AP US History Notes: Period 8 (1945-1980)

Love these notes? Try Kaplan's best AP Prep:

• Get the Barron’s AP U.S. History book from Amazon
• Sign up for an AP U.S. History Review Course

Six Things to Know about Period 8:

1. The United States positioned itself as a global leader. The Cold War, an escalating struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, defined this period. Fearing the expansion of communism, the United States got involved in two major military engagements in Korea and Vietnam.
2. Initially, there was major American support for an anti-communist foreign policy. As the war in Vietnam dragged on, however, mass antiwar protests broke out across the United States. Passionate debates over war in southeast Asia, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the power of the executive branch were all central to the politics of this period.
3. Civil rights activists energized a new nationwide movement for racial progress. Martin Luther King Jr. used the strategies of nonviolent protests, direct action, and legal battles. The landmark Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was a significant achievement for civil rights activists, but progress was slow and resistance was high.
4. Spurred by the civil rights movement, other social movements advocated their causes. Debates raged over issues such as sexuality, gender, the environment, and economic equality, and the counterculture of the 1960s emerged.
5. In the 1960s, President Johnson’s Great Society program attempted to use the power of the federal government to eliminate poverty, end racial discrimination, and promote social justice. Fearing a cultural and moral decline, conservatives challenged such actions and sought to limit the role of the federal government.
6. In the 1970s, the public grew increasingly distrustful of the government’s ability to solve problems. This distrust reached a peak with the Watergate scandal, the stalemate in Vietnam, and President Nixon’s resignation from office.

Key Topics-- Period 8 (1945-1980 C.E.)

Remember that the AP US History exam tests you on the depth of your knowledge, not just your ability to recall facts. While we have provided brief definitions here, you will need to know these terms in even more depth for the AP US History exam, including how terms connect to broader historical themes and understandings.

The Origins of the Cold War

• Joseph Stalin: Longtime dictator of the Soviet Union. After Lenin’s 1924 death, Stalin consolidated power and eliminated rivals, ruling with an iron fist until his own death on March 5, 1953. Favored centralization and collectivization. Purged millions through man-made famine, imprisonment in gulags, and executions. After his death, Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s actions and cult of personality, and he undertook steps to reform the Soviet system.
• Iron curtain: A metaphor for the dividing line between the West and the Soviet Union. Coined by Winston Churchill in a March 1946 speech delivered in Fulton, Missouri.

The Truman Administration

• Harry S. Truman: Thirty-third President. Served 1945–1953. Desegregated the U.S. military. Help found the United Nations and pushed for the Marshall Plan. Reformed U.S. foreign policy toward internationalism, with a focus on containment of communism. Oversaw early Cold War conflicts, like the Berlin Airlift and the Korean War. Ordered the use of atomic weapons on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Narrowly won reelection in a 1952 upset.
• George Marshall: Former Army Chief of Staff (1939–1945). Secretary of State (1947–1949) and Secretary of Defense (1950–1951) under Truman. A five-star general, he is credited with the Marshall Plan, a foreign aid package that helped Western Europe rebuild after World War II.
• Marshall Plan: A program proposed by George Marshall in 1947. Supplied $13 billion to Western Europe, enabling its postwar economic boom and ending the threat of mass starvation.
• Berlin Airlift: A major crisis in the early Cold War. From June 1948 to May 1949, the Soviet Union blockaded the West’s land access to Berlin. President Truman responded by airlifting in supplies around the clock, putting the onus for starting WWIII on the Soviets.
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): A military alliance formed by the Western Allies of World War II to deter Soviet aggression. It guarantees collective defense under the rule that an attack on one member is an attack on all members.
• Warsaw Pact: A collective defense arrangement similar to NATO, to protect the Eastern bloc from Western aggression. It also served to solidify Soviet control over Eastern Europe. Dissolved in 1991.
• National Security Act: A landmark 1947 act that restructured the U.S. government’s military and national security agencies. Established the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, and an independent U.S. Air Force.
• Department of Defense: Formerly known as the War Department, it was reorganized by the National Security Act of 1947 into the DoD. A cabinet-level office. Military officers are forbidden from serving as the Secretary of Defense until seven years after their retirement, barring a waiver from Congress, in order to ensure civilian control over the military.
• National Security Council: It coordinates national security and foreign policy among multiple agencies and departments. It also advises the President. Its membership includes the Secretaries of Defense, Energy, and State; the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and other advisors.
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA): The CIA is a foreign intelligence service founded in 1947. It is the successor of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In the mid 1970s, the Church Committee investigated the CIA for a string of abuses; as a result, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was formed to oversee the CIA.

