History 15A Final

Human rights

Under Carter, a commitment to promoting human rights became a centerpiece of American foreign policy for the first time. Amnesty International pressured the U.S. to try to do something to promote human rights abroad. In 1978, Carter cut off aid to brutal military dictatorship governing Argentina.

The Battle of Stalingrad

After sweeping through western Russia, German armies in August 1942 launched a siege of Stalingrad, a city located deep inside Russia on the Volga River. This was a catastrophic mistake. Bolstered by an influx of military supplies from the U.S., the Russians surrounded the German troops and forced them to surrender. This marked the turning point of the European war. Combined with a Russian victory in Kursk 6 months later, the campaign in the east devastated Hitler's forces and sent surviving units on a long retreat back toward Germany.

1947 National Security Act

Authorized the reorganization of government to coordinate military branches and security agencies; created the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Military Establishment (later renamed the Department of Defense). This becomes one of the most important pieces of Cold War legislation. First, it streamlined and unified the nation's military establishment by bringing together the Navy Department and War Department under a new Department of Defense. Second, the act established the National Security Council(NSC). Finally, the act set up the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA)

Caesar Chavez

Beginning in 1965, Cesar Chavez, the son of migrant farm workers and a disciple of King, led a series of non violent protests, including marches, fasts, and a national boycott of California grapes, to pressure growers to agree to labor contracts with the United Farm Workers union(UFW).

Jimmy Carter

Defeated Ford in the presidential election of 1976. Carter ran for president as an "outsider", making a virtue of the fact that he had never held federal office. His promise "I'll never lie to you," resonated with an electorate tired of official dishonesty. As president, he appointed an unprecedented number of blacks to important positions. Carter inaugurated tax cuts for wealthier Americans in hope that it would stimulate investment and encourage economic growth. He also believed that expanded use of nuclear energy could help reduce dependence on imported oil.

Birmingham Crusade, 1963

Demonstrations took place in towns and cities across the South, dramatizing black discontent over inequality in education, employment, and housing. King made the decision to send black schoolchildren into the streets of Birmingham. Police Chief Eugene "Bull" Connor unleashed his forces against the thousands of young marchers. This sent a wave of revulsion throughout the world and turned the Birmingham campaign into a triumph for the civil rights movement

The Battle of Britain

For one critical year, Britain stood virtually alone in fighting Germany. In the Battle of Britain, the German air force launched devastating attacks on London and other cities. The Royal Air Force eventually turned back the air assault.

Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford, who had been appointed to replace Vice President Agnew, succeeded to the White House when Nixon resigned. Ford pardoned Nixon from prosecution for obstruction of justice. In domestic policy, Ford's presidency lacked a significant accomplishment. Ford and his chief economic adviser, Alan Greenspan, called for cutting taxes on business and lessening government regulation of the economy. To combat inflation, Ford urged Americans to shop wisely & reduce expenditures

Martin Luther King Jr.

Having studied on peaceful civil obedience of Henry David Thoreau and Mahatmas Gandhi, King outlined a philosophy of struggle in which evil must be met with good, hate with Christian love, and violence with peaceful demands for change. King's speeches resonated deeply in both black communities and the broader culture. In 1965 he took the lead in forming the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a coalition of black ministers and civil rights activists, to press for desegregation

Malcom X

He insisted that blacks must control the political and economic resources of their communities and rely on their own efforts rather than working w/ whites. Having committed crimes as a youth, Malcolm Little was converted in jail to the teachings of the Nation of Islam, or Black Muslim, who preached a message of white evil and black self-discipline. He was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam after he formed his own organization of Afro-American Unity.

Nikita Khrushchev

He led the Soviet Union during the Cold War, serving as premier. He instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. A believer in communism, he preferred peaceful coexistence with capitalist countries. After a 13 day, Khrushchev agreed to remove the weapons

Bay of Pigs Invasion

Hoping to inspire a revolt against Fidel Castro, the CIA sent 1,500 Cuban exiles to invade their homeland on April 17, 1961, but the mission was a spectacular failure. In April 1961, Kennedy allowed the CIA to launch its invasion, at a site known as the Bay of Pigs. Military advisers predicted a popular uprising that would quickly topple the Castro government. But the assault proved to be a total failure. Of 1400 invaders, more than 100 were killed and 1100 captured. Cuba became even more closely tied with the Soviet Union.

