APUSH Exam Review - TP 8 (COLD WAR)

1945-1980; includes Cold War/containment (including proxy conflicts like Korea and Vietnam), Red Scare/conformity, civil rights movements, new technology, and political turmoil (like Watergate and return to conservatism); Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson (Lyndon), Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan

What is the span of the “Cold War” period (TP 8)?

1945-1980

Cold War

tension between the US and the Soviet Union, which were the two major world powers after World War II and only powers to rival each other

Began with different morals and values, mainly communism

The USSR tried to occupy Iranian oil fields in the US did not like that

They also established pro communist governments in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria, which the US also did not like

containment

US strategy in the Cold War that called for containing Soviet expansion (mainly communism)

Devised by George F Kennan

Long Telegram (1946)

A telegram from George Kennan that outlined his views on the USSR and led to the policy of containment against communism

Truman Doctrine (1947)

Harry Truman’s program of giving aid to European countries threatened by communism especially Greece and Turkey because both were threatened by communist rebellions and were strategically located in the Mediterranean

Appeal to people by talking about international freedom

Marshall Plan (1947)

US program For the reconstruction of Europe through massive aid to allies and enemies

Proposed by General George C Marshall; was one of the most successful foreign aid programs in history

Marshall figured that countries that weren’t threatening to fall apart economically were less likely to fall to Communism

Berlin Airlift (1948-1949)

After the war, Germany had been divided to four zones for each of the four big allies

The US Britain and France introduced a new currency in their zones and the USSR cut off the road and rail traffic to Berlin in response

Western planes airlifted food and supplies to the blockaded city

Led to the division of the east a.k.a. communist Germany versus the west a.k.a. democratic Germany

NATO vs Warsaw Pact (1949)

NATO was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization formed of 10 western European countries and the US and Canada to try to deter Soviet expansions

The Soviets had their own allies and created the Warsaw Pact

Korean War

Conflict that began in 1950 when communist North Korea invaded South Korea

Mostly fought by the US and lasted three years with no formal peace treaty at the end

The Fair Deal

Truman’s domestic plan that included civil rights legislation national health insurance and built upon some new deal programs

Operation Dixie and post war strikes

Post World War II attempt to unionize southern workers that failed

The removal of price controls led to inflation which led to lower wages and lower income, which led to angry workers which led to the largest walkout in American history

Taft Hartley Act (1947)

Passed over Truman’s veto that aimed to weaken labor unions

Band closed shops and sympathy/secondary boycotts/strikes

Led to the decline of organized labor

Dixiecrats

Lower southern delegates who walked out of a 1948 Democratic national convention because they protested support for civil rights legislation

They formed the States’ Rights Democratic Party, also known as the Dixiecrats

1948 election

Henry Wallace - progressive candidate for social reform and international control of nuclear weapon weapons

Thomas Dewey - Republican candidate, who was unwilling to take specific stances

Harry Truman - democratic candidate who campaigned aggressively and then ended up winning

One of the greatest upsets in American political history

McCarthyism

Joseph with McCarthy was an instigator of communist hysteria in the second red scare

He accused there of being communist in federal government positions, which sparked major fear

He established a loyalty review system that required government employees to demonstrate patriotism

He often targeted gay and lesbian government workers (lavender scare)

Kind of mentally insane

conformity

Everything being the same

Because there is a big communist hysteria with the second red scare, no one wanted to be accused of being communist because they were different so everyone wanted to be the same

Gender roles returned to pre-war standards (women stade home and kept the house while men worked)

Everyone had the same houses, family structure, appliances/products in the same cookie cutter life

Rejected by the youth andcounter culture

House Un-American Activities Committee (1947) and Hollywood 10

Launched a series of hearings about communist influence in Hollywood

10 witnesses refused to speak about political leanings or identify communist in Hollywood and some were imprisoned

the Rosenbergs

A working class Jewish couple from New York City who was accused of passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union with very weak evidence

They were convicted of conspiracy, which is a weaker charge than spying or treason, but were still sentenced to death

Army-McCarthy hearings (1954)

Televised center of hearings on McCarthy accusations against disloyalty in the army

His behavior was condemned, and he was revealed as a bully with no concrete base to his accusations

Levittown

Low-cost mass produced development of suburban tract housing

Created the first mall

Became very very segregated

effect of television

It spread images of middle-class living to encourage conformity

There were ads for new products and changed eating habits with TV dinners

Became the leading leisure activity

Replaced newspapers, but still avoided conflict and controversy

Main programs were quiz, shows, westerns, and suburban comedies

baby boom

high birth rate after World War II that led to the biggest demographic bubble in American history

urban renewal

Government policies that allowed local governments and housing developments to demolish blighted areas in urban centers and replace them with real estate usually reserved for white people

libertarian conservatives vs new conservatives

Libertarians believed that freedom was individual autonomy, limited government and unregulated capitalism; appeal to conservative entrepreneurs, especially in the south and West

