US History: Cold War and Civil Rights Overview

Harry S. Truman

Foreign Policy: Containment

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Foreign Policy: Brinkmanship (build up nuclear weapons to threaten the other side)

Joseph McCarthy

McCarthyism = Accusing someone else to take the blame off of yourself

John F. Kennedy

"Swim w/Diem" = increased money sent to support Diem

Lyndon B. Johnson

Expanded Vietnam Conflict

Richard Nixon

Aimed to ease Cold War tensions

General MacArthur

Truman fired him because he threatened to invade China

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nonviolence

Malcolm X

Believed black people should be armed for self-defense

Gerald Ford

Nixon's nomination for VP (after Agnew resigns)

Jimmy Carter

Foreign Policy: Human Rights (controversial)

SALT II

Not signed because of the invasion of Afghanistan.

Ronald Reagan

Promoted foreign policy of peace through strength and significantly increased military spending to support global anti-communist movements.

SDI/Star Wars

Strategic Defense Initiative aimed at protecting the US from nuclear missiles.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

Significant event in East Germany marking the end of the Cold War.

Iran Contra

Political scandal involving the secret sale of arms to Iran to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Reagan Doctrine

Focused on supporting anti-communist movements and resistance groups in countries that were communist or supported by communist nations.

Emmett Till

Brutally murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman; his mother held an open-casket funeral to show the world what was done to her son.

Ngo Diem

President of South Vietnam who cancelled elections to prevent Ho Chi Minh from winning; known for corruption and the Hamlet Program.

Hamlet Program

Forced relocation to separate South Vietnamese from the Viet Cong.

Ho Chi Minh

Leader of the Communist Party in North Vietnam who sought independence from foreign rule.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Leader of the USSR from 1989 to 1991 known for policies of Glasnost and Perestroika.

Glasnost

Policy of openness and free speech initiated by Gorbachev.

Perestroika

Restructuring of the economy initiated by Gorbachev, including the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Containment

Policy aimed at preventing the extension of communist rule to other countries.

Satellite Nations

Countries dominated by the Soviet Union, including Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Poland.

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance formed among Western nations.

Warsaw Pact

Military alliance of Eastern European countries led by the Soviet Union, countering NATO.

McCarthyism

The practice of accusing others to deflect blame, notably associated with Senator McCarthy's anti-communist pursuits.

Blacklist

List of media workers ineligible for employment due to alleged communist ties.

HUAC

House Un-American Activities Committee, known for investigating alleged communists in the film industry.

Marshall Plan

Program providing aid to European nations post-WWII, with 16 countries receiving about $13 billion.

Truman Doctrine

Policy where Truman requested $400 million in aid for Greece and Turkey to support free peoples resisting subjugation.

Berlin Blockade

USSR's blockade of all access to West Berlin, leading to the Berlin Airlift.

Berlin Airlift

Operation to fly food and supplies into West Berlin, saving it and boosting American prestige.

Berlin Wall

Barrier erected by Khrushchev to stop the flow of people from East to West Berlin.

Korean War

Conflict that began when North Korea attacked South Korea.

Eisenhower Doctrine

Policy warning of the domino theory regarding the spread of communism in Southeast Asia.

Bay of Pigs

Failed CIA operation to overthrow Castro in Cuba, leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Confrontation between the US and the USSR over Soviet missiles in Cuba.

Limited Test Ban Treaty

Agreement among the US, UK, and USSR to ban and limit nuclear weapon tests.

Hungarian Revolt of 1956

Uprising against Soviet control in Hungary, leading to a brutal invasion by the USSR.

Role of the CIA in the Cold War

Involvement in foreign coups, including the overthrow of Mohammad Massadegh in Iran and Arbenz in Guatemala.

Nation of Islam

Renames himself from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, did the Montgomery Bus Boycott with Dr. King.

De Jure Segregation

By law segregation.

De Facto Segregation

By fact/'this is how life is' segregation.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Economic protest inspired by Gandhi, boycotting the buses.

The Black Panthers

Goal: Fight police brutality in the ghetto, angered by large numbers of black people drafted to fight in Vietnam, community service/support.

Freedom Summer

Goal: Register voters, faced violent opposition, associated with Mississippi Burning where KKK murdered three civil rights leaders.

Selma Campaign

March for voting rights where only 2% of eligible black voters were able to register in Alabama, led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Ended the poll tax and literacy test, passed under Lyndon B. Johnson.

Children's March/Birmingham protest

Goal: Overwhelm the prison system, led to the March on Washington.

March on Washington

Goal: Pass civil rights legislation, featured MLK's 'I Have a Dream' speech.

