APUSH Key Terms and Concepts: Cold War, Civil Rights, and Vietnam Era

Military Industrial Complex

Term describing the close relationship between the U.S. military, defense contractors, and government officials that could influence policy and spending.

New Frontier

Kennedy's domestic program aimed at improving education, healthcare, civil rights, and space exploration.

Peace Corps

Federal agency sending American volunteers abroad to assist developing nations with education, health, and infrastructure.

Alliance for Progress

U.S. program to promote economic development and political reform in Latin America.

Bay of Pigs

Failed 1961 CIA‑backed invasion of Cuba by anti‑Castro exiles.

Flexible Response

Kennedy's strategy of using multiple military options—conventional and nuclear—to respond to communist threats.

NASA mission culminating in the first moon landing on July 20, 1969.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

A political party organized by civil rights activists to challenge Mississippi's delegation to the Democratic National Convention, which opposed the civil rights planks in the party's platform. Claiming a mandole to represent the true voice of Mississippi, where almost no black citizens could vote. The MFPP demanded to be seated at the convention but were denied by party bosses.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Law banning racial discrimination in voting and authorizing federal oversight of elections.

Malcolm X

Black nationalist leader and Nation of Islam spokesman advocating self‑defense and Black empowerment.

Black Panther Party

Revolutionary Black organization promoting self‑defense, community programs, and resistance to police brutality.

Watts Riots

1965 Los Angeles uprising sparked by racial tensions and police brutality.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Congressional authorization allowing President Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war.

Cuban Missile Crisis

1962 confrontation over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Freedom Riders

Interracial activists who rode interstate buses to challenge segregation in the South.

George Wallace

Prominent American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms and was a four-time candidate for President of the United States. He is best remembered for his fierce defense of racial segregation during the Civil Rights Movement.

J. Edgar Hoover

Long‑time FBI director known for expanding federal surveillance and targeting civil rights and antiwar activists.

March on Washington

1963 civil rights demonstration where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech.

New Left

Youth‑driven political movement advocating participatory democracy, civil rights, and opposition to the Vietnam War.

Stonewall Riots

An uprising in support of equal rights for gay people sparked by an assault by off-duty police officers at a gay bar in NY

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

Student activist group promoting participatory democracy and protesting racial injustice and the Vietnam War.

Operation Rolling Thunder

Sustained U.S. bombing campaign against North Vietnam beginning in 1965.

Six‑Day War

1967 conflict in which Israel defeated neighboring Arab states and gained significant territory.

Hawks

Americans who supported escalation of the Vietnam War.

Doves

Americans who opposed the Vietnam War and favored withdrawal.

Eugene McCarthy

Antiwar senator who challenged Lyndon Johnson in 1968, gaining major youth support.

Hubert Humphrey

38th Vice President under Johnson and 1968 Democratic presidential candidate who supported continued involvement in Vietnam.

Hippies

Members of the 1960s counterculture embracing peace, communal living, and rejection of mainstream values.

Voter Education Project

SNCC Civil rights initiative to register Black voters in the South.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Law banning segregation in public facilities and discrimination in employment.

Great Society

President Johnson's domestic agenda focused on reducing poverty, expanding education, and improving healthcare.

Freedom Summer

1964 voter‑registration campaign in Mississippi led by civil rights groups.

Barry Goldwater

5 term US senator from Arizona and the 1964 Republican presidential nominee that opposed Great Society, was the father of Modern Conservatism

Robert McNamara

Secretary of Defense who oversaw escalation of the Vietnam War.

Dean Rusk

Secretary of State under Kennedy and Johnson who supported U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Robert Kennedy

Attorney General and later senator who became a leading antiwar and civil rights advocate before his 1968 assassination.

Berlin Wall

Barrier built in 1961 dividing East and West Berlin to stop East Germans from fleeing to the West.

European Economic Community (EEC)

Western European free‑trade organization that evolved into the European Union.

Cesar Chavez

Was an American labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW). He is best known for using nonviolent methods—including strikes, nationwide consumer boycotts, and personal fasts—to secure better wages and safer working conditions for migrant farmworkers.

Kent State University

Site of a 1970 antiwar protest where National Guard troops shot and killed four students.

Griswold v. Connecticut

1965 Supreme Court case establishing a constitutional right to privacy and legalizing contraceptive use for married couples.

Miranda v. Arizona

1966 Supreme Court case requiring police to inform suspects of their rights, including the right to remain silent.

Affirmative Action

A program designed to redress historic racial and gender imbalances in job and education

Silent Majority

Nixon Administration's term to describe generally content, law-abiding, middle-class Americans who support both the Vietnam War and America's instutitions

My Lai

Horrific war crime committed by U.S. Army soldiers on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. It remains the most notorious atrocity in modern American military history