APUSH Period 8
Domino Theory
If South Vietnam fell under Communist control, one nation after another in Southeast Asia would also fall, until Australia and New Zealand were in dire danger.
Detente
Nixon and Kissinger strengthened the US position in the world by taking advantage of the rivalry between the two Communist giants, China and the Soviet Union. Their diplomacy was praised for bringing about ____- a deliberate reduction of Cold War tensions. Even after Watergate ended his presidency in disgrace, Nixon's critics would admit that his conduct of foreign affairs had enhanced world peace.
Loyalty Review Board
The Truman administration- under pressure from Republican critics- set up a _________ to investigate the background of more than 3 million federal employees. Thousands of officials and civil service employees either resigned or lost their jobs in a probe that went on for four years.
McCarthyism
A Senate committee held televised hearings on Communist infiltration in the army, and _____ was seen as a bully by millions of viewers. The "witch hunt" for Communists had played itself out.
Sunbelt
A warmer climate, lower taxes, and economic opportunities in defense- related industries attracted many GIs and their families to the ___ states from Florida to California. By transferring tax dollars from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West, military spending during the Cold War helped finance the shift of industry, people, and ultimately political power from one region to the other.
Hollywood Blacklist
Actors, directors, and writers were called before the committee to testify. Those who refused to testify for contempt of Congress. Others were blacklisted from the industry (in correspondence with HUAC).
Division of Vietnam
By the terms of the Geneva Conference, Vietnam was to be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel until a general election could be held. The new nation remained divided as two hostile governments took power on either side of the line. In North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh established a Communist dictatorship. In South Vietnam, a government emerged under Ngo Dinh Diem, whose support came largely from anticommunist, Catholic, and urban Vietnamese, many of whom had fled from Communist rule in the North. The general election to unite Vietnam was never held, largely because South Vietnam's government feared that the Communists would win. The US gave over $1 billion in economic and military aid to South Vietnam in an effort to build a stable, anticommunist state.
Rachel Carson
Clean air and water laws were enacted in response to Silent Spring, an expose of pesticides.
Equal Rights Amendment
Feminists achieved a major legislative victory in 1972 when Congress passed this amendment. This proposed constitutional amendment stated: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the US or by any state on account of sex." Although the National Organization for Women and other groups campaigned hard for the ratification of this amendment, it missed acceptance by the required 38 states. Even without this amendment, the women's movement accomplished fundamental changes in attitudes and hiring practices. In increasing numbers, women moved into professions previously dominated by men: business, law, medicine, and politics. American society at the beginning of the 21st century was less and less a man's world.
War Powers act of 1973
Further discrediting Nixon was the news that he had authorized 3,500 secret bombing raids in Cambodia, a neutral country. Congress used the public uproar over this information to attempt to limit the president's powers over the military. In November 1973, after a long struggle, Congress finally passed the ____ over Nixon's veto. This law required Nixon and any future president to report to Congress within 48 hours after taking military action. It further provided that Congress would have to approve any military action that lasted more than 60 days.
Adlai Stevenson
In the election of 1952. His wit, eloquence, and courage in confronting McCarthyism appealed to liberals In the election of 1956. The Democrats again nominated him. In this political rematch, Eisenhower won by an even greater margin.
Watergate
It had a paralyzing effect on the political system in the mid- 1970s, a critical time both at home and overseas, when the country needed respected, strong, and confident leadership. In June 1972, a group of men hired by Nixon's reelection committee were caught breaking into the offices of the Democratic national headquarters in the ___ complex in Washington, DC. This break- in and attempted bugging were only part of a series of illegal activities and "dirty tricks" conducted by the Nixon administration and the Committee to Re- Elect the President. Earlier, Nixon had ordered wiretaps on government employees and reporter to stop news leaks such as one that had exposed the secret bombing of Cambodia. The president's aides created a group, called the "plumbers," to stop leaks as well as to discredit opponents. Before ___, the "plumbers" had burglarized the office of psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, the person behind the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, in order to obtain information to discredit Ellsberg. The White House had also created an "enemies list" of prominent Americans who opposed Nixon, the Vietnam War, or both. People on this list were investigated by government agencies, such as the IRs. the illegal break- in reflected the attitude in the Nixon administration that any means could be used to promote the national security- an objective that was often confused with protecting the Nixon administration from its critics. No solid proof demonstrated that President Nixon ordered any of these illegal activities. However, after months of investigation, it became clear that Nixon did engage in an illegal cover- up to avoid scandal. Tough sentencing of the burglars by federal judge John Sirica led to information about the use of money and a promise of pardons by the White House staff to keep the burgles quiet. A Senate investigating committee headed by Democrat Sam Ervin of North Carolina brought the abuses to the attention of Americans thorough televised hearings. A highlight of these hearings as the testimony of a White House lawyer, John Dean, who linked the president to the cover- up. Nixon's top aides, HR Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, resigned to protect him and were later indicted, as were many others, for obstructing justice. The discover of a taping system in the Oval office led to a year- long struggle between Nixon, who claimed executive privilege for the tapes, and investigators, who wanted the tapes to prove the cover- up charges. The Nixon administration received another blow in the fall of 1973, when Vice President Agnew had to resign because he had taken bribes. Replacing him was Gerald Ford. Although the ___ affair absorbed most of Nixon's attention during his shortened second term, important developments occurred at home and abroad.
