Key Terms

kitchen debate - Televised exchange in 1959 between Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and American vice president Richard Nixon. Meeting at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, the two leaders sparred over the relative merits of capitalist consumer culture versus Soviet state planning. Nixon won applause for his staunch defense of American capitalism, helping lead him to the Republican nomination for president in 1960.

military-industrial complex - Term popularized by President Dwight Eisenhower in his 1961 Farewell Address, referring to the political and economic ties between arms manufacturers, elected officials, and the U.S. armed forces that created self-sustaining pressure for high military spending during the Cold War. Eisenhower also warned that this powerful combination left unchecked could “endanger our liberties or democratic process,” favoring defense concerns over more peaceful goals that balanced security and liberty.

New Frontier - President Kennedy’s nickname for his domestic policy agenda. Buoyed by youthful optimism, the program included proposals for the Peace Corps and efforts to improve education and health care.

Peace Corps - A federal agency created by President Kennedy in 1961 to promote voluntary service by Americans in foreign countries. The Peace Corps provides labor power to help developing countries improve their infrastructure, health care, educational systems, and other aspects of their societies. Part of Kennedy’s New Frontier vision, the organization represented an effort by postwar liberals to promote American values and influence through productive exchanges across the world.

Alliance for Progress - A program that the United States and Latin American countries established in 1961 to promote economic and social development in Latin America. The program was a response to the fear of increased Soviet and Cuban influence in the region.

Apollo - Program of manned space flights run by America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The project’s highest achievement was the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Robert S. McNamara - (1916-2009) Businessman turned secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968. He was the author of the "flexible response" doctrine, which created a variety of military options and avoided a stark choice between nuclear warfare and none at all. As defense secretary, he was the chief architect of the Vietnam War.

Dean Rusk - American diplomat who served as the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, playing a key role in shaping U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, particularly regarding the Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis; he is often associated with the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Robert F. Kennedy - (1925-1968) Younger brother of John F. Kennedy who entered public life as U.S. attorney general during the Kennedy administration. Later elected senator from New York, he became an antiwar, pro-civil rights presidential candidate in 1968, launching a popular challenge to incumbent President Johnson. Amid that campaign, he was assassinated in California on June 6, 1968.

Berlin Wall - Fortified and guarded barrier between East and West Berlin erected on orders from Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1961 to stop the flow of people to the West. Until its destruction in 1989, the wall was a vivid symbol of the divide between the communist and capitalist worlds.

European Economic Community (EEC) - Free-trade zone in Western Europe created by Treaty of Rome in 1957. Often referred to as the “Common Market,” this collection of countries originally included France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The body eventually expanded to become the European Union, which by 2005 included twenty-seven member states.

Flexible Response - Cold War military strategy implemented by President John F. Kennedy, allowing the United States to respond to communist aggression with a variety of options, including diplomatic, political, and military measures, rather than solely relying on nuclear retaliation as the previous "massive retaliation" policy did; essentially, the ability to tailor a response based on the specific situation, rather than a single predetermined action.

Bay of Pigs invasion - CIA plot in 1961 to overthrow Fidel Castro by training Cuban exiles to invade and supporting them with American airpower. The mission failed and became a public relations disaster early in John F. Kennedy’s presidency.

Cuban missile crisis - Standoff between John F. Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in October 1962 over Soviet plans to install nuclear weapons in Cuba. Although the crisis was ultimately settled in America’s favor and represented a foreign-policy triumph for Kennedy, it brought the world’s superpowers perilously close to the brink of nuclear confrontation.

George C. Wallace - (1919-1998) Southern populist and segregationist. As governor of Alabama, he famously defended his state’s policies of racial segregation. He ran for president several times as a Democrat but achieved his greatest influence when he ran as a third-party candidate in 1968, winning five states.

J. Edgar Hoover - Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who held the position for nearly 50 years, from 1924 until his death in 1972; he is known for his significant influence on the FBI, often utilizing controversial methods to combat crime and political dissent, particularly during the Cold War era. 

March on Washington - Massive civil rights demonstration in August 1963 in support of Kennedy-backed legislation to secure legal protections for American blacks. One of the most visually impressive manifestations of the civil rights movement, the march was the occasion of Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Voter Education Project - Effort by SNCC and other civil rights groups to register the South’s historically disenfranchised black population. The project typified a common strategy of the civil rights movement, which sought to counter racial discrimination by empowering people at grassroots levels to exercise their civic rights through voting.

Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Federal law that banned racial discrimination in public facilities and strengthened the federal government’s power to fight segregation in schools. Title VII of the act prohibited employers from discriminating based on race in their hiring practices, and empowered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to regulate fair employment.

affirmative action - Program designed to redress historic racial and gender imbalances in jobs and education. The term grew from an executive order issued by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 mandating that projects paid for with federal funds take concerted action against discrimination based on race in their hiring practices. In the late 1960s, President Nixon’s Philadelphia Plan changed the meaning of affirmative action to require attention to certain groups, rather than protect individuals against discrimination.

Great Society - President Lyndon Johnson’s term for his domestic policy agenda. Billed as a successor to the New Deal, the Great Society aimed to extend the postwar prosperity to all people in American society by promoting civil rights and fighting poverty. Great Society programs included the War on Poverty, which expanded the Social Security system by creating Medicare and Medicaid to provide health care for the aged and the poor. Johnson also signed laws protecting consumers and empowering community organizations to combat poverty at grassroots levels.

Barry Morris Goldwater - (January 2, 1909 - May 29, 1998) Businessman and five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953-65, 1969-87) and the Republican Party's nominee for president in the 1964 election. He is the politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. He also had a substantial impact on the libertarian movement.

