RMU History Exam 4

Levitt House

houses that came in pre-assembled pieces to produce cheap and uniform housing

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Republican president who served as a supreme commander in WWII; increased insurance aid and minimum wage

TV in the 1950s

women portrayed as either housewives or sex objects; pushed religion in families to combat Communism

Beat Generation

young Americans that rejected conformity (hippies)

Iron Curtain

division between Western countries and Eastern Communist countries (not physical)

Domino Theory

the idea that if one country falls to Communism, all others will

CIA Covert Operations

military or political actions carried out in secret to allow the responsible government or party to deny its role

Nikita Khrushchev

took over the Soviet Union when Stalin died in 1953

Fidel Castro

Communist leader in Cuba that took over in a revolution

SPUTNIK

first satellite; launched in 1957 by the Soviet Union

U-2 Incident

CIA undercover spy Gary Powers caught spying on the Soviet Union

Bay of Pigs

failed attempt by CIA to overthrow Castro in 1961

Cuban Missile Crisis

closest to nuclear war due to Soviet Union’s missiles in Cuba; ended in the USSR removing missiles in Cuba and the US removing missiles in Turkey

Robert McNamara

JFK’s Secretary of Defense

Brown v. Board of Education

declared that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional

Thurgood Marshall

NAACP’s attorney in overturning Jim Crow Laws; first black Supreme Court Justice

Emmett Till

African American boy that was lynched in Mississippi due to racism

Rosa Parks

civil rights activist that was arrested for not giving up her bus seat, causing the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Little Rock Nine

nine African American students integrated into school in Arkansas under Eisenhower

sit-in

form of direct action in which protestors nonviolently occupy an area and refuse to leave

Freedom Rides

bus rides by civil rights activists through Southern racist states to promote equality

March on Washington

protestors gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in D.C.

Voting Rights Act

suspended literacy tests and government officials started to overlook voting

de facto segregation

segregation in social practice rather than in law

Civil Rights Act of 1964

prevented job discrimination due to race, religion, color, sex, national origin, and gender

Lyndon B. Johnson

president after JFK was assassinated in 1963; passed most civil rights legislation

Black Panther Party

civil rights party that used gun violence; led by Huey Newton

Malcolm X

advocated for black nationalism in the Nation of Israel as a muslim

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnamese nationalist who attempted to keep Vietnam from Chinese and French occupation

General William Westmoreland

commander of U.S. forces in the Vietnam War

Draft Lottery

used to pick draftees for the Vietnam War; random number picked on television

Hawks

Americans that were for America’s involvement in the Vietnam War

Doves

Americans that were against America’s involvement in the Vietnam War

Tet Offensive

Vietcong attacked Saigon’s airport on the Vietnamese New Year

1968 Election

Richard Nixon won in a landslide against Democrat Hubert Humphrey and Independent George Wallace

Henry Kissinger

Nixon’s National Security Advisor that played a part in Nixon’s secret bombing of Cambodia

Cesar Chavez

created the United Farm Workers Labor Union and fought for equal treatment of Chicanos (Mexican Americans)

NOW

National Organization for Women that fought for a “bill of rights” for equal treatment in the workplace and school

Roe v. Wade

stopped state laws restricting abortion

Ralph Nader

consumer advocate that was against corporations being overpowered

Pentagon Papers

top secret files about the Vietnam war

Watergate Scandal

Nixon’s group of “plumbers” stole the Pentagon Papers and broke into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters; Nixon was recording all White House conversations

Moral Majority

group against labor unions, environmental reform, and welfare programs

Gerald Ford

Nixon’s vice president that took over after he resigned

Jimmy Carter

Democrat that was voted in after Ford for reform

OPEC

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries; consisted mostly of Arabic countries

Three Mile Island

nuclear meltdown in Pennsylvania that caused fear of nuclear energy

Iranian Hostage Crisis

Americans were taken hostage from the U.S. Embassy in Iran after the Shah of Iran was hospitalized; released when Reagan took office

Iran-Contra Affair

Iranian arms deal to stop the Sardinista (a rebel group) by funding the Contras

Mikhail Gorbachev

took over the Soviet Union and liberated its countries

George H.W. Bush

voted in in 1988 against Michael Dukakis; oversaw the unification of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Gulf War

Saddam Hussein

leader of Iraq; invaded Kuwait and began the Gulf War in August 1990

Persian Gulf War

ecoterrorism war caused by Saddam Hussein that destroyed Kuwait; Kuwait liberated in February 1991

1992 Election

Bill Clinton won against George H.W. Bush; later had a sex scandal