Cold War ID

Vietnamization

Nixon's policy for the gradual removal of our troops as we turn the war over to the South Vietnamese

NSC-68

1950- National Security Council - 68th directive; changes containment from economic to militaristic; will fund fighting against communism with money and arms all around the world

Interstate System

A system of 42,000 miles of highways authorized by Eisenhower that connected the US's major cities; the construction created thousands of jobs in public service; while promoting the trucking industry, it caused a decrease in the use of railroads and public transportation

Domino Theory

A theory stating that if one country fell to communism then more and more nations would fall to communism. Eisenhower used this to justify the aid given to South Vietnam during his presidency.

Civil Rights Act of 1965

prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, etc.; makes it illegal to segregate public places

Malcolm X

used to be a drug dealer, pimp, drug addict, etc.; father was killed in front of him as a kid by the KKK and the police never did anything about it, developed hatred for whites; Said blacks' destiny relied on self-defense, not non-violence; preached black separatism

Supply-side/Trickle Down economics

"Reaganomics" Reagan's philosophy about trying to fix the economy; tax cuts and cuts in government spending, which largely benefited the rich and a few profits "trickled down" to the lower classes

Marshall Plan

1947- US loaned Western European countries money to rebuild economy to keep Communism from taking root and spreading; plan of Secretary of State George Marshall

Truman Doctrine

1948- expands Marshall Plan to the rest of Europe and basically the whole world; preventing communism from spreading anywhere; provided weapons, money, etc. to countries in need (Greece, Turkey); containment policy

Bay of Pigs

1959-America starts training Cuban refugees to overthrow Castro (end of Eisenhower's admin.). Kennedy takes office and is informed of the situation. He takes away air support that had been offered because he didn't want to give USSR an excuse to attack US. 1961-attack fails, app. 1300 refugees/soldiers killed or captured (total force sent)

Camp David Accords

1978; these accords set the framework for a peace settlement between Israel and Egypt; Jimmy Carter set up this negotiation at Camp David

Nixon

37th President; VP under Eisenhower, made the VP office a high visibility platform and base for presidential candidacy; noted for his diplomatic foreign policy, especially détente with the Soviet Union and China, and ending the Vietnam War; he was the first American Pres. to go to China; also noted for his middle-of-the-road domestic policy that combined conservative rhetoric and, in many cases, liberal action, as in his environmental policy; imposed wage and price controls, indexed Social Security, created SSI; but infamous for the Watergate scandal, in which he spied on and attempted to sabotage Democratic presidential candidates; he resigned before he could be removed from office

Brinksmanship

The policy or practice, especially in international politics and foreign policy, of pushing a dangerous situation to the brink of disaster in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome by forcing the opposition to make concessions; During the Cold War, the threat of nuclear force was often used as such a deterrent

Vietnam War

US involvement in Vietnam started out as economic support and military advisory for the South. By the time of Kennedy's death there were 15,000 American troops in South Vietnam. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution led to an increase in American force in Vietnam. US fought the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) and the Vietcong. The Communists had home field advantage and most of the American soldiers were very young and inexperienced. The Tet Offensive in Jan. 1968 largely turned American public opinion against the war. In 1970 Nixon ordered bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia. This greatly angered many Americans and spawned many riots. Ground troops are withdrawn by 1973 but there are military advisors there until 1975 when Saigon finally falls to the Communists.

Vietcong

A guerilla force that fought against the US in the Vietnam War; they usually fought in small groups at night and would act as simple farmers during the day; nicknamed (Victor) Charlie; used booby traps and tunnel systems

Massive Retaliation

A military doctrine in which an entity commits itself to retaliate in much greater force in the event of an attack; aim is to deter an adversary from performing the initial attack; must be publicly announced and the adversary must believe that the entity announcing it has the capability and will to do it for it to work; this doctrine basically applied between the US and the USSR

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

After the "incident" in the Tonkin Gulf, LBJ persuaded Congress to take aggressive measures. This resolution basically said LBJ could do whatever was necessary to protect the country's interests in Vietnam.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Baptist minister and political activist who was the most famous leader of the American civil rights movement; youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace prize; renowned for his effective nonviolent strategies; organized a massive march on Washington, DC in 1963; was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis

Iran-Contra

Mid-1980s scandal in the US; Reagan's administration sold arms to Iran, an avowed enemy, at which time Americans were being held hostage in Lebanon by a militant Shi'a organization loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini; the money from the arms sold to Iran was then going to be funneled to the Contras fighting in Nicaragua; Congress didn't approve and the plan was discovered; Reagan claimed he thought it was the right thing to do, but he understood how the American people might think differently

Civil Rights act of 1964

Banned racial discrimination in most private facilities open to the public, including theaters, hospitals, and restaurants; also strengthened the federal governments power to end segregation in schools

détente

A policy developed during the Cold War; French for "relaxation"; Nixon helped usher in an era of détente with his visits to China and his talks with the USSR; relaxed relations, due to physical needs of both countries, technology arms race, and shock waves of Vietnam

Fidel Castro

Castro has been the Pres. of Cuba since 1976. When he overthrew Batista, Castro transformed Cuba into the first Communist state in the Western Hemisphere. When he declared his intentions not to have free and democratic elections and publicly declared his Marxist-Leninist inclinations shortly after assuming power, the Soviet Union became a sort of ally with Cuba and the US worried about the Communists on their doorsteps. Castro's reign has left the Cuban economy in shambles with deteriorating infrastructure.

