Unit 7 Study Guide - American History 2

Cesar Chavez

1927-1993. Farm worker, labor leader, and civil-rights activist who helped form the National Farm Workers Association, later the United Farm Workers.

Truman Doctrine

1947, President Truman's policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology, mainly helped Greece and Turkey

Brown v Board of Education

1954 - The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.

Little Rock Nine

1957 - Governor Faubus sent the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine Black students from entering Little Rock Central High School. Eisenhower sent in U.S. paratroopers to ensure the students could attend class.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

1964 Congressional resolution that authorized President Johnson to commit US troops to south vietnam and fight a war against north Vietnam

Richard Nixon

1968 and 1972; Republican; Vietnam: advocated "Vietnamization" , but also bombed Cambodia/Laos, created a "credibility gap,"; economy-took US off gold standard ; created the Environmental Protection Agency, was president during first moon landing; SALT I and new policy of detente between US and Soviet Union; Watergate scandal: became first and only president to resign

Tet Offensive

1968, during Tet, the Vietnam lunar new year - Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army raiding forces attacked provincial capitals throughout Vietnam, even seizing the U.S. embassy for a time. U.S. opinion began turning against the war.

My Lai Massacre

1968, in which American troops had brutally massacred innocent women and children in the village of My Lai, also led to more opposition to the war.

War Powers Act

1973. A resolution of Congress that stated the President can only send troops into action abroad by authorization of Congress or if America is already under attack or serious threat.

Geneva Accords

A 1954 peace agreement that divided Vietnam into Communist-controlled North Vietnam and non-Communist South Vietnam until unification elections could be held in 1956

Pentagon Papers

A 7,000-page top-secret United States government report on the history of the internal planning and policy-making process within the government itself concerning the Vietnam War.

Marshall Plan

A United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe (1948-1952)

Watergate Scandal

A break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex in Washington was carried out under the direction of White House employees. Disclosure of the White House involvement in the break-in and subsequent cover-up forced President Nixon to resign in 1974 to avoid impeachment.

Woodstock

A free music festival that attracted more than 400,000 young people to a farm in upstate New York in August 1969

Napalm

A jellied gasoline used for bombs

The Draft

A law requiring all people of certain ages to serve in the military.

Credibility Gap

A public distrust of statements made by the government

Hippies

A subculture, originally a youth movement that began in the US. They advocated universal love and peace.

Domino Theory

A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control.

Malcom X

African-American civil rights leader who encouraged violent responses to racial discrimination

24th Amendment

Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1964) eliminated the poll tax as a prerequisite to vote in national elections.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

American General who began in North Africa and became the Commander of Allied forces in Europe.

AIM

American Indian Movement

Doves

Americans who opposed the Vietnam War.

Hawks

Americans who supported the Vietnam War.

Agent Orange

An herbicide used as a chemical weapon during the Vietnam War to kill vegetation and expose enemy hiding places

Vietnamization

During the Vietnam War, the U.S. program of turning over to the South Vietnamese government responsibility for waging the conflict, in order to implement withdrawal of U.S. military personnel.

Freedom Riders

Group of civil rights workers who took bus trips through southern states in 1961 to protest illegal bus segregation

Montgomery Bus Boycott

In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal.

Feminism Mystique

Influential book for women's rights.

NOW

National Organization for Women

Kent State

Ohio college where an anti-war protest got way out of hand, the Nat'l Guard was called in and killed 3 students (innocent & unarmed,wounded 9) in idiscriminate fire of M-1 rifles

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Chicano Movement

The Mexican-American movement that sought political and social justice. The Chicano Movement addressed negative stereotyping of Mexicans, this stereotyping was addressed through works of literary and visual arts.

The Vietnam War

The United States became involved in South Vietnam to prevent its takeover by Communist North Vietnam. Lasting from 1956-1975, the Vietnam War was the longest war and only war "lost" in US history. The United States withdrew in 1973, and Vietnam became one country, ruled by communists. More than 3 million people (including 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War; more than half were Vietnamese civilians. Growing opposition to the war in the United States led to bitter divisions among Americans, both before and after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. In 1975, communist forces seized control of Saigon, ending the Vietnam War, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year.

Martin Luther King

U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A noted orator, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Nobel Peace Prize (1964)

Civil Rights Movement

movement in the United States beginning in the 1960s and led primarily by Blacks in an effort to establish the civil rights of individual Black citizens

1963 March on Washington

was a large political rally that took place in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony at the Lincoln Memorial during the march.

Feminist Movement

women's movement for equal gender rights