Semester 2 Final Blog Post

PART A

1. Before doing any research, I predict the three most highly ranked presidents will be John F. Kennedy, Obama, and Ronald Reagan and the worst might be Nixon, Taft, and Bill Clinton. 

2. The top four presidents have consistently been Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt in that order. Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower have gone back and forth between the 4th and 5th spot.

3. Presidents Waren G Harding, Franklin Pierce, and Andrew Johnson are the only 3 presidents on the list to be ranked as president 40. There is more change in the rankings among the last 3 presidents than the first 3 because the first 3 are steadily ranked as 1, 2, and 3 almost each time the survey was done with the exception of Washington and Roosevelt's ranking being switched once, but the last three presidents ranking changed almost every time. Only 4 presidents had the same ranking each time the survey was done: Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Taft.

4.  The majority of the participants professions included historian, journalist, lawyer, biographer, or author, and it shows they were all college educated from reputable colleges. This information was given to show the credibility of their knowledge and to show that their choices/opinions were very well informed for why they believe that. If this had not been included, I would have wondered how reliable were the opinions of the people asked, and if they had prior knowledge on the presidents throughout history or if they just randomly guessed who they thought was best to worse. The survey participants are all well educated and knew what they were talking about because for most their professions have to do with the study of history, thus, the survey results were accurate because the participants were all well informed. 

5. "Public Persuasion," "Crisis Leadership," "Economic Management," "Moral Authority," "International Relations," "Administrative Skills," "Relations with Congress," "Vision/Setting An Agenda," "Pursued Equal Justice for All," and "Performance Within the Context of His Times."

C-Span (C-span.org), Presidential Historians Survey Methodology

6.  All the categories were weighted equally. 

C-Span (C-span.org), Presidential Historians Survey Methodology

7.  Crisis Leadership, Economic Management, and International Relations would be weighted most heavily. Crisis Leadership is so important because if we ever got into a war, the presidents ability to rally the US will make or break how well we do in the war and how inspired the American people feel to help. Economic Management is very important to me because the president leaving us in a huge debt is so detrimental to the American people because it affects our day to day living due to a higher tax and worse inflation rates. International Relations is so important to keep a war between America and the Middle East from breaking out, and to keep our country from going into wars over terrorist attacks. 

8. I was very off on my predictions, and that is because I assumed the semi-recent presidents that people still talk about would be ranked highest, and that the ones with huge scandals or that didn't do much would be ranked lowest. 

PART B

"On March 16 we celebrate the anniversary of James Madison's birthday. Madison, traditionally viewed as the Father of the United States Constitution, is also seen by many as a defender of open government. He once wrote, "[a] popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."1 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. In a similar vein, he asserted that "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge" is "the only Guardian of true liberty." The United States Dept. of Justice (justice.gov), Celebrating James Madison and the Freedom of Information Act

9.  James Madison's birthday was March 16, so this day is celebrated as his anniversary. Madison is the originator of America's constitution and heavily believed the people should be freely governed without censorship of education. His belief was that an uninformed, totalitarian government would quickly end in failure because education will beat blind stupidity, and that for a democracy to work, each person participating in voting must be informed enough to make choices that will better their country. He also believed that the only thing protecting a country's freedom is continual educational learning and teaching to every citizen. 

" . . . [K]nowledge of our own history is essential in the making of Americans. The reasons for this belief may be summed up under four main heads. History makes loyal citizens because memories of common experiences and common aspirations are essential ingredients in patriotism. History makes intelligent voters because sound decisions about present problems must be based on knowledge of the past. History makes good neighbors because it teaches tolerance of individual differences and appreciation of varied abilities and interests. History makes stable, well-rounded individuals because it gives them a start toward understanding the pattern of society and toward enjoying the artistic and intellectual productions of the past. It gives long views, a perspective, a measure of what is permanent in a nation’s life. " American Historical Association (historians.org): Why Should Americans Know Their Own History 