New conservatives belief that freedom was more attainted and was based in Christian tradition like good versus evil; required independent men and women to decide to live virtuous lives or else be forced by the government

Dwight D Eisenhower

A World War II military leader who became the public image of fatherly warmth, and won the republican nomination

Known as Ike

1952 Campaign + election

Eisenhower versus Nixon

The first election to use TV ads

Ike was popular and promised to end the Korean war; he became the first president to be elected without party majority in either house

Modern Republicanism

Eisenhower’s domestic agenda that aimed to dissociate Republicans with the depression and expanded the new deal

National defense education act

The reaction to America’s inferiority in the space race that encourage education in science and modern language fields

Gave student loans, university research grants, and aid to public schools

massive retaliation

Strategy that use the threat of nuclear warfare as a means of containing the global spread of communism

Any Soviet attack on an American ally would result in Soviet destruction and vice versa, and that meant that any small conflict could cause all that nuclear war

Election of 1960

Nixon versus Kennedy

JFK was a senator from Massachusetts and a Roman Catholic

Somewhere hesitant to vote for a catholic, but he ended up being the youngest major party nominee at 43

Both were “cold warriors”meaning they supported the Cold War

On the 1960 debate, Nixon suffered from a cold and appeared tired and nervous on national television which ruined his image so Kennedy won

military industrial complex

The private companies sell defense machinery to the government

This means the war benefits private industries, so they’ll support war and try to influence foreign policy to push towards war

Eisenhower warned against it, but it still happened

Cuban missile crisis + Bay of Pigs invasion

Cuba used to be an American tourist spot

American-trained Cubans charged the Bay of Pigs to try to remove Castro but failed

America denied involvement; strengthened Russia-Cuba bonds

CMC was the highest risk situation of the Cold War → missiles in Cuba would be able to reach DC

Caused a very high fear of nuclear war on both sides

Kennedy and Khrushchev agreed that the Soviets would remove missiles and the US wouldn’t invade Cuba; the US also secretly removed missiles from Turkey

Brinkmanship

going as close to conflict as possible without all out war

Jim Crow

Separate public institutions like schools, bathrooms, hotels, restaurants

Legalized by Plessy V Ferguson

de jure vs de facto segregation

de jure was segregation by law like plessy v Ferguson

De facto was social segregation that wasn’t necessarily legal but happened anyway

Thurgood Marshall

Leader of the NAACP who brought support to local court cases

Attacked separate but equal

Emmett Till

Teenage boy who was lynched for supposedly whistling at a white woman

When they found his body, his mother used an open casket funeral to show the scope of the violence in the south

Brown v (Topeka) Board of Education

US Supreme Court decision that ruled separate but equal unconstitutional (overturned Plessy v Ferguson)

Struck down racial segregation in public education

Happened after Linda Brown’s father sued because she had to cross dangerous railroad tracks to get to far away black school instead of the close by white school

Multiple people sued in multiple cases and was consolidated under the one name, brown V board

Little Rock Nine

After brown v board, nine high school students tried to enter a previously White high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, but were rejected

Eisenhower set federal troops to escort them in

Warren Court + lesser known cases

An active agent of social change that inspired a wave of optimism that segregation would

Yates v United States -first amendment protects, radical and revolutionary speech, even by communist unless a clear and present danger

Mapp v Ohio - rule that illegally seized evidence cannot be used in court

Baker v Carr - one man one vote so heavily populated areas would get more representation than rural areas

Engel v Vitale - abolished prayer and Bible readings in public schools in violation of freedom of religion

Gideon v Wainwright - required that state courts provide council for poor defendants

NYT v Sullivan - established the actual malice standard protect protecting of the press (people have to prove if the press was intentional of defamation or false information)

Loving v Virginia - outlawed rules, banning interracial marriage

Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education - ruled that busing can be used to desegregate schools, even if it’s not the school district’s fault

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Sparked by Rosa Parks arrest on December 1, 1955

Successful geared, long, boycott, protesting, desegregation on city buses that was led by MLK

Malcolm X

Civil rights advocate. He was also a member of the Islamic religion and changed his last name to X after conversion

Claim change would come through either the ballot or the bullet

While imprisoned, he developed ideas about self determination and liberation, and his vision of black nationalism did not rule out the use of violence

He he was eventually assassinated

Martin Luther King Jr (include “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and March on Washington)

Baptist preacher who became a symbol of the civil rights movement

He made speeches and referenced famous authors on civil disobedience, the Bible, and other civil rights figures

While in jail, he wrote the letter from Birmingham jail that talked about the abuse faced by African-American southerners and highlighted unchecked police violence alongside humiliation and discrimination