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the codename for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that commenced on June 22, 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along an 1,800 mile front. Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in WWII , for its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war against a coalition of possessing immensely superior resources. The Germans severely underestimated their opponent; their logistical preparations were grossly inadequate for the campaign; and German industrial preparations for a sustained war had yet to begin. The Germans struggled to the gates of Moscow where Soviet counterattacks stopped them in early December. In desperate conditions, they conducted a slow retreat as Soviet attacks threatened to envelop much of their forces

Tet Offensive

Surprise attack by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese during the Vietnamese New Year of 1968; turned American public opinion strongly against the war in Vietnam

Rosa Parks

(Montgomery, Alabama) She refused to surrender her seat on a city bus to a white rider, as required by local law. Her arrest sparked a year long bus boycott, the beginning of the mass phase of civil rights movement in the South. She served as secretary to E.D. Nixon, the local leader of the NAACP. November 1956, the supreme court ruled segregation in public transportation unconstitutional

Kennedy's assassination

(November 22, 1963) while riding in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas he was shot and killed. The assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald, a troubled former marine. It fell to his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, to secure passage of the civil rights bill.

German Invasion of Poland

(Sept. 1939) Immediately after the signing of the Nazi-Soviet pact, Germany invaded Poland. This time, Britain and France, who pledged to protect Poland against aggression, declared war. Within a year, the Nazi blitzkrieg(lightning war) had overrun Poland and much of Scandinavia, Belgium, and the Netherlands

SALT Treaties

(Strategic Arms Limitations Talks) Carter signed the SALT II agreement with the Soviets, which reduced the number of missiles, bombers, and nuclear warheads.

Atlantic Warfare

(The longest battle of WWII). The Allies main objectives: blockade of the Axis power in Europe, security of Allied sea movements, and freedom to project military power across the seas. For Prime Minister Winston Churchill, this battle represented Germany's best chance to defeat the Western powers. It began w/ the British declaring war against Germany. The battle pitted Allied merchant and supply ships against German submarines, air craft, and surface riders. German submarines sank hundreds of Allied merchant and naval vessels

Ho Chin Minh

(communist leader of the Vietnamese movement against rule by France). President of the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam(North Vietnam)

NATO

(1949) The U.S., Canada and ten Western European nations established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), pledging mutual defense against any future Soviet attack. Soon, West Germany became a crucial part of NATO. France and victims of Nazi aggression saw NATO as a kind of "double containment" , in which West Germany would serve as a bulwark against the Soviet

Fall of Saigon

(1975) The North Vietnamese army took over Saigon with little resistance, and it was quickly renamed Ho Chi Minh City in honor of their revolutionary leader. The capture of the city was preceded by the evacuation of almost all American civilian and military personnel in Saigon, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians associated w/ the southern regime(Operation Frequent Wind). The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period to the formal reunification of Vietnam under the Socialist Republic.

Civil Rights Washington March

(August 28, 1963) 250,000 black and white Americans converged on the nation's capital for the March on Washington. The march's goals included a public works program to reduce unemployment, an increase in minimum wage, and a law barring discrimination in employment. The march reflected an unprecedented degree of black-white cooperation in support of racial and economic justice

Allied Invasion of Sicily and Italy

(Code named Operation Husky). In July 1943, American and British forces invaded Sicily, beginning the liberation of Italy. After 38 days of fighting the U.S. and Great Britain successfully drove German and Italian troops from Sicily and prepared to assault the Italian mainland

the Battle of Midway

took place in 1942 and got to the homelands at 1965. The United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll, marking a turning point in the war in the Pacific theatre

Operation "Rolling Thunder"

During the Vietnam War, as part of the strategic bombing campaign known as Operation Rolling Thunder, U.S. military aircraft attacked targets throughout North Vietnam. This massive bombardment was intended to put military pressure on North Vietnam's Communist leaders and reduce their capacity to wage war against the U.S. supported gov of South Vietnam

NATO Alliance

Alliance founded in 1949 by ten Western European nations, the United States, and Canada to deter Soviet expansion in Europe.

