US History Notes

Gold vs. Silver

Gold Standard: Backing dollars with gold.
Two factions: Silverites and gold bugs.
Silverites: Favored bimetallism, a monetary system where the government exchanges paper currency or checks for gold or silver.
Gold bugs: Favored the gold standard.
Business owners and bankers of the industrialized northeast were Republicans.
Farmers and laborers of the agrarian South and West were Democrats.
Backing of currency was a key campaign issue due to concerns about the value of paper money.
Bimetallism would increase the amount of currency available, but with less value per dollar.
Supporters of bimetallism believed it would stimulate the stagnant economy.
The gold standard would provide a more stable but expensive currency.

Populist Platform (Late 1800s)

Alliance movement leaders aimed to build a base of political power.
Populism: The movement of the people.
A Populist Party convention in Omaha, Nebraska, called for reforms to alleviate farmers' debt and give people a greater voice in government.
Demanded bank regulation, a graduated income tax, and a federal loan program.
Called for government ownership and regulation of railroad and telegraph companies.
Proposed governmental reforms, including the election of senators by popular vote, single terms for the president and vice president, and a secret ballot to end voter fraud.
Advocated for an 8-hour workday and restrictions on immigration.
Called for bimetallism and free coinage of silver.
Bryan's difficult campaign led to the collapse of the Populist Party.
Business owners and bankers of the industrialized northeast were Republicans.
Farmers and laborers of the agrarian South and West were Democrats.

1896 Campaign/Election

Republican Party: Gold standard, nominated William McKinley (Ohioan).
Democratic Party: Combined gold and silver standard, nominated William Jennings Bryan (former Nebraska congressman, editor of the "Omaha World-Herald").
Bryan delivered the "Cross of Gold" speech.
The Populist Party liked Bryan and the Democratic platform but disliked the VP candidate (Maine banker Arthur Sewall).
They endorsed their own candidate, Thomas Watson of Georgia, for VP.

Foundations of American Industry

Americans began using kerosene to light lamps after Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner discovered how to distill it from oil or coal.
Edwin L. Drake successfully used a steam engine to drill for oil near Titusville, Pennsylvania, starting an oil boom.
Gas, a byproduct of the refining process, became important after the automobile became popular.
Iron is a dense metal but is soft and tends to break and rust; usually contains carbon.
Removing the carbon produces a lighter, more flexible, rust-resistant metal: steel.
The Bessemer process was developed by British Henry Bessemer and American ironmaker William Kelly.
The process involved injecting air into molten iron to remove the carbon.
Was eventually replaced by the open-hearth process.
Cyrus McCormick and John Deere used steel to create mechanical farming equipment such as reapers and plows.
Made farming more efficient, but less labor was needed.
People had to move to cities for work.
Steel made innovative construction possible, e.g., Brooklyn Bridge.
William Le Baron Jenney designed the first skyscraper with a steel frame.
Thomas Alva Edison made the first research laboratory in New Jersey.
There Edison and his associates worked to perfect the light bulb.
Lewis H. Latimer, an African American inventor, invented the carbon filament.
George Westinghouse added innovations that made electricity safer and less expensive.
Christopher Sholes invented the typewriter.
Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson made the telephone.
The typewriter and telephone created new jobs for women.
Jan Ernst Matzeliger designed a machine that could attach the upper part of shoes to the soles.