Led the march on Washington, which was a civil rights demonstration where he gave his I have a dream speech

Southern Manifesto

Document repealing the Supreme Court decision in brown V board

Against integration

1956

Congress on Racial Equality (CORE)

Launch a series of initiatives to desegregate and work towards complete civil rights

Helped with freedom summer, which was a voter registration project for African-Americans and the march on Washington

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Organization founded by Black college student students to coordinate civil rights sit ins and other forms of grassroot protest

began as nonviolent but shifted with the black power movement

Black Panthers and Black Power

group formed to stop police brutalities; only acted when provoked by police action; wanted employment and housing equality; offered benefits for poor

black power = new face of the Civil Rights Movement; replaced fight for equality with fight for empowerment and representation

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Law that outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Outlawed discriminatory voting practices like literacy tests and poll taxes

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Banned discrimination in housing, including red lining

LBJ’s Great Society

Johnson’s domestic plan to create a place where all have an equal claim to liberty and economic opportunity

Included

-health and welfare programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and child nutrition act),

-education programs (elementary, and secondary education act, higher education act, and project head start),

-programs to fight the “war on poverty” (office of economic opportunity, housing in urban development, act and demonstration cities and Metropolitan development act)

-consumer and environmental protection programs (water quality act and clean air acts, Highway safety act, and fair packaging and labeling act)

Vietnam War

Communist North Vietnam invaded democratic south Vietnam

US originally only provided aid to South Vietnam, but later got fully involved in military conflict because North Vietnam supposedly fired on the USS Maddox

Faced a lot of opposition because some saw it as unnecessary. It seemed the opposite participatory democracy, and people did not want the draft

Became a embarrassing loss for the United States and Vietnam fell to communism

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)

Legislation passed by Congress in reaction to the USS Maddox attack and gave the president unlimited authority to defend US forces and members of the Southeast Asia treaty organization

Was repealed in 1970

Tet Offensive

Surprise attacked by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese during Vietnamese new year

Strongly turned public opinion against Vietnam war because it revealed that they weren’t as close to victory as they’ve been told (credibility gap)

War Powers Act (1973)

passed over Nixon’s veto, it restrained the power of the president and required the executive to consult with Congress before getting involved in foreign affairs

Many presidents have resisted or completely ignored it

New Left

Radical youth protest movement of the 60s that spoke of loneliness, isolation, alienation, and powerlessness against bureaucracy

Formed because more kids were going to college

Had a hunger for authenticity and were inspired by the Black freedom movement

Considered “the children of the middle class rejecting the social mainstream”

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

Major organization of the new left founded at the University of Michigan in 1960

Criticized institution like political parties, corporations unions, and offered a new vision of social change

Rose up at the University of California in Berkeley when the university banned using a central area of campus to spread political ideas

60s counterculture and yippies (includes Woodstock)

"hippie” youth culture of the 1960s that rejected values of the dominant culture in favor of drugs, communes, free sex, and rock music

Believed that freedom came with power of choice

Is built upon self-indulgence and self-destructive behavior

The Yippies were the youth international party that introduced humor and theatricality as forms of protest

Woodstock was a rock festival in upstate New York that celebrated young people’s alternative lifestyle and independence from adult authority and emphasized freedom

National Organization for Woman (NOW) and feminism

Organization that pushed for abortion rights no discrimination in the workforce and other equality for women like the equal pay act of 1963

New feminists filled a “Freedom trashcan” with objects of oppression, like girdles, brassieres, heels, and magazines

New feminist were defined by working for empowerment and more social and economic quality for women

Stonewall Inn Riots (1969)

Police raids and other violence at a gathering through the gay community in New York led to the modern gay rights movement

Cesar Chavez and United Farm Workers (UFW)

He was a son of migrant workers who led a series of nonviolent protests to get labor rights for farm workers

Mobilized Latinos across the southwest

Created the UFW, which was a mass movement for civil rights as much as a campaign for economic betterment; drew attention to low wages and impressive working conditions for migrant workers

American Indian Movement (AIM) and occupation of Alcatraz

The natives were fed up with poor conditions

Indians of all tribes occupied Alcatraz Island in California and claimed it as theirs

Eventually, the government agreed to re-examine Indian treaty rights

Escobedo v Illinois and Miranda v Arizona

Escobedo required that the police informed the arrested person of his or her right to remain silent and not incriminate themselves

Miranda extended that ruling to include a lawyer being present during questioning and is a basis for reading rights aloud to an accused while they are being arrested

Griswold v Conneticut and Roe v Wade

Griswold ruled that contraceptives could not be prohibited because of a citizen’s right to privacy

Roe built upon that by striking down many state laws prohibiting abortions in the first trimester

Roe became very controversial and was eventually overturned in 2022

EPA

Environmental protection agency with a mission to repair damage already done to the natural environment and prevent new problems

Eventually became the government‘s largest regulatory agency

70s environmental disasters and policies (acts)

Clean air act 1963 set stricter standards for a mission from automobiles factories and power plants

Safe drinking water act of 1974 allowed the EPA to regulate the quality of public drinking water after the Cuyahoga river fire

Love Canal was a city on top of a chemical waist dumped that caused cancer and birth defects. The families were eventually relocated.

