Studied by 2 people
Period 8: 1945-1980
affirmative action
Programs meant to overcome historical patterns of discrimination against minorities and women in education and employment. By establishing guidelines for hiring and college admissions, the government sought to advance equal opportunities for minorities and women.
American Indian Movement (AIM)
An American Indian group, formed in 1968, that promoted "red power" and condemned the United States for its continued mistreatment of American Indians.
baby boom
Sharp population increase between 1946 and 1964 as a result of the end of World War II, increased economic prosperity, improvements in healthcare, and a trend toward marriage at younger age.
Bandung Conference
A conference of twenty-nine Asian and African nations held in Indonesia in 1955, which declared their neutrality in the Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union and condemned colonialism.
Bay of Pigs invasion
Unsuccessful 1961 attempt under the Kennedy administration to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba.
Beats
A small group of young poets, writers, intellectuals, musicians, and artists who challenged mainstream American politics and culture in the 1950s.
Berlin airlift
The mass-scale transport of food and supplies to West Berlin by U.S. and British government air forces during the Soviet blockade of Berlin from 1948 to 1949.
Berlin Wall
Physical and ideological barrier between East and West Berlin which existed from 1961 until 1989. The wall was designed to prevent Soviet controlled East Berliners from fleeing to the West.
Black Panther Party
Organization founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale to advance the black power movement in black communities.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
Landmark 1954 Supreme Court case that overturned the "separate but equal" principle established by Plessy v. Ferguson and applied to public schools. Few schools in the South were racially desegregated for more than a decade.
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Established in 1824, the BIA is responsible for management of American Indian lands and implementation of federal policy towards American Indian nations.
Camp David accords
1978 peace accord between Israel and Egypt facilitated by the mediation of President Jimmy Carter.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Intelligence organization established by the 1947 National Security Act. The CIA is part of the executive branch and is responsible for gathering and conducting espionage in foreign nations. Originally created to counter Soviet spying operations.
Christian Right
A coalition of evangelical Christians and Catholics that supported traditional values, laissez-faire economics, and an uncompromising anti-communist foreign policy. They joined forces with political conservatives.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Wide-ranging civil rights act that, among other things, prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and employment and increased federal enforcement of school desegregation.
Cold War
The political, economic, and military conflict, short of direct war on the battlefield, between the United States and the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1991.
Commission on the Status of Women
Commission appointed by President Kennedy in 1961. The commission's 1963 report, American Women, highlighted employment discrimination against women and recommended legislation requiring equal pay for equal work regardless of sex.
containment
Belief that the Soviet Union desired the spread of communism throughout the world. To prevent this spread U.S. diplomat George Kennan advocated a strict policy of containing communism where it already existed and preventing its spread.
counterculture
Young cultural rebels of the 1960s who rejected conventional moral and sexual values and used drugs to reach a higher consciousness. These so-called hippies bonded together in their style of clothes and taste in rock 'n' roll music.
deindustrialization
Decline of industrial activity in a specific town, region, or nation. In the U.S. it led to significant drops in union membership and population shifts across the country as people moved in search of new types of economic opportunity.
Dennis v. United States
1951 Supreme Court decision upholding the conviction of Communist leaders on the grounds they posed a "clear and present danger," despite the absence of any evidence of an immediate uprising or plot.
détente
An easing of tense relations with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. This process moved unevenly through the 1970s and early 1980s but accelerated when the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the mid-1980s.
Dixiecrats
Southern Democrats who created a segregationist political party in 1948 as a response to federal extensions of civil rights. Dixiecrats advocated for a state's right to legislate segregation. The Dixiecrat Party ran Strom Thurmond in an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1948 against Truman.
Domino Theory
Prevalent belief during the Cold War maintaining that if one country fell under the influence of communism, other surrounding countries would soon similarly fall under the influence of communism, like a row of falling dominoes.
Eisenhower Doctrine
A doctrine guiding U.S. intervention in the Middle East. In 1957 Congress granted President Dwight Eisenhower the power to send military forces into the Middle East to combat Communist aggression. Eisenhower sent U.S. marines into Lebanon in 1958 under this doctrine.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Federal agency established by Richard Nixon in 1971 to regulate activities that resulted in pollution or other environmental degradation.
