The United States
did much to reshape the world after the war as well,
as recorded in the 1947 Truman Doctrine pledging to
defend nations against communist aggression, the
1947 Marshall Plan to spur economic recovery in
Europe, and the U.S. recognition of Israel in 1948.
But there were also setbacks. In the Korean
armistice of 1953, the United States accepted the
existence of communist North Korea, and the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution, approved in 1964 but now believed
to have been based on false evidence, was used to
justify American military action in Vietnam.
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The archives documents go up only to 1965, a year
when the United States was poised between triumph
and tragedy. The success of the civil rights
movement of the 1960s would be followed by a series
of urban riots; the resolution of the Cuban missile
crisis would be followed by the unsuccessful
military intervention in Vietnam. Readers may want
to make a mental list of the documents--acts of
Congress, executive orders, treaties, transcripts,
Internet postings--that would add to the archives
list as milestones of American life in the 38 years
since 1965. Of course not everything important in
American history is conveyed by the words of
documents. But we are a nation that, more than most,
has been shaped by documents and by words like
Lincoln's that can still send shivers down our
spines and bring tears to our eyes. Words do matter.
In the pages that follow, U.S. News takes a
closer look at some of these documents and how they
have shaped the America we live in today.