Brinkmanship
John Dulles idea. If the US pushed Communist powers to the brink of war, they would back down because of American nuclear superiority. In the end, Eisenhower prevented Dulles from carrying his idea to an extreme.
Exxon Valdez
Massive oil spills around the world, from off the coast of Santa Barbara California in 1969 to the _____ oil tanker accident in Alaska in 1989, reinforced fears about the deadly combination of human error and modern technology.
Medicaid
Provided funds to states to pay for medical care for the poor and disabled.
Medicare
Provided health insurance for all people 65 and older.
NATO
Since Washington's farewell address, the US had avoided permanent alliances with European nations. Truman broke that tradition by recommending that the US join a military defense pact to protect Western Europe. Ten European nations joined the US and Canada in creating the ________, a military alliance for defending all members from outside attack. Truman selected General Eisenhower as ______'s first Supreme Commander and stationed US troops in Western Europe as a deterrent against a Soviet invasion.
UN Security Council
The General Assembly of the United Nations was created to provide representation to all member nations, while the 15- member ______ was given the primary responsibility with the UN for maintaining international security and authorizing peacekeeping missions. The five major allies of wartime- the United States, Great Britain, France, China, and the Soviet Union- were granted permanent seats and veto poet in _________.
Impeachment of Nixon
The House Judiciary Committee voted three articles of impeachment: (1) obstruction of justice, (2) abuse of power, and (3) contempt of Congress. Faced with certain impeachment in the House and a trial in the Senate, Richard Nixon chose to resign on August 9, 1974. Vice president Gerald Ford then took the oath of office as the first unelected president in US history. To some, the final outcome of the Watergate scandal (Nixon leaving office under pressure) proved that the US constitutional system of checks and balances worked as it was intended. The scandal underlined the dangerous shift of power to the presidency that began with Franklin Roosevelt and had been expanded during the Cold War. Without a doubt, Watergate contributed to a growing loss of faith in the federal government.
Containment policy
Truman's containment policy, which was to govern US foreign policy for decades, was formulated by the secretary of state, General George Marshall; the undersecretary of state, Dean Acheson; and an expert on Soviet affairs.
SCLC
What the government would not do, the African American comment did for itself. In 1957, MLK formed the _____, which organized ministers and churches in the South to get behind the civil rights struggle.
Levittown
William J. Levitt led in the development of postwar suburbia with his building and promotion, a project of 17,000 mass- produced , low- priced family homes on Long Island, New York. Low interest rates on mortgages that were both government- insured and tax deductible made the move from city to suburb affordable for even families of modest means.
Joseph McCarthy
A Republican senator from Wisconsin, used the growing concern over communism in his reelection campaign. He charged that 205 Communists were still working for the State Department. This sensational accusation was widely publicized in the American press. _____ then rode the wave of anticommunist feelings to make himself one of the most powerful men in America. His power was based entirely on people's fear of the damage ________ could do if his accusing finger pointed their way. He used a steady stream of unsupported accusations about Communists in government to keep the media focus on himself and to discredit the Truman administration. Working- class Americans at first loved hi "take the gloves off" hard- hitting remarks, which were often aimed at the wealthy and privileged in society. Many Republicans disliked _____'s ruthless tactics, he was primarily hurting the Democrats He became so popular, however, that even President Eisenhower would not dare defend his old friend, George Marshall, against ____'s untruths.
Flexible Response
A different Cold War challenge were the many "brushfire wars" in Africa and Southeast Asia, in which insurgent forces were often aided by Soviet arms and training. Such conflicts in the Congo in Africa and in Laos and Vietnam in Southeast Asia convinced the Kennedy administration to adopt a policy of _____. Moving away from Dulles' idea of massive retaliation and reliance on nuclear weapons, Kennedy and McNamara increased spending on conventional (nonnuclear) arms and mobile military forces. While the flexible- response policy reduced the risk of using nuclear weapons, it also increased the temptation to send elite special forces, such as the Green Berets, into combat all over the globe.
Baby Boomers
After WW2 there was an explosion in marriages births. Younger marriages and larger families resulted in 50 million babies entering the US population between 1945 and 1960. As this generation gradually passed from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, and it profoundly affected the nation's social institutions and economic life in the last half of the 20th century. It tended to focus women's attention on raising children and homemaking. Nevertheless, the trend of more women in the workplace continued. By 1960, one- third of all married women worked outside the home.
