DE US Final Exam Review

Causes of the Great Depression

Credit, tariffs, stock market

Dust Bowl

The region of the Great Plains that experienced a drought in the 1930s because of overuse of the soil, leaving many farmers without work or food. Most people left (exodusters).

Homelessness in the Great Depression

• Hoovervilles

• Many of them were moving around

Hoover's Policies

• Hoover termed the economic downturn as the "depression" to try and make it a softer blow than words like crisis or panic.

• He began government construction projects to hire people and get the government spending. (Hoover Dam)

• Congress passed a tax reduction for everyone.

• Federal Farm board added more loans and purchases of farm surplus.

Bank Runs

People were running to banks to take their money out before the bank collapsed.

Relief, Recovery, and Reform

• Reconstruction Finance Corporation: 500 million to struggling banks, life insurance companies and railroads.

• Glass-Steagall Act: broadened the definition of commercial loans that the Federal Reserve would support.

• Loan Bank Act: created discount banks for home loans.

• Emergency Relief Act: gave the RFC relief loans for the states for public works and projects.

Social Security

(FDR) 1935, guaranteed retirement payments for enrolled workers beginning at age 65; set up federal-state system of unemployment insurance and care for dependent mothers and children, the handicapped, and public health

Medicare and Medicaid

Great Society programs to have the government provide medical aid to the elderly (Medicare) and the poor (Medicaid).

WPA (Works Progress Administration)

WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION:
CREATE JOBS FOR WRITERS, ARTISTS, MUSICIANS AND ACTORS TO RAISE EMPLOYMENT BY HIRING THOSE MISSED BY OTHER PROJECTS.

CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)

US government work relief program, part of Roosevelt's New Deal, that provided jobs for unemployed, unmarried young men.

What did Hoover do to help?

Is it fair they called Hoover the "do nothing" president?

Which of the causes of the depression could've been fixed before the stock market crash and how?

Should the government be helping everyone, especially the poor or should we practice social Darwinism?

D-day

June 6, 1944 - Led by Eisenhower, troops stormed the beaches at Normandy. The worst was Omaha Beach. But after time they moved the Germans back - The turning point of World War II.

Battle of Midway

U.S. naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the Japanese lost four of their best aircraft carriers. It marked a turning point in World War II.

Pearl Harbor

The Japanese War Minister (Tojo) had a plan to attack the US if we did not like the peace plan. The US did not agree and Tojo sent war planes to attack Hawaii. Japan attacked the US in Hawaii on December 7, 1941.

Concentration Camps

Nazi created camps for the Final Solution. Conditions were inhuman, and prisoners, mostly Jewish people (but also disabled people, gays, gypsies), were generally starved or worked to death, or killed immediately.

ATOMIC BOMBS AND AFTERMATH

Manhattan Project

Code name for the U.S. effort during World War II to produce the atomic bomb. A lot of the research was conducted in NYC.

Japanese Internment Camps

1942
*FDR authorized the evacuation of all Japanese from the West Coast into relocation centers
*The government interned around 120,000 Japanese-Americans, 2/3 of them native-born US citizens

*The move came with public fear of Japanese sabotage following Pearl Harbor and was in some part due to racial discrimination

Navajo Code Talkers

Navajo soldiers in the Pacific used their own language as a code for sending vital U.S. messages. The language was hard to understand, so the Soviets could not decode the messages.

Rosie the Riveter

The symbol of Rosie encouraged women to work in factories during the war.

Iron Curtain

The ideological and physical boundaries dividing Europe (Democracy v Communism or NATO v Warsaw)

Marshall Plan

U.S. initiative to aid Western Europe after World War II, offering billions of dollars in aid to help rebuild war-torn economies and prevent the spread of communism.

Policy of Containment

To stall the spread of communism using economic, political and military means.

Domino Theory

A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control.

Berlin Wall

A wall separating East and West Berlin, Germany was built in 1961 to prevent East German citizens from traveling to the West. Its demolition in 1989 symbolized the end of the Cold War. This wall was both a deterrent to individuals trying to escape and a symbol of repression to the free world.

Korean War

• Korea was divided along the 38th parallel. The South was occupied by the US and the north by the Soviets.

