history unit 5

Mikhail Gorbachev

. Anticipating his reelection campaign in 1984, Reagan began to moderate his position toward the Soviet Union, largely at the initiative of his new counterpart, this man. The new and comparatively young Soviet premier did not want to commit additional funds for another arms race, especially since the war in Afghanistan against mujahedeen—Islamic guerilla fighters—had depleted the Soviet Union's resources severely since its invasion of the central Asian nation in 1979. He recognized that economic despair at home could easily result in larger political upheavals like those in neighboring Poland, where the Solidarity movement had taken hold. He withdrew troops from Afghanistan, introduced political reforms and new civil liberties at home—known as perestroika and glasnost—and proposed arms reduction talks with the United States. In 1985, he and Reagan met in Geneva to reduce armaments and shrink their respective military budgets. The following year, meeting in Reykjavík, Iceland, they surprised the world by announcing that they would try to eliminate nuclear weapons by 1996. In 1987, they agreed to eliminate a whole category of nuclear weapons when they signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at the White House. This laid the foundation for future agreements limiting nuclear weapons. In Budapest in 1956 and in Prague in 1968, the Soviet Union had restored order through a large show of force. That this didn't happen in 1989 was an indication to all that the Soviet Union was itself collapsing. Bush's refusal to gloat or declare victory helped him maintain the relationship with him that Reagan had established. In July 1991, him and Bush signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which committed their countries to reducing their nuclear arsenals by 25 percent. A month later, attempting to stop the changes begun by his reforms, Communist Party hardliners tried to remove him from power. Protests arose throughout the Soviet Union, and by December 1991, the nation had collapsed. In January 1992, twelve former Soviet republics formed the Commonwealth of Independent States to coordinate trade and security measures. The Cold War was over. 1985: he became Soviet leader. Younger, somewhat more modern than predecessors. Recognized the USSR was an economic basket case. Sought to modernize the USSR's economy without abandoning socialist goals. His policies of glasnost & perestroika brought wide acclaim in West. His policies of glasnost & perestroika made him more popular in the West than in Russia. Major arms treaty in 1987 reduced each nation's supply of intermediate-range missiles & allowed for on-site verification, which Soviets had never before permitted. In 1988, he scrapped the policy that forbade any nation under Soviet influence from renouncing communism. Appearing at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, Reagan encouraged him to go further: indicating the hated Cold War symbol behind him, Reagan repeated, "Mr. _______, tear down this wall!" He allowed free movement from East Germany into Czechoslovakia.

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

1960: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, & Venezuela had formed this. Later members include Algeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Libya, Qatar, Nigeria, & the United Arab Emirates. 1974: in response to U.S. aid to Israel, this staged an oil embargo. The price of a barrel of oil quadrupled & gas prices shot up (to over 50 cents a gallon!). An economic organization consisting primarily of Arab nations that controls the price of oil and the amount of oil its members produce and sell to other nations.

Apollo 8

1968, U.S.; is first manned spacecraft to orbit the Moon; makes 10 orbits on 6-day mission. A tragic launchpad fire in January 1967 had killed three astronauts. NASA retooled & by fall, 1968, was ready to resume flights. This became the first manned space flight to leave Earth orbit & travel to the moon. Coming at the end of a year in which everything seemed to be falling apart, the success of this was a welcome relief. Time named the astronauts its "Men of the Year". For the first time, humans got to see their fragile world from a distance. This was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first to reach the Moon, orbit it, and return.