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
A proposed amendment that prevented the abridgment of "equality of rights under law...by the United States or any State on the basis of sex." Not enough states had ratified the amendment by 1982, when the ratification period expired, so it was not adopted.
escalation
Johnson administration policy of continuously increasing the numbers of ground troops in Vietnam and bombing campaigns. Escalation led to an increasing amount of resentment among the South Vietnamese, which contributed to defection to the Vietcong.
Federal Employee Loyalty Program
Program established by President Truman in 1947 to investigate federal employees suspected of disloyalty and Communist ties.
Federal Housing Administration
Agency created in 1934 by the Franklin Roosevelt Administration to devise housing construction standards and provide long-term mortgages to qualified buyers at low interest rates.
Freedom Rides
Integrated bus rides through the South organized by CORE in 1961 to test compliance with Supreme Court rulings on segregation.
Freedom Summer
1964 civil rights project in Mississippi launched by SNCC, CORE, the SCLC, and the NAACP. Some eight hundred volunteers, mainly white college students, worked on voter registration drives and in freedom schools to improve education for rural black youngsters.
Free Speech Movement (FSM)
Movement protesting policies instituted by the University of California at Berkeley that restricted free speech. In 1964 students at Berkeley conducted sit-ins and held rallies against these policies.
Great Migration
Population shift of more than 400,000 African Americans who left the South beginning in 1917-1918 and headed north and west to escape poverty and racial discrimination. During the 1920s another 800,000 black people left the South.
Great Society
President Lyndon Johnson's vision of social, economic, and cultural progress in the United States.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
1964 congressional resolution giving President Lyndon Johnson wide discretion in the use of U.S. forces in Vietnam. The resolution followed reported attacks by North Vietnamese gunboats on two American destroyers.
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
U.S. House of Representatives Committee established in 1938 to investigate domestic communism. After World War II, HUAC conducted highly publicized investigations of Communist influence in government and the entertainment industry.
imperial presidency
Term used to describe the growth of presidential powers during the Cold War, particularly with respect to war-making powers and the conduct of national security.
iron curtain
Term coined by Churchill that described the ideological and political divide between the Communist Soviet Union and the non-Communist western world.
Kent State massacre
The killing of four students and wounding of nine others by the National Guard during a 1970 Kent State campus protest about the U.S. invasion of Cambodia as part of the Vietnam War. The incident sparked further anti-war sentiment and massive protests.
Kitchen Debate
July 24, 1959 impromptu debate during the Cold War at the American National Exhibition in Moscow in front of a display of an American kitchen between Nixon and the Soviet Union's First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev about the merits of capitalism and communism.
Korean War
Conflict fought between the northern Communist, Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the United Nations-backed southern Republic of Korea between 1950 to 1953.
La Raza Unida (The United Race)
A Chicano political party, formed in 1969, that advocated job opportunities for Chicanos, bilingual education, and Chicano cultural studies programs in universities.
Levittown
Suburban subdivision built in Long Island, New York in the 1950s in response to the postwar housing shortage. Subsequent Levittowns were built in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Little Rock Nine
Nine African American Students who, in 1957, became the first black students to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Federal troops were required to overcome the resistance of white officials and violent reaction of protestors to guard the students.
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
August 28, 1963 rally by civil rights organizations in Washington, D.C. that brought increased national attention to the movement.
Marshall Plan
Post World War II European economic aid package developed by Secretary of State George Marshall. The plan helped rebuild Western Europe and served American political and economic interests in the process.
McCarran Internal Security Act
1950 Republican-supported legislation proposed by Senator Pat McCarran, which required Communist organizations to register with the federal government, established detention camps for radicals, and denied passports to American citizens who had communist affiliations. Truman vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode his veto making the act law.
McCarran-Walter Immigration Act
1952 legislation that made it possible for Japanese non-citizens to become U.S. citizens. However, the act still maintained a race-based system of discriminatory national-origin quotas.
