Cold War Terms (military complex until end)

Southern Manifesto

A southern document signed by more than a hundred southern politicians. Stated that the states could nullify fed laws that they didn't like and pressured southern states to ignore and reject the Brown decision.

Little Rock Central High SChool

AK gov'na (Orval Faubus) defied fed law and used the AK nat'l guard to keep black students from entering little rock central high. Ike sends fed troops to ensure that the Nine go to school. Faubus closes the schools in the county the next year in an act of defiance.

Sputnik

In October 1957, the Soviet Union surprised the world by launching Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth. The resulting outcry in the United States, especially fears that the Soviets were ahead in both space exploration and military missiles, forced the Eisenhower administration to increase defense spending and accelerate America's space program.

Rosenbergs

Julie and Ethel Rosenberg were charged with spying for the Soviet Union and found guilty of treason in 1951 and sentenced to death.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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)

Jackie Robinson

the first african american player in the major league of baseball. his actions helped to bring about other opportunities for african americans.

Thurgood Marshall

American civil rights lawyer, first black justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Marshall was a tireless advocate for the rights of minorities and the poor.

U2 Incident/ Francis Gary Powers

Under Eisenhower administration just before the "summit conference" in Paris scheduled for May 1960, the American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia. Eisenhower was forced to step up and assume personal responsibility for the incident. Francis Gary Powers was the pilot that was captured by the Russians but returned. Incident kept Khrushchev from meeting with Eisenhower.

Interstate highway act of 1956

- Most expensive program in history - 41000 mile system- accelerated suburban growth, heightened dependency of vehicles, hastened decline of nation's rails, pollution, gas consumption, decay of central cities

Joseph McCarthy/ wheeling, WV Speech

1950-54; starting with his speech in Wheeling, WV in Feb 1950, in which he claimed to have a list of 205 names of commies in the State Dept, he became a political powerhouse by exploiting and increasing Amer's fear of the "Communist Menace"; his lies & innuendo destroyed many lives & careers until his reign of terror came to an end after the televised Army-McCarthy Hearings of 1954

Military Industrial Complex

In Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell speech to the nation the retiring president warned of the dangers of allowing a Military-Industrial Complex to take control of the United States. The Military-Industrial Complex is a term that denotes a symbiotic relationship between a nation's military, economy, and politics. The idea being that if the military becomes the biggest client for manufacturers then the nation will begin to invest more of its economy into military contracts. Politically, this leads to national budgets being heavily weighed in the military's favor in order to support the economic stability that this relationship seems to create.