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Watergate break-in 1972
five men arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee's executive quarters in the Watergate Hotel. Senate investigations revealed they were trained by the CIA and that the White House was involved. Nixon later admitted to complicity in the burglary, in part because of the recording devices he had installed in the White House held proof he was involved. In July, 1974, Nixon's impeachment began, so he resigned - the only president in US history to do so
White House plumbers
Name given to the special investigations committee established along with CREEP in 1971. Its job was to stop the leaking of confidential information to the public and press.
Senator Sam Ervin
held hearings for the Watergate Scandal; he is remembered for his work in the investigation committees that brought down Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954 and President Richard Nixon in 1974
John Dean III
He was a former white house lawyer that testified about the involvement of the top levels of the White House. He talked of the president, the Watergate cover-up and accused the president of violating justice. His claims were later supported by Nixon's tape recordings.
Spiro Agnew
Nixon's vice-president resigned and pleaded "no contest" to charges of tax evasion on payments made to him when he was governor of Maryland. He was replaced by Gerald R. Ford.
Archibald Cox
A professor of Harvard law school who also worked with the Department of Labor. He was the appointed Special Prosecutor over the Watergate case.
Saturday Night Massacre
A name given to the resignation of the U.S. attorney general and the firing of his deputy in October 1973, after they refused to carry out President Nixon's order to fire the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate affair.
Gerald Ford and the 25th Amendment
replaced Agnew with Gerald Ford
adopted in 1967 to establish procedures for filling vacancies in the office of president and vice president as well as providing for procedures to deal with the disability of a president.
Nixon Pardon
Within his first month of Presidency, Gerald Ford gave full pardon to Nixon. Which aroused fierce criticism, and soon his approval ratings went from 71% to 50%.
Equal Rights Amendment
constitutional amendment passed by Congress but never ratified that would have banned discrimination on the basis of gender.
Carter-Ford debates
Carter was seen as a humble and sincere man whose honesty could clean up the disorderly White House with all its scandals
Carter initiated more topics, spent more time discussing self-initiated topics, and spent slightly more time discussing image-related topics than did Ford.
Panama Canal Treaty
Signed in 1977, it stated that Panama would gain control of the canal after 1999.
Allen Bakke
California medical school applicant whose case led a divided Supreme Court to uphold limited forms of affirmative action for minorities.
Anwar Sadat
Egyptian statesman who (as president of Egypt) negotiated a peace treaty with Menachem Begin (then prime minister of Israel) (1918-1981).
Iranian Revolution of 1979
rise of Islamic Fundamentalism and overthrow of the Shah of Iran.
Ayatollah Khomeini
Shiite religious leader of Iran, led the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and ordered the invasion of the US Embassy.
Camp David Accords
A peace treaty between Israel and Egypt where Egypt agreed to recognize the nation state of Israel.
Shah of Iran
Great friend of the US for two and a half decades but Iranians want to nationalize their oil and improve economy, sparks Iranian Revolution and overthrew him(1979).
Civil Rights Act , 1964
A landmark act passed through congress under LBJ that banned discrimination based off of race or sex in most private places open to the public, discrimination in employment, and gave the government more power to desegregate the south.
Affirmative Action
Initially meant to discourage discrimination, the practice evolved into proactively hiring individuals from underprivileged groups to be more equitable. LBJ mandated this after the passing of the civil rights act and Nixon expanded it to favor minorities in government jobs.
War on Poverty
An initiative started by Johnson to tackle the issue that 20% of the U.S. population still lived in poverty. Proof of the massive amount of confidence the US had following WW2.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
A bill Johnson had passed through congress that basically gave him the right to escalate the war in vietnam as he saw fit. It covered “everything”
Office of Economic Opportunity
An organization created by LBJ in his war on poverty that was tasked with spending its allotted funds in a way to revive struggling regions like apalacia.
Medicare and medicaid
Granted privileges to the elderly and the poor to increase their access to health care.
Project Head Start
An 8 week summer program that cared for all of poor children's emotional, psychological, social, health, and nutritional needs to break the cycle of poverty. Part of LBJ’s war on poverty.