Social Darwinism in the Industrial Era

Economists, philosophers, and business leaders embraced the philosophy of social Darwinism to explain why some people prospered while others did not.
This philosophy adapted the ideas of Charles Darwin.
Darwin studied plants and concluded that members of a species compete for survival.
Those best adapted to their environment thrive and pass their traits to the next generation.
Less-suited members die out.
Herbert Spencer used Darwin's biological theories to explain the evolution of human society.
Economists found a way to justify the doctrine of laissez-faire in social Darwinism.
Stronger people, businesses, and nations would prosper, weaker ones would fail.
According to social Darwinists, the market should not be regulated because no one had the right to interfere with this process.
Riches were a sign of God's favor.
Therefore, the poor must be lazy or inferior people who deserved their lot in life.
Many Americans admired Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, and other "Captains of Industry."
They credited these entrepreneurs with using their business skills to make the American economy more productive and in turn stronger.
They felt they had a duty to put their fortunes toward the public good.
They supported philanthropy.
Built libraries, funded colleges.
These institutions provided opportunities for the fittest to succeed regardless of their finances.
Carnegie explained his philosophy in "The Gospel of Wealth."
Rockefeller gave away over $500$ million, establishing the Rockefeller Foundation.
Provided funds to found the University of Chicago and find a cure for yellow fever.
Some Americans viewed industrialists as robber barons.
They believed they were taking advantage of workers and consumers.
Mark Twain described the excesses of the 19th century in a satirical novel, The Gilded Age, a collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner.
It represents the period of the 1870s to the 1890s.
Twain mocks the greed and self-indulgence of his characters, including Philip Sterling.

Political Machines

An organized group that controlled the activities of a political party in a city.
Offered services to voters and businesses in exchange for political or financial support.
Machine organized like a pyramid.
Base: local precinct workers and captains who reported to a ward boss.
At election time, the ward boss worked to secure the vote in all the precincts in the ward or electoral district.
Ward bosses helped the poor and gained their votes by doing favors or providing services.
At the top of the pyramid was the city boss.
They controlled the activities of the political party throughout the city.
Precinct captains, ward bosses, and the city boss worked together to elect their candidates and guarantee the success of the machine.
The political boss controlled access to municipal jobs and business licenses.
Many precinct captains and political bosses were first-generation or second-generation immigrants.
They entered politics early and worked their way up.
Machines such as New York City's powerful Democratic political machine Tammany Hall helped immigrants with naturalization.
Also helped immigrants find housing and jobs, the newcomers' most important needs.
In return, the immigrants provided the votes the political bosses needed.
Some political machines turned to fraud.
Party members used fake names to cast as many votes as were needed to win.
Graft: The illegal use of political influence for personal gain.
William M. Tweed, known as Boss Tweed, became head of Tammany Hall.
He led the Tweed Ring.
One scheme, the construction of the New York County Courthouse, involved extravagant graft.
The project cost taxpayers $13$ million, but the actual construction cost was $3$ million, and the difference went to Tweed and his followers.

Social Gospel Movement

Preached salvation through service to the poor.
One of the founders of the movement was a Protestant minister, Washington Gladden.
He helped expose the greed and corruption caused by industrialization.
He also focused public attention on the living and working conditions of the poor.
Members of the movement believed churches had a moral duty to help solve society’s problems.
Also believed that religious faith should be expressed through good works.

Settlement Houses

Community centers in slum neighborhoods that provided assistance to people in the area, especially immigrants.
Settlement houses in the U.S. were founded by Charles Stover and Stanton Coin.
Jane Addams, one of the most influential members of the movement, and Ellen Gates Starr founded Chicago's Hull House.
Janie Porter Barrett established the Locust Street Social Settlement for African Americans.
They provided classes for subjects such as English, health, and painting.
They also sent visiting nurses into the homes of the sick and provided whatever aid.
Reformers hoped these services would help immigrants claim the benefits of living in a democracy and help them increase social mobility.
This refers to the ability of families or individuals to move into a higher social class.

Rapid Urbanization (Late 1800s)

The technological boom in the 19th century resulted in rapid urbanization.
Urbanization: Growth of cities, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest.
Most of the immigrants who streamed into the United States in the late 19th century became city dwellers because cities were the cheapest and most convenient places to live.
Many of the large, established cities—such as New York City and Chicago— got larger.
The Americanization movement was designed to assimilate people of wide-ranging cultures into the dominant culture. This social campaign was sponsored by the government and by concerned citizens.
As industrialization continued to move the U.S. economy away from agriculture and toward manufacturing, many rural people moved to cities to find whatever work they could.
Despite these efforts, many immigrants did not wish to abandon their traditions. Ethnic communities provided the social support of others from the same country. This enabled immigrants to speak their own language and practice their customs and religion.
These movements would bring fresh ideas, such as jazz music, to the world stage. People from America’s rural areas moved to these cities, and they added even more to the cultural mix.

Urban Housing

When the industrial age began, working-class families in cities had two housing options: They could either buy a house on the outskirts of town, where they would face transportation problems, or rent cramped rooms in a boarding house in the central city.
As the urban population increased, however, new types of housing were designed. For example, row houses, single-family dwellings that shared side walls with other similar houses, packed many single-family residences onto a single block.
After working-class families left the central city, immigrants often took over their old housing. Sometimes two or three families occupied a one-family residence. As Jacob Riis pointed out, these multifamily urban dwellings, called tenements, were overcrowded and unsanitary. In some cases, these tenement neighborhoods turned into ghettos. In a ghetto, people of a certain ethnic or racial group live together because of social, political, or economic pressure. In many cities, residents were not only divided along ethnic and racial lines but also along class lines. This social stratification, or organization of people into social classes by wealth, was clearly on display in New York City. The city was home to grand mansions, modest working-class neighborhoods, and sprawling slums.
In 1867, New York City passed the first in a series of laws to improve such slum conditions. These laws set minimum standards for plumbing, safety, and ventilation in apartments. However, landlords found creative ways to get around the new building requirements. The second law, passed in 1879, required a window for each bedroom to provide fresh air. In many buildings, though, this window opened onto a dark, interior air shaft.
Because garbage was picked up infrequently, people sometimes dumped it into the air shafts, where it attracted vermin. Residents nailed the windows shut to keep out the smell. The final law, passed in 1901, included a key element the other two laws did not have. It set up the Tenement House Department to inspect and enforce the laws. Although landlords continued to resist reform, these laws are still in effect today. The new tenements were established with good intent, but they soon became even worse places to live than the converted single-family residences.
Innovations in mass transit, transportation systems designed to move large numbers of people along fixed routes, enabled workers to go to and from jobs more easily.

Urban Infrastructure and Leisure

Streetcars were introduced in San Francisco in 1873 and electric subways in Boston in 1897. By the early 20th century, there were mass-transit networks in many urban areas. They linked city neighborhoods to one another and to outlying communities. Cities tried to meet the transportation demands of their growing populations. They struggled to repair old transit systems and to build new ones.
Cities also faced the problem of supplying safe drinking water. As the urban population grew in the 1840s and 1850s, cities such as New York and Cleveland built public waterworks to handle the increasing demand. As late as the 1860s, however, the residents of many cities had inadequate piped water—or none at all. Even in large cities like New York, homes seldom had indoor plumbing. Residents had to collect water in pails from faucets on the street and heat it for bathing. There was a clear need to improve water quality to control diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever. To make city water safer, filtration was introduced in the 1870s. Chlorination was introduced in 1908. However, many people in cities still had no access to safe water in the early 20th century.
New rules changed baseball into a professional sport. In 1845, Alexander J. Cartwright, an amateur player, organized a club in New York City. He set down regulations using elements of an English sport called rounders. Five years later, $50$ baseball clubs had sprung up in the United States. New York alone had $12$ clubs in the mid- $1860$ s. In 1869, a professional team named the Cincinnati Red Stockings toured the country. Other clubs soon followed. This led to the formation of the National League in 1876 and the American League in 1900. In the first World Series, held in 1903, the Boston Pilgrims beat the Pittsburgh Pirates. African American baseball players were excluded from both leagues because of racial discrimination. They formed their own clubs and two leagues—the Negro National League and the Negro American League. Novelist Mark Twain called baseball “the very symbol . . . and visible expression of the drive and push and rush and struggle of the raging, tear- ing, booming nineteenth century. ” By the 1890s baseball had a published game schedule, official rules, and a standard-sized diamond.

Jim Crow Laws and Plessy v. Ferguson

The Supreme Court ruled that the separation of races in public accommodations was legal; it didn't violate the 14th amendment.
Established the doctrine "separate but equal."
Allowed states to maintain segregated facilities as long as they provided equal service.
During the 1870s and 1880s, southern states passed racial segregation laws.
Separated white and black people in public and private places.
These laws became known as Jim Crow laws.
The first Supreme Court decision to set a precedent for segregation appeared to have nothing to do with race relations.
Three separate cases regarding the meat-packing industry in New Orleans were brought before the court.
Called the Slaughterhouse Cases.
The slaughterhouse owners stated it would be an unlawful monopoly.
Stated it violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Supreme Court said it did not protect business ownership rights.

Progressive Movement

Aimed to restore economic opportunities and correct injustices in American life.
Four goals: protect social welfare, promote moral improvement, create economic reform, foster efficiency.
The Social Gospel and Settlement Movement aimed to help the poor.
The YMCA opened libraries, sponsored classes, and built swimming pools.
The Salvation Army fed poor people in soup kitchens and cared for children in nurseries.
Florence Kelley became an advocate for improving the lives of women and children.
She helped win the passage of the Illinois Factory Act.
The act prohibited child labor and limited women’s working hours.
Prohibition: The banning of alcoholic beverages.
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) spearheaded the crusade for prohibition.
WCTU followed Willard’s “do everything” slogan.
The Anti-Saloon League called itself “the Church in action against the saloon."

Muckrakers and Reforms

Some Americans began to question the capitalist economic system.
Labor leader Eugene V. Debs helped organize the American Socialist Party.
Muckrakers: Journalists who wrote about the corrupt side of business and public life in mass-circulation magazines.
Other muckraker journalists worked to expose dangerous working conditions.
146 workers, mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant girls, died in a 1911 fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in NYC.
By 1910, women’s clubs, at which these women discussed art or literature, grew into reform groups. They addressed issues such as temperance or child labor.

American Imperialism

The policy by which stronger nations extend their economic, political, or military control over weaker territories.
Africa had emerged as a prime target of European expansion.
Only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent.
Also competed for territories in Asia, especially China.
Three factors fueled American imperialism:
- Desire for military strength
- Thirst for new markets
- Belief in cultural superiority
Alfred T. Mahan of the U.S. Navy.

Panama Canal

The building of the Panama Canal reflected America’s new role as a world power. It represented a confident nation’s refusal to let any physical obstacle stand in its way.
Many Americans felt the U.S. needed a canal cutting across Central America.
It would reduce travel time for commercial and military ships by providing a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific.
In the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, Britain gave the U.S. exclusive rights to build and control a canal through Central America.
Before working on the canal, the U.S. had to get permission from Colombia.
The U.S. agreed to pay Panama $10$ million, plus an annual rent of $250,000$ for an area of land across the isthmus of Panama, and could begin construction on the Panama Canal.
Builders fought diseases: yellow fever and malaria.

Wilson's 14 points

Wilson believed in self-determination:
- The right of people to choose their own political status.
- Wanted groups that claimed distinct ethnic identities to be able to form their own nation-states or decide for themselves to what nations they would belong.
League of Nations. Provide a forum for nations to discuss and settle their differences without having to resort to war.

Roaring Twenties & Prohibition

Flappers: Liberated young women.
Embraced fashion and urban attitudes.
Wore boyish bobs dyed jet black.
Became more assertive.
Began smoking cigarettes, drinking in public, and talking openly about sex.
Many middle-class men and women started to view marriage as a more equal partnership.
Housework and child-rearing remained a women’s job.