38th parallel
After the defeat of Japan, its former colony Korea was divided along the _____ by the victors. Soviet armies occupied Korean territory north of the line, while US forces occupied territory to the south. By 1949 both armies were withdrawn, leaving the North in the hands of the Communist leader Kim II Sung and the South under the conservative nationalist Syngman Rhee. MacArthur stabilized the fighting near the _____. At the same time, he called for expanding the war, including bombing and invading mainland China. In Korea, the war was stalemated along a front just north of _____. At Panmunjom, peace talks began in July 1951. The police action dragged on for another two years, however, until an armistice was finally signed in 1953 during the first year of Eisenhower's precedency. More than 2.5 million people died in the Korean conflict, including 54,0000 Americans.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
After the killings and brutality in Selma, Alabama, against the voting rights marches led by MLK, President Johnson persuaded Congress to pass the ______. This act ended literacy tests and provided federal registrars in areas where blacks were kept from voting. The impact was most dramatic in the Deep South, where African Amercans could vote for the first time since the Reconstruction era.
Vietnamization
Almost immediately, the new president began the process called _____. He announced that the would gradually withdraw US troops from Vietnam and give the South Vietnamese the money, the weapons, and the training that they needed to take over the full conduct of the war. Under this policy, US troops in South Vietnam went from over 540,000 in 1969 to under 30,000 in 1972.
My Lai
Also in 1970, the American public was shocked to learn about a 1968 massacre of women and children by US troops in the Vietnamese village of ____. Further fueling the antiwar sentiment was the publication by the New York Times of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government history documenting the mistakes and deceptions of government policy- makers in dealing with Vietnam. The papers had been turned over, or "leaked," to the press by Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense department analyst.
Serviceman's Readjustment Act
Also known as the GI Bill of Rights, proved a powerful support during the transition of 15 million veterans ego a peacetime economy. More than half the returning GIs seized the opportunity afforded by the GI Bill to continue their education at government expense. Over 2 million GIs attended college, which started a postwar boom in higher education. The veterans also received over $16 million in low- interest, government- backed loans to buy homes and farms to start businesses. By focusing on a better educated workforce and also promoting new construction, the federal government stimulated the postwar economic expansion.
Alger Hiss
Whittaker Chambers, a confessed Communist, became a star witness for the House Un-American Committee in 1948. His testimony, along with the investigative work of a young member of Congress from California named Richard Nixon, ed to the trial of ______, a prominent official in the Sate Department who had assisted Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference. ____ denied the accusations that he was a Communist and had given secret documents to Chambers. He was convicted or perjury and sent to prison. Many Americans could not help wondering whether the highest levels of government were infiltrated by Communist spies.
Iron Curtain
Winston Churchill declared: "An _________ has descended across the continent" of Europe. The ______ metaphor was later used throughout the Cold War to refer to the Soviet satellite states of Eastern Europe. Churchill's "iron curtain" speech called for a partnership between Western democracies to halt the expansion of communism.
George Kennan
An expert on Soviet affairs. He had written that only " a long- term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies" would eventually cause the Soviets to back off their Communist ideology of world domination and live in peace with other nations.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
As a Montgomery,Alabama, bus took on more white passengers, the driver ordered a middle- aged black woman to give up her seat to one of them. Rosa Parks refused and her arrest for violating the segregation law sparked a massive African American protest in the form of a boycott of the city buses. The protest touched off by Rosa Parks and the Montgomery boycott resulted in the Supreme Court ruling that segregation laws were unconstitutional. The boycott also sparked other civil rights protests that reshaped America over the coming decades.
Operation Wetback
Congress dropped the bans on Chinese and other Asian immigrants and eliminated "race" as a barrier to naturalization, but the quota system remained in place 1965. Puerto Ricans, as American citizens, could enter the US without restrictions. Mexicans faced a choice of working under contract in the braceros program, entering as a regulated legal immigrant, or crossing the border as "illegals." In the early 1950s US officials, responding to complaints from native- born workers and from Mexico, launched _______, which forced an estimate 3.8 million people to return to Mexico. Mexican migrants remaining in the US often faced discrimination and exploitation by commercial farmers.
Ralph Nader
Congress, in response to his book Unsafe at Any Speed, also passed regulations of the automobile industry that would save hundreds of thousands of lives in the following years.
Marshall Plan
George Marshall outlined an extensive program of US economic aid to help European nations revive their economies and strengthen democratic governments. In December, Truman submitted to Congress a $17 billion European Recovery Program. $12 billion in aid was approved for distribution to the countries of Western Europe over a four- year period. US offered aid to the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites but the Soviets refused it, fearing that it would lead to dependence on the US. Worked exactly as the US hoped. The massive infusion of US dollars helped Western Europe achieve self- sustaining growth by the 1950s and ended any real threat of Communist political successes in that region.
March on Washington
In August 1963, King led one of the largest and most successful demonstrations in US history. About 200,000 blacks and whites took part in the peaceful _______ in support of the civil rights bill. The highlight of the demonstration was King's impassioned "I Have a Dream" speech, which appealed for the end of racial prejudice and ended with everyone in the crowd singing "We Shall Overcome."
