canada and ten other nations of Western Europe, signed a treaty known as the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) in 1948.

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This and the fear of communism inside the government made them fire anybody who they thought was gay or a

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“Mankind must put an end to world war or war will put an end to mankind.” (John F. Kennedy). Before the Cold War, the world was in the second world war of the century, soldiers not only killing soldiers, but also civilians. After World War II countries tried to get freedom from the countries that colonized them. Before the Cold War only one country had and dropped a nuclear bomb, but that would not be the case during the Cold War.

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Between the years of 1947 and 1991 the USSR and the United States remained in a long period of tension known as The Cold War. This war was a state of political and economical in proxy wars such as the space race and the arms race the lead to the weakening of American society and laws. Marking the end of the Cold War in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed due to their economic failure and their approach to the space race. As the Cold War intensified there was a significant increase in infrastructures and military, a shift in education, and there was an overall fear in society. Education in the United States began to focus on science instead of general education in an attempt to try and win the “space race” against the Soviet Union.

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Sam Robert in the article, A Decade of Fear, argues that Americans turned against each other because of McCarthyism. Robert supports his claim by explaining, contrasting, and demonstrating the effects that McCarthyism had on humanity. The author’s purpose is to persuade in order to convince the reader that McCarthyism sparked betrayal and fear among Americans. The author writes in a tone for his educated audience. I strongly agree with Robert’s claim.

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In 1950s United States, open homosexuality was taboo and legislature in every state had passed anti-sodomy laws. U.S. politicians in the McCarthy Era viewed being gay as tantamount to antinationalism. Gays were perceived as a threat to national

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Do you think being gay is an option or is someone born that way? I 'm here to talk about someone who is trying to figure out feelings dealing with options. The author of The Gay Option, Stephanie Farmington tells us that she wrote a letter explaining her being gay and how she feels that it 's optional. This is important because it allows the reader to know what the just of the article will be about. Starting with the letter impacts the reader to an extent were they kind of feel sorrow for the Author.

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Amid of the so-called perfect era of the 1950s, political figures of the United States protagonist on their very own soap opera of gossiping, which eventually affected the moral of Americans. The exemplar article “The Smearing of Joe McCarthy: The Lavender Scare, Gossip, and Cold War Politics” by Andrea Friedman discusses the hearsay nature surrounding Senator Joseph McCarthy. The 1950s generation believed in conventional heterosexual relationships. Allegedly Senator McCarthy was suppressing his sexual desire for men. An image was enough to spark gossip to romantically link Senator McCarthy to attorney Roy Cohn along with other allegations.

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THE STONEWALL RIOTS The Stonewall riots are widely believed to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States. Considered by some to be the "Rosa Parks" moment of the gay rights movement in America, the riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York, in the early hours of June 28th, 1969. This single event has left a resounding impact on the fight for LGBT rights that can still be seen today. Throughout the 50s and 60s in the United States, the FBI along with local police departments kept close watch on what they believed to be "homosexual activity".

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Response to Senator McCarthy’s “Enemies From Within Speech” With anti-communism being the dominant political issue during the Cold War, hysteria and paranoia spread throughout the minds of Americans. The “Enemies From Within Speech” delivered at Wheeling, West Virginia in 1950 by Senator Joseph McCarthy focused on worsening that national fear. Senator McCarthy used ethos, metaphor, and hyperbole to create the notion of disloyalty within the federal government. In order to persuade the American public in a convincing way, Senator McCarthy appeals to their ethics.

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Sarah Paroya D period I hate MUSH The end of World War II should have marked a period of relief in America but instead, it lead America into a completely different type of war called the Cold War. The Cold War was an ongoing state of political and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. This constant state of tension and fear had been embedded deep in the American public.

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