Freedom Summer - A voter registration drive in Mississippi spearheaded by a coalition of civil rights groups. The campaign drew the activism of thousands of black and white civil rights workers, many of whom were students from the North, and was marred by the abduction and murder of three such workers at the hands of white racists.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic party - Political party organized by civil rights activists to challenge Mississippi’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention, who opposed the civil rights planks in the party’s platform. Claiming a mandate to represent the true voice of Mississippi, where almost no black citizens could vote, the MFDP demanded to be seated at the convention but were denied by party bosses. The effort was both a setback to civil rights activism in the South and a motivation to continue to struggle for black voting rights.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 - Legislation pushed through Congress by President Johnson that prohibited ballot-denying tactics, such as literacy tests and intimidation. The Voting Rights Act was a successor to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and sought to make racial disenfranchisement explicitly illegal.

Malcolm X - (1925-1965) Black militant, radical minister, and spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964. Having eschewed his family name "Little," Malcolm preached a doctrine of no compromise with white society. He was assassinated in New York City in 1965.

Black Panther party - Organization of armed black militants formed in Oakland, California, in 1966 to protect black rights. The Panthers represented a growing dissatisfaction with the nonviolent wing of the civil rights movement and signaled a new direction to that movement after the legislative victories of 1964 and 1965.

Watts Riots - A predominantly black neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. On August 11, 1965, after word spread that an act of police brutality had been committed against a black man, a vicious riot erupted in Watts. It left 34 people dead and over 1000 injured, undermining Dr. King’s policy of nonviolence and turning many activists in the black civil rights movement toward a more militant, belligerent style of protest.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - In August 1964, two American destroyers in the Bay of Tonkin were reportedly fired upon by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. With only two dissenting votes, Congress responded not with a formal declaration of war but with a joint resolution giving President Johnson license to use “all necessary measures” to strike back. Where the United States had previously offered limited assistance in Vietnam, the resolution led to rapid and massive American military involvement in the region.

Operation Rolling Thunder - A sustained bombing campaign conducted by the United States Air Force and Navy against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, beginning in March 1965, aimed at pressuring North Vietnamese leaders to cease their support for the communist insurgency in South Vietnam by attacking their transportation system and industrial base, while attempting to avoid provoking China or the Soviet Union with overly aggressive attacks; it marked a significant escalation of U.S. involvement in the war.

Six-Day War - Military conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. The war ended with an Israeli victory and territorial expansion into the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. The 1967 war was a humiliation for several Arab states, and the territorial disputes it created formed the basis for continued conflict in the region.

Hawks and doves - A way to describe how people view foreign policy or monetary policy. Hawks are more aggressive, while doves are more conservative. 

Foreign policy

Hawks: Support an aggressive foreign policy that uses military power. 

Doves: Support a less aggressive foreign policy that avoids military force. 

Monetary policy

Hawks:Support a more aggressive monetary policy, which can be beneficial when inflation is high. 

Doves:Support a more conservative monetary policy, which can be beneficial when the economy is in a downturn

Eugene McCarthy - (1916-2005) Liberal antiwar senator from Minnesota who rallied a large youth movement behind his presidential campaign in 1968. Challenging sitting President Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, McCarthy captured 41 percent of the vote and helped ensure that Johnson would quit the race.

Hubert Humphrey -  Democratic politician from Minnesota who served as Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson and was a strong advocate for civil rights and liberal social policies, most notably running for President in 1968 against the backdrop of the Vietnam War turmoil; he is often remembered for his passionate speeches on the Senate floor promoting progressive causes.

Hippies - countercultural movement primarily associated with the 1960s, where young people rejected established societal norms and values, embracing peace, love, communal living, and often experimenting with drugs, while outwardly expressing their beliefs through unconventional clothing and hairstyles, often centered around the San Francisco area's Haight-Ashbury district; they were particularly vocal against the Vietnam War and materialism.

New Left - a political and social movement of the 1960s focused on civil rights, anti-Vietnam War activism, gender equality, and social justice. It sought to challenge traditional institutions and promote a more participatory democracy. Key groups included Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Black Panthers. Unlike the Old Left, it emphasized cultural and social issues over labor or Marxist politics.

Stonewall Riots - Uprising in support of equal rights for gay people sparked by an assault by off-duty police officers at a gay bar in New York. The rebellion led to a rise in activism and militancy within the gay community and furthered the sexual revolution of the late 1960s.

Cesar Chavez - prominent Mexican-American labor leader and civil rights activist who dedicated his life to improving the working conditions of farm workers through nonviolent methods, most notably by co-founding the United Farm Workers (UFW) and leading the Delano grape strike, advocating for better wages and safer working environments for farm laborers.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) - A campus-based political organization founded in 1961 by Tom Hayden that became an iconic representation of the New Left. Originally geared toward the intellectual promise of “participatory democracy,” SDS emerged at the forefront of the civil rights, antipoverty, and antiwar movements during the 1960s.

Vietnamization - Military strategy launched by Richard Nixon in 1969. The plan reduced the number of American combat troops in Vietnam and left more of the fighting to the South Vietnamese, who were supplied with American armor, tanks, and weaponry.

War Powers Act - Law passed by Congress limiting the president’s ability to wage war without congressional approval. The act required the president to notify Congress within forty-eight hours of committing troops to a foreign conflict. An important consequence of the Vietnam War, this piece of legislation sought to reduce the president’s unilateral authority in military matters.

Griswold v. Connecticut - 1965 Supreme Court case that established a constitutional right to privacy. The case ruled that states cannot prohibit married couples from using contraception.

Miranda v. Arizona - Supreme Court case that established the requirement for police to inform a suspect of their right to remain silent and their right to an attorney before questioning them during police custody, essentially protecting against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment.