APUSH Unit 8

  • From the end of World War II to the 1970s

  • America's rise as a superpower

  • Cultural wars

  • After World War II ended, the US and the Soviets had incompatible political views

  • Ideological battle - capitalism vs. communism

  • Truman - CONTAINMENT

  • Truman Doctrine - send money to keep countries from turning to communism.

  • Marshall Plan - pay countries so they don't become impoverished (which leads to communism) and help them rebuild their economies.

  • Berlin Blockade in 1948 - Berlin Airlift, where the US brought in supplies

  • NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization

  • Warsaw Pact - Europe is divided

  • 1949 - Soviets test their first atomic bomb, and China falls to communism under Mao Zedong

  • Leads to the Second Red Scare

  • First Red Scare -

  • McCarthy - The Senate is infiltrated with communism

  • He was found to be crazy, with no evidence

  • Era of confomanity- dynamic conservatism

  • GI bill and defensive spending 

  • Created a massive middle class

  • Exposure of the middle class and consumerism

  • THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

  • Brown v. Board of Education overturned the separate but equal doctrine from plessy v fergassun 

  • South resisted- Little Rock 9 

  • The Montgomery bus boycott with Rosa Parks

  • Rise of MLK

  • Election of 1960- Nixon vs JFK- first televised debate 

  • Lyndon B johnson 

  • Compare the New Deal and the Great Society 

    • War on Poverty

    • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    • Voting Rights Act of 1965 

    • Medicare for the elderly 

    • Medicaid for the poor 

  • The Vietnam War

    • Reported attack on US ships in Vietnam 

    • Sent half a million troops 

    • Govenment 

    • Turing point year- 1968 

      • The enemy is winning in Vietnam 

      • MLK is assassinated

      • JFK is assassinated

      • Counterculture is in full swing 

  • The Activism Movements 

    • The women's movement 

      • Betty Friedan's book- The Feminine Mystique 

      • Pushed for the ERA that wasn't passed 

      • Women were passed Roe Vs Wade, which legalized abortions

    • Chicano Movement

      • Caesar chavez 

    • American Indian Movement

    • Gay rights movement

  • Nixon wins in 68

  • De entene 

  • Water gate- break into democratic hq 

    • He stepped down

    • Destroyed trust in government

  • Stagnant economy and inflation 

  • Jimmy carter 

    • Oil crisis 

    • Bad economy

    • Iran hostage crisis

    • Malase speech

      • America was in a funk 

      • Sets the stage for conservatism revolution with Regan in the 80’s as it highlighted the weaknesses of the Carter administration and fostered a sense of disillusionment among the American public, ultimately paving the way for a shift towards right-wing policies.