Richard Nixon

:Nowhere was Kennedy's style more evident than in the first televised presidential debate held on September 23, 1960, between him and his Republican opponent Vice President ________. Seventy million viewers watched the debate on television; millions more heard it on the radio. Radio listeners judged this man the winner, whereas those who watched the debate on television believed the more telegenic Kennedy made the better showing. In the end, Kennedy won the election by the closest margin since 1888, defeating this man with only 0.01 percent more of the record sixty-seven million votes cast. His victory in the Electoral College was greater: 303 electoral votes to this man's 219. Launched in 1973 with a $250,000 contribution from Joseph Coors (of Coors Brewing Company) and support from a variety of corporations and conservative foundations, the Heritage Foundation sought to counteract what conservatives believed to be his acceptance of a liberal consensus on too many issues. He had first used the term in 1971, but in the 1980s the "war on drugs" took on an ominous dimension, as politicians scrambled over each other to enact harsher sentences for drug offenses so they could market themselves as tough on crime. State after state switched from variable to mandatory minimum sentences that were exceedingly long and particularly harsh for street drug crimes. Delegates nominated him. He had come back after bitter defeat in California governor's race in 1962. Still not personally liked or popular, but had paid his dues. GOP had no one else any more credible after Goldwater debacle of 1964. Wallace, despite being a life-long Demo- crat, was actually more conservative than him. He prevailed in a close race. Under him, negotiations had begun to reduce ballistic missiles & nuclear warheads. Ford always maintained, probably correctly, that his pardon of this man cost him the election. Carter inherited severe economic problems from him & Ford. Building on his opening, Carter established formal relations with the People's Republic of China. Reagan was a much more popular President than him. Some felt the country could not handle an impeachment & trial so soon after Watergate. He seemed to thrive on personal challenges. Expected to tame a media that had long bedeviled him. Insecure & paranoid, Nixon saw only two kinds of people: supporters & enemies. His presidency coincided with economic problems unthinkable only a decade earlier. Under him, the federal government's spending for social welfare programs actually rose. He proposed a Family Assistance Plan: give all families a guaranteed annual income. His administration established the Environ- mental Protection Agency. Nixon signed major environmental legislations. By 1971, he had appointed 3 new justices & a new chief justice, Warren Burger. He was mostly interested in foreign affairs. He pursued a policy called "Vietnamization". This was called the _______ Doctrine. He ordered secret (illegal) bombings of the trail in Cambodia. He orders open attack on Cambodia. Two months later, he withdrew U.S. troops from Cambodia. North Vietnamese stepped up attacks again. He ordered massive retaliatory air strikes. The "Christmas bombings" appalled the world. Thanks to his diplomacy, neither China nor Russia stepped in to help their Vietnamese allies. His bombing rampage eventually forced the North Vietnamese to negotiate seriously. Both sides agreed to a cease-fire as of 23 January 1973. Rather than his promised "Peace with honor," this was a thinly-disguised American retreat. He had been raised as a Quaker but had no discernible religious inclinations. Thin-skinned, awkward, never comfortable as a campaigner. Disliked making small talk & "pressing the flesh". Relied heavily on his staff to handle domestic policy, which mostly bored him. Even so, seemed a good bet for re-election in '72. He was opposed by George McGovern (Democrat), Senator from S. Dakota. 17 June 1972: five men working for CREEP were caught breaking into Democratic Headquarters. He brushed it aside, claimed no knowledge of it. November 1972: He won in a landslide. He, who had explicitly denied participation in or knowledge of the burglary, refused to give Congress the tapes. He was obliged to admit that subordinates had participated in the cover-up, but denied personal knowledge of it. According to the new 25th Amendment, he submitted a name to Congress to approve as the new vice president. "Saturday Night Massacre". He ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Richardson refused & tendered his own resignation, as did the Deputy Attorney General. Eventually Robert Bork agreed to do the dirty work. Congress was incensed & accused him of abusing power. His support was seriously eroding, even among his fellow Republicans. 17 Nov. 1973: addressing the Saturday Night Massacre & a number of other charges, including his personal income taxes, he gave a famous speech to the nation. In it, he made a claim that most Americans were astonished needed to be made. It was revealed that secret bombing raids had been taking place in Cambodia— a neutral nation— since March 1969, two months after he took office. His administration had repeatedly claimed Cambodia's neutrality was being respected. Public distrust of him— & of government in general—soared to new heights. War Powers Resolution: requires president to report any commitment of U.S. troops to Congress within 48 hours. He vetoed it, & Congress over-rode his veto. Court said he had to give all tapes to Congress. Those already released revealed his habitual foul language, anti-Semitism, & general paranoia. The House approved its first article of impeachment, for obstruction of justice. He was designated an "unindicted co-conspirator". He finally released the three most damaging tapes. Proved he had known of the break-in within days & had ordered the cover-up. Facing certain impeachment & conviction, he resigned. Ford seen as honest, decent, but not too bright. When he issued a full pardon to him a month after taking office, many felt it was a pre-arranged "deal".

