IB: The Americas

Hispanic American activist Cesar Chavez recounts his experiences protesting for labor rights.

You are watching the opening 30 minutes of Show#1 of my six part 1990 television series “Making Sense of the Sixties." To see the second half go here - https://youtu.be/b-UA36Wc_Ns

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David Hoffman Filmmaker

'This weekend is Henry Kissinger’s 100th birthday. To celebrate, Mehdi Hasan says, “I want to talk about some of the many, many people around the world who didn’t get to live till 100, or even 60, 70, or 80, *because* of Henry Kissinger.”'

'The U.S. History Collection covers the full U.S. History curriculum for middle and high school students. Find video and interactive resources covering the curriculum of a United States History course and is organized by era and by historical thinking skill.'

'Sacheen Littlefeather refuses to accept the Best Actor Oscar® on behalf of Marlon Brando for his performance in "The Godfather" at the 45th annual Academy Awards in 1973. Liv Ullmann and Roger Moore presented the award.'

'On May 4, 1970, after days of unrest over America's invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, student protesters at Kent State University clashed with Ohio National Guardsmen. The guardsmen opened fire, killing four students and wounding nine others. It was a pivotal moment in America's anti-war movement.'

"In this lecture, Professor Mark Atwood Lawrence (University of Texas at Austin) examines the origins of the Vietnam War to answer the question of why there was a war in Vietnam in the first place. We start by looking at what life was like in colonial Vietnam. Although the French brought economic development to the region, this came at enormous cost to the Vietnamese population. The system the French created spurred a strong impulse amongst Vietnamese to gain independence, particularly with Ho Chi Minh. Despite failures early on in his life, Ho was able to create a powerful nationalist movement that, from the 1940s, was able to challenge French (and Japanese) rule."

'The mass grave was found during a survey of the former residential school for indigenous people.'

'Jonathan Alter is an award-winning journalist and author of three bestselling presidential biographies. His latest, "His Very Best," examines the life and career of one-term president Jimmy Carter. Alter tells Walter Isaacson why he believes President Carter’s tenure in the White House has been grossly underrated.'

Perspectives on the New Deal

New Deal propaganda film about the impact upon African Americans. 

'Several days after Salvador Allende’s history-changing November 3, 1970, inauguration, Richard Nixon convened his National Security Council for a formal meeting on what policy the U.S. should adopt toward Chile’s new Popular Unity government. Only a few officials who gathered in the White House Cabinet Room knew that, under Nixon’s orders, the CIA had covertly tried, and failed, to foment a preemptive military coup to prevent Allende from ever being inaugurated.'

You are watching the last 30 minutes of Part 1 of my six part 1990 television series “Making Sense of the Sixties." To see the first half of this program go here - *https://youtu.be/yaZzwS-LLho.


David Hoffman Filmmaker

'Liberation theology was a movement in the Catholic Church. It was a controversial effort begun in Latin America in the 1960s-1980s to side with the poor and oppressed over the rich and the powerful and to promote social justice and transformation. Correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro spoke with some of the ageing veterans of Nicaragua’s liberation theology struggles of a generation ago.'

Dwight D. Eisenhower

'The stock market crash of 1929 didn’t cause the Great Depression by itself, but it is a powerful symbolic starting point to the greatest economic disaster of the twentieth century. On that dark day in October 1929, fortunes were lost and fear of financial insecurity rose throughout the United States and the world. In 1932, the low point of the Depression, as much as a third of Americans were out of work and even more people were unemployed in other countries. The stock market reached its lowest point ever and wouldn’t rise to its pre-Depression levels for almost twenty years.'

'Sarah Weddington was just 26 years old when she argued her case in front of the US Supreme Court.'

A short film on women's rights in Cuba. 

'The second of a two part Reputations special, originally aired on BBC 2 in 2000. This episode reveals Nixon's conspiracy to sabotage the 1968 peace talks with Vietnam in order to extend the war, allowing a Nixon election victory later that same year at the cost of thousands of preventable deaths.'

Women in the Progressive Era and the impact of the New Deal

'During the Great Depression, unemployment among African-Americans was twice that of whites - mostly due to segregation. One rare opportunity came on the Pullman sleeper trains, where most of the porters were black.'

'This video provides a brief introduction into art in the 1930s, including prominent works of art, artists, the Federal Art Project, and the influence of art deco architecture.'