APUSH 38-41 Simple IDs

Peace Corps

Kennedy administration program that sent youthful American volunteers to work in underdeveloped countries

Berlin Wall

High barrier between East and West erected during the 1961 Berlin crisis

Green Berets

Elite antiguerilla military units expanded by Kennedy as part of his doctrine of “flexible response”

Alliance for Progress

An attempt to provide American aid for democratic reform in Latin America that met with much disappointment and frustration

Bay of Pigs

Site where anti-Castro guerilla forces failed in their U.S.-sponsored invasion

Cuban Missile Crisis

Tense confrontation between Kennedy and Khrushchev that nearly led to nuclear war in October 1962

sit-ins

New civil rights technique developed in the 1960s to desegregate lunch counters and other public facilities in the South

Great Society

LBJ’s broad program of welfare legislation and social reform that swept through Congress in 1965

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

The 1964 congressional action that became a “blank check” for the Vietnam War

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Law, spurred by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s march from Selma to Montgomery, that guaranteed rights originally given blacks under the Fifteenth Amendment

Black Power

Racial slogan that signaled a growing challenge to King’s non-violent civil rights movement by militant younger blacks

Tet

The Vietnamese New Year celebration, during which the communists launched a heavy offensive against the United States in 1968

Free Speech Movement

Student activist protest at the University of California that criticized corporate interests and impersonal university education

Weathermen

Student organization that moved from nonviolent protest to underground terrorism within a few years

Stonewall Inn

Site of an off-duty police raid in 1969 that spurred gay and lesbian activism

John F. Kennedy

Charismatic president whose brief administration experienced domestic stalemate and foreign confrontations with communism

Robert S. McNamara

Cabinet officer who promoted “flexible response” but came to doubt the wisdom of the Vietnam War he had presided over

Nikita Khrushchev

Aggressive Soviet leader whose failed gamble of putting missiles in Cuba cost him his job

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nonviolent black leader whose advocacy of peaceful change came under attack from militants after 1965

Lyndon B. Johnson

Brilliant legislative operator whose domestic achievements in social welfare and civil rights fell under the shadow of his Vietnam disaster

Barry M. Goldwater

Conservative Republican whose crushing defeat opened the way for the liberal Great Society programs

James Meredith

First black student admitted to the University of Mississippi, shot during a civil rights march in 1966

Malcolm X

Charismatic Black Muslim leader who promoted separatism in the early 1960s

Mario Savio

Early student activist and leader of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California

Eugene J. McCarthy

Minnesota senator whose antiwar “Children’s Crusade” helped force Johnson to alter his Vietnam policies

Robert F. Kennedy

New York senator whose antiwar campaign for the presidency was ended by an assassin’s bullet in June 1968

Richard M. Nixon

Former vice president who staged a remarkable political comeback to win presidential election in 1968

George C. Wallace

Third-party candidate whose conservative, hawkish 1968 campaign won 9 million votes and carried five states

Hubert Humphrey

Vice president whose loyalty to LBJ’s Vietnam policies sent him down to defeat in the 1968 presidential election

Allen Ginsberg

“Beat” poet of the 1950s whose hostility to materialism and “establishment” values helped lay groundwork for 1960s “counterculture”

Vietnamization

Nixon’s policy of withdrawing American troops from Vietnam while providing aid for the South Vietnamese to fight the war

Kent State University

The Ohio university where four students were killed during protests against the 1970 invasion of Cambodia

Pentagon Papers

Top-secret documents, published by The New York Times in 1971, that showed the blunders and deceptions that led the United States into the Vietnam War

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

The first major achievement of the Nixon-Kissinger détente with the Soviet Union, which led to restrictions on defensive missile systems

southern strategy

Nixon’s plan to win reelection by curbing the Supreme Court’s judicial activism and soft-pedaling civil rights

Philadelphia Plan

Term for the new group affirmative action policy promoted by the Nixon administration

Watergate

A Washington office complex that became a symbol of the widespread corruption of the Nixon administration

War Powers Act

The law, passed in reaction to the secret Cambodia bombing, that restricted presidential use of troops overseas without congressional authorization

oil embargo

Arab-sponsored restriction on energy exports after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war

détente

Nixon-Ford-Kissinger policy of seeking relaxed tensions with the Soviet Union through trade and arms limitation

Helsinki Accords

International agreement of 1975, signed by President Ford, that settled postwar European boundaries and attempted to guarantee human rights in Eastern Europe

Equal Rights Amendment

Proposed constitutional amendment promoting women’s rights that fell short of ratification

Roe v. Wade

Supreme Court decision that declared women’s right to choose abortion.

Alcatraz and Wounded Knee

Two historic sites seized by American Indian activists in 1970–1972 to draw public attention to Indian grievances

Title IX

Provision of the 1972 Education Amendments that prohibited gender discrimination and opened sports and other arenas to women

Richard Nixon

Winner of an overwhelming electoral victory who was forced from office by the threat of impeachment

Spiro Agnew

Nixon’s tough-talking conservative vice president, who was forced to resign in 1973 for taking bribes and kickbacks

Rachel Carson

Environmental writer whose book Silent Spring helped encourage laws like the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act

Daniel Ellsberg

Former Pentagon official who “leaked” the Pentagon Papers

Henry Kissinger

Talented diplomatic negotiator and leading architect of détente with the Soviet Union during the Nixon and Ford administrations

Earl Warren

Supreme Court justice whose “judicial activism” came under increasing attack by conservatives

George McGovern

South Dakota senator whose antiwar campaign was swamped by Nixon

Phyllis Schlafly

Conservative activist who led a successful movement to stop ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment

Gerald Ford

The first appointed vice president and first appointed president of the United States

John Dean

White House lawyer whose dramatic charges against Nixon were validated by the Watergate tapes

James Earl Carter

Former Georgia governor whose presidency was plagued by economic difficulties and a crisis in Iran

Anwar Sadat

Egyptian president whose 1978 summit agreement, brokered by President Carter, brought hopes of peace with Israel

Allen Bakke

California medical school applicant whose case led a divided Supreme Court to uphold limited forms of affirmative action for minorities

Shah of Iran

Repressive pro-Western ruler whose 1979 overthrow precipitated a crisis for the United States

Anwar Sadat

Egyptian leader who signed the Camp David accords with Israel

neoconservatives

Influential group of intellectuals led by Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz who provided key ideas for the “Reagan Revolution”

Proposition 13

California ballot initiative of 1978 that set the stage for the “tax revolt” that Reagan rode to victory in 1980

supply-side economics

The economic theory of “Reaganomics” that emphasized cutting taxes and government spending in order to stimulate investment, productivity, and economic growth by private enterprise

yuppies

Term for “young urban professionals” of the 1980s who flaunted their wealth through conspicuous consumer spending

boll weevils

Conservative southern Democrats who supported Reagan’s economic policies in Congress

Solidarity

Polish labor union crushed by the communist-imposed martial-law regime in 1983

Sandinistas

The leftist revolutionary rulers of Nicaragua, strongly opposed by the Reagan administration

Star Wars

Popular name for Reagan’s proposed space-based nuclear defense system, officially called the Strategic Defense Initiative

Berlin Wall

Physical symbol of the Cold War and divided Europe that came down in 1989

Operation Desert Storm

Code name for the military operation of the “hundred hour war” that drove Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait

Jimmy Carter

Well-meaning president who was swamped by the 1980 Reagan landslide but later won the Nobel Peace Prize

Edward Kennedy

Liberal Democratic senator whose opposition to Carter helped divide the Democrats in 1980

Ronald Reagan

Political darling of Republican conservatives who won landslide election victories in 1980 and 1984

Sandinistas

Ruling leftist party of Nicaragua fiercely opposed by the Reagan administration

Sandra Day O’Connor

Brilliant legal scholar appointed by Reagan as the first woman justice on the Supreme Court

Mikhail Gorbachev

Soviet leader whose summit meetings with Reagan achieved an arms-control breakthrough in 1987

George Bush, Sr.

Long-time Republican political figure who defeated Dukakis for the presidency in 1988

contras

Anti-communist Nicaraguan rebels strongly backed by the Reagan administration

Saddam Hussein

Iraqi dictator defeated by the United States and its allies in the Persian Gulf War

Corazon Aquino

Filipino leader who ousted dictator Marcos with American backing in 1986 revolt

Walter Mondale

Jimmy Carter’s vice president who lost badly to Ronald Reagan in the 1984 election

Geraldine Ferraro

First woman to be nominated to a major party ticket as Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1984

Jerry Falwell

Prominent evangelical minister, leader of the Moral Majority

Norman Schwarzkopf

Successful commander of American forces in the First Persian Gulf War

Clarence Thomas

Controversial Supreme Court justice who narrowly won confirmation despite charges of sexual harassment

Democratic Leadership Council

”Centrist” Democratic organization that promoted Bill Clinton’s candidacy as a “new” Democrat

Don’t ask, don’t tell

Shorthand phrase for compromise policy that emerged after Clinton’s failed attempt to end ban on gays and lesbians in the military

Branch Davidians

Fundamentalist group whose compound in Waco, Texas, was assaulted by federal agents in 1993

Columbine High School

Colorado high school where a deadly shooting in 1999 stirred a national movement against guns and gun violence

Contract with America

Conservative campaign platform that led to a sweeping Republican victory in the 1994 mid-term elections

Reform Party

H. Ross Perot’s third party that in 1996 received less than half the votes Perot had garnered in 1992

World Trade Organization

International trade organization that prompted strong protests from anti-global trade forces in Seattle, Washington in 1999

Haiti

Caribbean nation where Clinton sent twenty thousand American troops to restore ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power

Whitewater

Clinton Arkansas investment deal that spurred a federal special prosecutor and led to widespread investigations of his administration

Green Party

Third party led by environmentalist Ralph Nader that took votes from Democratic presidential nominee Albert Gore in 2000 election

Electoral College

Constitutional institution for choosing presidents that came under severe criticism after the 2000 popular vote winner failed to win the office

Pentagon

The other site of direct attack by terrorists on September 11, 2001, besides the twin towers of the World Trade Center

al-Qaeda

The international terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden

Patriot Act

Controversial law restricting civil liberties passed in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks

Abu Ghraib

Iraqi prison where alleged American abuse of Iraqi prisoners inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq and beyond