Unit VII
Increasing International Presence
Yalta conference - On February 4th, after Germany’s surrender, the heads of the US, British, and Soviet governments met and discussed how Germany would be dealt with after the war. On the 11th, they decided to divide Germany into sections controlled by each power.
Potsdam Conference - Another important post-WW2 meeting in which the allied powers further discussed the division of Germany, and trying to solve any problems that may arise in the future. It ended tenssly with Truman threatening Stalin with the information that the US has harnessed the power of an atomic bomb. Japan never even signed the agreement. July 17th - August 2nd 1945.
Marshall Plan - In 1948, Congress passed an initiative that would allow the US to provide recovery aid to a devastated wesetern Europe. The US would eventually send over 12 Billion dollars worth of aid due to the plan.
NATO - Established in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was established to promote free trade and easy commerce for the region. Today there are 30 separate members.
Peace Corps - New Frontier" program proposed by JFK; an "army" of idealistic and youthful volunteers who brought American skills to underdeveloped countries …
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized President Lyndon Johnson to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression” by the communist government of North Vietnam.
Military Industrial Complex - The military–industrial complex describes the relationship between a nation's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy.
Operation Rolling Thunder - the codename for an American bombing campaign during the Vietnam War. This massive bombardment was intended to put military pressure on North Vietnam's communist leaders and reduce their capacity to wage war against the U.S.-supported government of South Vietnam.
Counterculture - Any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to Western culture.
Tet Offensive - a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its involvement in the Vietnam War.
Detente - the relaxation of strained relations, especially political, by verbal communication. The term, in diplomacy, originates from around 1912 when France and Germany tried unsuccessfully to reduce tensions.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries - multinational organization that was established to coordinate the petroleum policies of its members and to provide member states with technical and economic aid.
Sandinistas - a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas [sandiˈnistas] in both English and Spanish. In 1984 elections were held but were boycotted by some opposition parties.
Contras - The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to the early 1990s in opposition to the Marxist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua which came to power in 1979 following the Nicaraguan Revolution.
Iran-Contra Affair - Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras in Nicaragua.
Mikheal Gorbachev - a Russian and former Soviet politician. The eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, he was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991.
Persian Gulf War - A war between the forces of the United Nations, led by the United States, and those of Iraq that followed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
Soviet Union
Joseph Stalin - Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union between 1927 and 1953. He successfully led the Soviets as a victor of the second world war, and morphed the soviet union into a major world power. (1878 - 1953)
George Kennan and Containment - George F. Kennan was an American diplomat and historian. He is best known for his idea of “containment,” or how to slow, and/or completely stop the spread of communism. (1904-2005)
Truman Doctrine - In 1947, president Harry S. Truman established that the US will provide aid and assistance to all democratic nations under threats of invasion from another undemocratic nation. This is another one of America’s numerous containment policies.
Warsaw Pact - A defense alliance established by the Soviet Union including Albania, Bulgaria, Cschekoslvokia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The treaty will later be known as a way for the soviet union to keep communist control over east Europe. Signed in Warsaw, Poland in 1955.
NSC-68 - A top secret proposal by the National Security Council that asked congress for the allowance of a large scale defense operation against Communism. Established in 1950.
Joseph Mcarthy - Joseph Mcarthy was an American politician who was also a massive advocate for containment policies. He spent much of his political career accusing other famous American figures of being communists, and created mass hysteria for the American people. (1908-1957)
Second Red Scare - A period from 1950 to 1956 in the USA, "characterized by heightened political repression against communists, as well as a campaign spreading fear of their influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents.
House Un-American Activities Committee - The HUAC was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having fascist or communist ties.
“New Look” - Term first coined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the “new look” initiative was a policy in which America would bolster their military spending and hold a much stronger role in the world.
Domino Theory - The Domino Theory was a term used during the Red Scare. It described the process in which if one country fell to communism, their surrounding neighbors will too.
Bay of Pigs - The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution
Cuban Missile Crisis - The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962, the Caribbean Crisis, or the Missile Scare, was a 1 month, 4 day confrontation between the United States
and the Soviet Union
Kitchen Debate - The Kitchen Debate was a series of impromptu exchanges through interpreters between U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon, then 46, and Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, 65, at the opening of the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow on July 24, 1959.
Sputnik - Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957. It orbited for three weeks before its batteries died and then orbited silently for two months before it fell back into the atmosphere on the 25th December 1957.
National Defense Education Act - The National Defense Education Act was signed into law on September 2, 1958, providing funding to United States education institutions at all levels.
National Interstate and Defense Highway Act - The act authorized the building of highways throughout the nation, which would be the biggest public works project in the nation's history. Popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense
Highways Act of 1956, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 established an interstate highway system in the United States.
Rights and Equal Oppurtunity
Sunbelt - The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel.
Kerner Commission - After intense mid to late 1960s urban rioting, President Lyndon B. Johnson commissioned The National Advisory Commission on Civil
Disorders—generally known as the Kerner Commission—to study the causes of the riots and to propose solutions.
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) - The Congress of Racial Equality is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement.
Jim Crow - Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States.
Brown v Board of Education of Topeka - Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional.
Montgomery Bus Boycott - The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and a social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a seminal event in the civil rights movement in the United States.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) - The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civil rights movement.
Rosa Parks - Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". (1913-2005)
MLK Jr. - Martin Luther King Jr. was an African American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the American civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. (1929-1968)
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee - The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s.
March on Washington - The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. It was where MLK gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in front of a crowd of 3000,000 people.
Civil Rights Act 1964 - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and later sexual orientation and gender identity.