HUAC
In the House of Representatives, the UnAmerican Activities Committee (____), originally established to seek out Nazis, was reactivated in the postwar years to find Communists. The committee not only investigated government officials but also looked for Communist influence in such organizations as the Boy Scouts and in the Hollywood film industry.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Ironically, a southern president succeeded in persuading Congress to enact the most important civil rights laws since Reconstruction. Johnson managed to persuade botha majority of Democrats and some Republicans in Congress to pass _______, which made segregation illegal in all public facilities, including hotels and restaurants, and gave the federal government additional powers to enforce school desegregation. This act also set up the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to end discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin. The 24th amendment was ratified. It abolished the practice of collecting a poll tax, one of the measures that, for decades, had discouraged poor people from voting.
Great Society
Johnson's list of legislative achievements from 1963 to 1966 is long and includes new programs that would have lasting effects on US society such as the food stamp act, national foundation on the arts and humanities, medicare, medicaid, elementary and secondary education act, higher education act, immigration act, and child nutrition act. Congress increased funding for mass transit, public housing, rent subsidies for low- income people, and crime prevention, established 2 new cabinet departments: the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, also passed regulations of the automobile industry that would save hundreds of thousands of lives in the following years. Clean air and water laws were enacted. Federal parks and wilderness areas were expanded and the highway Beautification Act.
Bay of Pigs
Kennedy made a major blunder shortly after entering office. He approved a CIA scheme planned under the Eisenhower administration to use Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba. In April 1961, the CIA- trained force of Cubans landed at the ______ in Cuba but failed to set off a general uprising as planned. Trapped on the beach, the anti- Castro Cubans had little choice but to surrender after Kennedy rejected the idea of using US forces to save them. Castro used the failed invasion to get even more aid from the Soviet Union and to strengthen his grip on power.
Henry Wallace
Liberal Democrats, who thought Truman's aggressive foreign policy threatened world peace, formed a new Progressive party that nominated former vice president _____.
SALT
Nixon used his new relationship with China to put pressure on the Soviets to agree to a treaty limiting antiballistic missiles, a new technology that would have expanded the arms race. After the first round of ___, US diplomats secured Soviet consent to a freeze on the number of ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads. While this agreement did not end the arms race, it was a significant step toward reducing Cold War tensions and bringing about detente.
Henry Kissinger
Nixon's first interest was international relations, not domestic policy. Together with his national security advisor, ______ (who became secretary of state during Nixon's second term), Nixon fashioned a pragmatic foreign policy that reduced the tensions of the Cold War. On the diplomatic front, Nixon had _____ conduct secret meetings with North Vietnam's foreign minister, Le Duc Tho. He announced in the fall of 1972 that "peace is at hand," but this announcement proved premature. When the two sides could not reach a deal, Nixon ordered a massive bombing of North Vietnam (the heaviest air attacks of the long war) to force a settlement.
Kent State Shooting
Nixon's gradual withdrawal of forces from Vietnam reduced the number of antiwar protests. However, in April 1970, effort to destroy Vietnamese Communist bases in that country. A nationwide protest on college campuses against this action resulted in the killing of court youths by National Guard troops in Ohio and two students at Jackson State in Mississippi. In reaction to the escalation of the war, the US Senate (but not the House) voted to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Tet offensive
On the occasion of their Lunar New Year in January 1968, the Vietcong launched an all- out surprise attack on almost every provincial capital and American base in South Vietnam. Although the attack took a fearful toll in the cities, the US military counterattacked, inflicted much heavier losses on the Vietcong, and recovered the loss territory. The American military victory proved irrelevant to the way the _______ was interpreted at home. The destruction viewed by millions on the TV news appeared as a colossal setback for Johnson's Vietnam policy. Thus, for the Vietcong and North Vietnamese, this was a tremendous political victory in demoralizing the American public.
Military Advisors
President Kennedy adopted Eisenhower's domino theory that, if Communist forces overthrew South Vietnam's government, they would quickly overrun other countries of Southeast Asia- Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Kennedy therefore continued US military aid to South Vietnam's regime and significantly increased the number of ________, who trained the South Vietnamese army and guarded weapons and facilities. By 1963, there were more than 16,000 US troops in South Vietnam in support, not combat, roles. They provided training and supplies for South Vietnam's armed forces and helped create "strategic hamlets" (fortified villages).
22nd Amendment
Reacting against the election of Roosevelt as president court times, the Republican- dominated Congress proposed a constitutional amendment to limit a president to a maximum of 2 full terms in office.