Truman Doctrine

Britain had been financially supporting Greece and Turkey to stop the spread of communism.
Could no longer support after the war due to the lack of money. asked US to help—> they said yes.
Truman asked Congress for $400$ million in economic and military aid for Greece and Turkey.
Known as the Truman Doctrine. declared that the US would fight outside forces trying to take over their governments.
Congress said yes. It greatly reduced the danger of communist subjugation in those nations.

Berlin Airlift

American and British officials started to fly supplies into West Berlin.
Brought about $2.3$ million tons of supplies: food, fuel, and medicine.
West Berlin survived because of the airlifts. Boosted American prestige around the world. Caused Soviet prestige to drop.
May 1949: Soviet Union lifted blockade.

McCarthyism

McCarthy’s style of attacking suspected Communists in the early 1950s became known as McCarthyism.
Referred to the unfair tactic of accusing people of disloyalty without providing evidence.
When challenged, McCarthy simply launched more accusations. He had legal immunity that protected him from being sued for slander.
Tactics quickly spread beyond the Senate. The fear they inspired also spread. Proof of a Communist Party connection was no longer required.
The FBI and other investigators compiled lists of people who held questionable political views.
Lists included people who had refused to cooperate with their investigations. These investigations spread to other branches of the government, universities, labor unions, and private businesses.
Americans feared that if they did not take action against the listed individuals, they might be labeled “soft on communism. ” As a result, thousands of Americans lost their jobs for political reasons.

Space race & Kennedy

Space Race: Strongly supported NASA and space exploration, accelerating efforts after Soviet achievements. JFK & NASA.
Space Race: Strongly supported NASA and space exploration, accelerating efforts after Soviet achievements.
Built new launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, FL, and a mission control center in Houston, TX.
Involved in the Space Race.

Space Race & Cuban concerns

The first flight to the moon was witnessed at Kennedy's Space Center in FL.
Neil Armstrong was the first on the moon.
Universities expanded their science programs.
Federal funding for research and development gave rise to new industries and technologies.
Space and defense-related industries sprang up.
Castro's powerful ally in Moscow, Nikita Khrushchev, promised to defend Cuba with Soviet arms. Flow of Soviet weapons to Cuba increased, this included nuclear missiles.
President Kennedy said America wouldn't tolerate offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba. photos taken by American U2 planes revealed Soviet missile bases in Cuba, some ready to launch.
Kennedy said a missile attack from Cuba would trigger an attack on the Soviet Union.
Soviet ships headed toward Cuba, possibly with more missiles. US Navy prepared to quarantine Cuba and prevent the ships from coming.
Largest invasion force assembled in the US: 100k troops waited in Florida.
First break in the crisis was when Soviet/ships stopped to avoid confrontation at sea. Khrushchev offered to remove the missiles in return for an American pledge not to invade Cuba.
US also secretly agreed to remove missiles from Turkey. This severely damaged Khrushchev/s prestige in the Soviet Union and people criticized Kennedy for practicing brinkmanship. They thought private talks would resolve the crisis rather than the threat of nuclear war.
Others thought he passed up a chance to incase Cuba and oust Castro. Cuban exiles blamed Democrats for losing Cuba and switched to the Republican Party. Castro closed Cuba's door to exiles, banning all flights to and from Miami.
Many people took advantage of an agreement allowing Cubans to join relatives in the US, but Castro shut these exit permits down. Kennedy was driven by the goal to prove to Khrushchev his determination to contain communism.

LBJ Great Society

Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act. This was the main offensive of Johnson's war in poverty and cornerstone of the Great Society.
Johnson's vision for America in a speech at the University of Michigan. He wanted to change America just like FDR.
Policies would expand existing programs and create new government programs to improve social welfare. Programs strive to address poverty and related needs of healthcare, education, and housing for poor families and elderly.
Also addressed civil rights, immigration reform, environmental concerns, and protection for consumers.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Provided $1$ billion in federal aid. Helped public and parochial schools purchase textbooks and library materials. First major federal aid package for education in history.
Changed Social Security by establishing Medicare and Medicaid.

