Ten Events in United States History That All High School Students Should Know About
There is no perfect way to teach United States history. I have taught the subject for over ten years, and I constantly seek ways to approach the complexity of the American Experience. Where to begin? What to teach? What is important? How do I make it culturally relevant? The answer to these questions is extremely hard and certainly not removed from my own biases. Sometimes, I take a survey approach, other times I focus on a singular historical event. Both work, and I have landed on every possible side of the depth vs. breadth debate.
However, through the years I kept resorting back to key “turning points” in history that forever altered the shape and nature of the country. This list is an imperfect, limited attempt to codify those grooves and present a way to explore central events in United States history. Top ten lists are fun too, but also controversial. It’s fitting because the study of history is not without heat. Wild debates rage in terms of what is included in curriculum and what is left out. Please scrutinize, and remember this is a conversation starter, not an authority. No simple list could ever encapsulate a nation’s history. I present a primer or place to start for those just beginning and a possible recap for those that already know much.
The subject is compelling too! History helps us understand who we are as a people and where we are going. While interpretations of events vary, facts are constant. We live in an era of misinformation and revisionist pursuits. This makes it ever so important to reflect back on “what” has happen and explore the many “whys” so we can strive for a semblance of truth through scholarship.
Last, a few quick notes about the format. These selections are events and not eras. An era, such as the Great Depression or the Cold War, is prolonged and represents a continuous theme and chain of events. I choose to instead focus on pivotal moments or “turning points”. The legacy of these events is immense. They impact us daily.
The Declaration of Independence (1776)
In the late summer of 1776 the Second Continental Congress declared independence from the British Empire and the United States was born. The Congress, representing 13 colonies, was a loosely affiliated group, but they eventually unified on this bold assertion: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…”. War with the British was already underway, and a clear statement of separation meant political leaders were willing to see this revolution through and face certain death if they failed. The struggle for independence formalized here and story of America as an independent country began.
For centuries the Americas were considered a “New World” by European powers such as England, France, and Spain. These empires competed for territory and resources, often, through violent means. War, disease, and genocide were inflicted on Indigenous people, and a sinister slave trade through Africa, called the Middle Passage, violently enslaved Africans to work sugar and tobacco plantations. The economic rise and very character of this “New World” began through patterns of conquest and kidnap. By the late 1700s European empires established colonies throughout the Americas, and the British controlled the East Coast of North America
Over time, allegiances to Europe faded, and desire for self-governance grew throughout the colonies. The British Empire, ruled by King George, increasingly taxed colonists to offset the cost of maintaining hold over the region, promoting angry and violent reactions. In turn, King George restricted the colonies’ ability to govern themselves, escalating even more rebellion. Militias were formed to counter the British, and colonial elites formed the Continental Congress to determine the political response and organize the colonies.
The newly formed Congress saw an opportunity to unify this upheaval and form a new country with expanded freedoms and democratic ideals. The Declaration of Independence, authored primarily by Thomas Jefferson, articulated that message. No other document is more symbolic of freedom. At the same time, it embodies violent struggles, great achievements, and deep contradictions in United States history. The idea that “…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”, was a radical expression of democracy and departure from a divine world of kings and lords.
From the onset, the idea of revolution as a means to greater glories and noble causes become a lasting mantra. John Adams wrote, “I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these states. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory.” War is noble, if it is a noble cause. Here begins the almost mythical optimism of the United States and justified use of war for a greater glory. This revolution, through the leadership of General George Washington and an ally in France, came to a victorious end and freedoms were realized for some.
Yet, the pronouncements of liberty, freedom, and equality were not bestowed upon women and people of color. The real quest for equality had just begun, and social justice moments that followed, like Seneca Falls, Selma, the United Farm Workers, Stonewall Inn, and Black Lives Matter, cast an important legacy and continue to hold the country accountable to those very ideals. In establishing the Declaration of Independence, the founders, many who enslaved Blacks themselves, were vastly far from perfect messengers of freedom, but they did establish an aspirational guide for others to follow, a blue print of liberty.
The Louisiana Purchase (1803)
In 1802 Thomas Jefferson, in his first term as president of the United States, had an idea and a source of grave worry. He just won a contentious election and wanted the United States to maintain a revolutionary path far from monarch-style government. In his view, this brave new world meant a land of state’s rights and strong community farms. This required more land and the shedding of European influences within the emerging America.