Panama Canal Treaty

Carter improved American relations with Latin America by agreeing to a treaty, ratified by the senate in 1979, that provided for the transfer of the Panama Canal to local control by the year 2000.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Caused when the United States discovered Soviet offensive missile sites in Cuba in October 1962; the U.S.-Soviet confrontation was the Cold War's closest brush with nuclear war

Cuban Missile Crisis

Caused when the United States discovered Soviet offensive missile sites in Cuba in October 1962; the US soviet confrontation was the Cold War's closest brush with nuclear war. American spy planes discovered that the Soviet Union was installing missiles in Cuba capable of reaching the U.S. with nuclear weapons. Kennedy imposed a blockade or "quarantine", of the island and demanded the missiles removal. After tense behind-the-scenes negotiations, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles; Kennedy pledged that the U.S. would not invade Cuba and secretly agreed to remove American Jupiter missiles from Turkey, from which they could reach the Soviet Union.

Division of Europe

FDR, Churchill and Stalin met near Yalta to discuss the reorganization of post-WWII Europe. Each country's leaders had his own set of ideas for rebuilding and re-establishing order in the war torn continent. Roosevelt wanted Soviet participation in the newly formed United Nations and immediate support from the Soviets in fighting the ongoing war in the Pacific against Japan. Churchill argued for free and fair elections leading to democratic regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Poland. Stalin wanted Soviet "sphere of influence" in Central and Eastern Europe, starting with Poland, in order to provide the Soviet Union with a geopolitical buffer zone between it and the western capitalist world

American Indian Movement

Founded in 1968, the American Indian movement staged protests demanding greater tribal self-government and the restoration of economic resources guaranteed in treaties. In the years that followed, many Indian tribes would win greater control over education and economic development on the reservations.

Kent State

In the wake of the killing of four antiwar protesters at Kent State University, the student movement reached its high water mark. The protests at Kent State, public university with a largely working class student body, demonstrated how antiwar sentiment had spread far beyond elite campuses like Berkeley and Columbia.

The Fall of France

In June 1940, German troops occupied Paris, leaving Britain fighting Germany. In six weeks, German forces defeated Allied forces by mobile operations and conquered France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. This brought land operations on the Western Front to an end.

Berlin Airlift

In June 1948, the U.S., Britain, & France introduced a separate currency in their zones. In response, the Soviets cut off road and rail traffic from the American, British, and French zones of occupied Germany to Berlin. An 11 month airlift followed, with Western planes supplying fuel and food to their zones of the city

Battle of Coral Sea

In May 1942, The Japanese were seeking to control the Coral Sea with an invasion of Port Moresby in southeast New Guinea. The American navy turned back a Japanese fleet intent on attacking Australia. Without air cover, the Japanese invasion force turned back. This marked the first air-sea battle in history

Pearl Harbor

In November 1941, intercepted Japanese messages revealed that an assault in the Pacific was imminent. No one, however, knew where it would come. In December 1941, Japanese planes, launched from their aircraft carriers, bombed the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. More than 2,000 servicemen were killed, and aircraft, naval vessels, and battle ships were destroyed. But no aircraft carriers-which would provide decisive in the Pacific war-happened to be docked at Pearl Harbor on that day. Roosevelt then asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan.

United Nations

In a 1944 conference at Dumbarton Oaks, near Washington, D.C., they developed the structure of the United Nations(UN). Along with 10 rotating members, the council would have five permanent ones-Britain, China, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States-each with the power to veto resolutions.

Détente

It is the name of the Cold War-era policy designed to reduce tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. The word "détente" means "a release from tension" in French.

War in the Pacific

Japan in early 1942 conquered Burma and Siam, they also took control of the Dutch East Indies(Indonesia), whose extensive oil fields could replace supplies from the U.S. It also occupied Guam and other Pacific islands. At Bataan, in the Philippines, the Japanese forced 78,000 American and Filipino troops to lay down their arms. Thousands perished on the ensuing "death march" to a prisoner-of-war camp. In May 1942, in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the American navy turned back a Japanese fleet intent on attacking Australia. American victory in the Battle of Midway drove the Japanese from fortified islands(Guadalcanal & the Solomons)

Normandy "D-Day" invasion

June 6, 1944, when an allied amphibious assault landed on the Normandy coast and established a foothold in Europe, leading to the liberation of France from German occupation

Munich Conference of 1938

Neville Chamberlain and Hitler. "Appeasement" thought that if he appeased Hitler then he would avoid war. The Munich Agreement was a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe, excluding the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia

War Powers Act

Law passed in 1973, reflecting growing opposition to American involvement in Vietnam War; required congressional approval before president sent troops abroad. Passed in 1973 by Congress, this was the most vigorous assertion of congressional control over foreign policy in the nation's history, it required the president to seek congressional approval for the commitment of American troops overseas.

