American Presidents - JAMES MONROE,JOHN F KENNEDY,ABRAHAM LINCOLN,WARREN HARDING

Efrimescu E. Catalin Iulian

LICEUL TEORETIC Ghe. Sincai

American Presidents

Cuprins:

*JAMES MONROE

*JOHN F. KENNEDY

*ABRAHAM LINCOLN

*WARREN HARDING

In the fallowing pages I will present you some of the most important(in my opinion) presidents in the history of United States of America.

JAMES MONROE:

He was the 5^th president of USA 1817-1825, and led the US at a time of expansion. In 1812, after the war the industry of US prospered also more and more people set off the new territories west of Mississippi river. So Monroe wanted to preserve the right to grow for the US, and he was concerned about Spain's attempt to reconquer it's lost territories. For this cause he generated a foreign policy who was known as the Monroe Doctrine.

Spain still controlled many colonies in South and Central America, at the beginning of the 19^th century. In time one by one the Spanish colonies declared their independence. To stop them Spain asked France for help in reconquering its lost territories.

Monroe didn't want a European power who later will make a European colonies in America. Colombia and Argentina ,gaining their independence, were examples for other countries as self-rule.

So in this case Monroe asked J.Q. Adams to write a foreign policy statement, or a doctrine. The resulting document was called later THE MONROE DOCTRINE, who contained 4 important points for the independence of America and the independence of the colonies:1-Any European countries could no longer establish colonies in the North or South America;2-The political systems of the American's states will be separate from those of Europe;3-Any European attempt to influence the American justice or political administration will be considerate as a threat to the peace and to the safety of American states;4-The US government would not interfere with the European governments or their colonies.

Since 1823, the year when the Monroe Doctrine was write and proclaimed, it was a very important document for the American legislation and for American relations with other states.
JOHN F. KENNEDY:

Although the Second World War was over in 1945, 2 big powerful nations, US and Soviet Union(SU), continued to develop many and powerful weapons for mass destruction.

In 1952-1953 those 2 nations tested their first H-bombs(hydrogen-bombs), who are many times more destructive then a regular atomic bomb. If they were using those H-bombs they were capable to destroy each other.

To the end 1950s they had so many nuclear missiles that they could kill everybody on earth.

It was ,between 2 powers , a balance of terror with so many nuclear weapons. If one of 2 nations started a war between them neither of them could win it , because they had an equal quantity of weapons.

Because of this , Eisenhower and Khrushchev wanted to bury the axe of war. So in may 1960 the 2 of them were on they way to a summit in Paris when a US spy plane was shot down when it was making photos to the military installation in SU. This act put an end to the talks before they had even started.

After that incident, the next president of US was JFK, from 1961.In this period he was faced with the crisis in Cuba. Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, and nationalized the American assets and installed a communist government. Afraid that the communism might spread in America Eisenhower sent 1400 anti-Castro Cubans in Cuba ,who in matter of few days they was all captured or killed( in action).After that Khrushchev sent missiles to Cuba to help Castro. Alarmed Kennedy ordered a blocked to prevent the Soviet ships to arrive in Cuba with the missiles, and ordered that the US long-range nuclear missiles to aim the SU. Because they didn't want to generate am war ,the SU president removed the missiles and Kennedy put an end to the blockade.

In 1963 US,SU and Britain signed an LIMITED TEST BAN TREATY prohibiting nuclear tests in the atmosphere.

On November 22, 1963 Kennedy was in Dallas with his wife, when he was Killed by an assassin .So the American nation lose one of the most dynamic and promising President.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN:

He was born in Kentucky, Hardin County in a house with one room. He read all books who could find on the frontier in spite of he went to school just one year .Before to study the law he held many jobs: he was store clerk , postmaster and many others. After he studied the law he became one of the best lawyers in the state.

He made known his views about the slavery to the public when he was elected to the Congress. In 1858 Abe ran for the Senate as a republican but he was defeated by Stephen Douglas. After that in 1860 he narrowly defeated Douglas in the race for president.

When he tacked the office in 1861, many states had left the Union, and made a new county the Confederate States of America. When some soldiers fired on fort Sumter who was held by the Union, that thing signaled the start of the Civil war.

This war it was the biggest challenge that the new nation had faced so far. The most important thing it was that the peoples didn't know what to do, because a part of northerners considered that the slavery isn't their problem and some southerners had not slaves on their properties .

At the beginning of war the north had many advantages over the south. They was 22 million in compared with the south who had just 9 million free population .In north it was many banks and money, and very important a more developed industry then the agricultural south, so they could produce a more quantity of weapons. It also they had a larger railroad system and navy.

Despite these advantages the north army suffered many defeats in the first year , because the south was fighting on their own land, they was familiarized with the land and besides they were defeating their own homes. They was expert riders and riflemen, cause they had better officers.

On January 1, 1863 Abe Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. Using this act he freed the 3.5 million slaves in the southern states.

The Union army under general grant took in 1863 an important stronghold of the Confederate army on Mississippi called Vicksburg .

This cut off the supplies and soldiers coming from Virginia to Texas, and after 3 days of fierce fighting at Gettysburg in june   1863 the Confederate army was forced to retreat.

Despite this victory the war and Lincoln's way to abolition of slavery become very unpopular. Many northerners demanded a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

At the end of 1864 the Union army closed in on the Confederates both from south and the north.

So on April 9, 1865 the general Robert Lee , who was the     Confederate commander , was forced to surrender. The Civil war came to an end after 4 years of bitter fighting and 635000 dead, the greatest loss of human lives in American history.

Five days later President and Mrs. Lincoln went to see a play at the Washington Theater. Angry with the tyrant, an actor and a southern supporter, J.W. Booth , shot Lincoln in the back of the head.

Lincoln's death the next morning stunned the nation. With Lincoln died the hope for a peaceful reconstruction of he South .So in this way USA loss an important political man.

WARREN HARDING:

He was the first post war president, being a republican. He had the belief that the government must to help and support the big business and companies. His motto was that a businessman had a lot of money he must to invest them in his company to extend it and to create new jobs for population.

Warren Harding was the first post war president who had such policies. He promised to the nation in his election campaign to return the things to normality .

When he said that he meant supporting big business. He established a high tariff on imports, and in this way he made the people to buy American things.

In his period he created a federal budget system and restricted the immigration with the Quota Act -1921.

Internationally he worked at the world peace. In 1921 at Washington he called a disarmament conference, and a plan was worked out limiting the world's navies.

His administration was overshadowed by the dishonesty of some of his appointees. He put many incompetent friends in key government position, who made a lot of black deals.

In 1923 he died suddenly on the West Coast during a trip that he and his wife were making. After his death many stories about the members of his Cabinet came out, and so many of them went to jail.