US History Two Test Four

Cold War

Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, which had their beginnings even before World War II.

Joseph Stalin

Communist dictator of Russia.

Casablanca, Teheran, Yalta

Sites of wartime conferences between FDR, Churchill, and Stalin.

United Nations

Tentative plans were set at Dumbarton Oaks near Washington, D.C, in summer 1944. At Yalta, the Big Three came to some major agreements about the form of the U.N. A General Assembly in which each member of the nation would be represented. A Security Council with the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, and China as permanent members with veto power over all Security Council Council decisions.

Division of Germany

Postwar Germany was divided into four zones, controlled by the U.S., Britain, France and Russia. The city of Berlin, inside the Soviet zone, would likewise be divided into four parts.

Potsdam

Meeting between Truman, Stalin, and Churchill basically to settle the future of Germany. Truman would not give in to Stalin’s demands, and it appeared that Germany would remain divided between Communist and free.

Chiang Kai-shek

Leader of China. Friendly to the U.S. but increasingly losing his grip on that leadership.

Mao Zedong

Powerful Communist leader trying to wrestle control of China from Chiang. He succeeded in 1949.

Truman Doctrine

Communism must be “contained” by assisting any people in any country who would resist it.

Marshall Plan

$12 billion of American money was sent to rebuild Europe economically. This would eventually end European dependency on America and at the same time foil the designs of the Communists.

National Security Act, 1947

Established the Defense Department, the National Security Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Berlin Airlift

Stalin established a blockade of Verlin to try to force Truman to change his mind about officially dividing Germany. Rather than give up Berlin or a united West Germany, Truman chose to supply Berlin by air without military confrontation.

West Germany

An official merging of the American, British, and French zones.

East Germany

The former Soviet zone. A Communist State.

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Military alliance of the United State and Western Europe. Established a standing army in Europe to serve as a deterrent to Communist attack.

Taiwan

Chiang’s government was overthrown by Mao’s force in 1949 and fled to the island of Formosa. The Communist government took over mainland China.

Serviceman’s Readjustment Act

GI Bill of Rights. Helped Veterans financially and educationally to get back into peacetime life.

Fair Deal

Truman’s progressive postwar domestic program still met opposition form a conservative Congress.

Taft-Hartley Act

Weakened the unions and strengthened management. Passed over Truman’s veto.

Election of 1948

Truman pulled off a surprised victory over Dewey.

1950-1953

Korean War Dates

38th Parallel

Latitude line dividing Communist North Korea from domestic South Korea.

Inchon

MacArthur’s surprise amphibious attack behind Communist lines forced them to retreat north of the 38th parallel.

MacArthur vs. Truman

MacArthur - Attack China. Aired his objections. Returned home to a great popular acclaim. Truman - Keep the war contained to Korea. Released him of his command. Had the support of the majority of the military leaders.

McCarren Act

Congressional effort to combat Communist activities in America.

Joseph McCarthy

Republican senator from Wisconsin. Made wide-ranging accusations and investigations of alleged Communists in the U.S. government during the early 1950’s.

Election of 1952

Eisenhower defeated Stevenson and brought the Republicans back to the White House after a 20-year absence.In

Interstate Highway Act - 1956

Greatly sped up long-distance travel.

Baby Boom

Sharp post-World War II increase in the birth rate.

John Maynard Keynes

British economist. Taught that the government could manage the economy. His theories have controlled our economic policy for decades.

Agribusiness

Mall family farms began to fade out in favor of large landowners and corporations.

Prominent Labor Leaders

Walter Reuther (UAW), George Meany (AFL-CIO), Jimmy Hoffa (Teamsters)

Dr. Jonas Salk - 1955

Polio vaccine virtually wiped out the disease.

Sputnik - 1957

First manmade satellite. Launched by the USSR and shocked the world.

Alan Shepherd - 1961

First American in space.

John Glenn - 1962

First American in orbit.

Neil Armstrong and Ediwn Aldrin

First men on the moon 1969.

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In charge of America’s space program.