Cold War Policy in Asia

• Mao Tse-Tung: Chinese communist revolutionary. Founding father of the People’s Republic of China, which he ruled until his death in 1976. Defeated the Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War. His rapid industrialization program, the Great Leap Forward, killed millions from famine. From 1966 to 1976, the Cultural Revolution, which sought to reimpose Maoist ideology on China and purge dissident thought, killed between five and ten million people, causing major social disruption in the process. Achieved détente with Nixon following the Sino-Soviet split.
• Korean War: Nicknamed “the Forgotten War.” De facto ran from June 1950 to July 1953, but the lack of a formal peace treaty means it is still technically ongoing. Principally a war fought between North and South Korea, with the North backed by the People’s Republic of China and the South backed by a U.N. coalition. Despite wild swings in fortune by both sides throughout the war, it ultimately ended in a stalemate. Borders were fixed at the prewar status quo.
• Douglas MacArthur: An American five-star general. He played a major role in the Pacific front of World War II. Oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. Led the United Nation forces in the Korean War, most famously at the Inchon Landing. Removed from command by President Truman for insubordination.

The Second Red Scare

• Second Red Scare: Lasted from 1947 to 1956. A period of social anxiety and paranoia concerned with communist infiltration throughout society. Driven by events such as the Rosenbergs’ trial, the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, and the victory of Mao’s Communists in the Chinese Civil War. See: House Un-American Activities Committee, McCarthyism, Smith Act.
• House Un-American Activities Committee: A House committee founded in 1938 to root out alleged subversives. Associated with the Hollywood blacklist of the Second Red Scare, as well as Alger Hiss. Disbanded in 1975; its duties are handled by the House Judiciary Committee.
• Richard M. Nixon: Thirty-seventh President. Served 1969–1974. Vice President under Eisenhower. A noted anticommunist, he narrowly lost the 1960 election to JFK. Domestically, Nixon accepted the Great Society programs. Internationally, he pursued a policy of détente and realpolitik, most famously establishing relations with the People’s Republic of China in order to counterbalance the Soviet Union. He also escalated the Vietnam War, secretly bombed Cambodia, and sponsored a coup in Chile. Only U.S. president to resign, doing so over the Watergate scandal.
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg: A couple executed for espionage. Their 1951 trial was a press spectacle. Declassified Soviet archives later proved the couple had, in fact, been spies.
• Joseph McCarthy: Senator from Wisconsin (1947–1957). The face of the Second Red Scare, his baseless accusations and dramatic flare attracted major media attention. After the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings exposed him doctoring evidence, public opinion swung against him. The Senate censured him. Died in 1957, age 48, from hepatitis exacerbated by alcoholism.

The Eisenhower Administration

• Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower: Thirty-fourth President. Served 1953–1961. A former five-star general, Ike acted as Supreme Commander of the Western Allies in Europe. He oversaw the invasion of North Africa and the Normandy landings. A moderate conservative, Ike preserved the New Deal programs and established NASA. His signature achievement is the Interstate Highway System. In terms of foreign policy, he ended the Korean War, began American involvement in Vietnam, and directed the overthrow of democratic governments in Iran and Guatemala.
• Brinksmanship: The practice of achieving a goal by escalating events to one step shy of open conflict in order to force a rival party to knuckle under for fear of catastrophe. A common tactic in the Cold War period. Contrast with détente.
• Massive retaliation: A defense strategy pursued by President Eisenhower for budgetary reasons, due to the financial burden of maintaining conventional forces alongside nuclear arms. Rather than fight a conventional war, the U.S. pledged to use nuclear weapons against any nation that attacked it. Criticized as too aggressive. Abandoned by the Kennedy administration for the policy of flexible response, which resumed investment in conventional forces.
• Suez Canal: A waterway linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas. A vital economic and military choke point. The British Empire gained control of it in 1882. Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized it in 1956. In retaliation, Britain, France, and Israel invaded. However, Eisenhower did not support them, so the alliance was forced to return the canal to Egypt.
• Nikita Khrushchev: Leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964. Domestically, his tenure was marked by an easing of Stalin era political and cultural restrictions. Internationally, his efforts at warming relations with the West often ran afoul of his own flare for drama and a tendency to gamble on long odds. Following his loss of face in the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was removed by conservative elements in the Kremlin and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev.
• U-2 Incident: A May 1960 incident where the Soviet Union shot down a U.S. U-2 spy plane and captured its pilot alive. Resulted in Eisenhower’s public humiliation, ending a tentative thaw between the two superpowers that had been underway.
• Fidel Castro: Cuban revolutionary and First Secretary of Cuba from 1961–2011. He overthrew the Batista regime in 1959 and established a communist state in Cuba. Famously survived hundreds of assassination attempts by the CIA. Died in 2016 at age 90. See: Bay of Pigs.

U.S. Attitudes in the Cold War

• National Highway Act: Passed in 1956. Established the Interstate Highway System. Advocated by President Eisenhower due to his experiences in the 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy and with the German autobahn.
• Sputnik: The first manmade satellite. Launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Sparked the Space Race, as well as a massive investment in the American education system. See: NASA.
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): A federal agency under the Executive Branch that handles the civilian space program. Founded in 1958. See: Sputnik.
• Cold War: A geopolitical struggle between rival blocs led by the United States and the Soviet Union. Lasted from 1946 to 1991. While it primarily featured an ongoing arms race and proxy wars, direct nuclear conflict between the two blocs almost occurred on several occasions.
• Military-industrial complex: A term coined by President Eisenhower in his farewell address. It refers to the vested interest the American military and arms industry have in influencing public policy, especially as it relates to defense spending and military conflicts. In the original draft of his speech, Eisenhower referred to it as the “military–industrial–congressional complex” but dropped the third term for fear of offending his political contemporaries.

The Kennedy Administration

• John F. Kennedy: Thirty-fifth President. Served 1961–1963. First Roman Catholic president. Narrowly elected over Richard Nixon, his term in office was dominated by the rising civil rights movement, such as the Freedom Riders, and escalating Cold War tensions. The early months of his presidency were dominated by the Bay of the Pigs and the building of the Berlin Wall. In October 1962, he dealt with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald.
• Berlin Wall: A militarized concrete barrier separating East and West Berlin. Existed from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the Soviets to halt a brain drain of East Germans. Its fall heralded German reunification and the twilight of the Cold War.
• Cuban Missile Crisis: A confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the placement of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Occurred October 16–28, 1962. Considered one of the Cold War’s tensest events. Resolved diplomatically, it bolstered President Kennedy’s then-shaky reputation but led to the overthrow of Nikita Khrushchev.
• Leonid Brezhnev: Ruler of the Soviet Union, 1964–1982. He favored consensus and rule by committee. Brezhnev reversed the cultural liberalization of the Khrushchev era. Crucially, he attempted no reforms of the Soviet economy. His 18 years in power saw the Soviet Union undergo economic stagnation and national decline. Internationally, he favored détente. He ordered the invasion of Afghanistan to support its communist government.

