Unit 8

Truman Doctrine

declaration that the US has a commitment to help all the "freedom loving people" of the world

Marshall Plan

On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. It became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe.

Berlin Airlift

The crisis started on June 24, 1948, when Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin. The United States and United Kingdom responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany.

Containment

A United States foreign policy doctrine adopted by the Harry S. Truman administration in 1947, operating on the principle that communist governments will eventually fall apart as long as they are prevented from expanding their influence.

NATO

(NATO) USA, Canada, and Western Europe pledge mutual defense against any future Soviet attack

Warsaw Pact

Eastern Europeans alliance, soviet version of NATO

National Security Council

committee that approved a call for permanent military build-up to enable the US to pursue a global crusade against communism

Korean War

conflict that began with North Korea's invasion of South Korea; involved the United Nations (USA mainly) allying with South Korea and China allying with North Korea

Iron Curtain

(proposed by winston churchill) this separates the free west from the communist east, making a clear division between free and unfree

Long Telegram

created by George Kennan, it advised the Truman administration that the Soviets could not be dealt with as a normal government and proposed the policy of containment

Brown v. Board of Education

In this milestone decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. It signaled the end of legalized racial segregation in the schools of the United States, overruling the "separate but equal" principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. The boycott took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation.

Iran Coup

The U.S.- sponsored coup that overthrew Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 created resentments that helped lead to Irans Islamic Revolution twenty-five years later.

Sputnik

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1. The successful launch came as a shock to experts and citizens in the United States, who had hoped that the United States would accomplish this scientific advancement first.

Little Rock 9

The "Little Rock Nine," as the nine teens came to be known, were to be the first African American students to enter Little Rock's Central High School. Three years earlier, following the Supreme Court ruling, the Little Rock school board pledged to voluntarily desegregate its schools.

2nd Red Scare

The Second Red Scare, which occurred immediately after World War II, was preoccupied with the perception that national or foreign communists were infiltrating or subverting American society and the federal government.

Interstate Highway Act

Fallon introduced a revised bill, the Federal Highway Act of 1956, on Jan. 26, 1956. It provided for a 65,000-km national system of interstate and defense highways to be built over 13 years. The federal share would be 90 percent or $24.8 billion.

Levittown’s

Levittown was the first truly mass-produced suburb and is widely regarded as the archetype for postwar suburbs throughout the country. William Levitt, who assumed control of Levitt & Sons in 1954, is considered the father of modern suburbia in the United States.

SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, founded by young black adults, seeking immediate change, not gradual.

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by MLK, which taught that civil rights could be achieved through nonviolent protests.

Castro takes over Cuba

1959

U-2 Incident

us spy plane → USSR found one shot it down → says its not theirs →found out it was a lie

Berlin Wall coming up

1961

Bay of Pigs Invasion

The Bay of Pigs was an American attempt to overthrow the newly established communist government in Cuba by training and sending Cuban rebels. The coup ended up in a disaster due to the lack of support by the Americans.

Cuban Missile Crisis

1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when Castro allows the USSR to secretly set up missiles in Cuba aimed for the US. Later that year, the US discovered them, and President Kennedy put a blockade around Cuba while ordering the USSR to disarm the area.

New Frontier

The campaign program advocated by JFK in the 1960 election. He promised to revitalize the stagnant economy and enact reform legislation in education, health care, and civil rights.

Golf of Tolkin

In the Gulf of Tonkin incident, North Vietnamese torpedo boats supposedly attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin, off Vietnam, in a pair of assaults on August 2 and 4 of 1964. It was the basis for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which committed major American forces to the war in Vietnam.

Civil Rights Amendment

1964

Stated that the same standards had to be used to register white and black voters, that racial discrimination could not be used by employers to hire workers, that discrimination was illegal in all public locations, and that an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would be created.

March on Washington

200,000 people matched on Washington, advocating civil rights. This is where MLK made his famous "I have a dream..." speech.

Voting Rights Act

1965

This act was signed into law 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.

Great Society Program

Medicaid, Medicare, Headstart

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A set of domestic programs proposed or enacted in the United States on the initiative of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. BIG government spending.

Silent Majority

Term used by President Nixon to describe Americans who opposed the counterculture

OPEC

1973 Cut off supply of oil as protest of U.S. support of Israel

Détente

A policy of reducing Cold War tensions that was adopted by the United States during the presidency of Richard Nixon.

Opening relations with China

leader = Mao

Kissinger

Sec of state

negotiates end of Vietnam war

Paris Peace Accords

1973 peace agreement between the United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the Vietcong that effectively ended the Vietnam War.

Kent State

An Ohio university where National Guardsmen opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam War on May 4, 1970, wounding nine and killing four

Watergate

A break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex in Washington was carried out under the direction of White House employees. Disclosure of the White House involvement in the break-in and subsequent cover-up forced President Nixon to resign in 1974 to avoid impeachment.

Pentagon Papers

Government documents that showed the public had been lied to about the status of the war in Vietnam

E.P.A

Environmental protection act

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Rachel Carson + Silent Spring 1962

Book written by Rachel Carson, a Marine biologist who warned of the misuse of pesticides and their negative affects on the environment. The book is credited with starting the modern environmental movement.

Stagflation

a period of slow economic growth and high unemployment (stagnation) while prices rise (inflation)

E.R.A

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Proposed the 27th Amendment, calling for equal rights for both sexes. Defeated in the House in 1972.

N.O.W

National Organization for Women (NOW)

Founded in 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) called for equal employment opportunity and equal pay for women. NOW also championed the legalization of abortion and passage of an equal rights amendment to the Constitution.

Pardons Nixon

Ford

Roe v. Wade

Roe v. Wade (1973)

Abortion rights fall within the privacy implied in the 14th amendment

Camp David Accords

Camp David Accords

(1978) were negotiated at the presidential retreat of Camp David by Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel Menachem Begin; they were brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. They led to a peace treaty the next year that returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, guaranteed Israeli access to the Red Sea and Suez Canal, and more-or-less normalized diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries. This isolated Egypt from the other Arab countries and led to Sadat's assassination in 1981

Iran Hostage Crisis

Operation Eagle Claw

President Jimmy Carter; failed attempt to rescue US hostages in iran. Helicopters crashed before they could reach the mission. 8 american lives lost. (1980)

Iranian Revolution

Iranian Revolution

(1978-1979) a revolution against the shah of Iran led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which resulted in Iran becoming an Islamic republic with Khomeini as its leader

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

1979

Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan to help the Afghan communist government crush anticommunist Muslim guerrillas; anti communist guerrillas received support from US and GB; USSR withdrew→ communist party remained in power

Malaise speech

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the speech Carter delivered in response to the energy crisis, it was most notable for Carter's bleak assessment of the national condition and his claim that there was a "crisis of confidence" that had struck "at the very heart and soul of our national will". The speech helped fuel charges that the president was trying to blame his own problems on the American people.