Baby Boom

Markedly higher birthrate in the years following World War II; lead to the highest democratic "bubble" in American history

Yalta Conference

Meeting of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin at a Crimean resort to discuss the post war world on February 4-11, 1945; Joseph Stalin claimed large areas in Eastern Europe for Soviet domination

1973 Energy Crisis

Members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) reduced their petroleum production and proclaimed an embargo on oil shipments to the U.S. and the Netherlands, the main supporters of Israel. The price of oil went from $3 a barrel to $12. Americans now faced price hikes and fuel shortages. The energy crisis was a huge blow to the automotive industry. In addition to price controls and gasoline rationing, a national speed limit was imposed and the daylight saving time was adopted year-round.

Eisenhower's New Look

National Security policy of the U.S. during the administration of President Eisenhower. It reflected his concern for balancing the Cold War military commitments of the U.S. with the nation's financial resources. This policy emphasized reliance on strategic nuclear weapons to deter potential threats, both conventional and nuclear. Another element was using the CIA to carry out secret or covert actions against gov. leaders directly or indirectly responsive to Soviet control. He also wanted to strengthen allies and win the friendship of nonaligned governments

Nixon's Vietnamization

Nixon ran for president in 1968 declaring that he had a "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War. On taking office, he announced a new policy, Vietnamization. Under this plan, American troops would gradually be withdrawn while South Vietnamese soldiers, backed by American bombing, did more and more of the fighting. But Vietnamization neither limited the war nor ended the antiwar movement

Nixon in China

Nixon realized that far from being part of a unified communist block, China had its own interests, different from those of the Soviet Union, and was destined to play a major role on the world stage. In 1971, Kissinger flew secretly to China, paving a way for Nixon's own astonishing public visit of Feb 1972. Full diplomatic relations between the U.S and China were not established until 1979. But Nixon's visit sparked a dramatic increase in trade between the two countries.

Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939

Pact signed by Nazi Germany and Soviet Union, in which they agreed to take no military action against each other for the next ten years. It also contained a secret agreement in which they agreed how they would later divide Eastern Europe. This pact fell apart in 1941, when Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union.

Camp David Peace Accords

Pease agreement between the leaders of Israel and Egypt, brokered by President Jimmy Carter in 1978. (1979) A state of war had existed between Egypt and the State of Israel since the establishment of Israel in 1948. A permanent peace agreement between Egypt and Israel after three decades of hostilities. The accords were negotiated during the 12 days of intensive talks at President Jimmy Carter's Camp David retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland.

US post-war Economic Boom

Period of economic prosperity in the mid-20th century. High productivity growth from before the war continued after the war until the 1970s. Gas was cheap so car cost was low and their was less inflation. People started buying automobiles and houses. Demand outstripped supply. The population increased. Foreign aid programs (Marshall Plan) created a strong export-market

Lend Lease

Permitted the U.S. to lend or lease arms and other supplies to the Allies, signifying increasing likelihood of American involvement in World War During WWII, Roosevelt urged Congress to pass this act, which authorized military aid so long as countries promised somehow to return it all after the war. Under the law's provision, the U.S. funneled billions of dollars' worth of arms to Britain and China, as well as the Soviet Union II.

Japanese Internment

Policy adopted by the Roosevelt administration in 1942 under which 110,000 persons of Japanese descent, most of them American citizens, were removed from the West Coast and forced to spend most of the World War II in internment camps; it was the largest violation of American civil liberties in the twentieth century.

Betty Friedan

She wrote "The Feminine Mystique". Friedan had written pioneering articles during the 1940s on pay discrimination against women workers and racism in the workplace. Friedan was deluged by desperate letters from female readers relating how the suburban dream had become a nightmare. In 1966, the National Organization for Women(NOW) was established, with Friedan as president. Modeled on civil rights organizations, it demanded equal opportunity in jobs, education, and political participation and attacked the "false image of women" spread by the mass media.

