AP US History Unit 8 Flashcards

The Second Red Scare

• Occurred after World War II, distinct from the Red Scare of WWI.
• Focused on rooting out Soviet communism within the U.S.

Efforts to Ensure Loyalty

• Labor unions and federal government required loyalty pledges.
• Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
  • Response to labor union strikes.
  • Made striking more difficult.
  • Union leaders had to pledge they weren't Communist Party members.
• Federal Employee Loyalty and Security Program
  • Executive order by Truman in 1947.
  • Federal employees swore they weren't communist or fascist.
  • Allowed investigations into political affiliations.

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

• Formed to find communist influence in American society.
• Targeted Hollywood due to fear of communist messaging in films.
• The Hollywood Ten
  • 10 prominent Hollywood directors singled out as communists.
  • Refused to testify before Congress.
  • Held in contempt of Congress, received prison sentences.
  • Blacklisted, making it impossible to find work.

Senator Joseph McCarthy

• Rose to prominence in 1950 by claiming to have a list of 205 known communists in the State Department.
• Later reduced the number to 57 but had already created widespread fear.
• McCarthyism: The term for the Red Scare's exacerbation by McCarthy.
• Senate held meetings to verify McCarthy's claims, which he couldn't prove.
• The Senate censured McCarthy, leading to his decline.

The Rosenberg Case

• The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb on August 29, 1949.
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were accused of espionage, providing stolen plans.
• They were members of the Communist Party and were executed in 1953.
• Subsequent research indicated Julius was a Soviet spy.

Effects of the Red Scare

• Suppressed freedom of labor unions.
• Hollywood directors were blacklisted and lost work.
• Increased Cold War tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Cold War Policies (1945-1980)

• The Cold War was a conflict between the US and the Soviet Union without open warfare.
• It was a battle of ideologies: democratic capitalism vs. Soviet communism.

Causes of the Cold War

• Tensions existed since the Russian Revolution.
• The U.S. saw communism as a threat that needed containment.
• Both ideologies (US democratic capitalism and Soviet communism) were expansionist.
• Disagreements over post-WWII Central and Eastern Europe: Stalin kept Soviet troops in those countries, violating agreements for free elections.
• Division of Germany and Berlin into occupation zones created further distrust.
• Winston Churchill declared that an "iron curtain" had descended across the continent.

US Response to the Soviet Threat

• Containment: Policy to contain the spread of communism.
• Truman Doctrine: Advocated support for countries threatened by Soviet communism.
  • Congress agreed to spend 400,000,000 in aid to Turkey and Greece.
• Marshall Plan: Provided almost 13,000,000,000 in financial aid to rebuild European countries, aiming to prevent them from turning to communism.
• Berlin Blockade: Stalin blocked Western powers' access to West Berlin.
• Berlin Airlift: The US organized over 200,000 flights to supply West Berlin.
• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization): Military alliance to resist Soviet aggression.
• Warsaw Pact: The Soviet response to NATO, forming a counter-alliance with communist nations in Eastern Europe.

Nuclear Proliferation

• Arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
• The US developed the first atomic bomb in 1945.
• The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb in 1949.
• The US developed the hydrogen bomb, tested in 1952.
• The Soviet Union tested its first hydrogen bomb in 1953.
• The concept of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) ensured neither side would use nuclear weapons.

Proxy Wars

• Wars in which the US and the Soviet Union supported different sides without directly fighting each other.
• Korean War: Korea was divided along the 38th Parallel after WWII.
  • North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950.
  • The UN (mainly US troops) supported the South.
  • China intervened, pushing UN troops back.
  • The war ended with Korea divided as it was before the war.
  • The war was a proxy war and a result of Truman's containment policy.

Conservative Backlash (1945-1980)

• Liberal gains, especially the Great Society and the women's liberation movement, made conservatives uneasy.

