The Film, Radical Evil, By Stefan Ruzowitzky

The two superpowers in the world, the United States and Soviet Union, had begun to show their strengths immediately after war. Following the war, they got involved in events such as the Berlin Airlift and the Korean War in an attempt to prove who was stronger. After those events the two countries participated in an arms race, a contest in which they competed to see who was to build more powerful weapons. As this race turned into a more serious situation, and Americans started to realize that the United States wasn’t the only one with powerful weapons, fear united them once again. As shown in Document 3, the dominant problem throughout the years 1953-1962 was the threat of war.

After the ravages of World War II, the United States experienced a long period of economic boom, thanks to industrial weapons work and to the low price of oil. At the same time, under this nationwide economic prosperity, Americans felt increasing fear in the looming shadow of the communist Soviet Union. The US seemed to be in a spiral. Sputnik’s successful launch increased tensions that had been building since the aftermath of World War II; while President Eisenhower and his administration instituted numerous measures to calm down the hysteria that pervaded the US, these attempts had no real effect on de-escalating tensions felt between both sides.

The happenings in World War II remain to this day some of the worst that the world has ever seen, and it has marred the past of Aryans and non-Aryans alike since the conclusion in 1945. One question has resonated throughout the decades as it does with any event with this great magnitude: why? How could justification be reached for the slaughter of millions of Jews, Poles, and other minorities? Oftentimes many people do not consider the prospect of being forced into a concentration camp or other such communal home.

In 1950, a National Security group of people who advise Report known as NSC-68 had past Truman's recommendation that the country use military force to contain communist acts of something getting bigger anywhere it seemed to be happening(Unit 7 Lesson 6 “The Korean War”). Especially, American people in charge inspired the development of atomic weapons like the ones that had ended the second world war(P.K). This way began a deadly arms race. In 1949, the Soviets tested an atom bomb of their own. In return, President Truman announced that the United States would construct an even more deadly atomic weapon called the hydrogen bomb.

In his careful handling of “the Sputnik ‘crisis,’” Eisenhower was able to alleviate any pressure on the Soviet Union, but the same could not be said about the fears of Americans (421-422). When America had to play catch-up in space technology and when Eisenhower minced the details on American nuclear superiority, he barely “half-succeeded” in allaying American fears (422). Unfortunately, this was only one of many issues that Eisenhower faced before the end of his time

“The Evil Empire” — that is what, at the height of the arms race, United States President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union (Rudolph 1). Unsurprisingly, the Soviet Union was similarly upset at the United States. This anger is what fueled the arms race. During the Cold War, due to fears of nuclear attack, the US and Soviet Union designed and deployed thousands of nuclear warheads, each hoping to deter the other from nuclear launch with threat of counter attack (O’Neal 1). This massive arms buildup, however, had many negative effects on the US. To recognize the impact that the arms race continues to have on today, it is crucial to understand not only its causes, but also its immediate impacts on the US economy, society, foreign

The Holocaust can be seen as one of the most devastating genocide that occurred in history and that is well known in many places worldwide. One may assume that those who played a part in the acts done by the Nazis in Germany may have been mentally disturbed and/or sick, evil people. However, the novel Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning provides another alternative to this statement. Browning provides the reader with the idea that anyone is capable of becoming a murderer, especially when the opportunity presents itself. In his book he attempts to prove this statement through multiple ideas and theories and also provides events which took place to analyze some of those ideas.

The Holocaust is known as one of the most devastating, or perhaps even the most devastating incident in human history. On paper, the dizzying statistics are hard to believe. The mass executions, the terrible conditions, the ruthlessness, and the passivity of the majority of witnesses to the traumatic events all seem like a giant, twisted story blown out of proportion to scare children. But the stories are true, the terror really happened, and ordinary citizens were convinced into doing savage deeds against innocent people. How, one must ask? How could anyone be so pitiless towards their neighbors, their friends? In a time of desperation, when a country was on its knees to the rest of the world, one man not only united Germans against a

