AP US History Unit 8 Flashcards

Flashcards covering the causes and effects of the Red Scare, Cold War policies, conservative backlash, environmental policy, youth culture, civil rights movements, the Great Society, the Vietnam War, America's role as a world power, economic changes, and cultural shifts after 1945.

Red Scare (Post-World War II)

Fear of Soviet communism that led to efforts to root out communists at home, including loyalty pledges and investigations into political affiliations.

Taft Hartley Act of 1947

Made it more difficult for workers to strike and required union leaders to pledge they were not members of the Communist Party.

Federal Employee Loyalty and Security Program

Required federal employees to swear they were not communist or fascist and allowed for investigations into their political affiliations.

Un-American Activities Committee

House of Representatives committee that searched for communist influence in American society, particularly in Hollywood.

Hollywood Ten

Ten prominent Hollywood directors who were blacklisted after refusing to testify about their communist affiliations.

Joseph McCarthy

Senator who claimed to have a list of communists in the State Department, exacerbating the Red Scare.

McCarthyism

The practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Rosenberg Case

Couple accused and executed for espionage related to the Soviet Union's development of the atomic bomb.

Cold War

A conflict between two belligerents in which neither engages in open warfare with the other.

Containment

Containing the spread of communism.

Truman Doctrine

Advocated containment of communism by lending support to any country threatened by Soviet communism.

Marshall Plan

Allocated financial aid for European countries to rebuild, aiming to strengthen economies and prevent the appeal of communism.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Alliance formed to resist the aggressive actions of the Soviet Union.

Warsaw Pact

Counter alliance formed by the Soviets, that was composed of communist nations of Eastern Europe.

Nuclear Proliferation

The US and the Soviet Union kept stockpiling increasing amounts of increasingly powerful nuclear bombs and the possibility that the world would get blown to a smoking husk of carbon ash became very real.

Proxy War

Occurs when one thing stands in place for another thing. In the instance of the Cold War, these wars actually did have real fighting, but not directly between the US and the Soviet Union. They were only the ones backing the wars up.

Ronald Reagan

The crowning achievement of conservatism in this period came in of Ronald in 1980.

The New Right

A coalition of conservatives who resisted the onslaught of liberalism, were proud of their religious values, were openly populist and anti egalitarian.

John Birch Society

A group of conservatives who opposed communism and advocated for limited government and spun out right wing conspiracy theories about the issues of the day.

The National Review

A magazine that denounces folks like the John Birch Society as cranks because he feared that the whole conservative movement would be radicalized by their efforts.

The Religious Right

A large group of conservative Christians who organized to oppose liberal and progressive trends.

Jerry Falwell

Melded Christianity with conservative politics, a pastor and evangelist founded the Moral Majority.

James Dobson's Focus on the Family radio program

A program that wasn't as blatantly political as Falwell's efforts, but that's only because he was more adept at hiding it.

Stagflation

An economic mess in which inflation is running rampant but the economy is very stagnant.

Watergate

Nixon resigned and went ahead and flushed whatever remaining confidence the people had left in their government right down the toilet.

Equal Rights Amendment

Proposed a constitutional amendment to make sure women were on equal footing with men.

Phyllis Schlafly

Schlafly and her organization led a campaign called STOP ERA, and the STOP was an acronym for Stop Taking Our Privileges.

Affirmative Action

A program that arose out of the civil rights movement, activists wanted to take affirmative action to make sure those wrongs were now made right.

Bockey versus the University California

Supreme court decision in 1978 that such minority quotas were unconstitutional and violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment.

Cuyahoga River fire

When the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire in 1969 because it had been so heavily polluted by factories upstream.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

Explained how modern society was in effect poisoning the earth, especially with regards to the use of DDT pesticides in modern agriculture.

Environmental Protection Agency

President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, or the EPA. The job of the EPA was manage pollution control programs, including pesticides, oversee the regulation of industries that polluted, and much much more.

Oil Crisis

The oil addicted United States, much of the world's oil during that period came from a cluster of nations in the Middle East, and in general the relationship between those countries and The United States was, to put it mildly, strained.

Earth Day

A celebration of the Earth environmental movement to gain a great deal of exposure.