The Vietnam War

• Geneva Convention: A series of international treaties and protocols negotiated in the aftermath of World War II which established humanitarian standards for wartime, updating protocols originally agreed to in 1929. Contested in the 2000s with the rise of non-state actors.
• Ho Chi Minh: Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader. Stepped down from office in 1965 due to health problems. Died in 1969. After the fall of Saigon, it was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
• Domino theory: The idea that political revolutions in one country will cause similar revolutions in neighboring countries, akin to only one domino being necessary to topple over a whole chain of dominos. Typically associated with the spread of communism, although a variant associated with spreading democracy gained currency during the 2003 Iraq War.
• Lyndon B. Johnson: Thirty-sixth President. Senate Majority Leader 1955–1961. Vice President 1961–1963. Assumed the presidency upon the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Oversaw the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, as well as a series of landmark domestic legislation known as the Great Society. Escalated the Vietnam War. Declined to run for reelection in 1968. A domestic policy maestro but a foreign policy.
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: An August 1964 Congressional resolution authorizing the president to wage war in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war.
• Vietnam War: Also called the Second Indochina War. Direct American involvement in Vietnam began in 1955 and ended on April 30, 1975, with the Fall of Saigon. The war polarized American society. It killed more than 58,000 Americans and over 2 million Vietnamese. See: domino theory, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Tet Offensive, War Powers Act.
• Operation Rolling Thunder: A bombing campaign conducted by the U.S. Air Force against North Vietnam. Run from March 1965 to November 1968, and dropped more bombs on North Vietnam than had been used by the United States throughout World War II. Failed to achieve its aims.
• Viet Cong: Also known as ‘V-C’ or ‘Charlie.’ The Viet Cong were the military wing of the National Liberation Front, a communist nationalist group in South Vietnam.
• Ho Chi Minh Trail: U.S. name for a logistical network that connected North and South Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia. Supported the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army.
• Tet Offensive: A surprise January 1968 offensive by the Viet Cong. While U.S. and South Vietnamese forces prevailed, it permanently undermined American public opinion in the war. Contributed to Johnson’s decision to not run for reelection in 1968.
• Hard Hat Riot: A spontaneous counter-protest in New York City in 1970. About 200 construction workers attacked 1,000 students protesting the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings. Embodied a growing social backlash to the 1960s youth culture.
• Pentagon Papers: Secret documents regarding the Vietnam War leaked to The New York Times by analyst Daniel Ellsberg. They revealed that Congress had been lied to for many years about the war, and that the United States had acted contrary to its publicly stated goals.
• Henry Kissinger: National Security Advisor 1969–1975. Secretary of State 1973–1977. A foreign policy advisor for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Advocated détenteand realpolitik, or international relations, based on self-interest rather than ideology or morality.
• War Powers Act: Passed by Congress after learning of Nixon’s secret bombings of Cambodia, it severely limited the president’s ability to wage war without Congressional approval. However, despite violations over the years, Congress has never taken legal action over the issue, and executive authority to wage war has grown substantially since 2001.

The Civil Rights Movement

• Earl Warren: Fourteenth Chief Justice. Served 1953–1969. Threw his support behind Eisenhower at the 1952 GOP convention in exchange for the first open Supreme Court seat. The Warren Court is noted for its liberal rulings, which include outlawing segregation in education, ending school prayer, establishing “one man-one vote” apportionment for election districts, and creating the Miranda warning. Warren was replaced in 1969 by Warren Burger. See: Warren Commission.
• Thurgood Marshall: The first African-American Justice of the Supreme Court. Appointed by Lyndon Johnson in 1967, he was regarded as a liberal judicial activist, favoring rulings that protected individual rights. Retired in 1991 and was replaced by Clarence Thomas.
• Brown v. Board of Education: A landmark Supreme Court case that held segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson in the context of education.
• Little Rock Nine: A group of nine African American students who had gained entry into the previously segregated public high school of Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.
• Rosa Parks: Activist in the Civil Rights Movement. Famous for refusing to give up her seat to a white person in defiance of segregation; her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• Jim Crow laws: Laws that enforced segregation, primarily but not exclusively in the South. The name references a famous nineteenth century blackface act called Jump Jim Crow.
• Martin Luther King Jr.: Noted leader in the Civil Rights Movement. A Baptist minister, he advocated for non-violent resistance to racism. Leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Winner of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Initially allied with President Johnson, he fell out with him over Vietnam. Assassinated in April 1963 in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Movement Expands