Voting Rights Act 1965 - This act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting.
Malcolm X - Malcolm X was an African American leader in the civil rights movement, minister and supporter of Black nationalism. He urged his fellow Black Americans to protect themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary,” a stance that often put him at odds with the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1925-1965)
Black Nationalism -an advocacy of or support for unity and political self-determination for black people, especially in the form of a separate black nation. Coined by Malcom X.
Stokely Carmichael - original name of Kwame Ture, was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global Pan-African movement.
Black Panther Party - The Black Panther Party, originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Black Power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California.
United Farm Workers - a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. The UFW seeks to empower migrant farmworkers and improve their wages and working conditions. It also works to promote nonviolence and to educate members on political and social issues.
Cesar Chavez - César Estrada Chávez was an American labor leader, community organizer, businessman, and Latino American civil rights activist. He is best known for his efforts to gain better working conditions for the thousands of workers who labored on farms for low wages and under severe conditions. Chavez and his United Farm Workers union battled California grape growers by holding nonviolent protests.
National Organization for Women (NOW) - American activist organization (founded 1966) that promotes equal rights for women. It is the largest feminist group in the United States, with some 500,000 members in the early 21st century.
Betty Friedan - Journalist, activist, and co-founder of the National Organization for Women, Betty Friedanwas one of the early leaders of the women's rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
New Left - The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, feminism, gay rights, abortion-rights, gender roles and drug policy reforms.
Title IX - also called Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, clause of the 1972 Federal Education Amendments, signed into law on June 23, 1972, which stated that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to.
Stonewall Inn - a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement.
Vietnamization - a strategy that aimed to reduce American involvement in the Vietnam War by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam.
Energy Crisis - The 1970s energy crisis occurred when the Western world, particularly the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, faced substantial petroleum shortages, real and perceived, as well as elevated prices.
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring - an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. The book was published on September 27, 1962, documenting the adverse environmental effects caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. The result of her research was Silent Spring, which brought environmental concerns to the American public.
Earth Day - an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection.
3 Mile Land - the site of a nuclear power plant in south central Pennsylvania. In March 1979, a series of mechanical and human errors at the plant caused the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history, resulting in a partial meltdown that released dangerous radioactive gasses into the atmosphere.
Affirmative Action - an active effort to improve employment or educational opportunities for members of minority groups and for women.
Bakke v University of California - the Court ruled unconstitutional a university's use of racial "quotas" in its admissions process, but held that affirmative action programs could be constitutional in some circumstances.
Equal Rights Amendment - a proposed amendment to the United StatesConstitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters.
Roe v Wade - a landmark legal decision issued on January 22, 1973, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute banning abortion, effectively legalizing the procedure across the United States.
Religious Right - United States political faction that advocates social and political conservatism, school prayer, and federal aid for religious groups and schools.
Sandra Day O'Connor - associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
National Changes and other Movements
Beats-Kerouac, Ginsberg - The Beat Generation was a literary movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized throughout the 1950s.
Baby Boom - A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds of defined national and cultural populations. People born during these periods are often called baby boomers.
Lyndon Johnson - the 36th president of the United States, in office from 1963 to 1969. He served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963 and assumed the presidency following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Great Society - a domestic program in the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson that instituted federally sponsored social welfare programs.
Economic Opportunity Act - The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 authorized the formation of local Community Action Agencies as part of the War on Poverty. These agencies are directly regulated by the federal government.
Medicare - Medicare is the federal health insurance program created in 1965 for people ages 65 and over, regardless of income, medical history, or health status. It covers many basic health services, including hospital stays, physician services, and prescription drugs.
Medicaid - Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources.
Richard Nixon - the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, Nixon previously served as the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961, having risen to national prominence as a representative and senator from California. His presidency is known for a start for diplomacy with China, a slow ending of the Vietnam War, domestic acts
Supply Side Economics - An economic theory that holds that, by lowering taxes on corporations, the government can stimulate investment in industry and thereby raise production, which will, in turn, bring down prices and control inflation.
1968 Democatic National Convention - As President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, the purpose of the convention was to select a new presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. Anti-war Democrats had no candidate, so they protested at the convention.
Silent Majority - an unspecified large group of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly.
Watergate - a scandal during and after the 1972 Presidential Election. Watergate came to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration, including bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious; ordering investigations of activist groups and political figures.
War Powers Act - a federal law intended to check the U.S. president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress.
Ronald Reagan - Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989 and became a highly influential voice of modern conservatism. Reagan enacted cuts in domestic discretionary spending, cut taxes, and increased military spending, whicp5h contributed to increased federal debt overall.
Moral Majority - a prominent American political organization associated with the Christian right and Republican Party. It played a key role in the mobilization of conservative Christians as a political force and particularly in Republican presidential victories throughout the 1980s.
Economic Recovery Tax Act - an Act that introduced a major tax cut, which was designed to encourage economic growth. The federal law enacted by the 97th US Congress and signed into law by US President Ronald Reagan.
Deregulation - The reduction or elimination of government power in a particular industry, usually enacted to create more competition within the industry.
HIV/AIDS - HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks the body's immune system. If HIV is not treated, it can lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). The virus can be transmitted through contact with infected blood, semen, or vaginal fluids.
Glasnost - increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union (USSR). Glasnost reflected a commitment of the Gorbachev administration to allowing Soviet citizens to discuss publicly the problems of their system and potential solutions.
Perestroika - The literal meaning of perestroika is "restructuring", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system, in an attempt to end the Brezhnev Stagnation.