History Exam #3

James Meredith

James Meredith is a civil rights activist who became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962. State officials blocked Meredith's entrance, but following large campus riots that left two people dead, Meredith was admitted to the University under the protection of federal marshals.

Betty Friedan

American feminist, activist and writer. Best known for starting the "Second Wave" of feminism through the writing of her book "The Feminine Mystique".

Students for a Democratic Society

Founded in 1962, the SDS was a popular college student organization that protested shortcomings in American life, notably racial injustice and the Vietnam War. It led thousands of campus protests before it split apart at the end of the 1960s.

Watts Riot

1965 riots which started in an African-American neighborhood of Los Angeles after Marquette Frey was arrested for reckless driving. They left 34 dead and ~35 million dollars in damages. Black rioters directed rage at mostly white business owners. The riots lasted a week; the largest African American civil uprising in our nation's history.

Black Panthers

In the West, calls to maintain separatism among minorities became increasingly more radical. The Black Panthers were founded in West Oakland, California in 1966 by Seale and Newton. The FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, said they were a massive threat. They said that only violence could eliminate violence. In 1967 they were still fairly small, with only about ~20 members. Then they planned protests, and showed up on the steps of the California State Capital with weapons. By 1968 they had 1200 members, leading to increasing scrutiny and harassment. They were targeted by COINTELPRO and had lots of visible supporters. However, they never reached their end goal, or developed a following among middle class black Americans. Still, during this time period black voters became a force to be reckoned with in American politics.

Cesar Chavez

A successful labor activist that organized United Farm Workers (UFW). Rose to prominence in 1965 when he joined a grape strike that became a grape boycott. He began reaching out to members of religious movements and civil rights groups. Was successful - the strike was ended in 1970.

Alcatraz

Defunct federal prison island taken over by Indians in November 1969. Richard Oakes (Mohawk Indian) chartered a boat (with a group of followers) to Alcatraz island and initiated a symbolic occupation of the island. It was a PR stunt to attract attention to Indian American related causes. What began as a symbolic occupation turned into a full scale operation that lasted until June 1971. Oakes was charismatic, a talented orator, and a natural leader, characterized as the "unofficial mayor" of Alcatraz. Once established on the Island, Indians began organizing and put together a rough government. At first the Federal government insisted that the Indians were trespassing on federal land and asked them to leave, but they eventually agreed to the demands of the Indian council and engaged in negotiations. The Indians wanted to essentially build a monument to Indian history on Alcatraz. The Federal government refused, making them look bad and helping the Indians garner sympathy. In 1970 problems arose. Factionalism within the occupation control of the island and challenges against Oakes and the council were intensified when many of the Indian occupiers had to go back to school in January of 1970. The final blow to organized leadership on the island was when Oakes's 13 year old stepdaughter fell down 3 flights of stairs and died on the island. Oakes left the island altogether, and it descended into chaos. In June 1971 Nixon implemented a removal plan. It was designed to take place when there were the fewest number of people on the island and to use as little force as possible. The island was stormed by armed Federal Marshall's, FBI agents, and special forces police all just to find 5 women, 4 children, and 6 unarmed Indian men. The goals of the Indians remained unmet, but ultimately, it still worked as a PR stunt.

Trail of Broken Treaties

In 1972, the AIM staged occupation of Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., to emphasize treaty violations. They organized a caravan of vehicles that set off across the country picking up hundreds of Indians to follow behind in cars. They had a proposal with 20 points, including:

* The restoration of tribal lands.
* Tribal control of reservations.'
* Religious and cultural freedoms.
* Abolishment of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

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When the Trail of Broken Treaties caravan reaches D.C., the protest falls apart. Nobody has a place to sleep or restrooms to use. They ask the Bureau of Indian Affairs for help getting home, and they basically respond with "you got yourself into this mess, you should get yourself out of it." This was the breaking point, and 400 Indians stormed the BIA building and occupied it. Eventually, the government offers solution: "if you peacefully leave, we won't prosecute, we'll offer assistance to get home, and we'll review the 20 points proposal in the future." This was enough to convince the Indians to file out

Wounded Knee

An incident that began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The protest followed the failure of an effort of Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) to impeach tribal president Richard Wilson, whom they accused of corruption and abuse of political opponents. Additionally, protestors criticized the United States government's failure to fulfill treaties with Native American people and demanded the reopening of treaty negotiations.

Gulf of Tonkin

Incident in 1964 that President Johnson used to justify increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Claim was that two U.S. ships had been attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Lead to the Tonkin Gulf Resolution (declaration of war).

Operation Rolling Thunder

Was the title of a gradual and sustained U.S. 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from 2 March 1965 until 1 November 1968, during the Vietnam War. The grand strategy of the Vietnam war was to run a war of attrition. The U.S. completely dismantled South Vietnam - by 1968, 3 million tons of bombs had been dropped. They also dropped herbicides on farming lands. All this time, Lyndon B. Johnson refuses to acknowledge what is happening in Vietnam and deceives the American public, leading to a "credibility gap". The body counts were going through the roof.

Tet Offensive

An offensive launched by the North Vietnamese in 1968. It was extremely successful and the turning point of the war. It shattered the credibility of US officials, and took place during an election year. Johnson decides not to seek reelection, and lays foundation for the end of the war.

