History CLEP - Unit 8

sit-ins in Greensboro

four black college students sit at the Woolworth lunch counter, denied service, sparks a decade of public activism

freedom ride

congress of racial equality members purchased tickets for a 1,500 mile trip from DC to New Orleans, one bus firebombed, one bus attacked by white mob

JFK on civil rights

generally sympathetic, but not deeply committed, knew it hurt US image worldwide but feared loss of southern vote in congress

freedom schools

taught literacy and constitutional rights

selma march

civil rights demonstrators march from selma to the state capital at Montgomery

Malcolm X

called for black separatism, later tempered his separatist rhetoric

“New Frontier”

federal government will eradicate poverty, guarantee health care, and improve education

Berlin Wall

a hated symbol of the division of Europe into democratic and communist camps

Cuban Missile Crisis

soviets secretly deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba, U2 spy planes gather evidence, Kennedy orders naval quarantine of Cuba

November 1963

President Kennedy is assassinated

Johnson’s Great Society

an America of abundance and liberty for all, signed Civil Rights Act of 1964, war on poverty

poverty rate

the percentage of all Americans living below the poverty threshold

tet offensive

north Vietnamese struck several cities at once in south Vietnam, American public wondered if war was winnable

the siege of chicago

thousands of antiwar protestors demonstrates at the DNC, police and national guard violently broke up peaceful “festival of light”, tarnished democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey’s presidential campaign

“red power” movement

congress and the courts returned millions of acres of land to tribal ownership, passed Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act

affirmative action

passed to address workplace and educational discrimination faced by women and historically underrepresented minorities

higher education act

prevented federal funds from going to any college that discriminated against women

Paris peace accords

Kissinger signs a ceasefire agreement with North Vietnamese

Kent State

four student demonstrators, protesting invasion of Cambodia, shot by National Guardsmen

Nixon Doctrine

US will provide economic aid to allies, but no troops

detente

measured cooperation with the soviets within environment of rivalry, check soviet expansion and limit soviet arms

Nixon’s liberal agenda

pioneered affirmative action, signed environmental legislation, created Occupational Safety and Health Administration

nixon’s conservative agenda

shifting federal government authority to states and localities, attacked protesters as “naughty children”

the Nixon wave

americans experienced the first real inflation since the post-world war II era

aftermath of watergate

no proof Nixon was involved, he was clearly involved in the cover-up, impeachment and resignation, Ford becomes president

Ford’s foreign policy

wanted to negotiate with China and Soviet Union, signed Helsinki Accords

Jimmy Carter

relatively unknown peanut farmer and small-state governor, brought down-to-earth style, confronted energy crisis with complicated national energy act

Iran Hostage Crisis

militants seize the US embassy in Tehran, taking 52 hostages, efforts to free hostages fail

new conservative coalition

strengthen national defense, limit federal power, deregulation, tax policies that benefit corporations

reagan’s agenda

roll back liberalism of past fifty years that made government responsible for the nation’s economic health and the social welfare of its citizens

“January surprise”

after over a year in captivity, the Iranian Embassy hostages were released on the very day of Ronald Reagan’s presidential inauguration

conservative agenda

attacks on social welfare, increase defense spending, pro-business, anti-labor

the new right

loosely-organized fundamentalist christian group, supporters of anti-abortion laws and prayer in public schools, Supreme Court became more conservative

deregulation

the reduction of government control over a particular industry, usually enacted to encourage competition within the industry

the Reagan Doctrine

US would openly support anti-communist movements, we would liberate freedom fighters seeking democracy

Iran-Contra Scandal

Reagan’s national security advisor and CIA director covertly sold weapons to Iran in an unsuccessful attempt to win the release of Americans held hostage

Mikhail Gorbachev

general secretary of the communist party in the soviet union

glasnost

policy of openness (freedom of the press)

perestoika

less government control of the economy

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

allowed each nation to make on-site inspections of the other’s military

Tiananmen Square

the Chinese communist state mobilized all its forces against students demonstrating for a more democratic China

Persian-Gulf War

conflict with Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein, Iraq invaded Kuwait in order to monopolize its oil, US shielded then invaded

Bill Clinton

becomes president after defeating Bush and Perot, claims to represent a new type of Democrat, a centrist

Intifada against Israeli control

Palestinians living in the Israeli-controlled territories protested violently, the likelihood of Middle East peace receded despite repeated international diplomatic efforts

Clinton scandals

antigovernment extremists blow up a federal building in Oklahoma, sex scandal, Columbine shooting