Roots of the Conservative Backlash

• Vietnam War protests.
• Changes in the traditional family structure.
• Gains made by the civil rights movement.
• Young Americans for Freedom: Conservative college students who supported Barry Goldwater in 1964.
• The New Right: A coalition of conservatives resistant to liberalism, proud of religious values, populist, and anti-egalitarian.
• John Birch Society: Conservatives who opposed communism and advocated for limited government but promoted right-wing conspiracy theories.
• William F. Buckley: Moderate conservatism represented by his magazine, The National Review.

The Religious Right

• Conservative Christians organized to oppose liberal trends.
• Roe v. Wade (1973): Legalized abortion and became a major rallying point.
• Moral Majority: Founded by Jerry Falwell in 1979, blending Christianity with conservative politics.
• Focus on the Family: James Dobson's radio program advocated for prayer in schools and against gay rights.

National Events

• Economic turmoil, including an oil crisis and stagflation (high inflation and economic stagnation).
• President Nixon tried to cut federal spending, but it worsened the recession.
• Watergate scandal: Nixon's reelection committee broke into the Democratic party headquarters, leading to Nixon's resignation and a further loss of faith in the government.

Clashes Between Conservatives and Liberals

• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA): Aimed to ensure women's equality but was never ratified due to conservative opposition led by Phyllis Schlafly.
• Affirmative action: Programs to address past discrimination by considering race in hiring and college admissions, leading to white resentment.
• Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978): The Supreme Court ruled that minority quotas were unconstitutional but didn't rule out race as a factor in admissions.

Environmental Policy (1968-1980)

• Policies related to the environment developed and changed from 1968 to 1980.

Natural Resources Outside the United States

• Oil was the primary natural resource.
• Tension existed between the US and Middle Eastern oil-producing nations.
• OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries): Formed by Arab nations to control oil prices.
• 1973 Oil Crisis: OPEC reduced oil exports to America and raised prices.
• The US began to consider alternative energy sources.

Nuclear Energy

• Considered as an option due to the abundance and low cost of uranium, plus no greenhouse gases produced.
• Concerns regarding nuclear safety rose due to Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979.
  • One of the nuclear reactors partially melted down, releasing radioactive waste into the environment.
• A national policy on energy, especially with respect to nuclear energy, did not gain much of a foothold.

Environmental Movement

• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in 1962 raised awareness about the environment.
• First Earth Day celebrated in 1970.

Policy

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Created by President Nixon in 1970 to manage pollution control programs.
• Clean Air Act: Passed in 1963 to control air pollution on a national scale.

Youth Culture in the 1960s

• Opposition to existing policies and values developed and changed over the course of the 20th century, largely from young people.

Youth Conflict and the Vietnam War

• Young Americans for Freedom: Supported America's involvement in Vietnam to contain communism.
• Students for a Democratic Society: Challenged the norm of stopping global communism, stressed participatory democracy, and direct government action.
• Students protested against the war; many would be drafted.
• Kent State Massacre (1970): National Guard sent to quell protests; guardsmen opened fire, killing 4 students and wounding 10 others.

Counterculture Movement

• Sought to cast off societal restraint and overturn cultural norms with rebellious clothing and experimental drug use.
• Hippies: Dressed in ways foreign to traditional American culture, gathered in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury District.
• Practiced communal living, drug use (marijuana, LSD), and free love.
• Sexual Revolution: Increased casual sex with multiple partners instead of reserving it for marriage and monogamy.
• Valued informality in appearance and music (e.g., Bob Dylan).
• Woodstock Music Festival (1969): Almost 400,000 attendees listened to music from cultural rebels.
• Movement fizzled by the 1970s due to excesses.

Expansion of Civil Rights (1960-1980)

• Various groups responded to calls for the expansion of civil rights from 1960 to 1980.

Women's Movement

• Working toward equality since the beginning of the republic, including the Seneca Falls Convention and women's suffrage.
• The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan (1963) shattered the vision of a woman's life confined to the home.
• National Organization for Women (NOW): Founded in 1966 to advocate for women's rights.
• Ms. Magazine: Created by Gloria Steinem.
• Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972: Banned discrimination based on gender in education.
• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA): Fell short of ratification due to conservative opposition led by Phyllis Schlafly.
• Schlafly's STOP ERA campaign: argued that the ERA would take away certain privileges that women enjoyed.
• Sexual Revolution: Changes in America's attitudes toward sexuality and sexual expression.
• Roe v. Wade (1973): The Supreme Court declared that states could not prohibit women from having abortions in the first two trimesters based on the right to privacy.

