U.S II Final Study Guide

suburbs (in relation to the american dream)

• areas that were just outside of a city or town, where many white people fled after an influx of african americans and other ethnic groups in city areas

• symbol of the american dream, representing a setting that gave opportunity for a steady employment/income, while also being safe enough to have a family

• many moved there due to affordable housing, automobiles, economic growth, and government policies 

white flight (1940-1970)

• the phenomenon of white residents migrating from urban areas or schools to suburban or exurban areas as those urban areas become more racially diverse

• effect: led to parts of cities becoming ethnic ghettos or predominantly white

baby boom

• period after the great depression when the economy boomed, causing quality of life to increase, leading to conditions that were more conducive to having a family in.

• Made many many americans inclined to start families during this time, leading to a large increase in birth rates, especially in comparison to the abnormally low birth rates of the Great Depression era.

berlin airlift/blockade (1947)

• The prevention of survival necessities going into West Berlin due to the Soviet Union not wanting those in East Berlin fleeing West to escape communism

• Effect: caused Great Britain and the U.S. to send supplies to West Berlin through the Berlin Airlift.

truman doctrine (1947)

• Doctrine made by president Truman stating that the U.S. will help nations resisting communist rule (Greece and Turkey)

• marked America’s official stance towards the politics of the Cold War

marshall pan (1948)

Plan made by Secretary of State George Marshall stating that the U.S. will provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of Europe (due to all of the damage done during the Cold War)

general douglas macarthur in korean war

• successfully drove North Korean forces over the 38th parallel

• made a controversial move to continue to push north Koreans further north and bomb cities in china that were thought to be aiding North Korean troops 

• led to him getting removed from his commanding position

containment

 a policy of taking measures to prevent any extension of communist rule to other countries (began to guide the Truman administration’s foreign policy)

iron cutrain

• a phrase to stand for the political division of Eastern and Central Europe

• used to decribe areas where the Soviet Union exerted significant political and military influence

• countries behind the curtain: Poland, Eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and the Soviet Union

senator joseph mccarthy

republic anti-communist activist from wisconsin that led the communist witchhunt in the united states

mccarthyism

unsupported accusations of communists in the 1950sh

hydrogen bomb

bomb developed by the U.S. during the Cold War arms race that was even more destructive than the atomic bomb

jim crow laws

• laws that aimed at separating races

• included laws about marriage, social/religious contact, and separate facilities

brown v board of ed. - topeka, kansas

case that declared segregation in schools as unconstitutional and a violation of the fourteenth amendment

SNCC

• student non-violent coordinating committee

• national protest group that did sit-ins inspired by the work of CORE in Chicago.

• Adopted many of King’s ideas byt had ideas of their own (more confrontational)

voting rights act of 1965

act that eliminated literacy tests and stated that federal examiners could enroll voters who had been denied suffrage by local officials

montogmery bus boycott

• Rosa Parks and 3 other African-Americans protested by sitting in the front row of the bus

• lead to the desegregation of races on public transportation

• established MLK’s role as a leader of the civil rights movement

the black panthers

• a political party that fought police brutality in ghettos.

• Advocated self-sufficiency for African-American communities

de facto segregation

segregation that exists by practice and custom rather than by law

interstate highway system

• happened under the eisenhower administration

• act that authorized the building of a nationwide highway network.

• These new roads encouraged the development of new suburbs farther from cities, made high-speed & long haul trucking possible

• contributed to the decline or railroads and public transportation (in turn getting rid of people’s jobs)

• increased automobile use which hurt the environment more, caused more accidents

• economic gulf between suburban and urban dwellers and between the middle class and the poor widened

election fo 1960

• between JFK and Nixon

• TV: election of JFK heavily influenced by TV interview (JFK got coaching by television producers to look like a better candidate than Nixon)

• Civil Rights: after MLK’s arrest, JFK called Luther’s wife to comfort her while his brother (campaign manager) persuaded the judge to relaease Luther on bail

  • gave Kennedy the votes of African Americans in the midwest in south which would help him win those states

flexible response

the broadening the range of response to large non-nuclear attacks by strengthening and modernizing the military’s ability to fight a nonnuclear war

the peace corps

• a program of volunteer assistance to the developing nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America

• huge success gathering more than 35000 volunteers and serving 60 nations around the world

naval quarantine of cuba

naval blockade during the JFK administration that was implemented during the Cuban Missile Crisis, done to prevent the Soviet Union from further delivering offensive weapons (nuclear missiles) to Cuba

the great society

phrase used by Johnson in a speech at the University of michigan when outlining a legislative program that would end:

• poverty

• racial injustice

• a future program that would create:

  • a higher standard of living

  • equal opportunity

  • richer quality of life

medicare

provided hospital insurance and low-cost medical insurance for almost every American age 65 or older

containment policy (US cold war)

• said that the U.S. should try to stop any new communist government to prevent the effects of the domino theory (if one country fell to communism, others would follow, leading to all-out war)

• justified the U.S.’s involvement in the Vietnam war

ngo dinh diem

• South Vietnam’s president that was a strong catholic and anti-Communist

• wanted to cancel elections to not put Ho Chi Minh in power but put in a corrupt government that tried to restrict opposition and Buddist practices

• ultimately lost to Ho Chi Minh’s power, causing the country to become communist

ho chi minh

leader of the Indochinese Communist Party, helped form the Vietminh (group that wanted Vietnam’s independence from foreign rule)

vietcong

communist group in the south that attacked Diem’s government, got weapons supplied to them via the Ho Chi Minh Trail

tonkin gulf resolution

Congress’ approval that gave president Johnson broad military powers in Vietnam (after the false american report of enemy torpedoes from the vietnamese which became the reasoning for Johnson’s request to launch bombing strikes on North Vietnam)

vietnamization policy

• proposed by Nixon

• the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops to be replaced by South Vietnamese troops

26th amendment

lowered voting age to eighteen because of the fact that eighteen year olds were fighting in Vietnam but werent old enough to vote for the officals sending them to war(“old enough to fight, old enough to vote“)

pentagon papers

7,000 page document leaked by Daniel Ellsberg that revealed that the government had drawn up plans for entering the Vietnam war even as President Johnson promised that he wouldn’t send troops to vietnam, that there was never a plan to end the war

the 1973 war powers act

• said that a president must inform Congress within 48 hours of sending forces into a hostile area without a declaration of war

• those troops can only stay in that area for 90 days max unless Congress approves the president’s actions or declares war

vice president spiro agnew resignation (1973)

• happened just before the Saturday Night Massacre because it was revealed that he had accepted bribes from Maryland engineering firms

• Effect: general ford becomes vice president, adds more scandal, on top of Watergate, to Nixon’s administration

henry kissinger

• chosen as Nixon's special adviser on foreign affairs

• Promoted the philosophy, realpolitik (politial realism) based solely on consideration of power rather than ideals or moral principles

• “if a country was weak, it was often more practical to ignore the country even if it was communist”

• Collaborated with Nixon on the detente policy (which aimed at easing Cold War tensions with a more flexible approach in dealing with Communist nations)

SALT I treaty

five-year agreement that limited the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles to 1972 levels

watergate scandal

scandal in which Nixon’s administration tried to cover up a burglary of the DNC headquarters at the Watergate office and apartment complex in Washington D.C.

democratic national committee offices

 place that was broken into during watergate to place wiretaps on office telephones and photograph documents outlining the Democratic party strategy

executive privilege

 principle that allows the president and other executive branch officials to withhold information from the legislative and judicial branches of government

roe v wade supreme court decision (1973)

 recognized a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion, based on the right to privacy protected by the Fourteenth Amendment

pardon of richard nixon

• done by president ford

• done as an attempt to move the country beyond Watergate

• cost Ford a good deal of public support

1980 olympics boycott

• the prevention of the U.S’s participation in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow by Jimmy Carter as a protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

• This led to 66 counties also barring their citizens from attending the games

• bad on U.S. public opinion of Carter and didn’t affect Russia (they won everything because america wasn’t there)

camp david accords

a negotiation at Camp David that forged (temporary) peace between Israel and Egypt, organized by Jimmy Carter

ayatollah ruhollah khomeini

• muslim religious leader that led the rebels in overthrowing the shah in Iran and establishing a religious state based on strict obedience to the Qur’an

• Led the iranian revolution

new conservativism

• The push towards solving the energy crisis by focusing on energy conservation and development

• Not liked by oil and gas producing states and automobile manufacturers

• Created the National Energy Act - placed a tax on gas-guzzling cars, removed price controls on oil and natural gas produced in the U.S. and extended tax credits for the development of alternative energy

reagans major goals as president

• to save the economy (reaganomics: budget cuts, tax cuts, and increased defense spending)

• reducing the size and power of the federal government (deregulation: the cutting back of federal regulation of industry)

main purpose of reagan’s tax cuts

supply-side economics (theory held that if people paid fewer taxes, they would save more money)

reagan’s focus of domestic policies

large focus on the economy and government, lack of focus on the environment (cutting the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency)

“The Teflon President“

• nickname for Reagan

• no accusations could taint public opinion of him or his administration

glasnost

• Gorbachev’s policy of openness

• allowed open criticism of the Soviet government

• took some steps toward freedom of the press

perestroika

Gorbachev’s policy of restructuring of Soviet society that called for:

• less government control of the economy

• the introduction of some private enterprise

• steps toward establishing a democratic government in the Soviet Union (plan reflected the failure of the Communist system)

Gorbachev’s response to the gulf war

Gorbachev wanted reform after the Cold War due to the inefficiency of the Soviet system and recession