New Ch. 29-30

Watts Riots — 1965

Race riots in Los Angeles showing frustration over inequality and police brutality.

Greensboro Sit-Ins — 1960

Nonviolent protests against segregated lunch counters starting in North Carolina.

Letter from Birmingham Jail — 1963

Defended nonviolent resistance to unjust laws.

Port Huron Statement — 1962

Manifesto calling for participatory democracy.

Roe v. Wade — 1973

Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide.

Gideon v. Wainwright — 1963

Guaranteed right to a lawyer for criminal defendants.

The Feminine Mystique — 1963

Book by Betty Friedan sparking modern feminism.

Griswold v. Connecticut — 1965

Legalized birth control for married couples.

Board of Regents v. Bakke — 1978

Limited affirmative action but allowed race as a factor.

Cuban Missile Crisis — 1962

Nuclear standoff between U.S. and USSR over missiles in Cuba.

Pentagon Papers — 1971

Leaked documents revealing government lies about Vietnam War.

Operation Rolling Thunder — 1965–1968

U.S. bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

Freedom Rides — 1961

Activists rode buses to challenge segregation in the South.

Stonewall Riots — 1969

Uprising that sparked the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Medicaid — 1965

Government healthcare program for low-income Americans.

Nixon Visits China — 1972

Opened diplomatic relations with communist China.

William Calley — 1968

Officer charged for role in My Lai Massacre.

Woodstock — 1969

Major music festival symbolizing counterculture.

CREEP — 1972

Committee for the Re-Election of the President linked to Watergate scandal.

Earl Warren

Chief Justice who expanded civil rights and liberties.

Warren Burger

Chief Justice during Nixon era, more conservative court.

Title IX — 1972

Law banning gender discrimination in education.

Stokely Carmichael

SNCC leader who promoted Black Power.

Fall of Saigon — 1975

End of Vietnam War with communist victory.

Henry Kissinger

Nixon advisor who shaped foreign policy and diplomacy.

Ho Chi Minh

Leader of North Vietnam and communist movement.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act — 1965

Federal funding for public schools.

Spiro Agnew — 1973

Vice president who resigned due to scandal.

Black Panthers — 1966

Militant group advocating Black self-defense and rights.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

President who promoted domino theory.

Rachel Carson — 1962

Author of Silent Spring exposing environmental dangers.

Sandra Day O’Connor — 1981

First female Supreme Court justice.

Economic Opportunity Act — 1964

Key Great Society law to fight poverty.

Cesar Chavez

Labor leader of United Farm Workers.

SALT I — 1972

Treaty limiting U.S. and Soviet nuclear weapons.

Kent State Massacre — 1970

National Guard killed student protesters.

Woodward and Bernstein

Reporters who exposed Watergate scandal.

Escobedo v. Illinois — 1964

Guaranteed right to a lawyer during police questioning.

Space Race

Competition between U.S. and USSR for space dominance.

CORE — 1942

Civil rights group promoting nonviolent protest.

New Left

Youth movement focused on civil rights and antiwar activism.

SDS — 1960

Student group leading campus protests.

Alcatraz Occupation — 1969

Native American protest for land rights.

Wounded Knee — 1973

Native American protest against U.S. policies.

Yom Kippur War — 1973

Middle East war affecting U.S. foreign policy.

OPEC Oil Embargo — 1973

Cut oil supply causing energy crisis and inflation.

Watergate Plumbers

Group formed to stop leaks like Pentagon Papers.

New Right

Conservative political movement rising in response to liberalism.

John F. Kennedy

First Catholic U.S. president.

New Frontier

JFK’s domestic reform program.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Expanded Great Society and civil rights laws.

Selma Marches — 1965

Civil rights protests leading to Voting Rights Act.

Black Power Movement

Movement promoting racial pride and independence.

Green Berets

Elite U.S. military forces used in Vietnam.

Berlin Wall — 1961

Barrier dividing East and West Berlin during Cold War.

Robert McNamara

Secretary of Defense during Vietnam War.

Hubert Humphrey — 1968

Democratic candidate in 1968 election.

Free Speech Movement — 1964

Student protests at UC Berkeley.

Altamont Festival — 1969

Concert that turned violent, symbolizing end of 1960s idealism.

Cambodia Bombing — 1969–1970

Nixon secretly expanded Vietnam War.

Daniel Ellsberg — 1971

Leaked Pentagon Papers.

Saturday Night Massacre — 1973

Nixon fired prosecutor during Watergate.

James McCord — 1973

Watergate burglar who exposed the cover-up.

Bay of Pigs Invasion — 1961

Failed CIA-backed invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro exiles; major embarrassment for President Kennedy.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution — 1964

Congress gave President Johnson authority to use military force in Vietnam without a formal war declaration.

Geneva Conference — 1954

International meeting that temporarily divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel into communist North and anti-communist South.

Ngo Dinh Diem Assassination — 1963

U.S.-backed South Vietnamese president overthrown and killed by his own generals.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Supply route used by North Vietnam to send troops and weapons to the Viet Cong in South Vietnam.

Viet Cong (National Liberation Front) — 1960

Communist guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam fighting to unite Vietnam under communism.

Tet Offensive — 1968

Major surprise attack by North Vietnamese forces that shocked Americans and weakened support for the war.

Quagmire

Term used to describe the Vietnam War as a difficult conflict with no clear victory.

My Lai Massacre — 1968

U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians, increasing opposition to the war.

Teach-ins

College discussions and protests organized to oppose the Vietnam War.

Hearts and Minds

U.S. strategy in Vietnam to win support of the Vietnamese people.

Credibility Gap

Public distrust caused by differences between government statements and the reality of the Vietnam War.

Guns and Butter Debate

Conflict over funding both the Vietnam War (“guns”) and Great Society programs (“butter”).

Peace with Honor — 1969

Nixon’s goal to end the Vietnam War without admitting defeat.

Election of 1968 — 1968

Richard Nixon won the presidency in a three-way race against Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace.

George Wallace — 1968

Segregationist candidate who ran for president as a third-party candidate.

Robert F. Kennedy — 1968

Senator and presidential candidate assassinated during the 1968 campaign.

Democratic National Convention — 1968

Convention in Chicago marked by violent protests against the Vietnam War.

March on Washington — 1963

Mass civil rights protest where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Freedom Summer — 1964

Civil rights campaign to register African American voters in Mississippi.

Civil Rights Act — 1964

Law banning segregation and discrimination in public places.

Voting Rights Act — 1965

Law protecting African Americans’ right to vote by banning literacy tests.

Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination — 1968

Killing of the civil rights leader in Memphis that shocked the nation.

Affirmative Action — 1965

Government policy supported by Johnson encouraging equal opportunities for minorities.

National Organization for Women (NOW) — 1966

Feminist organization fighting for women’s equality.

Betty Friedan — 1966

Feminist leader and founder of NOW.

Gloria Steinem

Feminist activist and leader of the women’s rights movement.

Phyllis Schlafly

Conservative activist who opposed many feminist reforms.

Flexible Response

Kennedy policy allowing the U.S. to respond to communist threats with multiple military options.

Nikita Khrushchev

Leader of the Soviet Union during major Cold War confrontations with the U.S.

Bloody Sunday — 1965

Police attacked civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama.