APUSH The American Pageant: Chapter 41 Key Terms and people 16th edition

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Refers to weapons—nuclear, biological, and chemical—that can kill large numbers of people and do great damage to the built and natural environment. The term was used to refer to nuclear weapons during the Cold War. The Bush administration's claim that Saddam Hussein had developed WMD provided the rationale for the United States's invasion of Iraq in 2003. These weapons were never found after the invasion.

Kyoto Treaty

international treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions; it was negotiated and opened for signatories in 1997 and took effect in 2005

Significance: Although it was signed by 169 (of 192) countries, the Bush administration rejected the plan as too costly in 2001.

9/11

common shorthand for the terrorist attacks in which nineteen militant Islamist men hijacked and crashed four commercial aircraft; two planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing them to collapse; one plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the fourth, overtaken by passengers, crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the worst case of domestic terrorism in American history.

Al Qaeda

Arabic for "The Base," an international alliance of anti-Western Islamic Fundamentalist terrorist organizations founded by veterans of the Afghan struggle against the Soviet Union; the group was headed by Osama bin Laden and has taken responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks, especially after the late 1990s

Al Qaeda organized the attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States from its headquarters in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the launch of the "global war on terror," the group has been weakened but still poses significant threats around the world.

USA Patriot Act

legislation passed shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It granted broad surveillance and detention authority to the government.

Department of Homeland Security (2003)

Cabinet-level agency

Significance: It was created to unify and coordinate public safety and antiterrorism operations within the federal government.

Guantánamo Detention Camp (2001)

controversial prison facility constructed after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Located on territory occupied by the U.S. military, but not technically part of the United States, the facility serves as an extra-legal holding area for suspected terrorists.

Abu Ghraib Prison (2004)

a detention facility near Baghdad, Iraq; under Saddam Hussein, the prison was the site of infamous torturing and execution of political dissidents; during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the prison became the focal point of a prisoner-abuse and torture scandal after photographs surfaced of American soldiers mistreating, torturing, and degrading Iraqi war prisoners and suspected terrorists. The scandal was one of several dark spots on the public image of the Iraq War and led to increased criticism of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

No Child Left Behind Act (2001)

an education bill created and signed by the George W. Bush administration; designed to increase accountability standards for primary and secondary schools, the law authorized several federal programs to monitor those standards and increased choices for parents in selecting schools for their children. The program was highly controversial, in large part because it linked results on standardized tests to federal funding for schools and school districts.

Hurricane Katrina (2005)

the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States, which killed nearly 2,000 Americans; the storm ravaged the Gulf Coast, especially the city of New Orleans; in New Orleans, high winds and rain caused the city's levees to break, leading to catastrophic flooding, particularly in the city's most impoverished wards. A tardy and feeble response by local and federal authorities exacerbated the damage and led to widespread criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Deleveraging (early 2000s)

the inverse of "leveraging," whereby businesses increase their financial power by borrowing money (debt) in addition to their own assets (equity). In times of uncertainty or credit tightening, the same businesses seek to improve their debt-to-equity ratios by shedding debt through the sale of assets purchased with borrowed money.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009)

among the earliest initiatives of the Obama administration to combat the Great Recession; based on the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes that called for increased government spending to offset decreased private spending in times of economic downturn. The act was controversial from the outset, passing with no Republican votes in the House and only three in the Senate, and helping to foster the "Tea Party" movement to curb government deficits, even while critics on the left argued that the act's $787 billion appropriation was not enough to turn the economy around.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)

also known as "Obamacare," the act extended health-care insurance to some 30 million Americans. It marked a major step toward achieving the century-old goal of providing universal health-care coverage.

Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010)

also known as the Dodd-Frank Act, after its Democratic sponsors, Connecticut senator Christopher Dodd and Massachusetts representative Barney Frank. In an effort to avoid another financial crisis like the Great Recession, the act updated many federal regulations affecting the financial and banking systems and created some new agencies, such as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

Tea Party (2009)

a grassroots conservative political movement mobilized in opposition to Barack Obama's fiscal, economic, and health care policies. Named after the Boston Tea Party of the Revolutionary Era, Tea Party protesters first demonstrated in early 2009, and they grew steadily in visibility and power as a pressuring force within the Republic Party through the 2010 midterm elections and beyond.

Occupy Wall Street

name of the original protest that launched the populist, anti-Wall Street "Occupy" movement; youthful radicals pitched tents and occupied Zuccotti Park in New York's financial district beginning in September 2010 to protest inequality and corporate political power. This demonstration inspired similar occupations in many other cities.

John McCain

Republican senator from Arizona; a former Navy fighter pilot who spent five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam; was known as a maverick senator, frequently departing from his own party to cosponsor moderate legislation with Democratic allies. He lost the presidential election to Barack Obama.

Sarah Palin

Republican vice-presidential candidate with McCain in the 2008 election, the second woman to run for vice president of a major party and the first Republican. Relatively unknown nationally, her social conservatism made her popular among the evangelical wing of the Republican Party, which had been distrustful of McCain.

George W. Bush

The son of former president George H. W. Bush and former governor of Texas, he emerged victorious from the contested election of 2000, where he lost the popular vote. As president, he pursued changes in social security, immigration, and education laws, and appointed two conservative justices to the Supreme Court. Launching and leading the "war on terror" in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he was the architect of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Richard Cheney

a former White House staffer, congressman, and secretary of defense during the first Persian Gulf War, he joined the Bush ticket in 2000 to add experience and a link to the first Bush presidency. As vice president, he was more active in policy and politics than his predecessors, playing decisive roles especially in matters of foreign policy.

Nancy Pelosi

Democratic congresswoman from California who became the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives. Representing a left-wing district, as Speaker she sought to strike a very liberal and Democratic tone.

Barack Obama

first African American president; a lawyer and community organizer in Chicago, he served in the Illinois State Senate before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. After a protracted primary election campaign against Senator Hillary Clinton, he sealed the Democratic Party's nomination and defeated Senator John McCain on November 4, 2008.

Joseph R. ("Joe") Biden

senator from Delaware since 1973 and selected by Obama in 2008 as the Democratic candidate for vice president; unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1988 and 2008. As a longtime senator, former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and current chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he brought experience and maturity to the Democratic ticket in 2008.