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166 Terms
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Golden Age of Capitalism
This followed WWI and included economic expansion, stable prices, low unemployment, & rising standards of living.
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60%
What percentage of the population was middle class by government definition
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Television
The invention of this had a huge influence on the 50's. It was a 'soft power' that was able to penetrate our culture. 9 out of 10 families had one.
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White Collar
By 1956, this group out numbered the blue collared workers.
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Residential construction and consumer goods
The 2 main engines of economic grown during the 50's were....
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Levittown
Name of the development built by the most famous suburban developer of the 50's (whites only)
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Car
This item symbolized the identification of freedom with individual mobility and private choice.
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Consumerism
This term replaced economic independence & democratic participation as central to the definition of freedom. Replaced things like voting.
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Rigid Racial Boundaries
A side effect of suburbanization & Americanization. Residents cut off from urban ethnic communities. Process of racial exclusion became self-reinforcing w/ poor blacks & immigrants in ghettos.
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Women
This group began working part time to support the family's middle-class lifestyle. Not career oriented. Made 60% of what men did.
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Baby Boom
A term coined for a period in the 50's through mid 60's when families had an average of 3.2 children.
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Feminism
This was dismissed as evidence of a mental disorder in the 50's.
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Free Enterprise
The economic content of Cold War freedom focussed on consumer capitalism aka \_____ \___________. The other two freedoms of the time were free speech & worship.
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Libertarian Conservatives
To this group, freedom meant individual autonomy, limited govt., and unregulated capitalism. Bitter to New Deal and unions. (Best defn. for many years to come.)
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New Conservatives
To this group, the Free World needed to arm itself morally and intellectually, not just militarily, against communism. Be virtuous or have govt. force the virtue.
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Government and Communism
Two common foes for the 50's conservatives.
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Sputnik
First artificial earth satellite launched by the Soviets. Created fear of surveillance.
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National Defense Education Act
Govt. subsidized school loan program started as a direct result of Sputnik. Funding for higher education.
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Hydrogen Bomb
US exploded this in 1952, USSR exploded one in 1953.
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Massive Retaliation
John Foster Dulles' new policy of containment. Any attack by Soviets on our allies, we will attack Soviets directly.
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Mutual Assured Destruction
The reality that an all out war would result in this succeeded in making both great powers cautions in their dealings with one another.
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Bert the Turtle
This cartoon character was used to teach people to 'duck and cover' as a means of calming the fear of nuclear attack.
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The Third World
Term for developing countries aligned with neither Cold War powers. Time of decolonization. Wanted own policies/govt. Considered an experiment. Good neighbor policy tested here - hypocrisy.
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Eisenhower Doctrine
Promise by US that a country could request Amer econ assistance/aid military if it was being threatened aggressively by another state. (Specifically Soviets)
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Rock and Roll
Considered an "agent" of Soviets in the 50's. Contributed to the decay of the youth.
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Military Regimes
Despite Cold War rhetoric of freedom, American leaders most comfortable dealing with reliable \____ \_____ than democratic govts. Accustomed to intervention.
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Geneva Agreement
Temporarily divided Vietnam into northern and southern districts. Elections never held. War ensued later.
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Voting and equal rights
Key issues of the Civil Rights Movement of the 50's AKA Freedom Movement
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Gap between rhetoric and racial equality
This became an embarrassment for the US and can be otherwise described as preaching freedom and democracy everywhere but in our homeland.
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Origins of Civil Rights Movement in South
* Black allies on left dismantled by McCarthyism * Union leaders unwilling to challenge inequalities * NAACP concentrating on court cases
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Southern Black Church
The organizing power for a militant, nonviolent assault on segregation
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Jim Crow Laws
Considered the embodiment of legal segregation in the South. Based on the concept of "separate but equal".
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Brown v. Board of Education
Legal end of Plessy v. Ferguson. 3rd grader cross RR tracks to get to school. Separate public schools for blacks & whites violated 14th Amend. INSPIRED HOPE.
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Rosa Parks
Arrested for refusing to give seat on bus to a white passenger. Inspired 381 day bus boycott-nonviolent crusade started. Bus segregation ruled unconstitutional.
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MLK
The civil rights movement's national symbol. Used Cold War atmosphere for his cause. Inspired by Ghandi - peaceful civil disobedience.
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Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Lead by MLK. Pressed for desegregation. Pushed for Washington to intervene, esp. in South.
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Southern Manifesto
Southern congressman denounced Brown decision as abuse of power. Passed laws to block desegregation. Was similar to color blind laws. Closed public schools and funded private school tuition for whites.
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Eisenhower
This president found the whole civil rights issue distasteful. Any support he gave it was only to assert his authority (all for show).
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Little Rock Central High School
Governor of AK used national guard to block desegregation. Fed. gov. walked 9 black kids into school. Shows govt. not allowing blatant violation of court order.
