1950s Quiz

McCarthyism

a brand of anti communism by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He used his position to baselessly accuse many high ranking government officials and others of being communists. There were many investigations and hearings and accusations

Alger Hiss

A former State Department official who was accused of being a Communist spy, he could not be tried for espionage because of the statute of limitations. Convicted for perjury

HUAC

, a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, investigated allegations of communist activity in the U.S. during the early years of the Cold War. investigated alleged disloyalty and rebel activities on the part of private citizens, public employees and organizations suspected of having Communist ties. Citizens suspected of having ties to the communist party would be tried in a court of law.

Hollywood 10

During the McCarthy Era, many movie industry people in Hollywood were called before the House to ""name names"" of Communists among their ranks. A group of actors, writers, and producers refused to cooperate and were known as the HOLLYWOOD 10. To appease Congress, Hollywood blacklisted these individuals from working in movies.

McCarran Internal Security Act

this law made it unlawful to advocate or support the establishment of a totalitarian government, restricted the employment and travel of those joining Communist-front organizations, and authorized the creation of detention camps for people who did not cooperate .

Rosenberg Case

Involved Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were American communists. They were executed for passing nuclear weapons secrets to the USSR. Spies that helped the USSR get secrets of an atomic bomb.

Army-McCarthy Hearings

a series of trials held in 1954 where Senator Joseph McCarthy accused army officials of harboring communists during the Cold War era. These unfair trials led to the downfall of McCarthy

Levittowns

towns made up of mass-produced homes built using a strict division of labor that cut expenses and construction time and were equipped with modern appliances and television sets.

I Love Lucy

Most popular sitcom of the 1950s. First female TV star, first Latino TV star, filmed with multiple cameras

Elvis-Memphis

born singer whose youth, voice, and sex appeal helped popularize rock 'n' roll in the mid-1950s. Commonly known using only his first name, he was an icon of popular culture, in both music and film.

Beatniks

a group of young poets, writers, and artists who were critical of middle-class society; Group of young poets, writers and artists. They wrote harsh critiques of what they considered the sterility and conformity of American Life, the meaningless of American politics and the banality of popular culture.

Jack Kerouac

poet and author, also part of the Beat Generation.

Allen Ginsberg

an American poet and one of the leading figures of both the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the counterculture that soon would follow. He wrote "Howl," which criticized modern life and represented the beats.

Massive Retaliation

Eisenhower policy that said Soviet aggression would be met with nuclear power. This saved money, rather than having troops everywhere, we could just threaten the USSR and North Korea with hydrogen bombs.

Brinkmanship

an approach in which a country pushes a situation extremely close to a dangerous point. Many considered the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia an example of brinkmanship; the accumulation of so many deadly weapons could have led to disaster. We both pushed and nudged each other but never fully went to war.

Interstate Highway Act 1956

The bill created a 41,000-mile “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways” that would, according to Eisenhower, eliminate unsafe roads, inefficient routes, traffic jams and all of the other things that got in the way of “speedy, safe transcontinental travel.” It provided for a 65,000-km national system of interstate and defense highways to be built over 13 years.

Sputnik

1957, The first satellite ever launched into space, was launched by the Russians; began the "race for space" where Americans competed with the Russians to get farther into space

NASA

A new government agency created in 1958 in response to sputnik and specifically charged with fostering American space efforts; eventually led to the first manned moon landing and the space shuttle.

Bay of Pigs

an American attempt to overthrow the newly established communist government in Cuba by training and sending Cuban rebels. The coup ended up in a disaster due to the lack of support by the Americans.

Eisenhower Doctrine

a policy where the U.S. pledged economic and military aid to any Middle Eastern country threatened by communism. This doctrine was announced by Eisenhower in 1957 and was intended to do what America has been doing since the Cold War: contain the spread of communism.

U-2 Crisis

The incident when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.We were spying on the USSR and tried to deny it, but we had to reveal the secret. disastrously escalated tensions between us and the USSR

1960 Election Debates

a series of debates between candidates for President, Republican Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy, Televised and on radio, forever altered how presidential debates worked. Millions of Americans watched and listened

New Frontier

the platform launched by John F. Kennedy in the 1960 Democratic election. It was his plan to "get America moving again," by liberal activism at home and abroad. Called for activism. It led to the founding of the Peace Corps, the development of the Space Program, and the creation of new social programs that improved spending on education, medical help for the elderly, and anti-poverty initiatives.

Flexible Response

A policy, developed during the Kennedy administration, that involved preparing for a variety of military responses to international crises rather than focusing on the use of nuclear weapons. It gave the president the ability to select from nonmilitary options, as well as military options, when responding to a crisis and allowed the United States to meet each hostile action with a proportional reaction.

Green Berets

Military units created by JFK. soldiers trained specifically to fight guerilla conflicts and other limited wars

Cuban Missile Crisis

an incident where Soviet missiles were placed in Cuba as a response for help. The event greatly increased tensions between the Soviets and us. As a result, a hotline was established between the two nations to avoid any accidents.

Berlin Crisis

was the last major politico-military European incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post-World War II Germany. The USSR provoked the Berlin Crisis with an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Western armed forces from West Berlin. East German police and military units sealed off all arteries leading to West Berlin. The communists pulled up train tracks and roads, erected barriers topped with barbed wire, completely isolating the Western sectors and preventing East Germans from escaping to the West.

Peace Corp

A federal agency created by President Kennedy in 1961 to promote voluntary service by Americans in foreign countries. The Peace Corps provides labor power to help developing countries improve their infrastructure, health care, educational systems, and other aspects of their societies.

Great Society

an ambitious series of policy initiatives, legislation and programs spearheaded by President Lyndon B. Johnson with the main goals of ending poverty, reducing crime, abolishing inequality and improving the environment

The Other America

This novel was an influential study of poverty in the U.S., published by Michael Harrington, argued that 25% of the nation was in poverty & it was the driving force behind the "war on poverty."

War on Poverty

The name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to the difficult economic conditions associated with a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent.

Medicaid/Medicare

A health plan for the poor passed in 1965 and paid for by general tax revenues and administered by the states.

Immigration Act 1965

Abolished the "national-origins" quota and doubled the number of immigrants allowed to enter annually. Allowed close family members to be excluded from the count. Immigration was largely from Asia and Latin America. abolished quotas, opening the doors to "those who can contribute most to this country – to its growth, to its strength, to its spirit." The new law created a preference system that focused on immigrants' skills and family relations with citizens