McCarthyism
Term used to describe the harassment and persecution of suspected political radicals. Senator Joseph McCarthy was one of many prominent government figures who helped incite anti-Communist hysteria in the early 1950s.
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP)
Political party formed in 1964 to challenge the all-white state Democratic Party for seats at the 1964 Democratic presidential convention and run candidates for public office. Although unsuccessful in 1964, MFDP efforts led to subsequent reform of the Democratic Party and the seating of an interracial convention delegation from Mississippi in 1968.
Modern Republicanism
The political approach of President Dwight Eisenhower that tried to fit traditional Republican Party ideals of individualism and fiscal restraint within the broad framework of the New Deal.
Montgomery bus boycott
Thirteen-month bus boycott that began with the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. The successful protest catapulted Martin Luther King, Jr., a local pastor, into national prominence as a civil rights leader.
mujahideen
Religiously inspired Afghan rebels who resisted the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
mutually assured destruction (MAD)
Defense strategy built around the threat of a massive nuclear retaliatory strike. Adoption of the doctrine of mutually assured destruction contributed to the escalation of the nuclear arms race during the Cold War.
My Lai massacre
March 16, 1968 unprovoked U.S. massacre of nearly 500 of the elderly, women, and children in the South Vietnam area of My Lai during the Vietnam War.
National Defense Education Act
1958 Cold War era act in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik, which provided aid for instruction in science, math, and foreign language, and grants and fellowships for college students.
National Energy Act
Legislation signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, which set gas emissions standards for automobiles and provided incentives for installing alternative energy systems, such as wind and solar power.
National Interstate and Defense Highway Act
1956 act that provided funds for construction of 42,500 miles of roads throughout the United States.
National Organization for Women (NOW)
Feminist organization formed in 1966 by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and other like-minded activists.
National Security Council (NSC)
Council created by the 1947 National Security Act to advise the president on military and foreign affairs. The NSC consists of the national security adviser and the secretaries of state, defense, the army, the navy, and the air force.
neoconservatives
Disillusioned liberals who condemned the Great Society programs they had originally supported. Neoconservatives were particularly concerned about affirmative action programs, the domination of campus discourse by New Left radicals, and left-wing criticism of the use of American military and economic might to advance U.S. interests overseas.
New Frontier
President John F. Kennedy's domestic agenda. Kennedy promised to battle "tyranny, poverty, disease, and war," but, lacking strong majorities in Congress, he achieved relatively modest results.
New Look
The foreign policy strategy implemented by President Dwight Eisenhower that emphasized the development and deployment of nuclear weapons in an effort to cut military spending.
New Right
The conservative coalition of old and new conservatives, as well as disaffected Democrats.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Cold War military alliance intended to enhance the collective security of the United States and Western Europe.
NSC-68
April 1950 National Security Council document that advocated the intensification of the policy of containment both at home and abroad.
Operation Wetback
Forced deportation of 250,000 to 1.3 million undocumented Mexican immigrants during the Eisenhower administration.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
Organization formed by oil-producing countries to control the price and supply of oil on the global market.
Pentagon Papers
Classified report on U.S. involvement in Vietnam leaked to the press in 1971. The report confirmed that the Kennedy and Johnson administrations had misled the public about the origins and nature of the Vietnam War.
Port Huron Statement
Students for a Democratic Society manifesto written in 1962 that condemned liberal politics, Cold War foreign policy, racism, and research-oriented universities. It called for the adoption of "participatory democracy."
Potsdam Conference
Meeting July of 1945 in Germany, between Truman and Stalin. The two leaders agreed to free elections in Eastern Europe, Soviet withdrawal from Northern Iran, and creation of four Allied occupation zones in Germany.
realpolitik
Foreign policy based on practical economic and strategic needs of the U.S. rather than any ideological or human rights goals.
Roe v. Wade
The 1973 Supreme Court decision that affirmed a woman's constitutional right to abortion.