• Freedom Riders: A 1961 effort by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register African-American voters throughout the South. The violent backlash the activists encountered forced President Kennedy to take a stronger public stance on civil rights.
• Letter from Birmingham Jail: An open letter written by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, defending the strategy of nonviolent resistance.
• “I Have a Dream” speech: Often considered the greatest American speech of the twentieth century, it was given by Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial.
• Civil Rights Act of 1964: A landmark civil rights law that outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, nationality, religion, and sex. It prohibited racial segregation.
• Voting Rights Act of 1965: Made literacy tests illegal and prohibited states from denying any U.S. citizen the right to vote on the basis of race. The Selma to Montgomery marches contributed to its passage.
• Malcolm X: Born Malcolm Little, he converted to Islam and took the name Malcolm X. Initially associated with the Nation of Islam, he broke with it in 1964. Assassinated in 1965 by three members of the Nation of Islam. Best remembered for his emphasis on black self-determination and self-defense.
• “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech: A 1964 speech given by Malcolm X. It stated that whites must either allow African Americans freedom at the ballot box or face an armed revolution later.
• Black Panthers: A socialist, black nationalist organization founded in 1966. Famous for their uniforms and for openly carrying firearms. They organized a social safety net for impoverished African-Americans in Oakland. Succumbed to ideological schisms, government harassment, as well as the arrests and deaths of their major leaders by the mid-1970s.
• Kerner Commission: A commission established by President Johnson to study the 1967 race riots. Concluded the riots had been caused by frustration among African-Americans due to lack of economic opportunity. Their report was ignored by Johnson.

The “Affluent Society”

• Beatniks: A counterculture movement in the 1950s and early 1960s emphasizing art, philosophy, and social criticism. Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were notable members.
• Port Huron Statement: A 1962 political manifesto by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); called for an expansion of democratic participation. Noted as the start of the New Left, a liberal movement concerned with civil rights, gender roles, and other issues of identity rather than the “Old Left” Marxist focus on class struggle.
• Free Speech Movement: A large-scale student protest that took place during the 1964–1965 academic year at the University of California, Berkeley. The students demanded that the administration acknowledge the students’ free speech rights. Backlash to the Free Speech Movement aided in Ronald Reagan’s victory in the 1966 California gubernatorial election.
• Woodstock: A three-day concert in rural New York during 1969. Typified 1960s youth culture.
• National Organization for Women: Founded in 1966, NOW is an American feminist advocacy group. Among its co-founders was Betty Friedan. Supported the Equal Rights Amendment.
• Equal Rights Amendment: Also known as the ERA. A proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have guaranteed equal rights regardless of sex. By 1977, it had been ratified by 35 of the 38 states necessary, but faced a backlash from the growing conservative movement. It failed to be ratified by a sufficient number of states by its 1982 deadline.

Changing Ideologies between Kennedy and Johnson

• New Frontier: A slate of liberal policy proposals by John F. Kennedy. Few were adopted in his lifetime due to obstructionism by Republicans and conservative Democrats. Reworked and expanded under President Johnson into the Great Society.
• Warren Commission: A special commission appointed by Lyndon Johnson to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy. Headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, it concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone.
• Great Society: A series of domestic programs proposed by Lyndon Johnson, expanding on Kennedy’s stalled New Frontier proposals. Aimed to expand civil rights and eliminate poverty. See: Medicare, Medicaid, and the Immigration Act of 1965.
• Medicare: A federal health insurance for Americans 65 or older, along with some younger people with disabilities. See: Great Society.
• Medicaid: A social safety net program that provides healthcare for low-income Americans. See: Great Society.
• Immigration Act of 1965: Repealed the discriminatory practices of the Quota Acts of the 1920s and allowed millions of previously excluded peoples to immigrate to the United States.
• Office of Equal Opportunity: Oversaw the creation of the Job Corps, a program that provided career training to inner-city and rural citizens. Part of the Great Society.
• Department of Housing and Urban Development: Commonly known as HUD, it is a cabinet-level office created in 1965 as part of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program. Oversees the housing market, with an emphasis on creating and sustaining affordable housing.