The land west of the Mississippi River was controlled by France, who had just regained control of it from Spain. Jefferson was uneasy with a foreign power in control of so much, including the strategically vital port of New Orleans. To control New Orleans is to control the Mississippi River and the interior country for that matter. Jefferson’s vision of America’s self determination would not be realized without this land. He sent diplomats to France to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans.
At the same time, France’s own oppressive actions in the New World caught up with them. A slave rebellion started in what is now Haiti, and France had to deploy additional soldiers within their colony. With other wars in Europe potentially looming, supreme ruler of France, Napoleon Bonoparte sought an exit strategy from the Americas. France agreed to sell New Orleans and the entire Louisiana Territory for 15 million dollars.
The geography of the United States forever changed. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the country, and the treaty is widely considered one of the best real-estate deals of all time. Each acre cost less than three pennies. Jefferson delivered his vision, and new era of western expansion began.
The Indian Removal Act (1830)
If the Declaration of Independence is demonstrative of American exceptionalism, then The Indian Removal Act is one of dark cruelty and hypocrisy. President Andrew Jackson, who fashioned himself a true populist and president of the common man, sought the forced removal of all Indigenous people east of the Mississippi to make way for white settlement.
Prior to his presidency, Jackson built a reputation as a war hero and land conquer. He lead and won many military campaigns against Indigenous tribes who pushed back against Anglo expansion. He was a master of using and disregarding treaties insofar as they advanced his philosophy — that people of First Nations did not belong in a “civilized” society.
When Jackson become president in 1828 he made Indigenous removal a priority. In the first two years of his presidency he presented Congress with a plan to relocate all major tribes (with a combined population of approximately 60,000), as a means to “…end to all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the Indians.” Congress approved The Indian Removal Act, which authorized the government to use resources and military force for the plan.
This launched decades of involuntary relocation of Indigenous people from their lands. Many of the Cherokee tribe famously refused and were forcibly removed by the US Army and marched west in what became known as the “Trail of Tears. Approximately 15,000 began this particular journey and an estimably 4,000 died along the way.
This genocide didn’t start or stop with this government sanctioned act. The moment is emblematic of a much larger, tragic history of murder and betrayal against the Indigenous at the hands of a dominate Anglo society. Manifest Destiny, a racist ideology that white Americans were choose by God to inherit land, become a mantra, and settlers and politicians looked further west to settle dreams.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)
In the spring of 1846, U.S. President James Polk ordered troops to pitch a military encampment near the Rio Grande river. The Rio Grande river was a disputed boundary between Mexico and the United States; It was a provocative move. Mexico attacked the camp and he had an excuse for war.
President James Polk was an aggressive expansionist. In his inaugural address he argued that “…our system may be safely extended to the utmost bounds of our territorial limits, and that as it shall be extended the bonds of our Union, so far from being weakened, will become stronger.” Polk believed in Manifest Destiny, wanted California, and envisioned a country that extended coast to coast. He tried to persuade Mexico to sell the land, but they refused. War was his next option.
Polk used the deadly skirmish along the Rio Grande to rally Congress and declare war. This conflict, known as the Mexican-American War, lasted just under two years and was the first time the United States invaded another country. The fighting went deep into central Mexico and U.S. soldiers even occupied Mexico City. Mexico was unable to withstand the foreign invaders. The war ended. Both governments agreed to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the conflict and forced Mexico to concede all land from Texas to California.
This event is far less known than other major wars in the nation’s history, but the outcome is no less significant, if not more. Imagine a country that didn’t straddle oceans or contain the iconic and rich lands of California. Polk’s vision for the country was realized, and the modern day version of the United States was formed through violence.
The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Commonly, some narratives of United States history have a tendency to simplify into mythology. “Lincoln freed the slaves” is one of those half-truths I hear repeated often by students. Yes, on January 1st, 1893 president Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclaim declaring three million slaves in the southern Confederacy free, but the credit for this landmark decision is complex and stretches far beyond Lincoln’s pen.
The abolitionist movement, the formalized effort to end slavery, began decades before. Religious and political leaders questioned slavery on moral and constitutional grounds, sparking a national debate. One of the movement’s most famous activists was Frederick Douglas, an escaped slave himself. On July 5th, 1852 he wrote a speech now titled: “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”, reminding those in power that the celebration of liberty is far from realized. The anti-slavery effort was maturing into a complex movement filled with abolitionists who, like Douglas, favored total, immediate abolition, a view considered “radical” at the time, and other anti-slavery activists who believed in more incremental change.
The institution of slavery was the polarizing issue of the day; the country was deeply divided. Northern states were more industrial and less linked to slavery (although many northern businesses still financed aspects of the slave trade) and also the hotbed for abolitionist philosophy. In contrast, the Southern states were based heavily on slave plantation economics. The contentious rivalry between North and South only increased as new territories entered the country, and each side sought to influence their own economic and social model into the emerging states. A balance of power between slaves states and free states was at stake.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln, a member of the newly formed Republican party, won the presidency with only 40% of the popular vote. Lincoln ran on a platform to contain slavery, not to end it outright. He was against slavery, but he did not make a forceful initial push to end it. Lincoln said the following in his inaugural address: “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” Lincoln’s priority was to preserved a fractious nation and not overstep his presidential powers. He was anti-slavery, but we wasn’t an abolitionist.
Regardless, conflict was on the horizon. Even before his inaugural address, seven Southern states had already seceded from the nation to form the Confederacy and defend the right to enslave Black Americans. Later in the spring, shots were fired, and the Confederate army attacked the U.S. at Fort Sumpter, South Carolina. The Civil War began.
From the onset of Lincoln’s presidency he faced constant pressure from abolitionists and the radical wing within his own party to use his power to end slavery. Lincoln balanced this moralistic push with the realities that many people in the North still opposed racial equality. Two years into the war, Lincoln made the decision to emancipate enslaved people, and he largely did so based on military need. Thousands were already escaping to the North, so there was an opportunity to undermine the Southern economic system and to gain additional soldiers. The proclamation also appeased abolitionists, who were important political allies.
The Emancipation Proclamation stated that: “…all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”. Although the proclamation did little initially to end slavery, it was a massive turning point in the war as it undermined the South, unified the mission of the North, and set in motion a series of crucial constitutional amendments, the 13th, 14th, and 15th, that recognized Blacks as free citizens that could vote (unless you were a woman). The proclamation helped the North win the war and persevere the nation as we know it. It notched the country in a freer direction and continued a nationwide push for racial equality that is far from realized and continues today.
19th Amendment (1920)
On November 10th, 1917, 33 women were arrested for peacefully picketing outside the White House advocating for the right to vote. They were arrested for disrupting traffic and shuttled to a prison in Northern Virginia where they were beaten, humiliated, tortured, and left in unsanitary conditions by overzealous guards. Eyewitness, Minnie Prior Quay wrote about violent threats from guards, and recounted how another activist, Lucy Burns, had her arms pulled through prison bars and was handcuffed and left overnight.
These women were part of the Silent Sentinels, a protest group started by the National Women’s Party. Their aim was to assert strong political pressure on President Woodrow Wilson, and their youthful militant tactics were sometimes at odds with moderate, establishment suffragists. The picketing started 10 months earlier, and public anger at the Sentinels intensified as the U.S. entered World War I because many felt their dissension undermined the war effort. Women’s history scholar Mary Walton wrote, “Hecklers, inflamed by war fever, branded the demonstrating women “Traitors!” and ripped down their signs. Tensions escalated in June when a new banner accused Wilson of lying to Russia when he claimed America was a democracy. The next day, the suffragists on duty — wives and mothers, young college graduates, social luminaries and progressive “new women” — were hurled to the ground, their banners torn away and shredded. Then they were arrested — and charged with “obstructing traffic.” The tensions of this movement increased and culminated into that infamous November 10th arrest, which became known as the “Night of Terror”. The harsh treatment of the women sparked national outrage and sympathy to the cause.
The United States was founded on a premise that women were second class citizens. Abagail Adams famously reminded her husband John Adams, while he was engaged in the business of nation building, that “I long to hear that you have declared an independency — and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” Her words seemed to have little impact at the time, but calls for equality grew. Decades later in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York the first ever women’s rights convention occurred and activists drafted the “Declaration of Sentiments”, which called for major reforms, including the enfranchisement of women. This set in place the modern suffrage movement.
Throughout history, the process of obtaining the right to vote took on many shapes. While the the more aggressive Silent Sentinel’s approach differed with mainstream suffragists, they united behind the common call for a Constitutional amendment. In the spring of 1919 after multiple failed attempts the year prior, the amendment passed the required two-thirds major in each house of Congress. The fate of the amendment then lingered on three-quarters of state governments to ratify. This took until August, 1920 and came down to a single vote in Tennessee by a legislator who decided to flip his vote in the final hour to support the enfranchisement of women.
This was a culminating end to decades of sustained activism. Still, the immediate outcome did not resolve the efforts in former confederate states to suppress Black women from voting. Many historians argued that the movement overlooked and compromised on this issue by focusing mainly on gender and not racial equality as well. The 19th Amendment did expand the democratic process on a massive scale, yet the moment is also an important reminder that progress is staggered.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945)
At 8:16am local time on August 6th, 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped and detonated by the U.S. over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Approximately 70,000 men, women, and children died instantly and roughly another 70,000 died within the year from radiation, a lingering poisonous result of this unprecedented, otherworldly new weapon. Days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, another 70,000 or so perished immediately. Japan surrendered, and World War II ended. The Atomic Age began.
The United States joined World War II after Japan bombed a military base at Pearl Harbor on December of 1941 in Hawaii. War was declared on Japan, prompting Germany to declare war on the United States because Japan, Germany, and Italy had already formed an alliance. The war started in 1939, and up until 1941, the U.S. remained out of it, largely because many in the U.S. favored an isolationist approach. Not the president though. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was building a case to the American public that war was imminent and imperialistic threats from Germany and Japan were real. During a radio addresses in December 1940, President Roosevelt preluded: “…Some of our people like to believe that wars in Europe and in Asia are of no concern to us. But it is a matter of most vital concern to us that European and Asiatic war-makers should not gain control of the oceans which lead to this hemisphere.” After Pearl Harbor, public support for the war grew.
Prior to this, Albert Einstein, a German born physicist who fled Nazi Germany, wrote a letter to FDR warning that the Germans were stockpiling uranium and developing atomic weapons, and he advocated that the United States should also develop atomic bombs. FDR agreed to pursue the idea, launching the top secret “Manhattan Project”. The U.S. tested the first ever successful atomic weapon in a remote stretch of a New Mexican desert on July 16th, 1945. Ironically, FDR did not live to see this. He died of a stroke months earlier. His vice president, Harry Truman, was now in charge.
The nature of the war had changed too. Germany surrendered and the U.S. was mired in conflict with Japan in the Pacific. President Truman, perhaps the most powerful man in the world, decided to use the most powerful weapon ever created. He sought “unconditional surrender” from Japan and feared that the alternatives, such as a land invasion of Japan, would be too costly for American soldiers.
Truman’s decision remains highly controversial, mainly for humanitarian reasons, but also because many historians believe Japan may have been on the cusp of surrender before the bombings. The Soviet Union opened up a war front against Japan too, which may have sped up surrender or defeat. Yet, another option was to bomb an uninhabited area of Japan as a non-lethal warning, sparing hundreds of thousands of lives. A dizzying amount of alternative histories could have played out, and the argument “for” or “against” is often shaded by ones own philosophy on the nature of warfare.
The war did end promptly, and Truman demonstrated to the world that the United States had the means to unleash mass destruction against a foe. World War II was the last large scale, total destruction-type of warfare, but a new type of conflict was emerging right away. The Soviet Union and the United States, two divergent political and social societies unified only in common aim against Nazism, fell into the Cold War, a period of slow burn tension in a newly establish atomic age.
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
The Supreme Court is a powerful and impactful branch of government. Decisions by the Court have finality and the ability to permanently change society for decades and beyond. Often, it is through the courts that watershed moments of social progression occur. Following World War II, activists used the court system to legally challenge school racial segregation as an unjust system that negatively impacted students of color. The hope was that the Supreme Court would hear such cases and rule in favor of equality once and for all.
In the aftermath of the Civil War many local and state governments in the South created a series of racists systems to segregate people based on color. These became known as “Jim Crow” laws. Schools were just another example where students of color were required by law to attend a separate institution, the argument being that they were “separate but equal”.
A man named Thurgood Marshall grew up in that very segregated system in Baltimore, Maryland. He went on to study law at Howard University and was inspired by professors to use his legal talent to fight discrimination. He then entered the fray as a civil rights lawyer and leader within the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and looked to settle injustices by arguing that laws such as school segregation violated the Constitution.
Meanwhile, a man named Oliver Brown lived in Topeka, Kansas. His young daughter had to travel across town to attend an all black school rather than the neighborhood whites only school. Mr. Brown went to court. Eventually his lawsuit reached the Supreme Court and was combined with four other cases and named Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. Thurgood Marshall was the main lawyer steering the legal strategy for all cases. Marshall argued racial segregation in schools violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The crux of his argument was that , “separate but equal” violated the equal protection clause because far too often schools for people of color lacked sufficient resources
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled. Thurgood Marshal won his case and school segregation was deemed unconstitutional, which was a major blow to Jim Crow era laws. It was a turning point in the modern civil rights era that influenced further moments in a dynamic way. Historian, Eric Foner wrote that the decision was hailed by some as a second Emancipation Proclamation, and although the ruling didn’t immediately end segregation, it demonstrated that the federal court system was a useful agent of change. The modern civil rights era was now in full swing. Shortly after, Rosa Parks made her stand, and a young Martin Luther King Jr. emerged on the scene.
The Tet Offensive (Vietnam War) (1968)
In 1968 the Vietnamese New Year was celebrated on January 31st. At the time, the country was divided in northern and southern sections and at war. The United States was deeply involved and supporting South Vietnam. Normally the holiday (called Tet) signified a temporary halt of fighting. The North Vietnamese instead launched a simultaneous surprise attack on 13 cities. The opening shots in the cities combined with celebratory fireworks for the New Year. One of the deadliest and most intense episodes of the Vietnam War began.
Years before Tet and even before the United State’s involvement in Indochina, Robert McNamara was appointed Secretary of Defense by President John F. Kennedy. McNamara served in World War II, but he was also a businessman and employed an innovative analytical approach to problem solving and measuring productivity. After JKF was assassinated, Secretary McNamara continued to work in that role under the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. At this time the United Sates and the Soviet Union were deep into the fog of the Cold War and playing a geopolitical game of chess, which involved a combination of diplomacy, bluster, and proxy wars meant to ward off each other’s influence. The idea of keeping Soviet communist power in check dominated US foreign policy decisions; this idea was referred to as “containment”.
Vietnam had long been a country trying to shed itself from occupying colonial rule. First it was the French, who entered in the late 1800s. Then during World War II Japan took over and continued a pattern of oppression. During this struggle the United States assisted the Vietnamese in undermining Japan, but when the war ended the United States, who were allied with the French, supported France’s return as an occupying force. The Vietnamese kept on fighting against their colonial ruler. In 1954 France was defeated and signed the Geneva Peace Accords. This agreement, according to Professor Robert K. Brigham, “represented the worst of all possible futures for war-torn Vietnam. Because of outside pressures brought to bear by the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam’s delegates to the Geneva Conference agreed to the temporary partition of their nation at the seventeenth parallel to allow France a face-saving defeat.” This set the stage for a complex civil war in Vietnam between a Communist North that wanted reunification and a United States supported South that sought to stop the advance of communism. Over the next decade American involvement escalated from an advisory role to full participation in an entrenched, complex war. By 1968 over half a million U.S. soldiers were stationed in Vietnam with no end in sight.
Robert McNamara was a main architect of this troop build up. Privately he had deep misgivings about whether this was a winnable war and if Vietnam served any strategic importance in containing the spread of communism. This exemplified how American citizens were mislead. U.S. government officials continued a deadly path of bombings and troops in battle, all while painting a rosy picture of progress. In April of 1967, General William C. Westmoreland, the top commander of the Vietnam operation addressed a joint session of Congress with this: “Given the nature of the enemy, it seems to me that the strategy that we are following at this time is the proper one, and that it is producing results. While he obviously is far from quitting, there are signs that his morale and his military structure are beginning to deteriorate.” In January of the following year, and just weeks before the Tet Offensive, Lyndon Johnson claimed substantial progression during the State of the Union.
The realties of Tet didn’t align with what leaders stated. The sustained violence rattled deep into the American media landscape. McNamara’s grim outlook of chaos manifested itself on the nightly news (which was a new concept), and people weren’t accustom to seeing a world super power unable to contain a relentless adversary. More people began to question the logic of the war, and these vivid images demonstrated that government leaders were not forthcoming with the bloody reality.
The Tet Offensive initially ended in late February, although subsequent battles continued until late September. From a military standpoint the United States and South Vietnamese forces won. North Vietnamese soldiers were driven out and suffered heavier causalities. But the messaging and spin sometimes matters more than the actual outcome. North Vietnamese citizens (influenced heavily by propaganda) saw this event as a galvanizing stand against a world super power, whereas United States citizens (witnesses to a brutally honest media) saw it as a major failure. The political damage was done, and public pressure to end the war increased.