Malcolm X
Seeking anew cultural identity based on Africa and Islam, the Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad preached black nationalism, separatism, and self improvement. The movement had already attracted thousands of followers by the time a young man became a convert while serving in prison. He adopted this name. Leaving prison in 1952, he acquired a reputation as the movement's most controversial voice. He criticized King as an "Uncle Tom" and advocated self- defense using black violence to counter white violence. He eventually left the Black Muslims and moved away from defending violence, but he was assassinated by black opponents in 1965. His autobiography remains an engaging testimony to one man's development from a petty criminal into a major leader.
Dixiecrats
Southern Democrats bolted the party in reaction to Truman's support for civil rights. Their States' Rights party, better known as the _____, chose Governor J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as its presidential candidate. The president had succeeded in reuniting Roosevelt's New Deal coalition, except for 4 southern states that went to Thurmond and the _____.
Stagflagation
Starting with a recession in 1970, the US economy throughout the 1970s faced the unusual combination of economic slowdown and high inflation- a condition referred to as _____. To slow inflation, Nixon at first tried to cut federal spending. However, when this policy contributed to a recession and unemployment, he adopted Keynesian economics and deficit spending so as not to alienate middle- class and blue- collar Americans.
Iranian Hostage Crisis
The Middle East provided Carter's greatest frustration. In Iran, anti- American sentiment had been strong since the US had helped overthrow the country's democratically elected leader in 1953 and install a dictatorial government. In 1979, Islamic fundamentalists in the Iran, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, overthrew the shah who was then leading the Iranian government. The shah had kept the oil flowing for the West during the 1970s, bus his autocratic rule and policy of westernization had alienated a large part of the Iranian population. With the Ayatollah and fundamentalists in power, Iranian oil production ground to a halt, causing the second worldwide oil shortage of the decade and another round of price increases. US impotence in dealing with the crisis became more evident in November 1979 when Iranian militants seized the US embassy in Teheran and help more than 50 members of the American staff as prisoners and hostages. The hostage crisis dragged out through the remainder of Carter's presidency. In 1980, Carter approved a rescue mission, but the breakdown of the helicopters over the Iranian desert forced the US to abort the mission. For many Americans, Carter's unsuccessful attempts to free the hostages became a symbol of a failed presidency.
NSC- 68
The National Security Council had recommend, in a secret report, that the following measures were necessary for fighting the Cold War: -Quadruple US government defense spending to 20% of GNP -Form alliances with non- Communist countries around the world -Convince the American public that a costly arms buildup was imperative for the nation's defense.
Sputnik
The Soviet Union shocked the US by launching the first satellites, ____ 1 and ______ 2, into orbit around the earth. Suddenly, the technological leadership of the US was open to question. To add to American embarrassment, US rockets designed to duplicate the Soviet achievement failed repeatedly. Due to this American schools became the ready target for criticism of their math and science instruction and failure to produce more scientists and engineers. Congress responded with the national Defense and Education Act (NDEA), which authorized giving hundreds of millions in federal money to the schools for math, science, and foreign language education. Congress also created the national Aeronautics and Space Administration, to direct the US efforts to build missiles and explore outer space. Billions were appropriated to compete with the Russians in the space race. Fears of nuclear war were intensified by ____, since the missiles that launched the satellites could also deliver thermonuclear warheads anywhere in the world in minutes, and there was no defense against them.
Berlin Airlift
The Soviets cut off all access by land to the German city. Truman dismissed any plans to withdraw from Berlin, but he also rejected using force to open up the roads through the Soviet- controlled eastern zone. Instead, he ordered US planes to fly in supplies to the people of West Berlin. Day after day, week after week, the massive ______ continued. Truman sent 60 bombers capable of carrying atomic bombs to bases in England. Stalin decided not to challenge the ______. By May 1949, the Soviets finally opened up the highways to Berlin, bringing their 11 month blockade to an end. Long- term consequence of the Berlin crisis was the creation of two Germanies: the Federal Republic of Germany (US ally, West) and the German Democratic Republic (Soviet satellite, East).
Environmental Protection Agency
The environmental movement borrowed tactics from other protest movements to secure legislation to stop pollution and destruction of nature. Congress passed the Clean Air Act and created the ______ and followed this legislation with the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. These laws regulated toxic substances, public drinking water systems, dumping of wage, and protected natural environments and wildlife. The backlash from business and industry would try to reverse the impact of this legislation.
Betty Friedan
The increased education and employment of women in the 1950s , the civil rights movement, and the sexual revolution all contributed to a renewal of the women's movement in the 1960s. ______'s book The Feminine Mystique gave the movement a new direction by encouraging middle- class women to seek fulfillment in professional careers in addition to filling the roles of wife, mother and homemaker. She helped found the National Organization for Women, which adopted the activist tactics of other civil rights movements to secure equal treatment of women, especially for job opportunities.