Social Injustice

Medicare: Provided hospital insurance and low cost medical insurance for Americans 65+.
Medicaid: Extended health insurance to welfare recipients (poor people).
Shifted nation's political power from rural to urban areas. Appropriated money to build units of low rent public housing and help low and middle class families pay for better private housing. Urban renewal and slum rebuilding for select cities.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): Named Robert Weaver as Secretary of HUD. First African American cabinet member.
Immigration Act 1924 and National Origins Act 1924 established immigration quotas that discriminated against people outside of W Europe and barred Asians.
Immigration Act of 1965 ended quotas based on nationality. Allowed many non-European immigrants to settle in the US. Led to increase in immigration, changing demographic makeup of the US.
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring exposed the effects of pesticides on the environment. This led to the Water Quality Act, requiring states to clean up rivers. Johnson ordered the government to search out the worst chemical polluters.
Consumer advocates convinced Congress to pass safety laws: Truth in packaging law that set standards for labeling consumer goods. Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed criticized the automobile industry for ignoring safety concerns.
Persuaded Congress to establish safety standards for automobiles and tired tires. Wholesome Meat Act: precautions for food.
Impact. No president post WW2 extended the power and reach of federal gov more than LBJ. Optimism of his presidency fueled and activist era in the three branches of government
The war on poverty helped. There were fewer poor people. Tax cut spurred the economy but there were compromises. Funding the great society contributed to a growing budget deficit (problem for decades). New programs expanded the size of government.
Questions and debates over finances and effectiveness of the programs and the role of the federal government left people disillusioned. Members of congress were concerned over the rapid pace of reform and argued whether the fed gov should play such a large role in social welfare.
Conservative backlash began Republican leaders rose to power: Ronald Reagan won for governor of cali over a democrat.
Warren Commission: Jack Ruby shot Oswald. People began to wonder if Oswald was involved in a conspiracy.

Warren Commission

Warren Commission concluded that Oswald shot the president while acting on his own Reinvestigation concluded that Oswald was part of a conspiracy hennedy. Investigators said two people may have shot the president. Some people thought it was anti-Castro Cubans, a Communist attack, or a conspiracy by the CIA.

Brown v. Board of Education

Ruled school segregation unconstitutional. Linda Brown's father charged the board of education of Topeka, Kansas, with violating Linda's rights by denying her admission to an all-white elementary school near her house. The all-black school was too far away
Supreme court ruled that segregated schools violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. Warren believed that separate but equal has no place in education. Kansas and Oklahoma expected segregation to end with little trouble. Texas governor said plans would take years to work out and prevented desegregation by calling in Texas Rangers.
Mississippi and Georgia resisted White resisting groups called themselves White Citizens' Councils and used economic pressure as a weapon, boycotting businesses that supported desegregation.
The KKK reappeared, attacking many African Americans and white supporters. Brown II second ruling: ordered school desegregation implemented with deliberate speed. Southern states resisted; court acted again in Cooper v. Aaron that schools could no longer delay desegregation.
Eisenhower refused but changed his mind after Little Rock. Little Rock citizens elected 2 men to the school board who backed desegregation and the school superintendent, Blossom, began planning.

MLK Birmingham

Governor Faubus supported segregation and ordered the National Guard to turn away the Little Rock Nine (the Central High School students who would be the first step of desegregation). A federal judge ordered them to go. If a student did not have a phone, they couldn't be reached and met an abusive crowd
Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and ordered paratroopers into Little Rock: The only time Eisenhower intervened. African American students were harassed by others and Faubus shut down Central High.