Voting Rights Act
An act passed by LBJ to crack down on practices in the south that restricted African Americans from voting like intimidation, poll taxes, and literacy tests. Explicitly outlawed literacy tests and sent federal voter registrars to the south to register voters.
Malcolm X
One of the men from the second generation of civil rights leaders who took on a more millitist, violent approach to pursue black separatism not racial harmony. An African Muslim.
Elijah Muhammed
The Black nationalist founder of the nation of Islam. Intense African separatists who regularly used violence. Some of his gunmen shot Malcolm X.
Black Panther Party
A millatist socialist party that was opperating chiefly in oakland California. Operated armed citizen patrols to counter police brutality while also doing humanitarian work like children’s breakfasts.
Operation Rolling Thunder
A series of full-scale carpet bombing raids over north vietnam to target viet-con fighters.
Domino Theory
The theory that if one nation fell to communism, its neighbors would soon follow. Used to justify investing so much into the vietnam war, lest cambodia and laos fall too.
Credibility Gap
The widening gap between the people and the government as the public increasingly felt they were being lied to and lost trust in the government.
Doves and Hawks
Anti-war and pro-war protestors respectively.
Tet Offensive
A coordinated attack on 27 south vietnamese cities by the Viet-con during the Vietnamese new year tet. Tho the rebels were not successful, it proved that the Viet-con were not as exhausted as Hawks wanted to believe, undermining the war effort.
George Wallace
3rd Party presidential candidate for the segregationist American Independent Party. Previous Alabama governor who advocated for forceful oppression of Blacks.
Stonewall Incident
A group of off duty cops attacked many gay men at New York’s Stonewall Inn, and of course they fought back.
Students for A Democratic Society
An action group that mobilized students to run anti-poverty and anti-war campaigns. Despite its good intentions, they demonstrations would get increasingly violent and eventually spawn a terrorist group called the weathermen.
Vietnamization
Nixon’s plan to slowly pull out the 540k American men from vietnam and instead give the south vietnamese government the guns and money to arm their own vietnamese soldiers, allowing the vietnamese to fight their own war.
Nixon Doctrine
The proclamation that the US in the future would honor its defense commitments by providing money, weapons, training, and advice but not large amounts of American ground troops.
My Lai Massacre
American troops in Vietnam slaughtered 300 innocent women and children in the village of My Lai.
Cambodian Invasion
A very sudden invasion of Cambodia to destroy Vietcong nests that were operating out of the country. The escalation resulted in momentous protest in the US that ended in the death of many student protestors, forcing Nixon to withdrawal the soldiers after only 2 months of fighting.
Daniel Ellsberg
The former pentagon official who leaked the pentagon papers to the New York TImes. This leaked to the public information about how both the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations provoked the North Vietnamese into attack, starting the vietnam war.
Henry Kissinger
Nixon’s Nation Security Advisor who secretly negotiated with North Vietnamese officials and paved the way for Nixon’s trips to China and Moscow in following years.Responsible for peace in Vietnam
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
A deal mastermined by Nixon that put a freeze on the construction of long range missiles for 5 years to cool off the cold war. The first step towards slowing the arms race.
liberal Warren Court Decisions
Notable court rulings under Earl Warren include cases that granted greater sexual freedom, protected the rights of criminals, protected the practice of religions, bolstered civil rights, and improved political representation.
Warren Berger
The Nixon appointee to succeed Earl Warren. Once on the Bench was free to vote as he pleased and so upheld most liberal rulings and even voted in favor of Roe v Wade.
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
A novel that exposed to the public the devastating effects pesticide use had on ecosystems. Bolstered the environmental movement and resulted in the banning of chemicals like ddt.
Nixon's Southern Strategy
Nixon’s goal to woo disillusioned white southern voters by appointing conservative judges, soft-pedalling civil rights, and opposing school bussing to achieve racial balance. Busses were a means of integrating whites and blacks by cramming both races in the same small cabin.
George McGovern
The democratic presidential candidate of 1972, the first to benefit from public primary elections. An ultra liberal dark horse candidate who was banking on the support of young people, racial minorities, feminists, and over leftists who didn’t end up voting at all.
War Powers Act
Required that the president would need to report to congress the commitment or expansion of combat troops in foreign countries. They would then only be authorized for 60 days unless congress agreed to extend it.