Free Speech Movement

Young adults came together on the home front to protest the Vietnam war. A movement on the UC Berkeley campus in 1964. Civil Rights activists picketed Bay Area businesses and recruited on campus. Members of CORE were arrested on the UC Berkeley campus, and 18 campus based groups organized a protest. The university called in the police, and the University president announced he would press charges. The protest came to a head when students staged a sit in, leading to mass arrests.

Stonewall Riot

Series of riots in New York city beginning at a bar called the Stonewall Inn in 1969. Reaction to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. It became a symbol of oppression of gays and helped begin the gay pride movement

Ping-Pong Diplomacy

Nixon's foreign policy position was fairly moderate; he wanted to open dialogue with communist nations. He began with an appeal to China \=\> Ping-Pong diplomacy. China invited the U.S. table tennis team to compete at a tournament in China. Nixon visited China. Soon after, Nixon visited the Soviet Union and Khrushchev. Afterward, the Soviets toned down their rhetoric, and we passed SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty), which limited arms production. With other countries, Nixon was less forthcoming, and continued covert ops. He tightened his inner circle, so no one knew about increasing arms shipments or training paramilitary forces.

VVAW

Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Formed in 1967. John Kerry appeared in front of Congress in 1971 to testify about war crimes in Vietnam as part of VVAW. He said that the Vietnam war was a civil war, irrelevant to the U.S. But Nixon said he wasn't going to be the first president to lose a war. Veterans were of two minds - they wanted a mouthpiece to expose deceit, but they thought it also cheapened their service. People got together to burn draft cards in New York Central Park in 1967, and Jesuit priests destroyed draft agency records with napalm.

My Lai Massacre

The killing of 200 unarmed Vietnamese old men, women and children by American soldiers in South Vietnam in 1968.

Wilderness Act

A special wilderness conservation system set up in 1964 by Congress. It preserved 9 million acres of land, and defined wilderness as a place where mankind is a visitor.

Earth Day

A day of protest held in April 22, 1970. In 1960s, human survival became an issue in the environmental movement, and it exploded. The movement was mostly young people. Originally planned by a group of Harvard graduate students who received a federal grant.

Watergate

In June of 1972, intruders were found at the DNC headquarters at Watergate. They were connected with an organization called CREEP - the Committee for the Re-Election of the President. Reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward discover that Nixon authorized wiretapping the DNC Headquarters, and in 1974 Nixon resigned and Ford became president.

Oil Crisis

An economic crisis in the 1970s. There was a sudden economic downturn and stagflation. The price of gas nearly doubled; at the time, the US was using 70% of oil in the world, and we had a deepening dependence on foreign oil. OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) began raising prices. In 1973, Arab countries attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War, leading to an oil embargo on Israel's ally, the United States. Oil prices and other prices shot up. The issue outlived Nixon and plagued Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

Malaise Speech

In 1976, Jimmy Carter is elected. He kept a low profile, and under him rents doubled and oil prices rose. A permanent underclass began forming in America-mostly black Americans and Native Americans. In 1979, Jimmy Carter came up with a series of energy proposals that were shot down by Congress. Afterwards, he went on TV and gave the "malaise" speech, where he said there was a "crisis of the American spirit." This precipitated the downfall of Carter's presidency-the American people felt like Carter was blaming them for his issues.

New Right

Middle Class Americans resented Lyndon B. Johnson's great society. Lower class white Americans felt alienated, and neoconservatives (people who used to be liberals) began forming. Evangelical Christians became more politically active and popular with televangelists like Jerry Falwell, who claimed to be the voice of the "moral majority", and Pat Robertson. All of these groups formed the New Right. Their platform included

A balanced budget amendment.

Reintroducing school prayer.

Support for the death penalty.

hey blamed feminists for everything, and opposed the equal rights amendment with the "Stop ERA Campaign," which focused on conservative states. They emerged victorious, and the Equal Rights Amendment wasn't passed.

Equal Rights Amendment

A constitutional amendment originally introduced in Congress in 1923 and passed by Congress in 1972, stating that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Despite public support, the amendment failed to acquire the necessary support from three-fourths of the state legislatures for ratification, in large part because of the efforts of the New Right and their "Stop ERA Campaign."

Three Mile Island

A nuclear facility in Pennsylvania that began releasing nuclear gas into the air in March, 1979. By the next month, the crisis was over, but it mobilized environmental activists. They began to be called "NIMBYS" - not in my backyard. The environmental movement shifted from rich white folks to all of society.

Iranian Hostage Crisis

In 1979, Iranian radicals took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran as part of the revolution ran by ayatollah Khomeini. They held ~50 employees hostage for over 400 days. They demanded that the deposed Shah was deported back to Iran, and they wanted control of his personal fortune. Jimmy Carter tried a nighttime helicopter rescue mission, but it was mired by a sandstorm, and it blew up in Carter's face. The price of oil rose about 60%.

Iran-Contra Affair

A political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Under the Borland amendment, further funding of the contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress.

Operation Desert Storm

1991 American-led attack on Iraqi forces after Iraq refused to withdraw its troops from Kuwait. It was a war waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait arising from oil pricing and production disputes. The coalition was victorious, and Iraqi forces were expelled from Kuwait.