Space Shuttle

Reusable spacecraft. Enthusiasm dampened by the Challenger explosin in 1986.

Disneyland

Amusement park near Los Angeles opened in 1955.

Arthur Levitt

Pioneered mass-produced housing developments at an affordable price, at first called “Levittowns.”

Suburbs

Communities on the outskirts of the great cities. Became increasingly attractive in the 1950’s.

Dr. Benjamin Spock

Wrote Baby and Child Care in 1946. His philosophies have had a large part in the permissive society we have experienced ever since.

Television

Became popular shortly after World War II. One of the history’s most influential inventions. Has been allowed to be a powerful addictive force.

Beatnicks

Writers (along with their followers) who despised middle-class America and its conformity. Wanted to “do their own thing.”

The Other America

Book by Michael Harrington in 1962 that exposed the poverty that certain groups were experiencing in the midst of the “affluent society.”

“Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education” - 1954

The Supreme Court reversed the decision of “Plessy vs. Ferguson” (1896) and ruled that school segregation must end.

Rosa Parks

Montgomery Alabama - 1955. A black woman refused to give up her seat to a white man. She was arrested, and the city’s black leaders started a riot.

Martin Luther King

Black leader who became prominent during the bus boycott. Founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Recognized spokesman for Black America.

Jacki Robinson - 1947

First black to play major league baseball. His contract stated that he could not retaliate if spit at.

Eisenhower’s Cabinet

Dominated by former business executive who welcome government involvement in the corporate world.

Army-McCarthy Hearings

Televised congressional hearings in 1954 that brought McCarthy’s charges and evidence into the open. His basic lack of manners brought him discredit and official Senate censure.

John Foster Dulles

Eisenhower’s secretary of state. Dedicated to fighting Communism and building our nuclear capabilities as a deterrent.

Truce in Korea - 1953

The pre-war 38th parallel border. The creation of three-mile-wide demilitarized zone.

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader in Vietnam. Fighting for independence from the French with the help of China and the USSR. Succeeded in 1954.

Founding of Israel - 1948

British troops left Palestine, and the Jewish nation proclaimed itself a nation. Immediately received hostility from its Arab neighbors.

Nasser

Leader of Egypt. Hostile to America. Welcomed help form USSR.

Castro

Revolution leader in Cuba. Overthrew Batista in 1959 and soon announced his Communist affiliations.

U-2 Incident

Khrushchev and Eisenhower had agreed to meet in Paris but the downing of a U.S. spy plane over the USSR prompted the Soviet Leader to call off summit.

John F. Kennedy

President 1961-1963. Democrat. PT boat commander in WWII. Massachusetts Senator. Assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

New Frontier

Kennedy’s domestic program.

Lee Harvey Oswald

Kennedy’s accused assassin. Murder two days later.

Warren Commission

A board appointed by LBJ to investigate Kennedy’s assassination. Concluded that Oswald had acted alone.

Lyndon B. Johnson

President 1963-1969. Democrat. Elected to the U.S. House in 1936. Senator in 1948. JFK’s VP until his assassination which gave him presidency.

Great Society

Lyndon B. Johnson’s domestic program. Shared the goals of the New Frontier of maintaining the strong American economy and expanding federal responsibility for social welfare.

Election of 1964

Lyndon B. Johnson defeated ultraconservative Senator Barry Goldwater in a landslide.

Medicare

A program to provide federal aid to the elderly for medical expenses, an early step toward national health insurance.Medic

Medicaid

Extended federal medical aid to all welfare recipients, regardless of age.

Office of Economic Opportunity

The “centerpiece” of the Great Society. Provided for educational programs, job creation, housing assistance, and health care for those in need.

Community Action

The idea was to involve poor people in the planning and administration of the OEO programs designed to help them.

Department of Housing and Urban Development

A Cabinet department created by LBJ to connect the federal government directly to the cities.

Immigration Act of 1965

It limited newcomers to 170,000 each year, but largely eliminated quotas.

”Sit-in”

To protest segregated lunch counters and restaurants, large numbers of black college students began in 1960 to simply occupy the areas non-violently.