The Election of 1968

• American Independent Party: In the 1968 election, the AIP functioned as a pro-segregationist breakaway from the Democratic Party. Its nominees were George Wallace and Curtis LeMay. Wallace aimed to throw the election into the House of Representatives and play kingmaker.

The Nixon Administration

• Drug Enforcement Administration: Created in 1973, the DEA is a federal law enforcement agency operating under the Department of Justice. It enforces the Controlled Substances Act.
• Detente: The act of easing hostility between two or more parties through diplomacy. Advocated during the Cold War by Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Contrast with brinksmanship.
• Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I): The first round of arms control talks. Negotiations took place under the Johnson and Nixon administrations. The treaty was ratified in 1972. See: détente, SALT II.
• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC): An organization of oil-producing states, especially ones in the Middle East. In retaliation for U.S. support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War, OPEC targeted the United States and some of its Western allies for an oil embargo. This led to the 1973 oil crisis. See: Department of Energy.
• Yom Kippur War: A 1973 war between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Syria and Egypt, after the latter attacked Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Richard Nixon supplied Israel with vital military aid. See: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
• Watergate: A political scandal sparked by Nixon operatives burglarizing the Democratic Party National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972. The burglars were arrested, and an ensuing investigation by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein revealed a vast web of crimes and political corruption. With impeachment over the Watergate scandal certain, President Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. See: Gerald Ford.
• Gerald R. Ford: Thirty-ninth President. Served from August 8, 1974 to January 20, 1977. The only person to serve as president not elected as president or vice president. He ended American involvement in Vietnam by allowing the conquest of South Vietnam by the North. Continued the policy of détente. Initially popular, his approval ratings sank after issuing an unconditional pardon of Richard Nixon. Narrowly lost “reelection” to Jimmy Carter.

The Carter Administration

• Jimmy Carter: Thirty-ninth President. Served 1977–1981. The former governor of Georgia, he ran as an outsider in the 1976 presidential election. Served one term. Carter pardoned Vietnam War draft dodgers, established the Departments of Energy and Education, and returned the Panama Canal to Panama. Internationally, he oversaw the Camp David Accords, ended détente in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and was dogged by the Iranian Hostage Crisis.
• Anwar Sadat: Third President of Egypt. Ruled 1970–1981. Alongside Israeli Prime Minister Begin he signed the Camp David Accords, for which both men shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated in 1981 by the group Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
• Menachem Begin: Sixth Prime Minister of Israel. Signed the Camp David Accords with Anwar Sadat in 1979, for which both men won the Nobel Peace Prize. As part of that agreement, he withdrew Israeli forces from the Sinai Peninsula.
• Camp David Accords: A 1979 peace agreement reached between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, following 12 days of secret negotiations at Camp David. Settled several outstanding Israeli-Egyptian disputes. Widely considered Jimmy Carter’s crowning foreign policy achievement.
• Ayatollah Khomeini: Founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its leader from 1979 to 1989. Gained infamy in the United States for supporting the taking of American diplomats as hostages. Dubbed the United States the “Great Satan.” Died in June 1989.
• SALT II: The second round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. Negotiations took place under the Nixon and Ford administrations. In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the final 1979 agreement was not ratified by the Senate. See: détente.
• Department of Education: A cabinet-level office created in 1979 by Jimmy Carter. As the U.S. education system is decentralized, it has historically had little influence over curricula. It mainly collects data, coordinates federal assistance to schools, and helps enforce civil rights laws. See: No Child Left Behind Act.
• Department of Energy: A cabinet-level office created in 1977 by Jimmy Carter largely in response to the 1973 Oil Crisis. Oversees energy-related research and domestic energy production. It also safeguards nuclear material, including nuclear weapons.