SALT II
1979 strategic arms limitation treaty agreed on by President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Carter persuaded the Senate not to ratify the treaty.
school busing
Mandatory nationwide initiative to integrate schools, begun in 1971 to comply with the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board. The practice of school busing continued in the U.S. well into the 1990s. Also known as "busing" or "desegregation busing."
Second Red Scare
Fear of communist influence infiltrating the United States and threatening national security in the 1940s and 1950s. Such fears resulted in the creation of government-controlled programs and entities such as the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Federal Employee Loyalty Program.
Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill)
1944 act that offered educational opportunities and financial aid to veterans as they readjusted to civilian life. Known as the GI Bill, the law helped millions of veterans build new lives after the war.
Smith Act
Law signed by Franklin Roosevelt in 1940, which prohibited teaching or advocating for the destruction of the United States government.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
Organization founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King Jr. and other black ministers to encourage nonviolent protests against racial segregation and disfranchisement in the South.
Sputnik
First artificial satellite, launched in 1957 by the Soviet Union.
stagflation
Period of economic instability in the 1970s as the rising cost of living occurred in conjunction with an increase in unemployment.
Stonewall riots
The 1969 violence between gays and New York City police after the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village whose patrons fought the police in response to harassment. This encounter helped launch the gay liberation movement.
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I)
1972 agreement between the United States and Soviet Union to curtail nuclear arms production during the Cold War. The pact froze for five years the number of antiballistic missiles (ABMs), intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and submarine-based missiles that each nation could deploy.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Civil rights organization that grew out of the sit-ins of 1960. The organization focused on taking direct action and political organizing to achieve its goals.
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Student activist organization formed in the early 1960s that advocated the formation of a "New Left" that would overturn the social and political status quo.
Sun Belt
The southern and western part of the United States. After World War II, millions of Americans moved to the Sun Belt, drawn by the region's climate and jobs in the defense, petroleum, and chemical industries.
Taft-Hartley Act
1947 law that curtailed unions' ability to organize. It prevented unions from barring employment to non-union members and authorized the federal government to halt a strike for eighty days if it interfered with the national interest.
Tet Offensive
January 31, 1968 offensive mounted by Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces against population centers in South Vietnam. The offensive was turned back, but its ferocity shocked many Americans and increased public opposition to the war.
To Secure These Rights
Report issued by President Harry Truman's Committee on Civil Rights in 1947 that advocated extending racial equality. Among its recommendations was the desegregation of the military, which Truman instituted by executive order in 1948.
totalitarianism
Type of government that puts the state first, with all other parts of life designed to support and sustain the government first and foremost.
Truman Doctrine
U.S. pledge to contain the expansion of communism around the world. Based on the idea of containment, the Truman Doctrine was the cornerstone of American foreign policy throughout the Cold War.
Twenty-sixth Amendment
1971 amendment lowering the voting age to eighteen in federal, state, and local elections.
Vietcong
The popular name for the National Liberation Front (NFL) in South Vietnam, which was formed in 1959. The Vietcong waged a military insurgency against the U.S.-backed president, Ngo Dinh Diem, and received support from Ho Chi Minh, the leader of North Vietnam.
Vietnamization
President Richard Nixon's strategy of turning over greater responsibility for the fighting of the Vietnam War to the South Vietnamese army.
Vietnam War
Conflict between the Communist nationalist government in North Vietnam backed by the Soviet Union and China, against the United Nations and U.S. backed South Vietnam government. The war is seen as part of a series of proxy wars as a result of Cold War tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union between 1954 to 1975.
Voting Rights Act
1965 act that eliminated many of the obstacles to African American voting in the South and resulted in dramatic increases in black participation in the electoral process.
War Powers Act
1942 act passed after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It authorized the president to reorganize federal agencies any way he thought necessary to win the war.
Warsaw Pact
Russian military alliance with seven satellite nations in response to the U.S. Marshall Plan and establishment of NATO.
Watergate
Scandal and cover-up that forced the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974. The scandal revolved around a break-in at Democratic Party headquarters in 1972 and subsequent efforts to conceal the administration's involvement in the break-in.