3 mile island had a nuclear generating station that severed a partial meltdown and released radioactive gases into the atmosphere; as a result no new nuclear power plants have been built since 1979 because people didn’t think it was worth the risk

New Federalism

Nixon‘s plan to distribute a portion of federal power to state and local governments

Family Assistance Plan

Nixon’s plan to replace welfare with a federal payment of $1600 a year to those with no outside income

Attacked by both parties and ultimately failed

Impoundment

Nixon withhold necessary funds for programs to hold up their implementation especially some of Johnson’s great society

Federal courts ordered their release because they ruled it unconstitutional

Realpolitik

Idea meaning political realism that dictated that foreign policy should be based solely on consideration of power, not ideals or moral

Detente

The foreign policy caused by realpolitik that aimed at easing Cold War tensions and had a more flexible approach with communist nations

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

A series of meetings between Nixon and Soviet leader Brezhnev that limited the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine launched missiles

Watergate

Nixon sent people to sneak into the democratic national committee headquarters to spy on Democratic Party strategy

Originally covered up, but then one of the thieves revealed Nixon’s connection

Supreme Court demanded Nixon hand over tapes of his oval office conversations

Nixon refused, claiming executive privilege, but eventually they forced him

The smoking gun tape of June 23, 1972 revealed Nixon’s guilt and he resigned before he could be impeached and ultimately removed from office

Widen the credibility gap a lot, and caused a decrease in trust in the government

Stagflation

Inflation with a stagnant economy, (high prices with a shrinking economy)

Major problem for Fords early presidency

“Whip Inflation Now”

Ford’s plan to combat stagflation

Cut federal spending and urged Americans to conserve energy and thrift

Unsuccessful

1976 election

Ford V Carter

Neither candidate was super popular

Only 53% of eligible voters went to the polls and Carter ended up winning by a narrow margin

Moral Equivalent of War (MEOW)

Carter’s plan to end the nation’s dependence on imported oil

Planned to penalize energy waste while encouraging energy efficiency

Due to Congress’s slow response, citizens felt that it wasn’t being taken seriously and called it MEOW

Panama Canal Treaty

Return the Panama canal to Panama to create a more equitable relationship with the country

Camp David Accords

Negotiated peace talks between leaders of Egypt and Israel

Biggest success for Carter

Hostage crisis in Iran

The leader of Iran, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had been ousted in the Iranian Revolution

Carter allowed him to enter the United States for medical treatment which angered many Iranians

On November 4, 1979, students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage

Carter struggled to bring the hostages home and most of them were not released until he left office

It looked really bad for him and kind of ruined his political image

Glass ceiling and comparable worth

Women could not get management positions

Women also got less pay for harder jobs than some men

National Women’s Political Caucus

Formed in 1971 by feminist leaders, it encouraged political activism and raised money to get more women elected into office

Baby bust + retirement boom (causes and effects)

There was a severe drop in the birth rate because women were working more than their mothers and having less children at an older age

The life expectancy also rose so they were more old people than before

This caused the demographic to shift to older people who redefined retirement as a time for fun, travel, and relocation

Rust Belt v Sun Belt

Traditional industry like steel and automobile or struggling in the north and Midwest known as the rustbelt

People moved to the south and southwest Sunbelt for more opportunities and better weather

Because of the bigger population in the Sunbelt, there were more seats in the house, more votes in the electoral college and a higher chance of southern presidents winning election elections

Evangelical Christianity + televangelists

Television Revolution is religious outreach

Televangelist gain massive audience and combined a weekly audience of 60 million to 100,000,000 viewers

May be considered a third grade awakening in the future

Moral Majority

Founded by Jerry Falwell

It was a politically active religious organization that campaigned against secularism, which was the division of church and state (engel v vitale) and abortion (roe v wade)

Conservative Coalition

Comprised of economic, conservatives, political, conservatives, religious, fundamentalists, and political action committees

Were opposed to new deal, liberalism, gun control, abortion, feminism drug use, gay rights, welfare, affirmative, action, and sexual permissiveness

Believed these issues were undermining religious and family values, work ethic, and national security

Ronald Reagan

Very conservative politician who attract the Democrats like Carter

Had a very popular campaign

Used to be an actor

1980 Election

Reagan got 51% of the popular and 91% of the electoral vote

He broke the new deal coalition because he appealed to blue-collar voters