US History Final Exam Review

Flashcards about US History, focusing on the Vietnam War, Cold War, and Reagan Era.

Tet Offensive

Guerrilla fighters attacked American airbases in South Vietnam and most of the South’s major cities.

Napalm

A jellied gasoline that explodes on contact, dropped from airplanes during the Vietnam War.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

A route used by North Vietnamese to get supplies to the Vietcong fighting in South Vietnam.

Credibility Gap

The difference between what the government was claiming and what Americans were seeing on the evening news during the Vietnam War.

Vietnamization

Policy by President Nixon involving the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam while the South Vietnamese assumed more of the fighting.

Geneva Accords Effects

They created a temporary division of Vietnam and called for elections to be held in Vietnam in 1956.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

With the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Congress handed its war powers to the president.

Goals of Agent Orange

To devastate the Vietcong’s food sources and to destroy the Vietcong’s ability to hide in forested areas.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

An event that led to a dramatic increase of U.S. troops in Vietnam.

Cronkite as a dove

Cronkite was against the war in Vietnam.

Anti-Vietnam War Protests

Anti-Vietnam War protests often focused on the unfair draft system.

Bay of Pigs Failure

The Bay of Pigs operation in Cuba failed because a popular uprising against Fidel Castro never materialized.

Cuban Missile Crisis Outcome

The most significant outcome of the Cuban missile crisis was removing long-range missiles.

Kennedy's Space Race Motive

President Kennedy’s motive for proceeding with the space race against the Soviets was ideological.

Détente

A policy involving relaxed tensions between nations.

Cold War

A period of tension that does not involve a military action.

Brinkmanship

President Eisenhower’s foreign policy threatened war, hoping an opponent would back down.

NATO

A military alliance was formed between the United States and Western Europe after World War II.

Cuban Missile Crisis

An event described as a Cold War event.

Purpose of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was constructed to keep Germans from traveling between communist and capitalist areas.

Nixon's Visit to China

Richard Nixon visited China in 1972 to attempt to normalize relations.

Purpose of the Korean War

The Korean War was fought mainly to prevent communism from spreading to South Korea.

CIA

Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy authorized the use of covert operations by the CIA.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

The Bay of Pigs invasion was President Kennedy’s attempt to stop communism from spreading to Cuba.

Containment of Russian Expansion

The United States believed that containment of Russian expansion would result in the defeat of communism.

Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine promised that the United States would aid any group fighting communism.

Warsaw Pact

Eastern European countries formed the Warsaw Pact in response to the formation of NATO.

Threat of China-Soviet Alliance

The United States feared the two countries would support communist revolutions elsewhere.

CIA

An organization known for covert, or secret, operations.

Truman's Pledge

President Harry Truman was pledging to help other countries resist communism.

Truman's Action

President Truman’s action was an example of his asking Congress for funds to fight communism in Greece and Turkey.

Nixon's vietnamization plan

President Nixon’s Vietnamization plan included slowly withdrawing troops from Vietnam.

Gulf of Tonkin

Accounts of North Vietnamese torpedo-boat attacks on United States destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin during the summer of 1964 were used to justify escalation of the American war effort.

Kent State University

Kent State University was the site in 1970 of an antiwar demonstration in which four students were killed by members of the National Guard

led to increased antiwar sentiment in the United States

Significance of the 1968 Tet Offensive

Public opposition was more significant for the Vietnam War than for the Korean War

A key difference between the Korean War and the Vietnam War

Presidents deepened United States military engagement in Vietnam without a declaration of war

War Powers Act

documents that suggested the American government was lying about the Vietnam War

The Pentagon Papers refer to

To many antiwar activists, the events at My Lai

highlighted the immorality and secrecy of the war

Large increases in the incomes of wealthy Americans

“Reaganomics,” or supply-side economics, led to which of the following?

Conservatism had a widespread impact beyond the election of Reagan

a similarity between the arguments made by Rossinow and Berman

Conservatives were willing to increase government spending in order to support Cold War military interventions

the United States foreign policy during Reagan’s administrations

January 1973

Based on the chart, at what point did the Watergate break-in begin to turn into the scandal that ended Richard Nixon’s presidency?

excessive regulations hurt the economy

Ronald Reagan encouraged government deregulation because he believed

He promised to cut taxes and He planned to increase defense spending

Ronald Reagan appealed to voters during his 1980 campaign

The end of the Cold War

Critchlow’s assertion about the Republican Party

promoting equality for gay and lesbian Americans

goals of the Reagan administration EXCEPT

The agreement reached with the Soviet Union to limit nuclear arms

best be used as evidence that Reagan's ideology “was hard to translate into a lasting shift to the right in American politics”

Conducting a buildup of nuclear and conventional weapons

the Reagan administration implement the “anticommunist ideology”