• On June 25, 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea

• Truman applied his containment policy to Korea and sent in troops and called for UN forces.

• MacArthur was in charge of US forces and when things went bad he planned an ambitious assault at Ichon behind N. Korean lines. They pushed them back to the Chinese border and China reacted by sending troops to drive out the UN and US troops from N. Korea.

• An armistice was signed and a demilitarized zone was created between north and south.

Vietnam War

• South Vietnamese who wanted Communism = Vietcong. President Diem would arrest over 100,000 of them (torturing some). The Vietcong fought back + formed the National Liberation Front.

• Gulf of Tonkin incident led to President Johnson sending more U.S. troops.

• We began regular bombing raids in North Vietnam, that also took place in Laos.

• In South Vietnam most of the fighting was on the ground.

Tet Offensive:

Jan. 1968 The Vietcong had a series of attacks in multiple cities/towns. The US and South Vietnamese forces were able to take back the targets after a few days. Some of the events were televised and caused many to be concerned at home.

Gulf of Tonkin

• North Vietnamese patrol boats reportedly attacked the USS Maddox.

• The USS Turner Joy reported another attack, but this is highly debated.

• Led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting President Johnson broad authority to take military action in Southeast Asia, significantly escalating US involvement in the Vietnam War.

Why were there protests at home about the war?

The first war to be televised, which means it was the first war that civilians saw. Many Americans felt the war was wrong, criticizing the destruction it inflicted on Vietnamese and Americans. The image of innocent civilians being killed and tortured, displayed on television and in newspapers, horrified many and turned them against the war.

What role did TV play in the Vietnam War?

Civilians were now able to see real footage of the war. It brought to light the harsh realities of fighting.

Were the Korean and Vietnam wars worth it in the end?

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Russians gave Cuba missiles, JFK=blockade
Misunderstandings and negotiations

Interstate Highway

A main highway that crosses the entire country, either from east to west or south to north--sponsored by D. Eisenhower

Baby Boom

A post-war explosion of marriages and births. 76 million babies total during the boom.

Levitt Towns

Suburban post-war developments established by William Levitt. Meant to be the perfect middle class cookie cutter homes.

I Love Lucy (Lucille Ball)

Lucille Ball was the first female to own a production company. Her and her husband created Desilu productions. They filmed their show so they could have re-runs (syndication). She was the first to be pregnant on TV.

McDonalds

Originally owned by the 2 McDonald brothers. They kept a simple menu (burgers, fries, shakes). Ray Croc demolished the brothers and franchised McDonald's. He turned it into what it is today.

Bert the Turtle

A cartoon that taught kids to duck and cover in the event of a nuclear attack.

Medgar Evers

Medgar Wiley Evers was an American civil rights activist and soldier who was the NAACP's first director in Mississippi.

Rosa Parks

Refused to give up her seat on the bus and was arrested. It started the Montgomery Bus Boycott and led to MLK leading the event.

Brown v. Board of Education

1954 case that overturned Separate but Equal standard of discrimination in education.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

The first major civil rights legislation passed by Congress since 1875. Primarily focused on protecting voting rights for African Americans.

Ruby Bridges

Ruby Bridges was the 1st child to integrate into a white school in NOLA due to Brown V Board. She was escorted by police to avoid possible conflict.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a mass protest where African Americans in Montgomery refused to ride city buses for 381 days in 1955-1956 to protest segregation on public transportation.

Little Rock 9

One of the 1st groups to integrate into schools after Brown V Board. One little girl Elizabeth got separated from the others and had to deal on her own. Ernest Green was the 1st to graduate!

HUAC

House Un-American Activities Committee: Investigated disloyalty and illegal activities. Citizens suspected of having ties to the communist party would be tried in a court of law.

McCarthyism

McCarthy played on people's fear of communism. People feared him because he would point his finger at people and ruin their reputations and create blacklists. He tried to use his political power to rise to the top.

Emmett Till

A fourteen year old black boy who was lynched by a Mississippi mob for whistling at a woman.

Martin Luther King Jr.

King was a preacher who helped lead the Civil Rights Movement. He was jailed (wrote Letter From Birmingham Jail), attacked and stressed non-violent civil disobedience (like the lunch counters). He led many marches and spoke influentially many times (I Have a Dream speech).