10.        James Madison's statement and the AHA statement are similar in their views on the importance of learning. The AHA believes knowledge of history is necessary to keep americans patriotic, informed voters, appreciative of diversity, and to fully understand the past and present. This is similar to Madison's belief because both viewpoints think knowledge is necessary for a democracy to work where the people successfully govern themselves. However, the viewpoints have differences because firstly Madison does not specifically state historical knowledge is the most important, unlike the AHA. He instead believes learning about all different things is more important because then they will be more educated overall and be more well adept to govern themselves. James Madison also believed that the people should be loyal to their own knowledge and other fellow citizens, not necessarily the government if they were misusing their power. Whereas, the AHA emphasizes the importance of "loyal citizens" and implies their loyalty lies with the government. This is different from Madison because in Madison's statement he emphasizes the importance of the freedom to question and not blindly follow the the government. 

            I to some extent agree with both viewpoints from Madison and AHA. However, I like Madison's  view more because I agree with more of the points he made. I think that education of all subjects is more important that strictly focusing on history because their are so many things to learn from other topics like english or science that can help with history and making informed political choices. I also think that it is very important to question the government and freely protest it because it can be corrupt and make unjust laws. However, I agree with the AHA on its view about how history is useful to teach us cultural appreciation and acceptance of others. I think this is incredibly important because there are so many horrible historic events like the Holocaust or slavery where people where not informed enough to realize differences aren't bad, so the different people were treated horribly because of this ignorance. 

PART C

11. I have definitely grown as a researcher this year because I have learned how to paraphrase sources correctly without accidentally twisting my own thoughts together with some one else's. Recently, I accidentally plagiarized by doing just this and from this experience I learned a lot and it taught me the importance of giving someone credit for their ideas. When I rewrote it I made sure to strictly use only my words and chose to not even use my notes so my brain wouldn't get my words mixed up with others by reading my notes. My ability to use reliable sources has also gotten much better because at the beginning of the year I hated using databases and reading from primary sources, so generally most of my sources were casual websites. However, now I am able to use primary sources, read the documents, and actually understand them, not be confused by older english. I am also not afraid to use databases now because Ive gotten much better at using search terms and filters. 

12. The one I'm most proud of is my Invitation to Watergate Party Post because I did so much research trying to find out-of-the-box people for that who would also fit with the theme of the scandal or who had some relation to it. I'm also proud of this one because of all the questions I thought of were creative had substance and would be interesting answers that I could not find online. 

13. I thought Max Pitsinos Menu blog post was excellent because you could clearly tell how much detail and effort he put into selecting the food items. He in-depth explained why he chose this food and all of his reasons were very well thought out such as it was popular in the time period or this was someone's that was relevant to the movie favorite food. He then added a fun play on words at the end of most, such as, when he chose the French Onion Dip and explained how it correlated to the Cuban Missle Crisis by putting a play on the word "dip".
US History Blog: Film Blog 3 - Menu

14.  "Do one thing everyday that scares you." (Eleanor Roosevelt) 
This quote is very inspiring to me because I feel uncomfortable with going out of my comfort zone even though so many good things happen when you do. So, this quote gives me the little push I need sometimes to do things that I would be terrified to do. 

15.

This is a very famous painting of Marilyn Monroe by American artist Andy Warhol and I chose this because I love pop art, and Andy Warhol started the whole pop art movement. I chose this as a grand finale piece because art is so important to America because creavity is so inspirational and America's creative freedom is not something to be taken for granted due to the censorship of many other countries. 

This is a photo of the Apollo 11 moon landing. I chose this for my grand finale piece because it is one of the most important and joyful moments in American History because we won the space race over Russia, and this helped to show our dominance in the world. 