Emmitt Till

A 14-year-old African American from Chicago, was visiting relatives near Money, Mississippi in the summer of '54. Large for his age, he either whistled at or propositioned a petite white woman working alone at a general store. Within a few days, he was dead. Two white men were charged with his murder, but quickly acquitted by an all-white jury. Afterward, protected under the doctrine of double jeopardy, they gave an interview in which they admitted beating & shooting him, then throwing his body, weighted with a 70-lb fan, into the Tallahatchie river. The radical conservative groups claimed he was still alive in order to scare people.

Silent Spring

A book written to voice the concerns of environmentalists. Launched the environmentalist movement by pointing out the effects of civilization development. Written by Rachel Carson. It called only for "more responsible use" of pesticides. Her book's title alluded to a future in which no birds were left to sing.

Equal Rights Amendment

A constitutional amendment originally introduced in Congress in 1923 and passed by Congress in 1972, stating that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Despite public support, the amendment failed to acquire the necessary support from three-fourths of the state legislatures. In 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) formed and proceeded to set an agenda for the feminist movement. Framed by a statement of purpose written by Friedan, the agenda began by proclaiming NOW's goal to make possible women's participation in all aspects of American life and to gain for them all the rights enjoyed by men. Among the specific goals was the passage of this (yet to be adopted). The ultimate political goal of the National Organization for Women (NOW) was the passage of this. The amendment passed Congress in March 1972, and was sent to the states for ratification with a deadline of seven years for passage; if the amendment was not ratified by thirty-eight states by 1979, it would die. Twenty-two states ratified this in 1972, and eight more in 1973. In the next two years, only four states voted for the amendment. In 1979, still four votes short, the amendment received a brief reprieve when Congress agreed to a three-year extension, but it never passed, as the result of the well-organized opposition of Christian and other socially conservative, grassroots organizations. For example, as governor of California, one of the states that ratified this in its first year, he positioned himself as a supporter of the amendment. When he launched his bid for the Republican nomination in 1976, however, he withdrew his support to gain the backing of more conservative members of his party. This move demonstrated both political savvy and foresight. At the time he withdrew his support, the Republican National Convention was still officially backing the amendment. However, in 1980, the party began to qualify its stance, which dovetailed with Reagan's candidacy for the White House. National Organization for Women backed this. Passed by Congress but not ratified by enough states. Women still faced a slow slog toward equal rights.

Daisy Ad

A controversial political advertisement aired on television during the 1964 United States presidential election by incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign. Though only aired once (by the campaign), it is considered a factor in Johnson's landslide victory over Barry Goldwater and an important turning point in political and advertising history. It remains one of the most controversial political advertisements ever made. This, shown once, painted Goldwater as too extreme to be let near the nuclear arsenal. Shows a little girl counting the petals on a daisy, then she hears another loud countdown, then the world blows up from a nuclear bomb.

Perestroika

A policy initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev that involved restructuring of the social and economic status quo in communist Russia towards a market based economy and society. Gorbachev recognized that economic despair at home could easily result in larger political upheavals like those in neighboring Poland, where the Solidarity movement had taken hold. He withdrew troops from Afghanistan, introduced political reforms and new civil liberties at home—known as this and glasnost—and proposed arms reduction talks with the United States. Gorbachev's policies of glasnost & this brought wide acclaim in West. This meant "restructuring," a (slight) move toward free-market economics. Gorbachev's policies of glasnost & this made him more popular in the West than in Russia.

Glasnost

A policy of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev which called for more openness with the nations of West, and a relaxing of restraints on Soviet citizenry. Anticipating his reelection campaign in 1984, Reagan began to moderate his position toward the Soviet Union, largely at the initiative of his new counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev recognized that economic despair at home could easily result in larger political upheavals like those in neighboring Poland, where the Solidarity movement had taken hold. He withdrew troops from Afghanistan, introduced political reforms and new civil liberties at home—known as perestroika and this—and proposed arms reduction talks with the United States. In 1985, Gorbachev and Reagan met in Geneva to reduce armaments and shrink their respective military budgets. Gorbachev's policies of this & perestroika brought wide acclaim in West. This meant "openness," a relaxing of censorship & repression of free speech. Gorbachev's policies of this & perestroika made him more popular in the West than in Russia.

environmentalism

A social movement dedicated to protecting the earth's life support systems for us and other species. Green Party is a political party founded in 1984 that advocates for this and grassroots democracy. There were growing concerns about effects of pesticides, air pollution, industrial pollution of water supplies, atomic testing, & the proliferation of nuclear power plants. The Environmental Defense Fund created in 1967, & first Earth Day celebrated in 1970. 1973: Nixon administration established the Environ- mental Protection Agency. By the late 60s, air quality in major cities was often worse, & a severe health hazard for adults as well as children. Many communities had no restrictions on open burning of hazardous materials. Those which did often failed to enforce them. Older Americans remember the smell of burning leaves as a normal part of Autumn. Nixon signed major environmental legislation: Resources Recovery Act of 1970, Clean Air Act of 1970, Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, Pesticides Control Act of 1972, Endangered Species Act of 1973.