McCarthyism

Post-World War II Red Scare focused on the fear of Communists in the US government positions; peaked during the Korean War; most closely associated with Joseph McCarthy, a major instigator of the hysteria

Kennedy and Civil Rights

Preoccupied with foreign policy, Kennedy had been reluctant to take a forceful stand on black demands. He feared that the movement was inspired by communism. Despite promising during the 1960 campaign to ban discrimination in federally assisted housing, Kennedy waited until the end of 1962 to issue the order. He used federal force when obstruction of the law became acute, as at the University of Mississippi. But he failed to protect civil rights workers from violence, insisting that law enforcement was a local matter

Truman Doctrine

President Harry S. Truman's program announced in 1947 of aid to European countries-particularly Greece and Turkey- threatened by communism

Iranian Hostage Crisis

Scandal of the second Reagan administration involving sales of arms to Iran in partial exchange for release of hostages in Lebanon and use of the arms money to aid the Contras in Nicaragua, which had been expressly forbidden by Congress

Manhattan Project

Secret American Program during World War II to develop an atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer led the team of physicists in Los Alamos, New Mexico

Feminist Movement

Term that entered the lexicon in the early twentieth century to describe the movement for full equality for women, in political, social, and personal life.

Sudetenland

an area in the northwestern part of the Czech Republic, on the border with Germany. Allocated to Czechoslovakia after World War I, it became an object of Nazi expansionist policies and was ceded to Germany as a result of the Munich Agreement of September 1938. In 1945, the area was returned to Czechoslovakia. Czech name Sudety. As part of a campaign to unite all Europeans of German origin in a single empire, Hitler in 1938 annexed Austria and the Sudetenland, an ethnically German part of Czechoslovakia.

warsaw pact

The Soviets formalized their own eastern European Alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955. It is a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states.

Sunbelt

The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. The region is the area south of the 36th parallel

Johnson's "War on Poverty"

The centerpiece of the Great Society, was the crusade to eradicate poverty, launched by Johnson in early 1964. 40 to 50 million Americans lived in poverty. The war on poverty did not consider the most direct ways of eliminating poverty-guaranteeing an annual income for all Americans, creating jobs for the unemployed, or promoting the spread of unionization. It concentrated not on direct economic aid but on equipping the poor with skills and rebuilding their spirit and motivation

Domino Theory

Theory that if one place fell under communism than it would have a domino effect.

Marshall Plan

U. S. Program for the reconstruction of post-World War II Europe through massive aid to former enemy nations as well as allies; proposed by General George C. Marshall in 1947. Secretary of State George C. Marshall pledged the U.S. to contribute billions of dollars to finance the economic recovery of Europe. This plan offered a positive vision to go along with containment. It aimed to combat the idea that capitalism was in decline and communism the wave of the future. The Marshall Plan envisioned a New Deal for Europe, an extension to that continent of Roosevelt's wartime Four Freedoms. This plan proved to be one of the most successful foreign aid programs in history

Brown v. Board of Education

U.S Supreme Court decision that struck down racial segregation in public education and declared "separate but equal" . African American minors have been denied admittance to certain public schools based on laws allowing public education to be segregated by race. They argued that such segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. The Supreme Court held that "separate but equal" facilities are inherently unequal and violate the protections of the Equal Protection Clause

Roe v. Wade

U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring states to permit first-trimester abortions. This case created a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. The Court declared access to abortion a fundamental freedom protected by the Constitution, a fulfillment of radical feminists' earliest demands. Roe provoked vigorous opposition, which has continued to this day.

Watergate

Washington office and apartment complex that lent its name to the 1972-1974 scandal of the Nixon administration: when his knowledge of the break-in at the Watergate and subsequent cover up was revealed, Nixon resigned the presidency under threat of impeachment

Watts Riot

Watts uprising of 1965, which took place in the black ghetto of LA only days after Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. Around 50,000 persons took part in this rebellion, attacking police and firemen, looting white-owned businesses, and burning buildings. $30 million worth of property had been destroyed.