”Freedom Rides”

In 1961, both white and black student traveled on buses throughout the South to protest segregated bus stations.

James Meredith

A federal court order allowed the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi in 1962. The governor refused to obey the order and townspeople rioted in his support.

March in Washington - August 1963

More than 200,000 participated in a peaceful civil rights demonstration, which culminated at the Lincoln Memorial and Martin Luther King’s speech, “I Have a Dream.”

Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965

Where Kennedy had failed, Johnson succeeded in getting these comprehensive bills passed. Blacks made gains in a variety of areas, including housing and voting rights.

Affirmative Action

An effort to compensate for past injustices- hiring practices weighted in favor of minorities.

Watts

A black ghetto section of Los Angeles torn apart by the first major race riot since the end of the World War II. The striking of a black protestor by a white policeman. 34 died (28 of them black).

Commission of Civil Disorders

Its 1968 report blamed the rioting on poverty and recommended massive spending to eliminate the problems of the ghettoes.”

“Black Power”

This was a movement away from interracial cooperation and toward pride in racial distinctiveness, and resulted in a split in the civil-rights movement between moderates and radicals.

Malcom X

A problem spokesman of the Nation of Islam Black Muslims, who referred to all whites as “devils.” Claimed that Jesus was black. Called for black to join the Islamic faith and practice complete racial separation.

Peace Corps

A Kennedy program which trained and sent volunteers to work in developing areas, to keep these areas form falling prey to radicals or communists.

Bay of Pigs

The CIA trained a small army of Cuban exiles to invade the island and overthrow Castro. U.S. would provide air support. Kennedy agreed to the plan, but at the last minute withdrew air support. Cuban revolt failed to materialize.

Berlin Wall

The USSR ordered East Germany to build a wall to prevent East Germans from escaping to freedom in West Berlin. This wall was heavily guarded. Wall was dismantled in 1989. Two Germany’s reuinted.

Cuban Missile Crisis - 1962

The Soviets were detected installing nuclear missiles in Cuba. Cuba was “quarantined.” Russia removed missiles from Cuba, and the U.S. removed missiles from Turkey.

Ngo Dinh Diem

Autocratic ruler of South Vietnam with close ties to the Ho Chi Minh government in North Vietnam. They so infiltrated the native population that the U.S. forces could not succeed in diving them out.

Viet Cong

Communist guerillas in South Vietnam with close ties to the Ho Chi Ming government in North Vietnam. U.S. could not succeed in driving them out.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - 1964

In response to a reported North attack on American forces. Congress authorized President Johnson to “take all necessary measures” to “prevent further aggression” by the communist forces.

Senator William Fulbright

Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He turned against the war and helped influence widespread opposition to Johnson’s policies.

Tet Offensive

Early in 1968, the Viet Cong launched a huge attack in South Vietnam. Extensive television coverage of the savage fighting shocked the American public and intensified the opposition of the war.

King Assassination - 1968

Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis, and his death set off rioting in more than sixty cities.

Robert F. Kennedy

JFK’s younger brother. Senator from New York. Outspoken critic of the war. Well on his way to the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 when he was primary.

Democratic Convention, Chicago

Humphrey was nominated, but the eyes of the nation were on the responses of Mayor Richard J. Daley and the Chicago police to the antiwar demonstration going on outside.

George Wallace

Governor of Alabama. Third party candidate for President in 1968 who succeeded in carrying most of the Deep South.

Richard M. Nixon

VP for eight years under Eisenhower. Narrowly lost the election of 1960 to Kennedy. Spoke for conservative “Middle America” and advocated stability, law and order, and “peace with honor” in Vietnam. Elected President in 1968.

New Left

The Campus radicals of the 1960’s whose protests against the conservative “Establishments” disrupted many universities and led to numerous riots and confrontations with the law.

Counterculture

The “hippies” movement characterized by long hair, extreme clothing styles, rebellions, drugs, rock music, and sexual permissiveness.

Elvis Presley - 1955

The first rock-n-roll idol.

Native Americans

The politically correct term for “Indians.”