Unit 9 AH

Malcom X

message appealed to many African Americans and their growing racial pride. At a New York press conference in March 1964, he also advocated armed self-defense—declared to a Harlem audience, “If you think we are here to tell you to love the white man, you have come to the wrong place.”

John Glenn

Orbited the Earth 3 times

Medgar Evers

NAACP field secretary and World War II veteran—shot and killed by a sniper- set off violence in the South

Lee Harvey Oswald

as Dallas police charged with the murder. His palm print had been found on the rifle used to kill John F. Kennedy. The 24-year-old ex-Marine had a suspicious past. After receiving a dishonorable discharge, had briefly lived in the Soviet Union, and he supported Castro—shot and killed by a Dallas Nightclub owner Jack Ruby

James Meredith

Air Force veteran—won a federal court case that allowed him to enroll in the all-white University of Mississippi, nicknamed Ole Miss. But when he arrived on campus, he faced Governor Ross Barnett, who refused to let him register as a student.

Berlin Wall

a concrete wall topped with barbed wire that severed the city in two.

Flexible Response

not to use a threat of nuclear weapons as response to everything—broaden range of options by strengthening and modernizing the military’s ability to fight a nonnuclear war.

Limited Test Ban Treaty

agreed upon by the United States and the Soviet Union—barred nuclear testing in the atmosphere.

Bay of Pigs

On the night of April 17, 1961, some 1,300 to 1,500 Cuban exiles supported by the U.S. military landed on the island’s southern coast at Bahia de Cochinos—Nothing went as planned. An air strike had failed to knock out the Cuban air force, although the CIA reported that it had succeeded. A small advance group sent to distract Castro’s forces never reached shore.

Hot Line

dedicated phone enabled the leaders of the two countries to communicate at once should another crisis arise.

Separate But Equal

Louisiana passed a law requiring railroads to provide “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races.”

Rosa Parks

a seamstress and an NAACP officer, took a seat in the front row of the “colored” section of a Montgomery bus. As the bus filled up, the driver ordered Parks and three other African American passengers to empty the row they were occupying so that a white man could sit down without having to sit next to any African Americans—she refused

Freedom Riders

blacks and whites would ride buses to see if desegregation laws were being obeyed- some were beaten- one bus was firebombed- President Kennedy sent US Marshals to protect them—

Martin Luther King Jr.

pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church—26-year-old—hired to lead the boycott in Montgomery— famous for “I had a dream” speech

Freedom Summer

worked to get African-Americans registered to vote—civil rights groups recruited college students and trained them in nonviolent resistance. Thousands of student volunteers—mostly white, about one­third female—went into Mississippi to help register voters.

Tet Offensive

Vietcong attacked on the Tet Holiday

Kent State University

located in Ohion —a massive student protest led to the burning of the ROTC building.

My Lai Massacre

a U.S. platoon under the command of Lieutenant William Calley, Jr., had massacred innocent civilians in the small village of My Lai (mCP lFP) in northern South Vietnam. Calley

Woodstock

Music and Art Fair— This festival represented, as one songwriter put it, “the ’60s movement of peace and love and some higher cultural cause.” For three days, the most popular bands and musicians performed, including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Joan Baez, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane.

Vietnamization

called for the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops in order for the South Vietnamese to take on a more active combat role in the war.

Napalm

a gasoline-based bomb that set fire to the jungle.

Agent Orange

a leaf-killing toxic chemical.

Credibility Gap

was growing between what the Johnson administration reported and what was really happening.

Robert McNamara

secretary of defense—president of Ford Motor Compan

Search-and-Destroy Missions

uprooting civilians with suspected ties to the Vietcong, killing their livestock, and burning villages.

Pentagon Papers

The 7,000-page document, written for Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in 1967–1968, revealed among other things that the government had drawn up plans for entering the war even as President Lyndon Johnson promised that he would not send American troops to Vietnam—leaked by former Defense Department worker Daniel Ellsberg

Doves

Those who strongly opposed the war and believed the United States should withdraw

Hawks

America should unleash much of its greater military force to win the war

Henry Kissinger

who would later become Nixon’s secretary of state, promoted a philosophy known as realpolitik

War Powers Act

which stipulated that a president must inform Congress within 48 hours of sending forces into a hostile area without a declaration of war.

Invasion of Cambodia

On April 30, 1970, President Nixon announced that U.S. troops had invaded Cambodia to clear out North Vietnamese and Vietcong supply centers.

feminism

the belief that women should have economic, political, and social equality with men.

Roe v. Wade

women’s right to abortion—In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that women do have the right to choose an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy.

Betty Freidan

American feminist, activist and writer—wrote a book, The Feminine Mystique

National Organization for Women (NOW)

called for equal employment opportunity and equal pay for women—to accomplish women’s goals

Gloria Steinem

a journalist, political activist, and ardent supporter of the women’s liberation movement, made her voice heard on the subjects of feminism and equality.

Détente

a policy aimed at easing Cold War tensions.

SALT I

five-year agreement limited the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched missiles to 1972 levels.

Realpolitk

from a German term meaning “political realism.”—foreign policy should be based solely on consideration of power, not ideals or moral principles.

Stagflation

high inflation and high unemployment

New Federalism

Nixons plan was to distribute a portion of federal power to state and local governments.

Silent Majority

moderate, mainstream Americans who quietly supported the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.

Affirmative Action

required employers and educational institutions to give special consideration to women, African Americans, and other minority groups, even though these people were not necessarily better qualified.

Watergate

scandal centered on the Nixon administration’s attempt to cover up a burglary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office and apartment complex in Washington, D.C.

OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)

gradually raised oil prices

25th Amendment

outlines the exact rules for who takes over as President if the commander-in-chief dies, resigns, or is temporarily unable to do their job—under this amendment Nixon nominated the House minority leader, Gerald R. Ford, as his new vice-president.

Leonid Brezhnev

soviet premier —signed the SALT I Treaty.

Sandra Day O’Connor

the first woman to be appointed to the Court.

William Rehnquist

the most conservative justice on the court at the time appointed to the position of chief justice.

Geraldine Ferraro

became the first woman on a major party’s presidential ticket.

Michael Dukakis

the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, ran for the presidency in 1988 against George Bush