Arab Oil Embargo
OPEC’s embargo of the US and other allies of Israel following the soviet backed Egyptian and Syrian invasion of Israel. Made oil prices balloon.
The Checkers Speech
A shameless speech Nixon delivered live on television in which he refuted claims that he accepted illegal campaign donations by claiming that the only gift he ever received was his family cocker spaniel checkers.
Korean War Armistice
One of Dwight D Eisenhower’s principle campaign promises in which he would pull American troops out of Korean and end the Korean war. Would take a very long time for the war to finally put to an end.
General George Marshall
Became a notable general tho was best known for his role as chief of staff of the armed forces. Came up with the idea for the marshall plan which bears his name.
Army McCarthy hearings
McCarthy’s trial of several military figures for un-american, communist activities. The hardened military vets did not crack under the stress and so McCarthy frequently embarrassed himself when targeting them.
Jim Crow Laws
A set of laws which governed the south which segregated all aspects of society, from schools to busses to bathrooms. They kept blacks generally separate, poor, and powerless
Executive Order 8802
FDR’s executive order to put an end to workplace discrimination against African americans in the U.S.’s defence industry.
Thurgood Marshall
The supreme court’s first African American justice appointed by Lyndon B Johnson. A distinguished civil rights lawyer who fought Jim Crow Laws.
Rosa Parks
The college educated black woman who first proclaimed that blacks would no longer submit to segregation laws quietly by sitting in the whites only section of a bus, kicking off a year long boycott of busses in montgomery.
Earl Warren
The republican chief justice in 1954 who was the first to really tackle civil rights issues. Shocked and angered many other conservatives and white supremacists through his fighting for equal rights. Kicked off desegregation. Most notable case was brown vs the board of education which overroad that separate but equal was constitutional.
little Rock Central High School
One of the first schools in Arkansas to seat black students. The first 9 colored students needed to be escorted in by federal troops after Governor Orval Faubus called in the national guard to impede them.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
An organization formed by MLK to mobilize the already flourishing black churches to fight for Black rights.
Greensboro Sit-Ins
The first of the viral sit in protests in which 4 college students demanded service at a restaurant in Greensboro NC, then came back the next day with 19, then 85, until they were allowed to be served. A non violent way to impede buisness.
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
An organization led by Ella Baker that sought to provide more direction for student action movements like the sit ins, pray ins, etc. An intentionally gruff, grassroots movement that mobilized the public.
Indian New Deal
The Roosevelt era act to reclass native tribes as legal entities. Would be repealed by eisenhower in favor of an assimilation policy more akin to the Dawes Severalty Act.
Interstate Highway act
A bold plan to spend some 27 billion dollars to build new multi lane roads all across the country. Led to the growth of the automobile, travel, and gas industries, sped up suburbanization, exacerbated air quality and energy consumption issues.
Merger of AFL and CIO
The merging of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of industrial organizations to form one super union that was ripe with corruption and was targeted by congress.
John Foster Dulles
Eisenhower’s secretary of state who proposed a policy of boldness to roll back the red tide and free captive peoples.
Massive Retaliation
Ike’s new doctrine of reducing military spending by focusing on a cheaper fleet of super bombers that could carry nuclear bombs to retaliate severely in the event of Chinese or Soviet aggression. Too large of a sledge hammer in situations where finesse was needed.
Geneva Summit
A summit held in Geneva Switzerland between Eisenhower and Khrushchev to talk about Berlin. It went well the relationship between the two leaders improved so Khrushchev agreed to another meeting the next year.
Hungarian Uprising
A popular democratic uprising against the communist government of Hungary that would not be successful in lue of western aid.
Dien Bien Phu
A fort a french Garrison was trapped in in their war against nationalist vietnamese forces fighting for independence. It was suggested to Eisenhower that he finally utilize the bombers to relieve the area, but he held back.
geneva Conference on Indo-China
A multinational conference held in Geneva that divided Vietnam into a pro and anti communist state at the 17th parallel. A part of the terms was that within 2 years a referendum would be held on unification, something the southern government refused to carry out as they knew they would lose.
Ngo Dinh Diem
Leader of the pro-west southern vietnamese state.
