U.S. History Flashcards: Kennedy to Reagan Era

Vocabulary-style flashcards based on lecture notes covering US political history, foreign policy, and the Civil Rights Movement from Eisenhower to Reagan.

New Frontier

Nickname for Kennedy Administration

The Best and the Brightest

Nickname for people in Kennedy Administration

Profiles in Courage

Kennedy’s Book

SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)

Group of Southern Preachers in Civil Rights Movement

SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)

Civil Rights Group that used students/Student group in Civil Rights Movement; also noted as founders of the Black Panther Party

Peace Corps

Kennedy program to spread democracy among young people

Alliance for Progress

Kennedy’s Latin American Program

Allen Dulles

Head of CIA in 1960 and during the Eisenhower Administration

Bay of Pigs Invasion

Failure of CIA/Kennedy Administration in Cuba

Strategic Hamlet

Kennedy’s program in Vietnam to convince villages to go democratic

Ngo Dinh Diem

US Ally in South Vietnam who was assassinated in a 1963 coup

ARVN

Nickname/Acronym for Army of Republic in Vietnam

Viet Cong

Fighters/rebels in Vietnam, distinct from the official regular North Vietnamese Army (NVA)

RFK

Attorney General who pushed JFK’s CR Agenda and was JFK’s closest advisor

Cuban Missile Crisis

JFK Foreign Policy Success involving the confrontation over missiles in Cuba

Excomm

Kennedy’s Advisors during Cuban Missile Crisis

Mongoose

CIA Program to Assassinate Fidel Castro

Landslide Lyndon

LBJ’s nickname for the election of 1965

Great Society

LBJ’s New Deal involving social welfare programs

Medicare

Program from the War on Poverty and example of LBJ social welfare program

Medicaid

Social program originating from the War on Poverty

CRA 1964

Act that made segregation illegal in hotels and restaurants

VRA 1965

Act that tried to guarantee voting rights

Malcolm X

Black leader assassinated in 1965

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Trail for Communist Soldiers carrying goods into South Vietnam

Guns and Butter problem

The difficulty of funding the Great Society and the Vietnam War at the same time

Tet Offensive

1968 North Vietnamese Surprise Attack

San Marco State Teachers College (Texas State)

LBJ’s College

Whittier College

Nixon’s College

McNamara

JFK’s military advisor and Secretary of Defense

Rolling Thunder

LBJ Program to Bomb North Vietnam

Tricky Dick

Nixon’s Nickname

Kissinger

Nixon’s Chief Foreign Policy advisor

Detente

Meaning Peaceful Co-existence, exemplified by Ping Pong Diplomacy

Madman Theory

Nixon's strategy of acting unpredictable or crazy so enemies fear he would do anything to deter escalation

Earl Warren

Eisenhower’s eventful pick for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

Silent Spring

Rachel Carson’s Book

Marshall Thurgood

First black person on the Supreme Court

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Ruling that Separate but equal is inherently unequal

The Fall of Saigon

Symbolic end of US involvement in Vietnam War

Pentagon Papers

Documents released by NYTimes and Washington Post criticizing US Vietnam War effort

Kent State University shooting

Event in Ohio where 4 US Students were killed

Camp David Accords

Peace agreement between Egypt and Israel brokered by Jimmy Carter

Iranian Revolution

1979 Islamic Revolution

Iran Hostage Crisis

Event cited as evidence of Jimmy Carter’s weakness

Strategic Defense Initiative

Program nicknamed Star Wars under the Reagan administration

Glasnost

Political Reform under Gorbachev

Perestroika

Economic restructuring under Gorbachev

Sandra Day O'Connor

First woman on Supreme Court

Iran-Contra

Scandal involving Reagan secretly selling weapons to Iran to fund Nicaraguan Contra rebels, bypassing Congress

Operation Ajax

Part of US Iran history occurring in 1953

Massive Retaliation / New Look

Eisenhower's guiding Foreign Policy Strategy relying on nuclear deterrence over conventional forces

Flexible Response

Kennedy's guiding Foreign Policy strategy

Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954)

Major defeat for the French in Vietnam

17th Parallel

Line dividing North and South Vietnam

NAACP

Original Civil Rights Group connected to Progressives