Update to #2

I learned from my own historical research that the movie leaves out an explanation of the entire Watergate scandal, instead, focusing mainly on the interview time period itself. One could not learn what exactly the scandal was fully about, why Nixon chose to resign and wasn't impeached or convicted, and how the interview concluded. The watergate scandal was a general label slapped onto all the dishonest and illegal things Nixon's reelection campaign administration chose to do in order to get Nixon reelected. The watergate scandal came to a head when a group of burglars Nixon hired were sent to the Democrat Watergate Headquarters to wire tap it in order to get more information about the democrats strategy and have a level over them in the campaign. The burglars were caught wiretapping and were linked back to Nixon because one of the burglar's address book contained a phone number connected to Nixon's reelection campaign team. This was ousted to the public by Washington Post reporters which started the deep dive into all of Nixon's dishonesty. These reporters were able to uncover all the things that Nixon illegally did including Nixon's secret oval office tapes of every conversation that happened in the presidential office and how far deep the Watergate lies went. However, even though the whole scandal was unearthed, Nixon was not convicted or impeached. Nixon instead chose to resign because he was scared to be impeached after releasing the tapes, and then Gerald Ford, Nixon's vice-president turned president, chose to pardon Nixon completely, leading to a public outcry. This whole scandal and then the way it was treated after caused the public to stop blindly trusting the government which was so monumental because the public had completely believed the government had their best interest in mind before (textbook). Nixon did not do anything to ease this distrust and instead made it worse by refusing to admit his wrongdoing and apologize to the public for it. He kept insisting that his motives were pure and completely evaded apologizing in the interview. The Watergate scandal was also taking place during the Vietnam War so the public was already upset, and then finding out their president had lied to them and unfairly affected their voting choices was a huge thing (textbook). The movie also does not talk about the actual court case and Nixon's unwillingness to participate in it. The grand jury subpoenad Nixon's tapes and for Nixon to take the stand. However, Nixon refused because he believed he had the presidential authority to keep the tapes secret. Eventually, Nixon finally complied with this demand, but his difficulty in the court case is not talked about in the movie at all. Thus, one could not find out what exactly the Watergate scandal was, how much it affected the public, what all was happening in this time period, or why Nixon chose to resign.

I rewrote this because I unintentionally plagiarized by not citing a source I had used and incorrectly paraphrasing, and I did not answer the question, instead focused on small details of the movie that were different that real life. I learned to be much more careful with differentiating between my own notes and some one else's thoughts and ideas, to pay more attention to the actual prompt, and be much less careless with the importance of giving someone credit for their own work and to be very careful to not get it mixed up with my thoughts. For the future, I plan to make sure I don't rush any research and have the author's ideas clearly outlined as their's, and put my own ideas at the bottom so I don't get them mixed up at all.

In Class Write

1. From watching Frost/Nixon one could learn what the Watergate scandal was, the effects of it after, how Nixon responded to the scandal, and a background of what other political problems were going on within this era. The film does not come out and clearly define what exactly the Watergate scandal was. However, it offers enough context clues through the questions being asked by Frost-- such as when he asks Nixon if he himself believes that he “obstructed justice”-- for a viewer to successfully piece together all the information and conclude what exactly the watergate scandal was if they had no prior knowledge. It is so important that the film cleared up any confusion over what exactly the Watergate scandal was because played such a pivotal role in american history, causing the American people to start questing their government, shifting the power in the H.O.R. to the democrat side, and causing a new generation of Watergate babies that decentralized power in DC which led to the downfall of congress in the 1970’s. The film also offers a peek into what other current events were happening at that time by bringing up the invasion into Cambodia and the Vietnam War when Frost is questioning Nixon. This background info is so important because it allows for more transparency into the average US citizen’s life and struggles during this time period. Most Americans were already angry with Nixon for continuing the Vietnam War especially when they did not win, and many were also against the Cambodia Invasion. Thus, once the Watergate scandal broke they became very angry and pessimistic with their current government as a whole.