Warren Court

Chief Justice Earl Warren was elevated to the Supreme Court by Eisenhower. He often used active judicial intervention to tackle social issues, largely civil rights. The Brown vs. Board of Education of Kansas case was during his time on the court.

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of North Vietnam; had worked since Wilson's time to try and gain Vietnam's independence

Korean War

InvasionJune 25, 1950 North Korean forces invaded South Korea, after a year the war stalemates, but we reached our goal of containing communism and not letting it spread into SK

OPEC

In 1960, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela joined to form the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. This organization largely controls oil exports around the world.

Sit-In (Greensboro)

In Dec 1960, four African-American students sat down at a segregated lunch counter in a Greensboro, NC Woolworth's; they were refused service but stayed at the counter; this touched off sit-ins and economic boycotts around the American civil rights movement; more and more people came, both blacks and whites, to sit-in at the lunch counter; 6 months after the sit-ins began, Woolworth's was forced to desegregate and the initial 4 protesters were served lunch at the Woolworth's counter

Watergate

Men connected with Pres. Nixon are caught breaking into the Democratic national headquarters in the Watergate complex. As Nixon's involvement was revealed, he resigned in order to avoid impeachment.

New Frontier

Kennedy's campaign slogan about domestic issues; called for aid to education, federal support of health care, urban renewal, and civil rights; the Conservative Congress during his administration made it difficult to pass some of these measures

Khrushchev

Leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin; the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Council of Ministers; he became prime minister in 1958; was the leader of USSR during the Cuban Missile Crisis; he promoted reform of the Soviet system and began to place an emphasis on the production of consumer goods rather than heavy industry; died in 1971

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration; agency established in 1958, responsible for the public space program and long-term civilian and military aerospace research; after the Soviet program's launch of Sputnik, the US attended to its own fledgling space efforts; Eisenhower signed the act to establish NASA in July 1958

NOW

National Organization for Women; Civil rights group; Campaigned against gender discrimination; Lobbied for equal opportunity; Filed lawsuits against gender discrimination; Mobilized public opinions to bring American women into full participation in mainstream American Society

Cuban Missile Crisis

US Reconnaissance planes start showing pictures of (nuclear) missile bases being built in rural places of Cuba, Kennedy goes with quarantine, which is the non-military term for blockade, Khrushchev recalls boats, agrees to remove missiles from Cuba; we agree not to attack Cuba, let it remain communist

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference; a civil rights organization founded in Jan 1957, headed by Martin Luther King, Jr.; it was a manifestation of the belief that a wider organization could be built upon the success of the bus boycott; focused on non-violent civil disobedience and believed that it could use that to gain civil rights

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Political protest campaign in 1955 against Montgomery's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system; started off with Rosa Parks refusing to move to the segregated section and being arrested; the boycott proved extremely effective, with enough riders lost to the city transit system to cause serious economic distress; Martin Luther King Jr. also played an important role; In June 1956, the federal district court ruled Alabama's racial segregation laws for buses unconstitutional; the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, who upheld the lower court's ruling

LBJ

Pres 36; major leader of the Democratic Party, responsible for the passage of key civil rights legislation and Medicare as well as the acceleration of the war in Vietnam (some of this legislation was from Kennedy that didn't get passed before his death); Great Society program was his agenda for Congress: aid education, attack disease, institute Medicare, renewal of urban areas; strong advocate of the Space program; faced with huge opposition to Vietnam, he chose not to seek re-election in '68

Kennedy

Pres. 35; noted for his failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Race, etc; proposed the New Frontier, which included an increase in education funding, more spending on public housing, and reducing the income tax; supported the containment policy of preventing Communist expansion; supported the space race; he was assassinated in Nov 1963.

George Wallace

Ran in the pres. election of 1968 as the candidate of the American Independent party; Wallace was racist, against desegregation

John Foster Dulles

Secretary of State under Eisenhower; he advocated an aggressive stance against communism around the world during the Cold War; supported France in their war against the Viet Minh in Indochina; a pioneer of brinksmanship; was instrumental in forming Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)

SDI

Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed "Star Wars"; Reagan's plan to put satellites up in space with "lasers" able to intercept intercontinental missiles; the project was very expensive and the technology wasn't developed; however, the Soviets were pressured into trying to keep up

SDS

Students for a Democratic Society began as an antipoverty and antiwar group but by the 70s the group spawned an underground terrorist group called the Weathermen.

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was built around West Berlin by the Soviets in 1961. Kennedy did nothing to stop the completion of the wall. 1989-1990 the wall finally came down and Germany was reunited

H.U.D

US Dept of House and Urban Development; a Cabinet dept of the US government, founded in 1965 by LBJ to develop and execute policy on housing and cities