America: The Story of Us (Part 11: Superpower)

The United States of America was built on hardship, sacrifice, and discovery. In 2010, the history channel have created this 12-part docu-series where it talks about many of those hardships, sacrifices, and discoveries.

This is part 11 of this 12-part wiki series about The History Channel's docu-series. In this part, we will talk about how the US boomed in the years following World War 2.

## Superpower

### The Interstate Highway is built

The episode begins somewhere in the US where the Interstate Highway system was built.

Before the US had an interstate highway, it already had a highway system but they were winding and took a long time to drive in, and there are even places where the roads were rough and sometimes impossible to pass. When Dwight D. Eisenhower drive across a country in an army convoy, the journey took 2 months.

When Eisenhower became the President, and inspired by Germany's Autobahn highway system. He wanted to create the US' own interstate highway system. Now, the American highway system is by far the largest in the world, and it can encircle the entire Earth 10 times. The biggest is I-90 which goes from Boston to Seattle.

The Interstate highway system also brought along the age of the car. In Part 8, we talked about how Henry Ford's first mass produced cars made it easier for the typical person to move around. By the 1950s when the Interstates were being built, the car was at its peak, and they were also cheap enough for the typical suburban family.

### The Birth of Suburbia

The episode now goes to somewhere in New York state to talk about the birth of suburbia.

Much like the car, the suburbs weren't anything new by the 1950s, again like the car, the suburbs were created so people don't have to live near where they work, now they can have their own space where they can raise a family, and the suburbs were the places where the 5-member family can live and flourish. In fact, by the 1950s the birth rate would skyrocket, creating the Baby Boomer generation which would have a huge impact in the coming decade.

The rise of Suburbia also saw the rise of household gadgets, appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators to keep the house cool in the summer and preserving food like meat, and dairy were in virtually every home, televisions also became more practical and people had better access to faster communication.

### Going to the Moon

The episode now goes to Cape Canaveral where we launch 3 men to the Moon.

In 1957, the USSR surprises the USA by launching their satellite Sputnik 1 into space, the race to go to space is on, and for the next few years it would be a seesaw battle as both the USA and the USSR would conduct space missions which would see one nation (for a time) get ahead of the other. Then, President John F. Kennedy made a speech regarding to the USA's Apollo program that they would conduct a mission to go to the moon by the end of the 1960s.

By 1969, this goal was achieved as was the biggest prize in the Space Race, the Americans have reached The Moon.

The American Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. became the first people to ever walk on the Moon. They planted the US Flag and a plaque saying that they come on peace, and took back rock samples for examination on Earth.

### The fight for civil rights

The episode now goes to Selma, Alabama where a fight for civil rights takes place.

Eventhough slavery has ended. But, the rift between whites and African-Americans is still present especially in the south where there are Jim Crow laws which allows for official segregation of whites and African-Americans. In the south African-Americans can't do some things that whites can like the right to vote. It wouldn't be long until the African-Americans would begin to protest these unfair and unjust laws. In 1965, a group of African-Americans in Selma, Alabama were marching against the Jim Crow laws and for their right to vote. This was a peaceful protest, but was met with violence by white authorities, the news of this event spread quickly, and the Voter's Right Act was passed.

### The Cold War

Ever since the end of World War 2 in Europe, tensions between the USA and the USSR were growing ever bigger, it officially kicked off after the Berlin Airlift in 1947 but escalated further 2 years later when the Soviets successfully tested their own nuclear weapons which also led to a reason to be scared of the USSR as the USA no longer had the monopoly on nuclear weapons.

Tensions would rise to new heights as an American U-2 Spy Plane was shot down over the USSR in May 1960. But tensions would reach their peak 3 years later when the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred when the USSR responded to American Nukes in Turkey and Italy by constructing their own in Castro's Cuba, putting Soviet Nukes on America's doorstep and can hit to virtually any American city that is within range, for 5 days the world held its breath until both sides agree to remove their nukes in their respective places.

That'll do it for this part, in the next part (the final part), we will talk about how America was back in the 70s and 80s, and how it went into the new millennium. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.