Clean Air Act passed in 1963

A law that was aimed at controlling air pollution on a national scale, and once the EPA was created, it took over the regulatory work of that policy.

Gulf of Tonkin incident

When the North Vietnamese fired on a US battleship in the Gulf Of Tonkin.

Richard Nixon

Vietnam to reduce U. S. Involvement in Vietnam without looking like we had conceded defeat.

Vietnamization

To provide the removal of American troops from Vietnam while still lending financial aid and munitions to carry out the war for themselves.

Tet Offensive

A massive surprise attack carried out by the North Vietnamese which inflicted heavy casualties on US troops.

Credibility Gap

President is lying to us about the progress of the war, we can see it for ourselves right here on television.

Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution

Given president a blank check to exercise whatever powers were necessary to protect American interests in the region.

Domino Theory

New term is the belief or theory that if one country falls to communism, other countries nearby will also fall.

Great Society

Increased opportunities for immigrants seeking to come to America by abolishing immigration quotas

Self Determination Act of 1975

Gave American Indians much greater control over their lands, their education, and their law enforcement.

Ms. Magazine

Created by another women's rights activist, Gloria Steinem.

Lyndon Johnson

Series of programs called the Great Society, which in many ways was just an extension and further implementation of FDR's New Deal.

Medicare

A program that was introduced which provided federally funded health insurance for people 65

Medicaid

A program that was introduced the state must provide one for them

Gideon versus Wainwright in 1963

If a person is impoverished and cannot therefore afford their own attorney in court, then the state must provide one for them

Griswold versus Connecticut in 1965

The court ruled that laws which forbade the use of birth control were unconstitutional

Ingle v. Vittal in 1962

What was called the Regent's Prayer which was state mandated

Occupation of Alcatraz Island

1990s

Civil Rights Movement

Was civil disobedience to unjust laws. King, the best way to force change on the corrupt system was by means of civil disobedience to unjust laws.

Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus

Called in the state's National Guard to prevent black students from entering Little Rock High School.

Loving Versus Virginia in 1967

Civil Rights Act of 1964. Made discrimination on the basis of race, religion, or sex illegal.

Civil Rights

The government responded with significant legislation for which the civil rights activists had been fighting for years.First was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination on the basis of race, religion, or sex illegal.

Counter Culture

A movement that sought to cast off societal restraint and overturn cultural norms with rebellious styles of clothing and experimental drug use.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

Group that the world's oil during that period came from a cluster of nations in the Middle East, and in general the relationship between those countries and the United States was, to put it mildly, strained.

Creation of the EPA

In 1970, President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, or the EPA.

Youth Culture

This movement was largely led and participated in by the nation's young people.

1960's Movement

Two college organizations sprang up in the 1960s that had opposing viewpoints on America's involvement in the Vietnam War.

Young Americans for Freedom

Known as Young Americans for Freedom, and their goal was to support America's involvement in Vietnam because it meant the containment of communism.

The Port Huron Statement"

The opposing group on the left was Students for a Democratic Society who released their beliefs in something called the Port Huron Statement, which stressed participatory democracy and direct government action."

Kent State

The students at Kent State University were protesting the latest escalation in Vietnam at the hands of President Richard Nixon.

Vietnam war

This was about to explain the Vietnam War.

Fine Tune Music

Their clothes and general appearance critique the prim and proper styles of the 1950s, they also valued informality in their music.

J.D. Salinger

Had a profound distaste for phoniness.

American Civil Rights Movement

One of those demons, which was like school is good.

Executive Order

President issues Executive Order nine ninety eight-one which banned segregation in the United States Armed Forces.

Mohammad Reza Pallavi

In 1953, the CIA conceived and implemented a plot to overthrow the democratically elected prime minister in order to return the Shah Mohammad Reza Pallavi to the throne.

Patterns of migration

That one wants us to talk about the economy after 1945 and patrons of migration.

Economic boom

Had this economic environment was even better for veterans of the war thanks to the serviceman's readjustment act of 1944, also known as the GI Bill, the World War II veterans were given an opportunity to go to college on big daddy government's dime and take out low interest loans to buy houses and start businesses so it's good.