Unit 9 Key Terms

17th Parallel

approximate line of latitude that served as the military demarcation line between North and South Vietnam following the Geneva Accords (1954).

26th Amendment

Ratified in July 1971, it lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, granting citizens aged 18 and older the right to vote in federal and state elections. This was intended to align with the same age at which an American citizen could be drafted into the military.

Bay of Pigs

U.S.-supported invasion of Cuba in April 1961; intended to overthrow Communist dictator Fidel Castro, the operation proved a fiasco. Castro's forces killed 114 of the invaders and took nearly 1,200 prisoners. The disaster shook the confidence of the Kennedy administration and encouraged the Soviet Union to become more active in the Americas.

Cuban Missile Crisis

a confrontation between the United States and the USSR resulting from a Soviet attempt to place long-range nuclear missiles in Cuba (October 1962); Kennedy forced the Soviets to remove them with a blockade and the threat of force. The crisis enhanced Kennedy'S standing but led to a Soviet arms buildup.

Dien Bien Phu

French fortress in northern Vietnam that surrendered in 1954 to the Viet Minh; the defeat caused the French to abandon Indochina and set the stage for the Geneva Conference, which divided the region and led to American involvement in South Vietnam.

Domino Theory

Eisenhower's metaphor that when one country fell to Communists, its neighbors would then be threatened and collapse one after another like a row of dominoes; this belief became a major rationale for U.S. intervention in Vietnam.

Fidel Castro

Communist leader of Cuba who led a rebellion against the U.S.-backed dictator and took power in 1959; President Kennedy tried to overthrow him with the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 but failed. Castro became closely allied with the Soviet Union, making the Kennedy Administration increasingly concerned about Soviet influence in the Western Hemisphere.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)

an authorization by Congress empowering President Johnson "to take all necessary measures" to protect U.S. forces in Vietnam; it was issued following reported attacks on U.S. destroyers off the Vietnam coast. Congress later regretted this action as the Vietnam War escalated, and questions emerged about the legitimacy of the attacks.

Henry Kissinger

advisor to Presidents Nixon and Ford; he was architect of the Vietnam settlement, the diplomatic opening to China, and détente with the Soviet Union.

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of North Vietnam; he and his Viet Minh/ Viet Cong allies fought French and American forces to a standstill in Vietnam, 1946-1973. Considered a nationalist by many, others viewed him as an agent of the Soviet Union and China.

Kent State Massacre

The tragic event that occurred on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a group of students protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The incident resulted in the deaths of four students, and the wounding of nine others. It sparked nationwide protests and intensified anti-war sentiments, becoming a symbol of the deep divisions in American society over the Vietnam War and the government's handling of dissent.

My Lai Massacre

The mass killing of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians, mostly women, children, and elderly people, by U.S. Army soldiers during the Vietnam War. The massacre was initially covered up by the U.S. military, but it was later exposed by investigative journalists, leading to widespread public outrage. The event became a symbol of the atrocities committed during the Vietnam War and fueled anti-war protests in the United States.

Ngo Dinh Diem

American ally in South Vietnam from 1954 to 1963; his repressive regime caused the Communist Viet Cong to thrive in the South and required increasing American military aid to stop a Communist takeover. He was killed in a coup in 1963.

Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet leader, 1954-1964; he was an aggressive revolutionary who hoped to spread Communism into Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Blame for the Cuban Missile Crisis eventually cost him his leadership position in the USSR.

Pentagon Papers

A classified government report detailing the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. The report was leaked to the press in 1971 and revealed that successive U.S. administrations had misled the American public and Congress about the scale and progress of the Vietnam War, including secret bombings in neighboring countries and the lack of military success. The document’s publishing by The New York Times and other newspapers sparked a national debate about government transparency, the role of the press, and the ethics of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The leak also led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling affirming the press's right to publish classified material in the public interest.

Tet Offensive (January 1968)

a series of Communist attacks on 44 South Vietnamese cities; although the Viet Cong suffered a major defeat, the attacks ended the American view that the war was winnable and destroyed the nation's will to escalate the war further.

Vietnamization

A U.S. policy introduced by President Richard Nixon in 1969 aimed at reducing American involvement in the Vietnam War by shifting the responsibility of combat to South Vietnamese forces while gradually withdrawing American troops. The policy faced challenges, as the South Vietnamese forces struggled to achieve military success on their own, and the war continued for several more years.

Bayard Rustin

Civil rights activist best known as the chief organizer of the March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Rustin faced challenges due to his openness about his homosexuality, which led some to question his leadership in the civil rights movement. Over time, however, his legacy as a key figure in the struggle for racial justice and equality has been increasingly recognized.