2. The film leaves out many important aspects of the entire scandal and Nixon’s life during this period. For example, one will not learn about Nixon’s project to redeem himself in the public eye through a scheme titled “The Wizard”. The film maker chooses to omit this in order to paint Nixon as a more sincere man and garner sympathy for him to create a classic trope. However, this is not accurate of the real Nixon. Instead, he had a premade plan of how to get back in the public favor, and the name “The Wizard” is very telling of how he planned to do this. Nixon was a master word manipulator and through this he wanted to sway the public back into liking him by distorting the true events through word play. Another important aspect the film incorrectly covers is the actual interview itself. The first problem with the interview was Nixon’s overall character. Nixon was somewhat awkward with small talk, and he wasn’t a funny, sociable man at all or one who felt much empathy and guilt. The interview starts with him seemingly like a heartfelt jokester reminiscing on the past, and this is inaccurate because the actual interview begins by arguing back and forth on the technicalities of obstruction of justice. Also, in the movie Jack Brennan is shown calling off the interview right before Nixon apologizes and admits, but in real life this was actually Frost’s doing because he misread a cue card. The end of the interview is also riddled with inaccuracies from Nixon’s expression to his admission of guilt. The movie portrays Nixon to look distorted in agony over guilt, whereas, in real life he was glowering but nothing more. The movie also creates an admission of guilt from Nixon. However, in real life he denied any cover up activity and said “You’re wanting me to say that I participated in an illegal cover up. No!”.  

3. I would create a court scene that shows every man involved in the Watergate scandal who was sent to trial being convicted and given their prison sentences. I would make them look very raw and vulnerable and have the sheer terror of being sentenced to prison for months or years be shown clearly in their expressions. Then, I would show a scene that included Ford publically pardoning Nixon and then show a scene from the interview where Nixon claims if the president does anything illegal it is not illegal. All these scenes would be somewhat quickly happening in that exact order to show the juxtaposition between Nixon’s carelessness and lack of guilt and punishment versus the other men involved in the watergate scandal whose lives were somewhat ruined because of prison sentences. I would add in this scene at the very end of the movie after Nixon is shown living lavishly in his beach villa even after everything. I would add the scene here to send the message that Nixon should not be sympathized because he faced no punishment for such big crimes just because he was in a position of power. I think showing this should be prioritized in order to accurately show all the effects of the scandal that men besides Nixon had to endure to paint a more full picture of what exactly happened after the Watergate scandal, and to show the parallels between how a power cancels out possible repercussions versus how the powerless struggle with repercussions.

Annotated Works Cited

Annotated Works Cited

Smithsonian (Smithsonianmag.com), "Frost, Nixon and Me"- Watergate Interview facts
History (History.com), "The Watergate Scandal" - Facts about the time period, the causes and effects of the scandal, in depth explanation of the whole scandal
America's History, 9th edition, Chapter 28, "The Search for Order in an Era of Limits, 1973-1980," Pages 890-892. - general overview of scandal and the effects of it
Frost/Nixon Movie
New York Times (NYTimes.com), "Transcript of Frost's Television Interview" - original televised interview, primary source
Docs Teach (docsteach.org), "Richard M. Nixon's Resignation Letter" - original document of nixon's resignation letter, primary source
National Archives Catalog (catalog.archives.gov), "Government Exhibit 133: Chapstick Tubes with Hidden Microphones"- original photo of evidence used in break-in, primary source
New York Intelligencer (nymag.com), "1968 Election, Won by Nixon, Still Haunts Our Politics" - shows original election pins, primary source
History (history.com), "Watergate: Who Did What and Where Are They Now" - shows original mugshots and who was involved, primary source
Spartacus Educational (spartacus-educational.com), "Bernard L. Barker" - shows primary source address book, gives information on him and importance of book
Docs Teach (docsteach.org), "Uher 5000 Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder" - tape recorder primary source
History, Art, and Archives (history.house.gov), "President Nixon Watergate Letter"- original court letter Nixon sent refusing subpoena, primary source
Docs Teach (docsteach.org), "Grand Jury Subpoena to Richard M. Nixon"- original grand jury letter sent to Nixon, primary source
Encyclopedia Britannica (britannica.com), "Mark Felt"- general overview of Mark Felt and his connection to the Watergate Scandal
The Washington Post (washingtonpost.com), "Watergate Conspirator James McCord Jr. Died Two Years Ago"- explanation of his involvement in watergate scandal
The New York Times (nytimes.com), "Frank Wills, 52; Watchman Foiled Watergate Break-In"- information on Frank Wills and his involvement in exposing the break-in
IMDb (imdb.com), "Frost/Nixon" - information on writer and actors of movie, used for Peter Morgan and Frank Langella
The New York Times (nytimes.com), "Stanley I. Kutler, Historian Who Got Nixon Tapes Released, Dies at 90" - overview of Stanley Kutler, his involvement in revealing Watergate scandal
Kitchn (thekitchn.com), "10 Recipes that Defined the 1970's" - lists popular recipes from US 1970's
Taste of Home (tasteofhome.com), "Popular 1970's Food that Deserves a Comeback"- lists popular dishes in 1970's
Red Tricycle (redtri.com), "15 Foods You Only Ate if You Grew Up in the '70's" - popular dishes in the 1970's
Huffington Post (huffpost.com), "Frost/Nixon: A Dishonorable Distortion of History" - similarities and differences between the movie and reality