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• World Trade Organization
Or the WTO, is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. Prompted strong protests from anti-global trade forces in Seattle, Washington in 1999
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• "Globalization"
Regional societies, economies, & cultures become joined together through international trade, transportation, and communication. It benefited American consumers because it offered new and varied products at low prices (from foreign countries).
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• Tiananmen Square
The Tiananmen Square incident was a suppression of Chinese democrats by the PLA. It caused much condemning from western nations including the U.S.
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• Mikhail Gorbachev
Soviet statesman whose foreign policy brought an end to the Cold War and whose domestic policy introduced major reforms
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• "Velvet Revolution"
A nonviolent political revolution, especially the relatively smooth change from communism to a Western-style democracy in Czechoslovakia at the end of 1989.
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• Boris Yeltsin
Was the first President of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999. Traumatic period in Russian history, marked by widespread corruption, economic collapse, and enormous political and social problems. By the time he left office, he was a deeply unpopular figure in Russia,
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• Nelson Mandela
South African statesman who was released from prison to become the nation's first democratically elected president in 1994, anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist
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• "Apartheid"
Laws in South Africa that physically separated different races into different geographic areas.
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• Manuel Antonio Noriega
Leader of the Panamanian Defense Forces, Noriega supplied information to the CIA during the Bush administration, but was indicted in 1988 for drug and other charges and eventually captured and convicted after a military standoff with U.S. troops in Panama.Operation Desert Storm: Encouraged by President George H.W. Bush, the UN condemned Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and gathered an international military force. In February 1991, the U.S. and its allies attacked Iraqi forces in Kuwait. The Iraqi's were driven from Kuwait, but Saddam Hussein remained in power in Iraq.
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• Bill Clinton
The first democratic president since Jimmy Carter and a self-proclaimed activist. He had a very domestic agenda. When in office he had a lot of controversial appointments. When a longtime friend, Vince Foster, committed suicide it sparked an escalating inquiry into some banking and real estate ventures involving the president and his wife in the early 1980s. This became known as the Whitewater affair.
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• Social liberalism:
a political ideology that believes individual liberty requires a level of social justice. Social liberalism endorses a market economy and the expansion of civil and political rights and liberties, but differs in that it believes the legitimate role of the government includes addressing economic and social. A social liberal in this sense may hold either "liberal" or "conservative" views on fiscal policy.
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• Deindustrialization
Process by which companies move industrial jobs to other regions with cheap labor, leaving the newl deindustrialized region to switch to a service economy and to work though a period of high unemployment.
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• Pat Buchanan
television commentator and former White House aide who challenged Bush in the Republican primary. ultra conservative, tried to set up a culture war, really racist.
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• Ross Perot
He rose as a significant third party candidate. A tech-company billionaire who spent his own money campaigning, he ran on one main issue: the U.S. must get the debt under control--he caused the split votes letting Democrats win
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• Janet Reno
The first woman to serve as Attorney General
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• Ruth Bader Ginsburg
an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took the oath of office on August 10, 1993.
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• Earned Income Tax Credit
A refundable tax credit for low- to moderate-income working individuals and couples, particularly those with children. The amount of EITC benefit depends on a recipient's income and number of children.
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• NAFTA
North American Free Trade Agreement is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America.
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• HMOs
A health insurance organization to which subscribers pay a predetermined fee in return for a range of medical services from physicians and healthcare workers registered with the organization.
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• "Contract with America"
In the 1994 congressional elections, Congressman Newt Gingrich had Republican candidates sign a document in which they pledged their support for such things as a balanced budget amendment, term limits for members of Congress, and a middle-class tax cut.
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• Telecommunications Act
deregulated broadcasting and telephone companies and gave billions of dollars worth of digital frequencies to existing boradcasters without charge and the CDA attempted to regulate the Internet like broadcast which was ruled unconstitutional
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• AFDC
Aid to Families with Dependent Children was a federal assistance program in effect from 1935 to 1996 created by the Social Security Act and administered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provided financial assistance to children whose families had low or no income.
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• "Triangulation"
Clinton's political strategy. Embracing the most popular Republican policies, like welfare reform, while leaving his opponents with extreme positions unpopular among suburban middle-class voters, such as hostility to abortion rights and environmental protection
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• Oslo Accords
Brokered by Norway after months of secret negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization was an agreement in 1993 in which Israeli prime minister Rabin granted Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
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• "Ethnic cleansing"
Process in which more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region
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• Timothy McVeigh
n American domestic terrorist convicted and executed for the detonation of an ammonium nitrate and nitromethane fertilizer truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City
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• "Shock therapy"
Treatment of chronic mental conditions by electroconvulsive therapy or by inducing physiological shock.
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• "Dot Coms"
A company that relies largely or exclusively on Internet commerce. A speculative bubble from 1995-2000 in which the stock market grew super fast in the area of new information technologies on the world wide web, before crashing in 2000.