Freedom Rides and Protest

James Pec Joined CORE members on a bus trip across the south: The trip would test Supreme Court decisions banning segregated facilities and seating. Expected a violent reaction and hoped it would convince the Kennedy administration to enforce the law. Angry whites attacked Bus Two. The bus companies refused to carry the CORE Freedom Riders any further.
James Farmer and Diane Nash announced that a group on SNCC volunteers in Nashville would pick up where they left off. When Freedom Riders rode into Birmingham, police beat them and drove them to Tennessee. returned to the bus terminal but the bus driver refused them They occupied whites-only waiting room until a solution was reached Robert Kennedy called and bus company officials allowed the driver to proceed.
Alabama officials promised Kennedy the riders would be protected but a mob of whites fell upon the riders at Montgomery. The Justice Department sent marshals to protect the riders on the last part of their journey to Jackson, Mississippi.. The attorney general and Interstate Commerce Commission banned segregation in all interstate travel facilities.

Malcolm X

Born Malcolm Little. Went to jail for burglary. While in jail, he studied the teachings of Elijah Muhammed, head of the Nation of Islam. After being released, he became an Islamic minister and preached Elijah Muhammad’s views that whites were the cause of black conditions.
The press gave Malcolm great publicity, had two effects:1st- his call frightened most whites.
1st: his call amend frightened most whites. 2nd: all of the attention Malcolm received awakened resentment in some other members of the Nation of Islam. Broke with Elijah Muhammad over differences in strategy and doctrine. Founded another Muslim organization. Went to Mecca. He learned that orthdox-preached racial. When he returned to US, he new slogan "Ballots or bullets".

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

August 2, 1964- North Vietnam patrol boat fired a torpedo at an American destroyer. US Maddox Torpedo missed Maddox shot back and inflicted heavy damage on patrol boat. Two days later Maddox and another destroyer were off the coast.
Bad weather caused US crew to report enemy torpedoes; later reported that they never say gunfire. Alleged attacks on US ships promoted President Johnson to launch bombing strikes to N Vietnam. Congress approved Johnson’s request to adopt a resolution. Granted Johnson broad military powers in Vietnam. Some felt that it altered constitution system of checks and balances. Johnson didn't tell congress that he was leading secret raids against North Vietnam.

Domino Theroy

Eisenhower explained the theory Has roots in the containment policy Warned that if Vietnam fell to communism, other Southeast Asian countries would soon follow.

Various Actions

Eugene recruited college students; trained nonviolent resistance, mostly whites. Went to Mississippi to help register votes. 3 civil rights disappeared in the Neshoba county . men were murdered Medicare and Medicaid : Medicare -provided hospital insurance and low cost medical insurance for American 65+ Medicaid Extended health insurance to welfare receipients
SCLC conducted a major voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama, where SNCC worked for two years to register voters. A+ Many AA were arrested in SCLC demonstrations. After demonstrator Jimmy Lee Jackson was killed, MLK announced a protest march from Selma to Montgomery (capital) the television cameras captured police swinging whips and clubs and tear gassing protestors. President LBJ presented Congress with a new voting rights act marcher set out again for Montgomery with federal protection. Congress passed Voting Rights Act 1965. Eliminated literacy tests that disqualified the voters with federal examiners could enroll voters who were denied suffrage by local officials ◦Percentage of African American Selma voters rose: 10%-60%
SDS organized the march- Where MLK gave i have a dream CRA 1964 Johnson signed the act_ prohibited discrimination because of race, religion, national origin, and gender permitted allow everyone to enter and use public accommodations Voting Rights Act 1965 Eliminated the literacy test federal examiners could enroll voters who had been denied suffrage by local officicals the percentage of registered Africa American voters in the South tripled Literacy tests poll taxes Twenty-fourth amendment.
Selective Servicemen or draft all males had to register with their local draft boards when they turned 18 Men between 18-26 call to serve many men were trying to find a way around the draft . A common way people try to get out of the draft was recieving college deferment many of the men who fougth were lower class whites or minorities who were less prevelage economicly
Poll taxes were often uses to keep poor AA from voting"