Betty Friedan

author of The Feminine Mystique (1963), which raised the issue of a woman's place in society and how deadening suburban "happiness" could be for women; her ideas sparked the women's movement to life in the 1960s.

Black Power

rallying cry for many black militants in the 1960s and 1970s; it called for blacks to stand up for their rights, to reject integration, to demand political power, to seek their roots, and to embrace their blackness

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Supreme Court decision that overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision (1896); led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court ruled that "separate but equal" schools for blacks were inherently unequal and thus unconstitutional. The decision energized the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 196Os.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed by Congress and submitted to the states for ratification in 1971; outlawing discrimination based on gender, it was at first seen as a great victory by women's-rights groups. The amendment fell 3 states short of the 38 required for ratification. However, many states have adopted similar amendments to their state constitutions.

Fair Deal

Truman's legislative program; it was largely an extension of the New Deal of the 1930s, and Truman had little success convincing Congress to enact it.

Fannie Lou Hamer

Civil rights activist and leader in the fight for voting rights and racial equality in the 1960s. She became a prominent figure in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and played a key role in organizing voter registration drives in the South, especially for African Americans who had been disenfranchised. She is perhaps best known for her emotional and powerful testimony at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, where she spoke out about the brutal treatment and oppression faced by Black people in the South. Her efforts were vital in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Federal Highway Act (1956)

largest public works project in United States history; Eisenhower signed the law, which built over 40,000 miles of highways in the United States at a cost of $25 billion and created the interstate highway system.

Freedom rides

civil rights campaign of the Congress of Racial Equality in which protesters traveled by bus through the South to desegregate bus stations; white violence against them prompted the Kennedy administration to protect them and become more involved in civil rights.

Hubert Humphrey

liberal senator from Minnesota and Lyndon Johnson's vice president who tried to unite the party after the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago; he narrowly lost the presidency to Richard Nixon that year.

John Kennedy

president, 1961-1963, and the youngest president ever elected, as well as the first Catholic to serve; he had a moderately progressive domestic agenda and a hardline policy against the Soviets. His administration ended when Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated him.

John Lewis

Civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman who played a key role in the struggle for racial equality in the 1960s. As a young leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Lewis was one of the original organizers of the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation in interstate bus travel, and he also helped lead the historic March on Washington in 1963. Lewis was a leader in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, where he was famously beaten by state troopers on "Bloody Sunday" while advocating for voting rights. His activism was instrumental in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Lyndon Johnson

president, 1963-1969, who took over for Kennedy and created the Great Society, a reform program unmatched in the twentieth century; however, his Vietnam policy divided the country and his party, and he retired from politics in 1969.

Malcolm X

militant black leader associated with the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims); he questioned Martin Luther King's strategy of nonviolence and called on blacks to make an aggressive defense of their rights. He was assassinated by fellow Muslims in 1965.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

America's greatest civil rights leader, 1955-1968; his nonviolent protests gained national attention and resulted in government protection of African American rights. He was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee

Richard Nixon

controversial vice president, 1953-1961, and president, 1969-1974, who made his political reputation as an aggressive anticommunist crusader; his presidency ended with his resignation during the Watergate scandal.

Robert Kennedy

John Kennedy's brother who served as attorney general and gradually embraced growing civil rights reform; later, as senator from New York, he made a run for the Democratic presidential nomination. An assassin ended his campaign on June 6, 1968.

Rosa Parks

NAACP member who initiated the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 when she was arrested for violating Jim Crow rules on a bus; her action and the long boycott that followed became an icon of the quest for civil rights and focused national attention on boycott leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sit-ins

protests by black college students, 1960-1961, who took seats at "whites only" lunch counters and refused to leave until served; in 1960 over 50,000 participated in sit-ins across the South. Their success prompted the formation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

Shirley Chisholm

First African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress representing New York’s 12th Congressional District. She was a strong advocate for civil rights, women's rights, and social justice. In 1972, she made history again by becoming the first African American woman to run for a major party’s presidential nomination, campaigning as a Democrat.

Strom Thurmond

Democratic governor of South Carolina who headed the States' Rights Party (Dixiecrats); he ran for president in 1948 against Truman and his mild civil rights proposals and eventually joined the Republican Party.

Taft-Hartley Act (1946)

anti-labor law passed over Truman's veto; it provided a "cooling off" period wherein the president could force striking workers back to work for 80 days. It also outlawed closed shops and allowed states to pass right-to-work laws.

Thomas Dewey

twice-defeated Republican candidate for president (1944,1948); his overconfidence and lackadaisical effort in 1948 allowed Truman to overcome his large lead and pull off the greatest political upset in American history