Menu for Watergate Party

Menu 

Appetizers

1. Deviled Eggs

Deviled Eggs

I will be serving Deviled Egg's because finger foods came into immense popularity in the 1970's and the most popular finger food during this time were deviled eggs. 

2. Cheese and Pineapple Hedgehog

Cheese and Pineapple Hedgehog

I will be serving this because it was looked at as a very popular, classy dinner party staple within the 70's, partly due to the 70's rising interest in Hawaii.

Main Dishes

1. Spaghetti Bolognese 

Spaghetti Bolognese

Spaghetti Bolognese became very popular in the UK in the 1970's, and I will serve it at the party to show respect for Peter Morgan who is of British descent. 

2. Quiche Lorraine

Quiche Lorraine

I will service quiche because America went through a quiche fad in the 1970's which started with Quiche Lorraine becoming very popular and then leading to the creation of other different quiche types.

Side Dishes

1. Salad Bar

Salad Bar 

I will have a fresh salad bar because salad bars first appeared in U.S. restaurants in the 1970's and became huge which quickly led to the popularity of the side salad.

2. Three-Cheese Fondue laced with White Wine and served with Bread Cubes

Three Cheese Fondue

I will be serving Cheese Fondue because it spread from Switzerland to America in the 1970's and became a staple dish, commonly served at dinner parties as a sign of class.

Dessert

1. Watergate Salad 

Watergate Salad

In the 1970's Kraft debuted a new "Pistachio Pineapple Delight Pudding" which became very popular. Then, a Chicago Newspaper printed the recipe and dubbed it the "Watergate Salad" and the name stuck. Thus, I will be serving this dish because it was very popular in the 70's and was named after the Watergate scandal.

My Watergate Party Exhibit

Watergate Exhibit

Nixon's Official Letter of Resignation: this is extremely significant because it is Nixon's official letter of resignation from presidency that he gave on August 9, 1974, and this allowed Gerald Ford to become America's next president. This fits into the movie time-period because 4 days previous to this he turned over three tapes that implicated him, and in fear of impeachment, he decided to resign. 

Government Exhibit 133: Chapstick Tube with Hidden Microphone: these secret recorders were used by the Watergate break-in team to stay in communication with E. Hunt and G. Liddy during the break in. They were discovered in Hunt's White House office safe and this led to the development of evidence linking Nixon to the break-in. This fits into the movie's time-period because it is evidence that was used to aide in the break-in of the Watergate Headquarters. 

Original campaign pins from Nixon, Humphrey and Wallace: this is Nixon's original reelection of 1968 campaign pin along with his competitors Humphrey and Wallace. This is important to the film's history because it offers a glimpse into legal aspects of Nixon's campaign strategy that were successful aside from the Watergate conspiracy, and it shows what campaigning looked like within this time period.   