American Indian Movement
To achieve self- determination and revival of tribal traditions, the _______ was founded. Militant actions soon followed, including their takeover of the abandoned prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay in 1969. Their members also occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973, site of the infamous massacre of American Indians by the US cavalry in 1890. American Indians had a number of successes in both Congress and the courts. Congress' passage of the Indian Self- Determination Act of 1975 gave reservations and tribal lands greater control over internal programs, education, and law enforcement. American Indians also used the federal courts successfully to regain property or compensation for treaty violations. They attacked widespread unemployment and poverty on reservations by improving education, through the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978, and by building industries and gamboling casinos on reservations, under the self- determination legislation.
Truman Doctrine
Truman first implemented the containment policy in response to two threats: (1) a Communist- led uprising against the government in Greece, and (2) Soviet demands for some control of a water route in Turkey, the Dardanelles. The president asked Congress in March 1947 for $400 million in economic and military aid to assist the "free people" of Greece and Turkey against "totalitarian" regimes. While Truman's alarmist speech may have oversimplified the situation in Greece and Turkey, it gained bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
The Fair Deal
Truman launched an ambitious reform program, which he called ____________. He urged Congress to enact national health care insurance, federal aid to education, civil rights legislation, funds for public housing, and a new farm program. Conservatives in Congress blocked most f the proposed reforms, except for an increase in the minimum wage. Most the _____ bills were defeated for two reasons (1) Truman's political conflicts with Congress, and (2) the pressing foreign policy concerns of the Cold War.
Geneva Conference
At the _____ of 1954, France agreed to give up Indochina, which was divided into the independent nations of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. By the terms of the _______, Vietnam was to be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel until a general election could be held. The new nation remained divided as two hostile governments took power on either side of the line.
Occupation Zones
At the end of the war, the division of Germany and Austria into Soviet, French, British, and US zones of occupation was meant to be only temporary. In Germany, however, the eastern zone under Soviet occupation gradually evolved into a new Communist state, the German Democratic Republic The conflict over Germany was at least in part a conflict over differing views of national security and economic needs. The Soviets wanted weak Germany for security reasons and large war reparations for economic reasons. The United States and Great Britain refused to allow reparations from their western zones because both viewed the economic recovery of Germany as important to the stability of Central Europe. The Soviets, fearing a restored Germany, tightened their control over East Germany. Since Berlin within their zone, they attempted to force the Americans, British, and French to give up their assigned sectors of the city.
Election of 1960
At their 1960 convention, the Republicans unanimously nominated Richard Nixon for president. During his 8 years as Eisenhower's vice president, Nixon had gained a reputation as a statesman in his diplomatic travels to Europe and South America Nixon was known to be a tough and seasoned campaigner. John F. Kennedy, defeated his rivals. Going into the convention, he had just enough delegates behind him to win the nomination. To balance the ticket, the New Englander chose a Texan, Lyndon B. Johnson, to be his vice presidential running mate- a choice that proved critical in carrying southern states in the November election. The new medium of television was perhaps the most decisive factor in the close race between the two youthful campaigners. Kennedy appeared on- screen as more vigorous and comfortable than the pale and tense Nixon. Kennedy attacked the Eisenhower administration for the recent recession and for permitting the Soviets to take the lead in the arms race. In reality, what Kennedy called a "missile gap" was actually in the US favor, but his charges seemed plausible after Sputnik.Kennedy's religion became an issue in the minds of some voters. In one of the closest elections in US history, Kennedy defeated Nixon by a little more than 100,000 popular votes, and by a slightly wider margin of 303 to 219 in the electoral college. Many Republicans, including Nixon, felt the election had been stolen by Democratic political machines in states like Illinois and Texas by stuffing ballot boxes with "votes" of the deceased.
Nixon Doctrine
Extending the idea of disengagement to other parts of Asia, the president proclaimed the ____, declaring that in the future Asian allies would receive US support but without the extensive use of US ground forces.
Nikita Khrushchev
Encouraging for an end of the Cold war, was a speech by the new Soviet leader _____ in which he denounced the crimes of Joseph Stalin and supported "peaceful coexistence" with the West. The relaxation in the Cold War encouraged workers in East Germany and Poland to demand reforms from their Communist governments. The new, more liberal leaders wanted to pull Hungary out of the Warsaw Pact, the Communist security organization. This was too much for the Kremlin, and _____ sent in Soviet tanks to crush the freedom fighters and restore control over Hungary. "We will bury capitalism," ____ boasted. With new confidence and pride based on Sputnik, the Soviet leader pushed the Berlin issue in 1958 by giving the West six months to pull its troops out of West berlin before turning over the city to the East Germans. Eisenhower invited _____ to visit the US in 1959. At the presidential retreat of Camp David in Maryland, the two agreed to put off the crisis and scheduled another summit conference in Paris for 1960. After the US was exposed by the U-2 incident _____ denounced the US and walked out of the Paris summit to temporarily end the thaw in the Cold War. In a visit to Moscow, Eisenhower stood up to ____in the so- called kitchen debate (which took place in a model of an American kitchen) over the relative merits of capitalism and communism. Trying to shake off the embarrassment of the Bay of Pigs defeat, Kennedy agreed to meet Soviet premier ______ in Vienna in the summer of 1961. _____ seized the opportunity in Vienna to threaten the president by renewing Soviet demands that the US pull its troops out of Berlin. Kennedy refused.