The Tet Offensive called into question America’s effectiveness. Although troop build-ups leveled out and decreased, history professor, Fritz Fischer pointed out: “Tet did not cause the war to wind down.” The war continue until 1975 when the capital of South Vietnam fell to the North. Still, it was an important beginning to a long winding end. The event demonstrated American limitations, increased distrust of government, and showed the U.S. government’s capacity for epic miscalculations. In other words, the Vietnam War in a nutshell.
9/11 (2001)
Long before the carnage and towering smoke of 9/11, an Egyptian writer and teacher named Sayyid Qutb traveled to the U.S. in the late 1940s to study education at colleges in Washington D.C. and Greeley, Colorado. He spent the longest period of time in Greeley, and this small rural community on the plains shaped his view of America. Qutb initially found the peaceful, family centric setting a welcome contrast to the bustle of the East coast; however, he grew dismayed at racism and by what he perceived as excessive materialism and feminine sexuality. Qutb began to adapt extremist views and believed the modern world to be in conflict with traditional Islam. It is unclear if his time in America caused his fundamental turn or just embolden his already established ideology. Regardless, he returned to Egypt with aspirations of rebuilding the country as an Islamic nation and haven from the modern, multicultural, and colonialist Western world.
At the time, Egypt was in the midst of a revolution to rid the country of monarchist control, and Qutb was a connected political leader in that cause. However, he fell out of line with the more secular direction of leadership and landed in prison due to his radicalized beliefs and calls for violent jihad or war against nonbelievers. He was eventually accused of plotting against the government and executed. Before his demise, Qutb wrote prolifically about his ideology and provided a philosophical blueprint for extremism that would inspire others.
In the 1980s that blueprint captivated a young Osama Bin Laden, who, with the help of the United States, was organizing militants in Afghanistan to fight off the Soviet Union. The Soviets were an unwelcome occupying force in the region, U.S. officials saw an opportunity to undermine their Cold War foe, and for a brief moment in history Bin Laden and the United States were allies.
Bin Laden came from a rich Saudi Arabian family, but he grew to reject the lavish aristocracy of the Saudi elites. Instead, he commit himself to fighting the encroachment of foreign powers into Islamic “holy land”. Out of the prolonged conflict with the Soviet Union, a network of terrorists formed. Bin Laden named this network Al Qaeda. Qutb’s philosophy materialized further. According to political writer, Paul Berman, Qutb was “the intellectual hero of every one of the groups that eventually went into Al Qaeda, their Karl Marx (to put it that way), their guide.”
Although Bin Laden allied with U.S. officials at one point, he angered deeply once the United States defended Kuwait from an invasion by Saddam Hussain’s Iraq during the Gulf War of 1990. The United States was granted access in Saudi Arabia to establish military bases during this brief war. To Bin Laden, this was the ultimate violation. In his view a corrupt, immoral, foreign power desecrated sacred land. Bin Laden patiently began directing, Al Qaeda, his newly formed terrorist organization, to attack U.S. targets.
Over the next ten years Al Qaeda successful attacked Americans abroad. They were responsible for the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing in Nairobi Kenya (224 killed) and the 2000 attack on the battleship USS Cole in Aden, Yeman (17 killed). These violent events were prologue.
On the morning of September 11th, 2001 four planes were violently and systematically hijacked and flown into both towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. The plane in Pennsylvania was thought to have been headed to the White House or another high profile target, but the plane was recaptured by passengers and eventually crashed in a rural area only killing those on board. The combine attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and remains the deadliest terrorist attack in United States history.
The shock of that day can not be understated. In the immediate aftermath, confusion and fear circled the nation, but the only thing clear was that a version of war was imminent. The day after the attack, political journalist, Hunter S. Thompson presciently wrote: “The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now — with somebody — and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives…It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy.” This set the stage for the next 20 years.
The world violently thrust into a new era of fear, counter-terrorism, and conflict. On October 7th, 2001 President George W. Bush commanded the invasion of Afghanistan and the ruling Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist political group, because they provided support for Al-Qaeda. In 2003, and with war still raging in Afghanistan, the Bush administration made a case to the American people and the United Nations that Iraq should also be invaded because dictator Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction and supporting terrorism (although the intelligence reports on this turned out to be false). Both these wars were lasting and entrenched the United States in the region for decades.
As of 2021, America is still active militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan and the global war on terror continues and expands throughout the world. 9/11 set forth a new reality of seemingly endless counter-terrorism efforts, an ever expanding security state, and a realization that radical extremism is a perpetual challenge that exploits vulnerabilities in the most powerful of countries.