Roe v Wade

Abortion became a fundamental right.

Brown v Board of Education

Desegregated public school systems, challenged 'separate but equal' in schools.

United Farm Workers and the grape boycott

Migrant workers (Latinos) had low wages, led by Chavez against California grapes.

Effects of the Civil Rights Movement

Huge increase in numbers of black people graduating high school and college, increase in African pride/identity, political gains.

Stonewall Riot

1st LGBTQIA Movement, Stonewall was a gay bar that was attacked and looted, resulted in pride parades.

Capitol Crawl

People got out of wheelchairs and crawled up the capitol in protest of lack of access for disabled.

SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, organized Greensboro Sit-ins.

Little Rock Nine

9 students who integrated Little Rock High School, Eisenhower responded with military protection.

Sit-ins

Greensboro (North Carolina) where black and white people worked together, met with violence.

Urban riots

Kerner Commission concluded that the main cause of urban violence was white racism.

Feminine Mystique

Book that started the feminist movement, posed the question of what if women had power.

Assassination of Dr. King

Shot by James Earl Ray, led to the worst urban riots in US history.

Vietcong

Communist group in South Vietnam; military arm of the National Liberation Front (NLF) aimed to overthrow the South Vietnamese government and reunite North and South Vietnam.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Gave LBJ unlimited power in war; response to the Maddox in Tonkin Gulf.

1968 Democratic National Convention

DNC was a 'bloody riot'; main candidate (RFK) was assassinated and no other candidate had the votes to win the party.

Invasion of Cambodia

Nixon invades Cambodia without approval from congress; Nixon lost political support leading to Kent State.

Credibility Gap

Growing disparity between what LBJ's administration said and what Americans saw in the media; loss of American support in LBJ and the government.

Problems in Diem's Government

Cancelled elections because he didn't want Ho Chi Minh to win; corrupt/no reforms.

War Powers Act

Limits the power of the president in war.

Vietnamization

Gradual replacement of US troops with South Vietnamese forces.

Dien Bien Phu

French defeat by Vietminh forces leading to the end of French colonial rule in Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

A network of supply routes from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia, supplying arms to the VietCong.

Geneva Accords

Ended the First Indo-China War (France vs. Viet Minh); divided Vietnam at the 17th Parallel.

Tet Offensive

Surprise attack by the Vietcong during Tet, the lunar new year; marked a turning point in the war.

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

The USS Maddox was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats; LBJ enacted the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

Body Count Concept

Westmoreland's strategy of killing more people to win, aimed at destroying Vietcong morale.

Watergate

Nixon's plan to get re-elected involved breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters; led to his resignation.

Kent State

Vietnam war protest where the National Guard shot into a crowd, killing and wounding students.

Pentagon Papers

Released by Daniel Ellsberg, exposing the government's plan to enter the war while LBJ promised he wouldn't send troops.

Detente

Nixon's foreign policy aimed at easing tensions between the US and the USSR.

Realpolitik

A foreign policy approach that prioritizes practical over moral or ideological values.

SALT I

A five-year agreement that limited the number of nuclear weapons/missiles between the US and USSR.

SDI

A defense system that Reagan attempted to create to protect the US from incoming missiles, increasing defense spending and challenging the USSR.

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

The USSR invaded Afghanistan to support the communist government against groups like the Mujahideen.

Human Rights Foreign Policy

Carter's foreign policy that led to a decline in relations with the USSR and the collapse of Detente.

Tiananmen Square Protests

Protests by students in Beijing that were suppressed by Deng Xiaoping sending in tanks.

Geneva Summit

A 1985 meeting between Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev to discuss arms control.

Reasons for the Collapse of the Soviet Union

The Cold War's pressure on the Soviet economy and Gorbachev's reform initiatives (glasnost and perestroika).

Charlie Wilson's War

A CIA operation to supply military aid to Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War, leading to increased funding for the Afghan resistance.

The Stinger Missile

A missile supplied to the Mujahideen that allowed them to challenge Soviet air superiority.

Role of Putin in the invasion of Ukraine

Putin escalated the conflict in Ukraine.

Nixon visits China

Opened diplomatic and economic relations between the US and China, agreeing that neither would dominate the Pacific.

Ping-Pong Diplomacy

Improved US-China relationships through a historic trip by nine players from the US table tennis team to China.

Helsinki Accords

A series of agreements promising greater cooperation between Eastern and Western Europe.

End of Communism in Europe vs. China (1989)

Boris Yeltsin became the first democratically elected leader of the Russian Federation, marking the end of a communist government.