Warsaw Pact
The Communist equivalent to Nato. The organization that housed all of the Soviet’s communist satellite states.
Shah of Iran
The leader installed by the CIA after an orchestrated coup in Iran. Served as a prowest semi-dictator that allowed the west to continue to have access to Iranian oil.
Suez Crisis
In response to American investors pulling out of talks to build a major dam on the upper Nile, the Egyptians would nationalize the Suez canal and prevent French, British, and American passage. Western Europe began becoming increasingly reliant on Middle eastern oil, so Britain, France, and Israel would coordinate an effort to seize the suez, tho the plan failed as the U.S. withheld oil for their armies.
eisenhower Doctrine
Eisenhower’s policy of allowing middle eastern governments to request millitary or economic assistance to fight communist forces.
Opec
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, oil producing countries like iran, kuwait, and venezuela would collaborate to agree on oil prices to have more control in the international market.
Sputnik
The first satellite in space sent up by the soviet union. Raised serious concerns about national security as it meant the soviets had the technology for inter continental ballistic missiles that could carry nukes.
Missile Gap
A fictional gap between the number and strength of Soviet and American Missiles that was used as justification for the expansion of America’s arsenal of nukes.
NASA
The national Aeronautics and Space Administration that developed the U.S.’s own ICBM’s and then would be responsible for the US’s space program.
National Defense and Education Act
An act passed by Eisenhower following a comparison of the Soviet and American education systems that would encourage schools to add sciences, engineering, and world languages to their curriculums.
The Kitchen Debate
An informal debate Nixon had with Khrushchev in model american kitchen on display in Moscow. The two debated the merits of either system by pointing to the many consumer products they were surrounded by.
Nixon-Kennedy Debates
A series of 4 televised debates between Kennedy and Nixon that solidified the idea that image not substance was more important in this new age of politics. Voters found JFK’s youth far more appealing and inspiring than Nixon’s tired appearance.
Betty Friedan
The founder of the modern feminist movement. Appealed to female boredom with suburban home life. Wrote The Feminine Mystique which sold to millions of educated women and became a classic in womens’ protest literature.
Robert Kennedy
Brother of JFK and appointed his Attorney general at the young age of 35. Worked to redirect the focus of the FBI to organized crime cases and civil rights enforcement not internal security.
Robert McNamara
Ex Ford executive who would become take over the department of defense under JFK.
The Peace Corps
A new organization established by JFK that gave young americans the opportunity to volunteer by sharing their know how with developing countries.
Man on the Moon
Kennedy’s 24 billion dollar project to place America back on top as the world’s preeminent technological power. The apollo missions that sent a man to the moon and back.
Vienna Conference
Kennedy and Khrushchev’s first meeting together in Vienna. Khrushchev threatened to cut off western access to Berlin through east Germany.
Berlin Wall
A concrete and barbed wire wall that encircle the capitalist half of berlin to prevent people from continuing to flow out of east germany.
Flexible Response
An antidote to Dulles Massive retaliation, Kennedy raised spending to diversify the armed forces so that a branch could be deployed to fit whatever situation was needed. Included the strengthening of the green berets, a group specialized in anti guerilla combat.
Alliance for Progress
Marketed as the Latin American Marshall plan, the investment was inadequate to solve the many social problems of South America or foster a strong alliance.
Peaceful Coexistence or Detente
The policy Kennedy pushed of the Soviets and Americans peacefully coexisting so as to not start a nuclear war by scaling back armaments and stopping nuclear tests.
James Meredith
A 29 year old air force veteran who needed to be escorted into his first class at the University of Mississippi by 300 federal marshals and 3000 troops.
March on Washington, Aug 1963
A peaceful march of 200,000 white and black civil rights supporters to the lincoln memorial to raise awareness and show support for proposed civil rights legislation.
Medgar Evers
A black mississippi civil rights advocate who was shot the same night Kennedy delivered his historic civil rights speech.
Lee Harvey Oswald
The assassin of JFK
Taft-Hartley Act, 1947
An act passed by a republican controlled congress that combated unions. Made all union shops illegal, made unions liable for damages due to jurisdiction disputes, and required union leaders ti take an anti communist oath
