Essay Describing Lessons Americans Should Learn

     There were a lot of lessons to be learned from the 1960s. These lessons should be learned from both Americans and their leaders. Lessons that origin from civil rights, war, and presidential elections. A lot of horrible things have happened, but also great things. At the end of the day we learn from the mistakes that we have made and strive to be a great country.
     One of the complications that Americans have had in the beginning of the 1960s had to do with civil rights, mainly with African Americans. African Americans faced segregation and discrimination, mainly in the southern part of the United States. Schools were separated from black and white people. African Americans were forced to sit at the back of a public bus. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the public bus, and that is was fueled the civil rights movements. The civil rights movement was lead by Martin Luther King Jr. People appealed to him for his non-violence protests that he held. He is most famous for his "I Have A Dream" speech. Although it took a while, Martin Luther King Jr. and all African Americans got the rights that they deserved. This should be a lesson to all that we are all equal and the color of our skin does not define us.
     One of the main things that we can learn from is the war. The Vietnam War was not a necessary war that the United States had to be involved in, and as a result from that the United States suffered from a great amount of casualties. The main reason the U.S. claimed to get involved in Vietnam was to prevent the spread of Communism. North Vietnam wanted to reunify South Vietnam under Communist control. In my opinion, the U.S. should have just stayed out of it. They should have gotten involved if North Vietnam wanted to takeover more countries. Americans can learn a great lesson from this. There is no reason to get involved in other countries business that has no effect on us.
     One thing that future American leaders can learn is to be honest with the American people. It is important to always be fair. When President Nixon was trying to win re-election, his administration broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex. When they were caught it was later revealed that Nixon had a tape recorder in his office that recorded all conversations. Recorded conversations from these tapes revealed that Nixon had been trying to cover up the actions that had taken place in the break-in. Before Nixon could be impeached, he had resigned from office. It was a real shame because Nixon had done a lot of great things during his presidency, especially his foreign policy, but he will be remembered mostly for the Watergate scandal that had occurred. Future leaders can learn from this. It is always better to be fair and honest, then to lie to your people.
     Overall, the 1960s was a great learning experience for all of America. A lot of bad things have happened, but we have either overcome them or learned from them. Everything has happened for a reason. Today all races have equal rights because of the civil rights movement. All of the little things have added up to make a great country. We are all in this together.