Camp David Accords
In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat took the first courageous step toward Middle East by visiting Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in Jerusalem. President Carter acting as an intermediary, the two leaders negotiated the _______, which provided a framework for a peace settlement between their countries. Later as a result of a peace treaty concluded in 1979, Egypt b became the first Arab nation to recognize the nation of Israel. In return, Israel withdrew its troops from the Sinai territory taken from Egypt in the Six- Day War of 1967. The treaty was opposed by the Palestine LIBeration Organization and most of the Arab World, but it proved the first step in the long road to a negotiated peace in the Middle East.
Little Rock Crisis
In Arkansas in 1956, Governor Orval Faubus used the state's National Guard to prevent nine African American students from entering Little Rock Central High School, as ordered by a federal court. President Eisenhower then intervened. While the president did not actively support desegregation or the Brown decision, he understood his constitutional duty to uphold federal authority. Eisenhower ordered federal troops to stand guard in Little Rock and protect black students. Resistance remained stubborn. Ten years after the Supreme Court decision, less than 2 percent of blacks in the South attended integrated schools.
Berlin Wall
In August 1961, the East Germans, with Soviet backing, built a wall around West Berlin. Its purpose was to stop East Germans from fleeing to West Germany. As the wall was being built, Soviet and US tanks faced off in Berlin. In 1963, the president traveled to West Berlin to assure its residents of continuing US support. To cheering crowds, he proclaimed: "Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put up a wall to keep our people in... As a free man, I take pride in the words, I am a Berliner." The ____ stood as a gloomy symbol of the Cold War until it was torn down by rebellious East Germans in 1989.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
In August 1964, President Johnson and Congress took a fateful turn in policy. Johnson made use of a naval incident in the ____________ off Vietnam's coast to secure congressional authorization for US forces going into combat. Allegedly North Vietnamese gunboats had fired on US warships in the _________. The president persuaded Congress that this aggressive act was sufficient reason for a military response by the US. Congress voted its approval of the _________, which basically gave the president, as a commander in chief, a blank check to take "all necessary measures" to protect US interests in Vietnam. Critics later called the full- scale use of US forces in Vietnam an illegal war, because the war was not declared by Congress, as the Constitution requires. Until 1968, most Americans supported the effort to contain communism in Southeast Asia. Johnson was caught in a political dilemma to which there was no good solution. If he pulled out, he would be seen as weak and lose public support.
Brown Decision
In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, they argued that segregation of black children in the public schools was unconstitutional because it violated the 14th Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection of the laws." The Supreme Court agreed with Marshall and overturned the Plessy case. Writing for a unanimous Court, Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled that (1) "separate facilities are inherently unequal and unconstitutional, and (2) school segregation should end with "all deliberate speed."
Korean War
In June 1950, the North Korean army surprised the world, possibly even Moscow, y invading South Korea, Truman took immediate action, applying his containment policy to this latest crisis in Asia. He called for a special session of the UN Security Council. The Security Council under US leadership authorized a UN force to defend South Korea against the invaders. US troops made up most of the UN forces sent to help the South Korean army. Congress supported the us of US troops in the Korean crisis but failed to declare war, accepting Truman's characterization of Us intervention as merely a "police action." At first the war in Korea went badly, as the North Koreans pushed the combined South Korean and American forces to the tip of the peninsula. General MacArthur reversed the war with a brilliant amphibious assault at Inchon behind the North Korean lines. UN forces then proceeded to destroy much of the North Korean lines. UN forces then proceeded to destroy much of the North Korean army, advancing northward almost as far as the Chinese border. MacArthur failed to heed China's warnings that it would resist threats to its security. Masses of Chinese troops crossed the border into Korea, overwhelmed UN forces in one of the worst defeats in US military history, and drove them out of North Korea. Truman's containment policy in Korea worked. It stopped Communist aggression without allowing the conflict to develop into a world war. The Truman administration used the Korean War as justification for dramatically expanding the military, funding a new jet bomber, and stationing more US troops in overseas bases. Republicans were far from satisfied. The stalemate in Korea and the loss of China led Republicans to characterize Truman and the Democrats as "soft on communism." They attacked leading Democrats as members of "Dean Acheson's Cowardly College of Communist Containment."
Military Industrial Complex
In his farewell address as president, Eisenhower spoke out against the negative impact of the Cold War on US society. He warned the nation to "guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the _____." If the outgoing president was right, the arms race was taking on a momentum and logic all its own. The US was in danger of going down the path of ancient Rome by turning into a military, or imperial, state.
Ford's Pardon
In his first month in office, President Ford lost the goodwill of many by granting Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crime that he might have committed. The pardon was extended even before any formal charges or indictment had been made by a court of law. Ford was accused of making a "corrupt bargain" with Nixon but he explained that the purpose of the pardon was to end the "national nightmare" instead of prolonging it for months, if not years. Critics were angered that the full truth of Nixon's deeds never came out.