Latino Movement

• Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta created the United Farm Workers in 1962. A nationwide boycott of grapes to pressure farm owners to increase their pay led to increased wages by 1970.

American Indian Movement

• Founded the American Indian Movement in 1968 to reclaim heritage and tribal traditions, achieve self-determination, and address systemic poverty.
• The occupation of Alcatraz Island became a symbolic cornerstone for activism, leading to the Self-Determination Act of 1975.

Gay Liberation Movement

• The 1969 raid on the Stonewall Inn led to spontaneous resistance against the enforcement of anti-gay laws and organized protests.
• In the 1970s, homosexuality was officially changed from being a mental illness to a legitimate sexual orientation.

Civil Rights Movement (1960-1968)

• Explaining how and why various groups responded to calls for expansion of civil from 1960 to 1980 and the federal government's response.

Civil Rights Movement

• The movement sought to claim promised rights.
• Montgomery bus boycott (1955): sparkd by Rosa Park's refused to give up her seat to a White customer
• *led to a city-wide bus boycott for about a year
• *Martin Luther King Junior emerged- preached nonviolent movement
• Sit-in movement younger activitists took part in lunch counter where White customers sat - and demanded to be served
• Civil Rights activists gathered a peaceful protests in Montgomery, AL - police and Bull Connor responded with force
  • Footage of the police using brutality became sympathetic to the Civil Rights group
• March on Washington (1963): 200,000 gathering protesting civil rights
  • King delivered his I have a dream speech
• Malcolm X advocated separatism and militarism. He believed that the only way to equality was to counter white violence with black violence.
• Black militant groups like the Black Panthers, formed to secure black rights through violence.

Government Response

• Civil Rights Act of 1964: Made discrimination based on race, religion, or sex illegal
• Voting Rights Act of 1975: Prevent racial voter discrimination
• Loving versus Virginia (1967) declared interracial marriage legal.
  • Martin Luther King Junior was assasinated in Tennessee

Great Society and Liberalism (1960s)

• Consider this time a high point in American liberalism
• Lyndon Johnson's Great Society

Great Society

• Johnson sought to abolish poverty by creating a series of programs that mirrored the limited welfare state created by the New Deal
• Johnson was able to enact programs because of the largely Democrat majority in Congress
• *Created the Office of Economic Opportunity to help self help programs and give impoverish an opportunity
• Johnson continued to expand the policies of the Great Society
  • Medicare was introduces
  • New opportunities for immigrants were made possible

Warren Court

*Warren court handed down some major decisions from 1935 to 1969.
*Gideon versus Wainwright in 1963, stated that if a peson is impoverished , tthe state must provide a state atterony for them.
*The Courtruled that the laws that forbade the use of birth control are unconstitutional

• Ingle v. Vittal in 1962 Public school teachers began class by reciting with their students what was called the Regent's Prayer which was state mandated.ut the Warren Court deemed this unconstitutional on account of it violated the First Amendment's provision for the separation of church and state.
• Baker versus Carr in 1962. This case had to do with the redrawing of legislative district lines and states.

America as a World Power During the Cold War

• Military and diplomatic responses to international developments during the Cold War.

Decolonization

• The end of European empires created opportunities for the US and the Soviet Union to spread their influence.