Warren Court

the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren, 1953-1969, decided such landmark cases as Brown v. Board of Education (school desegregation) and Gideon v. Wainwright and Miranda v. Arizona (rights of criminal defendants). (Brown V. Board) The new chief justice, Earl Warren, managed to create unanimity on a divided court, some of whose members disliked segregation but feared that a decision to outlaw it would spark widespread violence. Warren read aloud the decision that segregation in public education, he concluded, violated the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th amendment. "Brown" marked the emergence of the "Warren Court" as an active agent of social change. This court also sought electoral reforms, equality in criminal justice and the defense of human rights

Stagflation

a combination of stagnant economic growth and high inflation present during the 1970s.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

a resolution passed by Congress authorizing the president to take "all necessary measures to repel armed attack" in Vietnam. In 1964, North Vietnamese vessels encountered an American Ship on a spy mission off its coast. When North Vietnamese patrols fired on the American vessel, Johnson proclaimed that the U.S. was a victim of "aggression." In response, Congress passed this resolution, authorizing the president to take "all necessary measures to repel armed attack" in Vietnam. The resolution passed without any discussion of American goals and strategy in Vietnam

Brinkmanship

the art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, especially in politics. Eisenhower believed that he could threaten nuclear war. A foreign policy practice in which one or both parties force the interaction between them to the threshold of confrontation in order to gain an advantageous negotiation position over the other. This is characterized by aggressive risk-taking policy choices that court potential disaster.

Korean War

conflict touched off in 1950 when Communist North Korea invaded South Korea; fighting largely by U.S. forces, continued until 1953. Occupied by Japan in WWII, Korea had been divided in 1945 into Soviet and American zones. These soon evolved into two gov's: Communist North Korea, and anticommunist South Korea. June 1950, the North Korean army invaded the South, hoping to reunify the country under communist control. General MacArthur, launched a counterattack at Inchon and his army soon occupied most of North Korea. Chinese troops intervened, MacArthur wanted to fight but Truman refused fearing an all out war on the Asian mainland. They settled into a stalemate around the 38th parallel, the original boundary between the two Koreas

Sputnik and the Space Race

first artificial satellite to orbit the earth, launched October 4, 1957 by the Soviet Union. When the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first artificial earth satellite, in 1957, the administration responded with the National Defense Education Act, which for the first time offered direct federal funding to higher education. Space exploration served as another arena for Cold War competition. In 1958, the U.S. launched its own satellite and Eisenhower signed a public order creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA)

G.I. Bill of Rights

the legislation the provided money for education and other benefits to military personnel returning from World War II. (The Servicemen's Readjustments Act). Aimed at rewarding members of the armed forces for their service and preventing the widespread unemployment and economic disruption that followed WWI, it profoundly shaped postwar society. By 1946, more than 1 million veterans were attending college under its provisions. Almost 4 million would receive home mortgages, spurring the postwar suburban housing boom

Civil Rights of 1964

outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment

Voting Rights Act of 1965

passed in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr's, Selma to Montgomery March, it authorized federal protection of the right to vote and permitted federal enforcement of minority voting rights in individual counties, mostly in the South. Jan 1965, King launched a voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama, a city where only 355 of 15000 black residents had been allowed to register vote. King attempted to lead a march from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery. When marchers reached the bridge they were assaulted by tear gas/whips. Johnson asked Congress to enact a law securing the right to vote. Congress quickly passed this act, which allowed federal officials to register voters

Black Panthers- "Black Powers"

post 1966 Rallying cry of more militant civil rights movement. Black Power immediately became the a rallying cry for those bitter over the federal government's failure to stop violence against civil rights workers. Black Power suggested everything from the election of more black officials to the belief black Americans were a colonized people whose freedom could be won only through a revolutionary struggle for self-determination. Black Panther Party-founded in Oakland, CA, in the 1966, it became notorious for advocating armed self-defense in response to police brutality. It demanded the release of black prisoners b/c of racism in the criminal justice system

US Wartime Industry and government

produces all items to help with war. production on nonessential items halted

"Iron Curtain"

term coined by Winston Churchill to described the Cold War divide by western Europe and the Soviet Union's eastern Europe satellites. In a speech at Fulton, Missouri, Britain's former wartime prime minister Winston Churchill declared than an "iron curtain" had descended across Europe, partitioning the free West from the communist East.

Cold War

term of tensions, 1945-1989, between the Soviet Union and the United States, the two major world powers after World War II

Allied debate over a "Second Front"

they only knew four words- yes, no, second, front.