Warren Court
In the 1960s the ______ made a series of decisions that profoundly affected the criminal justice system, state political systems, and the definition of individual rights. Before Warren's tenure as chief justice, the Supreme Court had concentrated on protecting property rights. During and after his tenure, the Court focused more on protecting individual rights. Several decisions of the _____ concerned a defendant's rights.
Cuban Missile Crisis
The most dangerous challenge from the Soviets came in October 1962. US reconnaissance planes discovered that the Russians were building underground sites in Cuba for the launching of offensive missiles that could reach the US in minutes. Kennedy responded by announcing to the world that he was setting up a naval blockade of Cuba until the weapons were removed. A full- scale nuclear war between the superpowers seemed likely if Soviet ships challenged the US naval blockade. After days of tension, Khrushchev finally agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba in exchange for Kennedy's pledge not to invade the island nation and to later remove some US missiles from Turkey. The ________ had a sobering effect on both sides. Soon afterward, a telecommunications hotline was established between Washington and Moscow to make it possible for the leaders of the two countries to talk directly during a crisis. The Soviet Union and the US- along with nearly 100 other nations- signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to end the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. This first step in controlling the testing of nuclear arms was offset by a round in the arms race for developing missile and warhead superiority.
Highway Act of 1956
The most permanent legacy of the Eisenhower years was the passage of this, which authorized the construction of 42,000 miles of interstate highways linking all the nation's major cities. When completed, the US highway system became a model for the rest of the world. The justification for new taxes on fuel, tires, and vehicles was to improve national defense. At the same time, this immense public works project created jobs, promoted the trucking industry, accelerated the growth of the suburbs, and contributed to a more homogeneous national culture. The emphasis on trucks and highways, hurt the railroads and ultimately the environment. Little attention was paid to public transportation, on which the old and the poor depended.
Taft- Hartley Act
The one purpose of the Republican- sponsored law was to check the growing power of unions. Its provisions included: -Outlawing the closed shop (contract requiring workers to join a union before being hired) -Permitting states to pass "right to work" laws outlawing the union shop (contract requiring workers to join a union after being hired) -Outlawing secondary boycotts (the practice of several unions supporting a striking union by joining a boycott of a company's products) -Giving the president the power to invoke an 80- day cooling- off period before a strike endangering the national safety could be called. The act became a major issue dividing Republicans and Democrats.
New Frontier Programs
The promises of the _________ proved difficult to keep. Kennedy called for aid to education, federal support of health care, urban renal, and civil rights, but his domestic programs languished in Congress. While few of Kennedy's proposals became law during his thousand day administration, most were passed later under President Johnson. On economic issues Kennedy faced down big steel executives over a price increase he charged was inflationary and achieved a price rollback. The economy was stimulated by increased spending for defense and space exploration, as the president committed the nation to land on the moon by the end of the decade.
CORE
The radicalism of Malcolm X influenced the thinking of young blacks in civil rights organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and _______.
Hawks vs. Doves
The supporters of the war, the "hawks," believed that the war was an act of Soviet- backed Communist aggression against South Vietnam and that it was part of a master plan to conquer all of Southeast Asia. The opponents of the war, the "doves," viewed the conflict as a civil war fought by Vietnamese nationalists and some Communists who wanted to unite their country by overthrowing a corrupt Saigon government. Some Americans opposed the war because of the cost in lives and money. They believed the millions spent in Vietnam could be better spent on the problems of the cities and the poor in the US. By far the greatest opposition came from students on college campuses who, after graduation, would become eligible to be drafted into the military and shipped off to Vietnam. In November 1967, the antiwar movement was given a political leader when scholarly Senator Eugene F. McCarthy of Minnesota became the first antiwar advocate to challenge Johnson for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination.
U-2 incident
Two weeks before the planned meeting in Paris, the Russians shot down a high- altitude US spy plane over the Soviet Union. The incident exposed a secret US tactic for gaining information. After its open- skier proposals had been rejected by the Soviets in 1955, the US had decided to conduct regular spy flights over Soviet territory to find out about its enemy's missile program. Eisenhower took full responsibility for the flights- after they were exposed by the ________- but his honesty probed to be a diplomatic mistake. Khrushchev denounced the US and walked out of the Paris summit to temporarily end the thaw in the Cold War.
Rosenbergs
When the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb in 1949, many Americans were convinced that spies had helped them to steal the technology from the United States. Klaus Fuchs, a British scientist who had worked on the Manhattan project, admitted giving A-bomb secrets to the Russians. An FBI investigation traced another spy ring to Julius and Ethel _______ in New York. After a controversial trial in 1951, the ______ were found guilty of treason and executed in 1953. Civil rights groups charged that anticommunist hysteria was responsible for the conviction and punishments of the _______.