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• NASDAQ
Also a term that can refer to two different things: first, it is the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations exchange, the first electronic exchange where investors can buy and sell stoc
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• "Rebellion of Particularisms"
Renewed emphasis on group identity and insistent demands for group recognition and power
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• Latinos
A person of Latin American origin or descent, especially a man or boy, a common term.
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• Patterson v McLean Credit Union
Supreme Court barred a black employee who suffered racial harassment while working from suing for damages under the Civil Rights Act of 1866
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• "Prison-industrial Complex"
A set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment, regardless of actual need; a confluence of special interests that has given prison consruction in the U.S. a seemingly unstoppable momentum; composed of politicians, both liberal and conservative, who have used the fear of crime to gain votes
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• "Prison orphans"
A child whose parent went into jail, and was forced to live with relatives or be put into a foster home.
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• Rodney King
a taxi driver who became internationally known after being beaten by Los Angeles Police Department became a symbol of racial tension in America, after his beating was videotaped and broadcast to the nation
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• Americans with Disabilities Act
Or ADA, passed by Congress in 1991, this act banned discrimination against the disabled in employment and mandated easy access to all public and commerical buildings.
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• AIDS
Or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, huge deadly outbreak in the '70s started with gay men and was labeled the "gay plague" but soon began to affect drug users, hemophiliacs, and minorities. Expensive to treat, no cure. C Everett Koop caused government to spend 1.3 billion on AIDS assistance.
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• "Multiculturalism"
stressed the need to preserve, rather than squash racial minorities, old ways, and ethnic traits. The old idea of "melting pot" gave away to "salad bowl"
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• Proposition 187
a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit illegal aliens from using non-emergency health care, public education, and other services in the State of California.
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• The Bell Curve
book by Hernstein and Murray about racial differences in intelligence and the implications of those differences. The authors argued that differences in IQ are based on genes
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• The Christian Coalition
In the 1990's, Pentecostal minister Pat Robertson began a political movement and launched this organization. These and other organizations of the Christian right opposed federal interference in local affairs; denounced abortion, divorce, feminism, and homosexuality; defended unrestricted free enterprise, and supported a strong American posture in the world.
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• Defense of Marriage Act
a United States federal law that, prior to being ruled unconstitutional, defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman, and allowed states to refuse same sex marriage
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• Casey v Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania
Four of the original five conditions on abortions upheld \-- Informed consent, 24 hour waiting period, parental consent for a minor, and the imposition of certain reporting info from abortion facilities. Spousal notification was overturned.
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• White water
a series of real estate dealings in Arkansas involving Bill Clinton long before he became President; Republicans accused Clinton of associated financial improprieties, but no charges were ever proven. This affair was one of several accusations that eventually led to Clinton being impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted by the Senate
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• Paula Jones
A former Arkansas state employee who sued U.S. President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. The case precipitated Clinton's impeachment in the House of Representatives and the subsequent acquittal by the Senate
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• Monica Lewinsky
An American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996. Kept the dress with a piece of Bill Clinton on it.
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• Bush v. Gore
This case was during the 2000 presidential election between Bush and Gore over Florida's 25 electoral votes. The decision made George W. Bush the new president of the United States, and the fiasco made people question the need for the electoral college.
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• Ralph Nader
A leftist American politician who promotes the environment, fair consumerism, and social welfare programs. His book Unsafe at Any Speed brought attention to the lack of safety in American automobiles
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Conservatism
Assoc. with conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism, & preference for social hierarchy over democ. & equality. Credibility of this political philosophy damaged by WWII.
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Rebirth of Conservatism
Resulted as a backlash to the black civil rights and New Left movements of the 50's & 60's.
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Nixon
This president had very conservative views, but once in office he wasn't so conservative. He moved toward the political center on many issues. Appealed to both sides.
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Nixon's Domestic Policy
Expanded Johnson's Great Society (fight against poverty) w/ EPA, OSHA, Natl. Trans. Safety Board, Food Stamp expansion, & Auto SS Increase to match cost of living.
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Nixon's Racial Policy
Pursued Affirmative Action programs to upgrade minority employment. Nominated blacks to supreme court. Saw more black students in integrated schools. (Some whites saw AA plan as 'reverse discrimination'.)
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Equal Credit Opportunity Act
An act that allowed women to obtain credit in their own name.
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Title 9
Often associated with women's sports, in our text this banned gender discrimination in higher education.
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Communism
When it comes to foreign policy, Nixon was considered soft on \______ which made people nervous.
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Realists
When it came to the Cold War Nixon was more interested in power than ideology. He and Kissinger preferred international stability to conflict. They were known as \___
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Detente
Translated this mean cooperation. It is an alternative to containment. Hoped it would lead to less instability. Not conducive to 3rd World goals.
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China (Beijing)
This country had it's own interests separate from the Soviets. Nixon realized this, visited this country and this lead to them taking a seat at the United Nations.
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Soviet Union
Nixon was the first American president to visit this country, where he reached landmark agreements with Brezhnev
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SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)
This agreement froze each country's arsenal of missiles.