America, Land I Love - Chapters 22, 23, and 24 reviews

Bill Clinton

President who visited the Communist nation of Vietnam at the close of his second term; first President to visit since the Vietnam War.

Al Gore

Democratic Vice President (under Clinton) who was defeated in the 2000 election by George W. Bush.

September 11, 2001

Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with hijacked planes; first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.

World Trade Center

Prominent skyscraper complex in NYC destroyed on Sept 11, 2001. by two hijacked airline jets piloted by Muslim terrorists.

Rudi Giuliani

Mayor of New York during September 11, 2001, terrorist attack in the United States (9/11)

Osama bin laden

Head of the radical terrorist group Al Qaeda, which was responsible for 9/11.

Al Qaeda

Radical Islamic terrorist group headed by Osama bin Laden; responsible for 9/11 attacks

Department of Homeland Security

Created by President Bush in 2002 to promote the safety of the American people and the security of the American homeland.

Taliban

The strict Islamic government of Afghanistan which was known to be sheltering AlQaeda terrorists at the time of the Sept 11 attack.

Iraq

Country in the Middle East once ruled by dictator Saddam Hussein; invaded by U.S. forces in2003; Hussein was captured, and Iraq was enabled, with the help of U.S. troops to hold free elections in 2005

Saddam Hussein

Iraqi dictator who was forced from power in 2004 by a U.S. military invasion.

Space Shuttle Columbia

NASA space shuttle that burned up while returning to Earth in 2003.

North Korea

Communist nation in the Far East which achieved nuclear missile capability in 2003

Florida

State hit with four hurricanes in 2004.

Samuel Alito

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2006 to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

New Orleans

City in Louisiana destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, partly by the storm and partly due to flooding when levees along Lake Pontchartrain failed.

John G. Roberts

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2005 after the death of former Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

2003

U.S. invasion of Iraq

George W Bush

43rd President of the United States (Republican); known for tax cuts, invasion of Iraq, and a conservative stand on moral issues.

John Kerry

Democratic Senator from Massachusetts who was defeated by George W Bush in the 2004 election.

weapons of mass destruction

Chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons designed to cause widespread destruction and to kill large numbers of people.

Nancy Pelosi

first woman speaker of the house.

Barack Obama

44th President, first black American US President.

Sonia Sotomayer and Elena Kagan

Supreme Court justices appointed by President Obama.

Ground Zero

the site of the collapsed World Trade Center.

Guantanamo Bay

military base where prisoners of war were being held by United States.

Bush Doctrine

President George W. Bush's military campaign against terrorists and the nations that gave them shelter and aid.

preemption

a strike before waiting for the enemy to strike.

Axis of Evil

nations that aid terrorist acts and seek weapons of mass destruction; Iraq, Iran, North Korea.

Secure Fence Act

authorized the building of a fence along the US-Mexico border to reduce the number of illegal aliens entering the Untied States.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Americans were required to buy health insurance; nationalized health care.

melting pot

many different cultures have come together in America with the understanding that all must work together regardless of ethnic heritage or skin color.

Operation Enduring Freedom

first preemptive strike on Afghanistan.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

an invasion of Iraq to remove Hussein from power.

Hurricane Katrina

2005, costliest storm in US History.

Ronald Reagan

the oldest man to be elected President of the United States; the Great Communicator; the first President since Dwight Eisenhower to serve two 4-year terms

Margaret Thatcher

new conservative Prime Minister of Great Britain

Thomas Sowell

argued that careless welfare programs hurt ethnic minorities

Reaganomics

concepts that stressed that budgets should be balanced, the money supply should be stable--many wanted it to be backed by gold--and trade and business should be free from government regulation

budget deficit

spending more money than received in taxes

New Federalism

the policy initiated by President Reagan that stated that the individual states should assume more responsibility for government programs

feminists

claimed that the new law [Equal Rights Amendment] would ban discrimination on the basis of sex and called for unrestricted abortion and a role for women in military combat units

William Bennett

conservative educator and philosopher, the Secretary of Education under Ronald Reagan, who made strong arguments for the return of morality and discipline to the classroom

IBM

dominated the computer industry

1981

NASA launched the first space shuttle

Columbia

the first space shuttle

Reagan Doctrine

belief of stopping Communism before it could attack and enslave a country

Solidarity

Polish nationalists who decided to stand up to the Soviets

martial law

military rule

Grenada

Fidel Castro planned to take over this island nation in the West Indies and use it as a military base to invade the mainland of South America

