P8

1945|GI Bill (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act)

Helped veterans pay for college and buy homes/businesses; boosted middle class growth

1945|United Nations created

US joins and takes major leadership role in world affairs

1945|Cold War begins

Long ideological struggle between US capitalism and Soviet communism

1946|Containment policy (George Kennan)

US policy to stop spread of communism

1947|Truman Doctrine

US gives aid to Greece and Turkey to stop communism

1947|Marshall Plan

US gives billions to rebuild Europe and contain communism

1948|Berlin Airlift

US supplies West Berlin after Soviet blockade; containment success

1949|NATO formed

First peacetime US military alliance against Soviet threat

1949|Soviets test atomic bomb

Starts nuclear arms race with US

1950|Korean War

US fights under UN to stop spread of communism in Korea

1952|Dwight D. Eisenhower elected president

Moderate Republican and Cold War leader

1954|Brown v. Board of Education

Ended “separate but equal” in public schools

1955|Montgomery Bus Boycott

Launches modern Civil Rights Movement and rises of Martin Luther King Jr.

1964|Civil Rights Act

Bans segregation and discrimination in public places/jobs

1964|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Gives LBJ broad power to expand Vietnam War

1965|Voting Rights Act

Bans literacy tests and protects black voting rights

1968|Tet Offensive

Shows Vietnam War is not close to ending; hurts public trust

1968|MLK assassinated

Sparks riots and national mourning

1969|Vietnamization

Nixon gradually withdraws US troops from Vietnam

1972|Nixon visits China

Major Cold War breakthrough and détente

1973|Paris Peace Accords

US withdraws troops from Vietnam

1974|Nixon resigns

Only president to resign because of Watergate scandal

1975|Fall of Saigon

Communists take over South Vietnam; Vietnam unified under communism

1979|Iran Hostage Crisis

Americans held hostage in Tehran; weakens Carter politically