pw+foreign+outside+readings

ATG - NBC Archives Controversy Over Commemorative Mushroom Cloud Stamp

NBC featured this clip long after WWII when the United States Postal Service created what was seen as an offensive stamp. Created by NBC the clip took a neutral point of view, however during the clip both sides point of views were displayed. The United States, although realizing it was wrong, felt that the stamp was commemorating a time of great success in United States history. For Japanese, on the other stand, the stamp was taken very offensively, reintroducing a time of great horror. The stamp brings up prior conflict and there for has been subject to change. It is important to realize the time period the stamp was introduced because at this point, veterans were older and felt it was important to remiss on the war. Because the war was long over the government may have also handled the situation a little differently. The United States was celebrating the war victory and a stamp like this would have just been just another symbol of celebration, while, in today’s society it is seen as negative and offensive. Many American, today, do not look back at the atomic bombs the same way as before. Although the idea behind the creation of the stamp was one of commemoration, the NBC clip displays the negative connotations that can be made and the effect that it had on both the Americans and the, still recovering, people of Japan.

EKB- The Iron Curtain Speech

This document is composed of excerpts from Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain Speech" made in March 5th, 1946. The speech was made by Winston Churchill, the former British Prime Minister.The speech was made to the students and faculty at Westminster College in Missouri after he received an honorary degree. Despite having been voted out of office after a vote of "no confidence" after World War II, Winston Churchill was, just as he had done Pre-WWII, trying to warn the British people to deal with the impending problems with aggressors, which at this point was Soviet Russia. In this speech, he gives these warnings to the American people as well. Well before World War II, Churchill "cried aloud to my [his] fellow countrymen" to not appease Hitler or stall around waiting for him to attack but to instead act and try to solve the problem before it began. No one listened to him then, which made him especially enthusiastic about sending the message against the practices of appeasement to Stalin. This desperation for the people of the world to listen probably led to a bit of exaggeration on the severity of the problem to rally the people, leading historians to call this speech "war-mongering", but the majority of the speech was the beliefs of Churchill and an accurate reflection of current relations with Soviet Russia. Both the major point the material is trying to convey and the larger historical debate presented lie in the warnings against appeasement and the need not to repeat the practices seen before World War II with Hitler in the relations with Joseph Stalin.With the new power the United States had after World War II, both political and economic, Churchill begs the American people to listen. He pleads for the world not to stick their proverbial head in the ground and ignore Russia. He knew that, just like Hitler, Stalin would not be appeased, he could not be ignored. He moves to reach an understanding with Russia in the United Nations and to take a firm stance on the negotiations. A recognizable symbol from WWII propaganda by Joseph Goebbels that made this speech famous and had it effectively renamed in the public eye was the term "iron curtain". The "iron curtain" was the term used, even more so after this speech, to describe the divisions of Europe due to Soviet Influence. Churchill uses this term in order to show that while no war had broken out, Russia has made a line down the continent, occupying many countries west of the "iron curtain". Churchill pushes for negotiations immediately while the world still has power and Britain, France and America all still have influence and land east of the line. He also plays on American heartstrings bringing up the thousands of men lost in both World Wars in America fighting over European disputes, he knowing full well that the American people will try what they can to avoid paying that price again. This material proves its importance after the Cold War, since in the time after the speech was given Churchill seemed like a war monger bringing up hypothetical wars. He was, after all, speaking ill of the Russians, who had given more lives than anyone else in the war and without whose efforts the Second World War would have surely been lost. However, after the Cold War ended and the war had proved itself to occur similarly to what Churchill said, did he prove himself to be the prophet who saw the ends of two wars before they happened and to whom no one listened. 2/13 checked