Please read entire instructions, this project will consist of two parts and the 1 page will be split in half for both separate paragraphs. The first paragraph is about the Trumans statement and the korean war, the second paragraph is simply stating your thoughts on chapters 9-10 of passing strange while answering a question or two.
Passing strange book information-
Martha A Sandweiss, Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across The Color
Line (Penguin Books: 2010). ISBN: 9780143116868.
FIRST PART—
Although the conflict between the Capitalist West and the Communist East is known as The Cold War, The Korean War represented this conflict heating up militarily. Korea was a Japanese colony in the run up to World War II. It was confiscated after Japan surrendered and divided at the 38th parallel. The North was controlled by the Soviets, and the South by the United States. In 1950, the Communist North invaded the South and the Truman administration went to war under the auspices of the UN to contain the Communist threat. It’s interesting to note here that the last time the US formally declared war was WWII. Truman maintained that the US was using “police action.” The war soon stalemated as the Chinese joined the conflict. 3 million people died in the War. Most of these deaths were civilians who suffered from disease, famine, and the horrors of napalm bombs (these would later be used in Vietnam as well). In July 1953, President Eisenhower signed the Korean armistice which ended the fighting, but did not officially end the war. The Communists retreated back to the North and the two Koreas remain divided to this day by a four mile wide military border. North Korea remains one of the biggest threats to American foreign policy.
USING THE THREE SOURCES below compare Truman’s statement about the US declaring war on North Korea to the course of the conflict. What are your THOUGHTS? Was this a necessary war? Did the US have any other options?
https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116192
https://theintercept.com/2017/05/03/why-do-north-koreans-hate-us-one-reason-they-remember-the-korean-war/
Complete in one paragraph, half a page
SECOND PART—-
Please answer one or both of the questions listed below using your own thoughts about the chapters and the book, passing strange. Do not explain what the chapters were about, simply answer and give your thoughts about the question and chapters.
As Sandweiss describes the trajectory of Ada’s life:
“No piece of legal paper had recorded the moment an enslaved child called Ada became a free person called Ada Copeland; no legal document marked the moment Ada Copeland became Ada Todd King. Now, no official record would mark her transformation into Ada King. She would do that herself, slowly, and in fits and starts.” (263)
Read chapters 9 and 10 in Part Three of Passing Strange (pages 247-277) and share your thoughts on any of the following questions.
What was Ada’s life like after King’s death?
What happened to Ada and King’s children and grandchildren?
