APUSH 40 Simple IDs

neoconservatives

Influential group of intellectuals led by Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz who provided key ideas for the “Reagan Revolution”

Proposition 13

California ballot initiative of 1978 that set the stage for the “tax revolt” that Reagan rode to victory in 1980

supply-side economics

The economic theory of “Reaganomics” that emphasized cutting taxes and government spending in order to stimulate investment, productivity, and economic growth by private enterprise

yuppies

Term for “young urban professionals” of the 1980s who flaunted their wealth through conspicuous consumer spending

boll weevils

Conservative southern Democrats who supported Reagan’s economic policies in Congress

Solidarity

Polish labor union crushed by the communist-imposed martial-law regime in 1983

Sandinistas

The leftist revolutionary rulers of Nicaragua, strongly opposed by the Reagan administration

Star Wars

Popular name for Reagan’s proposed space-based nuclear defense system, officially called the Strategic Defense Initiative

Berlin Wall

Physical symbol of the Cold War and divided Europe that came down in 1989

Operation Desert Storm

Code name for the military operation of the “hundred hour war” that drove Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait

Jimmy Carter

Well-meaning president who was swamped by the 1980 Reagan landslide but later won the Nobel Peace Prize

Edward Kennedy

Liberal Democratic senator whose opposition to Carter helped divide the Democrats in 1980

Ronald Reagan

Political darling of Republican conservatives who won landslide election victories in 1980 and 1984

Sandinistas

Ruling leftist party of Nicaragua fiercely opposed by the Reagan administration

Sandra Day O’Connor

Brilliant legal scholar appointed by Reagan as the first woman justice on the Supreme Court

Mikhail Gorbachev

Soviet leader whose summit meetings with Reagan achieved an arms-control breakthrough in 1987

George Bush, Sr.

Long-time Republican political figure who defeated Dukakis for the presidency in 1988

contras

Anti-communist Nicaraguan rebels strongly backed by the Reagan administration

Saddam Hussein

Iraqi dictator defeated by the United States and its allies in the Persian Gulf War

Corazon Aquino

Filipino leader who ousted dictator Marcos with American backing in 1986 revolt

Walter Mondale

Jimmy Carter’s vice president who lost badly to Ronald Reagan in the 1984 election

Geraldine Ferraro

First woman to be nominated to a major party ticket as Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1984

Jerry Falwell

Prominent evangelical minister, leader of the Moral Majority

Norman Schwarzkopf

Successful commander of American forces in the First Persian Gulf War

Clarence Thomas

Controversial Supreme Court justice who narrowly won confirmation despite charges of sexual harassment