Colonel Muamar Al Qaddafi

dictator of Libya who sponsored international terrorism

Central Intelligence Agency

CIA

Mikhail Gorbachev

new Soviet leader who met with President Reagan in Geneva, Switzerland in 1985

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces

a mutual limitation of nuclear arms signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and President Reagan; under this treaty, they agreed to remove their medium-range missiles from Europe

Evil Empire

President Reagan's nickname for the Soviet Union

1987

President Reagan visited the city of West Berlin

Strategic Defense Initiative

a program with a system of space-age weaponry designed to destroy enemy missile warheads in flight

Sandra Day O'Connor

the first woman justice to serve on the high court

George H. W. Bush

Reagan's Vice President

Tiananmen Square

site of a great demonstration for freedom in Beijing

Manuel Noriega

dictator of Panama who terrorized the people of Panama and smuggled illegal drugs into the United States

Nelson Mandela

Communist leader of South Africa

apartheid

South Africa's policy of racial segregation

Boris Yeltsin

President of the Russian republic

Saddam Hussein

dictator of Iraq

Kuwait

tiny, oil-rich kingdom that Saddam Hussein invaded

Operation Desert Storm

plan to liberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein; the shortest war our nation has ever fought

General Colin Powell

military leader in command of Operation Desert Storm

General Norman Schwarzkopf

military leader appointed to lead the troops into combat in Operation Desert Storm

February 24, 1991

American, British, and French forces invaded Iraq

2 1/2 months

how long did Operation Desert Storm last

Clarence Thomas

federal judge appointed to the Supreme Court to replace Thurgood Marshall

warlords

military dictators

Savings and Loan scandals

series of incidents that cost the taxpayers $500 billion when careless speculation and illegal accounting procedures led to a number of bank failures

Hillary Clinton

intended to share the responsibilities of the Presidency with her husband

Whitewater Affair

political scandal during Bill Clinton's Presidency

1994 Congressional elections

the first time in 40 years the Republican party had control of Congress

national health care

socialized medicine

Tax Freedom Day

the day in the year when one's earnings stop going for taxes

Internet

one of the most important developments in the 1990s

Tim Berners-Lee

English computer scientist who developed the first Web page in 1990

GPS

a series of satellites launched by the Department of Defense in 1978

Human Genome Project

a massive effort to identify all of the approximately 30,000 genes in human DNA

NAFTA

called for the elimination of tariffs and other trade restrictions between the countries of America, Canada, and Mexico

North Korea

Communist country building atomic weapons in 1994

Kim Jong-II

son of the Communist dictator of North Korea who agreed to "freeze" North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for technology and diplomatic and economic relations with the United States

World Trade Center

buildings structure bombed by terrorists in New York City

Osama bin Laden

leader of al Qaeda

Hispanics

the fastest growing and largest minority ethnic group in the United States

Daniel Ken Inouye

the first Japanese American to serve in the U.S. Congress

Patsy Takemoto Mink

the first Japanese American woman to serve in Congress

melting pot

the idea that many different cultures have come together in America with the understanding that all must work together regardless of ethnic heritage or skin color.

multiculturalism

the desire to return minority peoples to their tribal roots and religions.

1962

When did the Supreme Court remove prayer from public schools?

ACLU

a group of lawyers who actively defended the extreme views of atheist, socialist, and Communist minorities.

Lyndon Johnson

won the Presidential election of 1964; ran against Barry M. Goldwater.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

1964; banned discrimination in public acomodations, prohibited discrimination in any federally assisted program, outlawed discrimination in most employment; enlarged federal powers to protect voting rights and to speed school desegregation; this and the voting rights act helped to give African-Americans equality on paper, and more federally-protected power so that social equality was a more realistic goal

24th Amendment

Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1964) eliminated the poll tax as a prerequisite to vote in national elections.

poll tax

A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote

Voting Rights Act

required federal supervision of local elections. 1965; invalidated the use of any test or device to deny the vote and authorized federal examiners to register voters in states that had disenfranchised blacks; as more blacks became politically active and elected black representatives, it brought jobs, contracts, and facilities and services for the black community, encouraging greater social equality and decreasing the wealth and education gap