Sit-in

Non-violent protests in which a person sits and refuses to leave.

Civil Rights Movement

A social movement in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, in which people organized to demand equal rights for African Americans and other minorities. People worked together to change unfair laws. They gave speeches, marched in the streets, and participated in boycotts.

Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965

Made segregation illegal and gave powers to the federal government to enforce school desegregation. It also set up the Equal employment opportunity commission.

1960 Election

People who watched the television debate tended to vote for Kennedy and those that listened to the radio tended to vote for Nixon.

John F. Kennedy

• New Frontier

• Space: wanted to put a man on the moon. Increased spending for NASA

• Bay of Pigs

Bay of Pigs

CIA plan to use Cuban exiles to overthrow the government. The Cuban exiles did not incite an uprising and had to surrender.

New Frontier

Aid to education, federal support of health care, urban renewal and civil Rights.

JFK Assassination

JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald. He was shot once in the head and once in the neck. Oswald also took shots at the governor of Texas. Oswald was then shot by Jack Ruby when being transferred between jails. The Warren Commission was created to investigate the crime.

Apollo 11

Made the first lunar landing, July 20, 1969 - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon - with Mike Collins in orbit.

Space Race

A competition of space exploration between the United States and Soviet Union.

Moon Landing

July 20, 1969

*Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Earth's moon

*Armstrong made the famous statement, "That's one small step for man… one giant leap for mankind"

*Armstrong's fellow astronauts were Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins (only Buzz also made it on the moon)

Fannie Lou Hammer

She worked on a plantation with her husband and was the plantation timekeeper. She was forcibly sterilized by a white doctor while undergoing to remove a uterine tumor. She then became involved in the Civil Rights movement by getting blacks to register to vote. They were denied the right to vote because of literacy testing.

Great Society

Expand social reforms of the New Deal. Shortly after becoming President LBJ got legislation passed expanding Kennedy's version of Civil Rights Bill and an income tax cut. Also had an Immigration Act, Education reforms that provided federal funds.

What are some cultural changes in the 1960's?

What do you think Free Love led to in about a decade?

Massive Resistance

Policy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. to unite other white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954.

Nixon

Nixon ran his campaign on a promise to limit our involvement in Vietnam. Many people voted for him for that reason.

Vietnam under Nixon

Wanted to reduce involvement in Vietnam. Vietnamization = slowly withdraw troops and give South Vietnam money to train soldiers. In 1970 he expanded the war to fight In Cambodia to destroy communists from Vietnam there, where he had 3500 bombing raids.

Watergate

Nixon had 5 guys break into the Democratic National Committee. They were wiretapping and bugging the place. At first, the men wouldn't talk but they were able to track it back to the Nixon administration, and even the president himself. This lead to his resignation.

Watergate cover-up

White House cover-up began immediately. Nixon claimed no one in the White House was part of this. He approved lots of "hush money" to keep everything quiet. The CIA also halted the FBI's investigation of the Watergate scandal.

Nixon Impeachment Trial

While there was an ongoing trial to impeach Nixon, he made the decision to resign from his position as president of the United States.

Pentagon Papers

Documented mistakes and deceptions of government war policy in Vietnam. Including the secrete bombing of Cambodia and its invasion. Supreme Court ruled that the papers could print the information. This angered Nixon and led to shady ideas (Including Watergate).

Gerald Ford

Republican, first non elected president, as he moved from VP to president when Nixon resigned.

Pardoned Nixon.

Nixon Pardon

President Ford pardoned Nixon for all of his crimes, and it made people angry because they expected revenge on Nixon. The pardon made Americans suspicious of Ford's reasons for the pardon and put Ford in a bad light when it came to the next election

Camp David Accords

In 1977 the Egyptian & Israeli PM's met. Carter invited the two men to Camp David. Israel retuned land to Egypt and in turn they recognized Israel as a state. This helped ease tensions in the Middle East.

American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement. They organized protests and demonstrations against local, state, and federal agencies. In 1973, AIM led two hundred Sioux in the occupation of the tiny village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, where the Seventh Cavalry massacred a Sioux village in 1890.