Latin America

• Guatemala (1954): The US led a coup to overthrow Jacobo Arbenz, a socialist leader, due to his nationalization of land owned by the United Fruit Company. Enter the CIA who trained a force of Guatemalan insurgents who overthrew Arbenz and installed a military dictatorship instead
• Cuba: Fidel Castro overthrew the US-friendly government in 1959 and established a communist regime. green lighted a campaign for tThe United States to train and arm a group of Cuban exiles who were hostile to the Castro regime in order to overthrow the Castro regime Greenlit by President Esenhower
  • This operation was the Bay of Pigs invasion, which backfired, and Soviet style launchers found in cuba
• Cuban Missile Crises US intelligence agencies discovered the soviet styles launches were stockpiled in cuba
• The United States responded, and the Soviet Union stood down, averting a potential nuclear war

Middle East

• Iran (1953): The CIA overthrew the democratically elected prime minister to restore Shah Mohammad Reza Pallavi to power.
  Shah (pro with the West) and The Iranian Prime Minister sought to nationalize Iran's oil industry- western nations were becoming really dependabt on Oil.

Asia

• During the French colony of Indochina (Vietnam) US had to step in in to become invovled with this area
• *Indochina was finaay dcolonised after the French and Japenses fought.
• The region was divided along the 17TH parallel until an election can be held
  *Eisenhower doled out a billion dollar aid to the South Vietnam people in effort to stabilize

The Military industrial complex

• Military is used in this capacity to the US had the power and potential to make changes based on the Industrial capacity.
  Eisenhower was warning an growing relationship between the Military and a Industirl capacity- which ha dbeeen producing during the Cold WAR
  .The danger was policy change would be based on interevntios based on the interest of the weapon makers.

Civil Rights Movement - 1940s and 1950s

• Considering some of the foundations of the civil rights movement in the 1940s and 1950s

The Development and Expansion of Civil Rights

• During the 1940s and 1950s, civil rights activists sought to put pressure on the American government to make good on those promises.
• For example, President Truman, who had been an early supporter of civil rights, issued Executive Order nine ninety eight-one which banned segregation in the United States Armed Forces.
  • Truman didn't get the idea desegregated armed forces, that recommendations actually came out of the Committee on Civil Rights created by Truman in 1946-to Task was to examine the conditions of in America and to give recommendations.
  • Committee suggested that The armed forces desegregation was suggested
    Abolishment of poll taxes a
    The encouragement of protection from lynching
    By 1962, Congress proposed the twenty fourth amendment which abolished the poll tax
    *How about we check-in with the Supreme Cour
• Brown v. Board of Education = The cases that were about segregation in the case has to do with racial segregation cases where they were turned down
  Winded up on the Suprme Court, Court overturned Plessey versus Ferguson = Separate educational facilities are inherent unqual
  The Court ordered segregation to be removed
  Southern states resisted integration and closed schools to avoid integration

Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus called in the state’s National Guard to prevent black students from entering Little Rock High School. The students became known as Little Rock Nine and Eisenhower sent the federal troops to protect the students as they entered the school
Made only small gains into teh nest decade!

American Culture After 1945

*Explaining how mass culture was maintained and challenged during the specified period.

The maintenance and challenged of Mass culture

*Mass culture, a widespread homogenous set of ideas and patterns of behavior subscribed by many Americnas.

Pressure to confront culturally came from MCcarthy
Nearly 90% of American households had a television which spread and provided a platform for consumption of and supported programs, sitcoms, soap operas, and variety shows.
*The adverting industry appealed to people's emotional needs- and to buy more!
*Credit cards = buying more and paying over time
Amass music trend- ROCK spread to the younger generation.

The Beat niks challenge the conformity in this time!
Jack Kourock and JD Salinger made waves with there ability to rail against the conformint!

Economy (Post WWII) and Patterns of Migration

• Explaining the causes of economic growth in the years after World War II, and explaining the causes and effects of the migration of various groups of Americans after 1945.

The Post-WWII Economic boom (1950)

• Increased productivity.
• Massive federal spending on infrastructure, e.g., the interstate highway system.

GI Bill

• To the veterans of WWII Give opportunity to attend college-
• give them a big daddy government. take out low interest loans to purchase houses start businesses
  Americans were making babies like mad - and an increases construction- mass production of subuurbs. With all these new families growing, that led to an increased demand for housing and most of that construction occurred in the form of suburbs.
  Levittown -Suburban community conceived by William Levtt.
  Purchasing tracts of land right outside of major areas
  Made traveling between surbubs and urban areas easier!