The original photo mugshots of the five watergate burglars: these are the original mugshots of the five men who were arrested at the second break in and charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice for wire-tapping and stealing documents. This is important to the film's history because these were the original men caught for the Watergate scandal that led the trail back to Nixon. 

Address Book of Watergate burglar Bernard Barker: the police found this on Barker when they were caught for the second break-in. This address book contained the number of E. Howard Hunt which led the police to connecting the break-in to the White House. This is crucial to the film's history because without this evidence the break-in may have never been connected to Nixon and the Watergate Scandal would have never broken. 

Nixon's original white house watergate recorder and tapes: these tapes were Nixon's original secret recordings of every conversation that happened within the oval office. It fits into the film history because these tapes were such a big part of the Watergate Scandal due to Nixon's refusal to release them and the illegality of them.

Nixon's original watergate letter to the court: this is Nixon's original 2 page letter he sent back to the court refusing the subpoenas  for the tapes and his explanation of why. This fits into the movie history because these letters were directly involved within the United States v. Nixon court case.

Original Subpoena form from the grand jury to Nixon: this is the actual court subpoena sent to Nixon that called him to testify in court and submit the documents and tapes. This is important to the movie history because Nixon chose to fight and reject this which led to more drama and lengthening of the entire scandal and also made Nixon look guilty.

Invitation to Watergate Party

The theme of my dinner party is Black Tie in order to keep with the tone of opulence within the home because it is hosted at Nixon's former residence, a sprawling mansion in San Clemente, CA.

1. Gerald Ford was Nixon's vice-president, and then when Nixon resigned, Ford became president. Gerald Ford gave Nixon full clemency and pardoned him of all his crimes, so that he was not indicted. I would invite him to ask him why he gave Nixon a full pardon, and if he regrets it or not due to all the backlash received.

2. William Mark Felt was the undercover source in the FBI that provided the Washington post journalists information on Watergate. His undercover name was "Deep Throat" and without his information the Watergate Scandal may have never been broken. I would invite him to ask him why did he come forward 30 years later to finally share his real identity? I also think he would be a good source of information to interview on Watergate because he knew exactly what happened with the coverup since he was in the FBI.

3. James M. McCord was a CIA officer who was involved in Nixon's secret burglary group. He was directly involved in the scandal because he was one of the 4 arrested at the Democrat Headquarters for wire-tapping. I would invite him to ask him if he willingly wanted to do this or regretted it? I would also ask what motive did he have to do this: was he a huge Nixon supporter or was he solely in it for the money?

4. Frank Wills was the security guard who noticed and caught the burglars at the the Democrat Headquarters the time of the second break-in. I would invite him to ask him did he have suspicions of what the burglars were doing with the wire-tapping and stolen documents, or did he simply report them because they looked sketchy. I would also ask him if he had to deal with any press or fame after the scandal happened.

5. Peter Morgan is the writer of the Frost/Nixon movie. I would invite him to ask him if his vision of the movie turned out how he liked, or if there is anything he would change about the movie. I would also ask him about creative changes he made that differed from the reality of what happened, and why he made these choices or what he was trying to emphasize.

6. Frank Langella is the actor who portrayed Richard Nixon in the movie Frost/Nixon. I would invite him to ask him what creative choices did he make to accurately portray Nixon, and what did he research about Nixon previously for this role. I would also ask him how he made Nixon seem like a three-dimensional character, and not just a villain in the movie, and what challenges he ran into while portraying Nixon.

7. Stanley Kutler is a historian who is known for his knowledge on the Watergate Scandal. He led a lawsuit against the National Archives to release the Watergate tapes for the public, and he won this case. I would invite Stanley Kutler to ask him why did he fight so hard for the release of these tapes, and why is he so invested and intrigued by the Watergate Scandal that he chose to specifically study it.

8. Bob Woodward is an investigational journalist who broke the Watergate Scandal. I would invite him to ask him what caused him to first think there was foul play involved within Nixon's reelection campaign. I would also ask him if he was discouraged by his bosses/team from uncovering and publishing the whole scandal, and if so why did he ignore this.