Roe v. Wade

Norma McCorvey filed a lawsuit (under the name Roe) claiming that outlawing abortion was unconstitutional. Courts ruled in favor of Roe and said they cannot stop abortion services for women in the first trimester, abortions can be performed after that if the health of the mother was in danger and in the third trimester states could pass laws to protect the fetus. She has since changed her mind.

Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan, a forty-two-year-old mother of three from Peoria, Illinois, was a leader in the modern women's movement. She wrote the famous novel The Feminine Mystique (1963).

The Feminine Mystique

Name of the book by Betty Friedan that discussed the frustration of many women in the 1950's and 1960's who felt they were restricted to their roles of mother and homemaker.

1970s feminist movement

In 1972 there was a lot of momentum for the ERA. With the feminist movement many women were behind it and working to get it ratified in the states.

The Pill

A form of birth control. Gave women greater freedom to be sexually active without the risk of pregnancy.

Gloria Steinem

An American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of the modern women's rights movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. She also co-founded Ms. Magazine, which was America's 1st feminist magazine.

Phyllis Schlafly

Phyllis Schlafly led the movement against the ERA. They felt the amendment was written to openly and would be left to interpretation.

Shirley Chisholm

• 1st African American woman in Congress

• 1st African American woman to run for President: she was blocked from making televised debates.

• Advocate for women and minorities

• Known for her commitment to civil rights and social justice, advocating for equal opportunities in education and employment.

Jimmy Carter

• Created the Department of Energy and Department of Education.

• Used $1.6 billion to help clean up toxic waste.

• Had a hard time making decisions. He filled his cabinet with people he knew from Georgia, who were political outsiders. They were incompetent

• Human rights campaign that failed and made a treaty with Panama to return the canal.

• Inherited economic problems and made them worse. Inflation in 1980 from 10% to 18%.

Stagflation

Persistent high inflation combined with high unemployment.

Iran Hostage Affair

In the 1950's America had put the Shah in charge of Iran. In 1979 there was a rebellion & Ayatollah Khomeini took over (Anti-American). Carter allowed the Shah to come to the US for cancer treatment. Students in Iran stormed the US embassy and took hostages for 444 days. There was a botched attempt to rescue them, which led to the Joint Special Operation Command. The men were released after negotiations with President Reagan.

Iran-Contra Affair

The US sold weapons to Iran in hopes the hostages would be let go & to improve relations with Iran/Lebanon. Only $12 million of the money was in the Government funds, $18 mill was missing. Oliver North had diverted the funds to the Contras (with permission from the National Security advisor) to fight the Communists Sandinistas. Oliver North was fired & found guilty of minor charges.

Marsha P. Johnson

African Americans women's and gay rights advocate, prominent figure in stonewall riots, founding member of many organizations, and trans woman.

Stonewall Riots

One night at the Stone Wall Inn the place was raided by police. The LGBTQ community began to fight back. The LGB movement began. Unfortunately, they left out the trans community with the thinking that Trans would not be accepted but lesbians and gays would.

Crack Epidemic

Bush started the war on drugs. Cocaine was a big drug and crack was cheap causing cities to get worse and hurt the African American population.

MTV

August 1, 1981. First Video to air was "Video killed the radio star". Influential source of pop culture since it changed the landscape of music.

AIDS Epidemic

In the late 70's and early 80's people (at first gay men) began to get sick. Doctors were not sure what it was. They later discovered that the patients immune system was compromised. They realized that the virus mutated and was hard to control. They later called it HIV, which would lead to AIDS. People died of other diseases due to AIDS.

What impact did AIDS have on our society and the gay community?

Exxon Valdez

Ship near Alaska ran aground and was damaged.

Spilled over 11 million gallons of oil in the water, that also came on shore and polluted 700 miles of coastline.

Oil hurt wildlife and water quality.

Three Mile Island

Three Mile Island is the site of a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. A mechanical or electrical failure set off an unlikely series of events that led to a partial meltdown at the Unit 2 reactor. Trace amounts of radioactive gases escaped into the surrounding community as a geyser of steam erupted from the top of the plant. Two million people were exposed to small amounts of radiation as a result of the TMI accident.

Reaganomics

Argued that stagflation of the 70's was a result of high-income taxes which weakened incentives for individuals and businesses to increase productivity or to higher employees.