The United States’ response to the Holocaust is a much-discussed and very sensitive subject for a variety of groups close to or related to the situation. The opinions on the subject are diverse and far-reaching, and the analyzations and comparison of some of these can lead to a greater understanding of not only the happenings of the Holocaust itself but also the social reactions to the event by the many groups involved. Four sources I intend to compare include Martin Gilbert’s Auschwitz and the Allies, David Wyman’s The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945, W.D. Rubinstein’s The Myth of Rescue: Why the Democracies Could Not Have Saved the Jews from the Nazis, and Peter Novick’s The Holocaust in American Life, because I believe that these four sources make up a diverse and widespread selection from which nearly all opinions, or the most conflicting ones, can be observed and interpreted. The first work uses an investigatory style that proposes pieces of evidence from the period shortly before the Holocaust that could have allowed the allies further and more prudent action. Similarly, the second work argues that there is substantial evidence that the United States and the rest of the allies could certainly have saved thousands of lives with earlier and more aggressive action, but argues from a more opinion and theoretical style that focuses less on

Specifically, George Kennan’s ‘Long Telegram’ served as the outline for a strategy designed to contain Soviet expansionism and imperialism (“Iron Curtain”, CNN). The policy of containment would ultimately drive the decision to employ force in countering the aggression of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Kennan’s assessment of the Soviets proved accurate, and on 29 August 1945, Stalin’s regime tested their first atomic bomb successfully (Judge & Langdon, 66). This test represented a restoration in the Cold War’s balance of power, but for the United States, it signified a tremendous loss in advantage (Judge & Langdon, 67). This strategic balance limited America’s strategic options, which hinged largely upon the idea of nuclear deterrence. With the advent of the Soviet nuclear era, America now found itself in a tit-for-tat scenario and subject to the perceived unpredictability of Stalin (“Korea”, CNN). Moreover, 1949 also saw the victory of Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the

World War II was a very devastating and scary time for Jews in Germany. Not only were they blamed for everything, but their government was in a fool’s gold paradise. Everyone has most likely heard this expression; One man lived and 55 million people died. But, who is the one man? Adolf Hitler, to be specific. Sadly, Germans had no choice but to accept anti-Communist and anti-Jewish policies (Adams, 14). This was the war that was started to gain world peace.

The conflict between the Allies and the Axis was a horrific and deadly one, which consisted of genocide and mass bombings. Innocent citizens were killed with the estimated sixty million casualties, which lead to the question as to the morality of the different actors—Germany, Japan, England and America— in WWII. In order to truly assess their guilt, meaning their moral innocence, each country will be measured upon the morality of their intent and execution of the different controversial mass killings that Germany (the Holocaust), Japan (Nanking), and the Allied forces (Dresden and Hiroshima) took part in. This hierarchy of evil can be judged upon how Japan’s tyranny and the Allies’ area bombing compare to the genocide performed by Germany. Similarly, these countries will be judged on the whether these different acts were premeditated versus in response to another act, as well as the proportionality to which these acts were carried out. This measurement of evil places each party on an overall scale, which depicts the total guilt that each country or countries deserve. WWII exemplifies that while war is an unavoidable aspect of human nature, there is no such thing as a just war. Similarly, while there is a definite hierarchy of morality between the different actors of WWII, each of the countries at play are immoral in their intent and execution of the attacks on opposing countries.

Adolf Hitler is very much known for his barbaric deed and responsibility of the Holocaust-- possibly the most disturbing and most horrifying event to be recorded in history. The holocaust systematically killed over six million Jewish people, including over 1.5 million children that were victimized through a number of arguments that many believed was the cause for the destruction. It is difficult to conclude an overriding reason why the holocaust happened, although it is argued, however, that the imminent effect of the psychological state of mind of Hitler, along with the German citizens at the time, had a massive effect on what happened and what could have been prevented. Hitler’s anger and the country’s general

More than half a century has passed since the end of World War Two and to this day it is still difficult to fully understand the severity of what was by far the most destructive war in human history. More than sixty million people were killed during World War Two and more than half of those were innocent town’s people. Among the dead were over six million Jews, which was two thirds of the total living race in Europe at the time. Beyond these general statistics were thousands of stories of crimes committed against soldiers and civilians. These crimes against humanity included cases of prisoners of war being murdered, sent to concentration camps and abuse as well as harmless civilians being rounded up and

When President Truman authorized the use of two nuclear weapons in 1945 against the Japanese in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the nature of international security was changed irreversibly. At that time, the United States had what was said to have a monopoly of atomic bombs. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union began working on atomic weaponry. In 1949, it had already detonated it first atomic bomb and tensions began to heat up between the two countries. With the information that the Soviets had tested their first bomb, the United States began work on more powerful weapons1, and a fight for nuclear superiority had begun.