AP USH CH27: MID CENTURY (1950s-1960s)

U2 Incident

1960 incident when an American spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. The U.S. denied the true purpose of the plane at first, but was forced to when the U.S.S.R. produced the living pilot and the largely intact plane to validate their claim of being spied on aerially. The incident worsened East-West relations during the Cold War and was a great embarrassment for the United States.

Suez Crisis

July 26, 1956, Nasser (leader of Egypt) nationalized the canal, Oct. 29, British, French and Israeli forces attacked Egypt. UN forced British to withdraw; made it clear Britain was no longer a world power, growing influence of US and USSR

The Affluent Society

A 1958 book by John Kenneth Galbraith that analyzed the nation's successful middle class and argued that the poor were only an "afterthought" in the minds of economists and politicians, suburb consumer lifestyle.

Levittown

New York suburb where postwar builders pioneered the techniques of mass home construction

The Feminine Mystique

written by Betty Friedan, described the problems of middle-class American women and the fact that women were being denied equality with men; said that women were kept from reaching their full human capacities

Chuck Berry

An African-American rock 'n' roll musician and composer, who influenced many musicians of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Beatles and Bob Dyan.

Rebel Without a Cause

1955 film starring James Dean exploring the difficulties of family life and the alienation that many teenagers felt in the 1950s. Juvenile delinquency, and the reasons for it, was the subtext of this film, as well as the source of countless other 1950s-era movies aimed at the youth market.

Beat Generation

Group of writers of the 1950s, led by Kerouac, focusing on alienation, conformity, and materialism.

New Frontier

The campaign program advocated by JFK in the 1960 election. He promised to revitalize the stagnant economy and enact reform legislation in education, health care, and civil rights.

NASA

an independent agency of the United States government responsible for aviation and spaceflight, competed with Soviet's space program, space race

Alliance for Progress

(JFK) 1961,, a program in which the United States tried to help Latin American countries overcome poverty and other problems, money used to aid big business and the military

Bay of Pigs

In April 1961, a group of Cuban exiles organized and supported by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency landed on the southern coast of Cuba in an effort to overthrow Fidel Castro. When the invasion ended in disaster, President Kennedy took full responsibility for the failure.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The 1962 confrontation bewteen US and the Soviet Union over Soviet missiles in Cuba.

Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Agreement between the US, Soviet Union, and Great Britain to end the testing of nuclear bombs in the atmosphere or underwater, de escalation of the cold war

John F Kennedy

president during part of the cold war and especially during the superpower rivalry and the cuban missile crisis. he was the president who went on tv and told the public about hte crisis and allowed the leader of the soviet uinon to withdraw their missiles. other events, which were during his terms was the building of the berlin wall, the space race, and early events of the Vietnamese war.

Eisenhower

1953-1961

*Thirty-fourth President

*Became Allied military commander during WWII and led forces in North Africa, Italy, and England

*Became Republican president after defeating Adlai Stevenson

*Signed the truce in 1953 to end Korean War

*Completed integration of military forces

*Sent troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to ensure desegregation

*Gave momentum to desegregation movement

*Warned the Us about the "military-industrial complex," which refers to the relationship between the government, the military, and the defense industry