The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

A telephone "hot line" was installed, linking Washington and Moscow to avert future crises, and in 1963, Kennedy and Khrushchev signed this, prohibiting tests of nuclear weapons in Earth's atmosphere. This, banning these in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Under Water, treaty signed in Moscow on August 5, 1963, by the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom that banned all testsof nuclear weapons except those conducted underground. This banned nuclear-weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater but permitted underground testing and required no control posts, no on-site inspection, and no international supervisory body. It did not reduce nuclear stockpiles, halt the production of nuclear weapons, or restrict their use in time of war. Within a few months of signing by the three original parties in August 1963, the treaty was signed by more than 100 other governments, notable exceptions being France and China. The three original parties to the treaty, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union (and its successor, Russia), have the power to veto treaty amendments. Any amendmentmust be approved by a majority of all the signatory states, including all three of the original parties.

Domino Theory

A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control. Neither Eisenhower nor Kennedy wanted to see communist expansion. As a result, both presidents sent in CIA officials & other advisors to prop up the Ngo Diem government (12,000 by 1962). It was a theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s that posited that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a such a manner.

Agent Orange

A toxic leaf-killing chemical sprayed by U.S. planes in Vietnam to expose Vietcong hideouts. South Viet Nam's official army known as the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN). Since the Vietnamese were all of one ethnicity, it was extremely difficult for U.S. forces to distinguish ARVN allies from PAVN or Viet Cong enemies. Introduction of more & more ground troops. Search & destroy missions against communist forces. Increased bombing. Use of this & napalm to char both foliage & people. It is a herbicide and defoliant chemical, one of the "tactical use" Rainbow Herbicides. It is widely known for its use by the U.S. military as part of its chemical warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971.

Baby Boomers

Although change naturally occurred, as it does in every era, it was slow and greeted warily. By the 1960s, however, the pace of change had quickened and its scope broadened, as restive and energetic waves of World War II veterans and these of both sexes and all ethnicities began to make their influence felt politically, economically, and culturally. By the 1960s, a generation of white Americans raised in prosperity and steeped in the culture of conformity of the 1950s had come of age. However, many of these (those born between 1946 and 1964) rejected the conformity and luxuries that their parents had provided. These young, middle-class Americans, especially those fortunate enough to attend college when many of their working-class and African American contemporaries were being sent to Vietnam, began to organize to fight for their own rights and end the war that was claiming the lives of so many. Meanwhile, many raised in this environment of affluence, streamed into universities across the nation in unprecedented numbers looking to "find" themselves. Instead, they found traditional systems that forced them to take required courses, confined them to rigid programs of study, and surrounded them with rules limiting what they could do in their free time. These young people were only too willing to take up Kennedy's call to action, and many did so by joining the civil rights movement. To them, it seemed only right for the children of the "greatest generation" to help those less privileged to fight battles for justice and equality. The more radical aligned themselves with the New Left, activists of the 1960s who rejected the staid liberalism of the Democratic Party. New Left organizations sought reform in areas such as civil rights and women's rights, campaigned for free speech and more liberal policies toward drug use, and condemned the war in Vietnam. During the 1960s, many people rejected traditional roles and expectations. Influenced and inspired by the civil rights movement, college students of this generation and women of all ages began to fight to secure a stronger role in American society. As members of groups like SDS and NOW asserted their rights and strove for equality for themselves and others, they upended many accepted norms and set groundbreaking social and legal changes in motion. Many of their successes continue to be felt today, while other goals remain unfulfilled. This generation peaked in 1957 with just over 4.3 million births; even with a growing population, live births in a given year did not exceed this number for half a century; in 2007, the U.S. finally set a new record for most babies born in a year. Although the rate per 1000 women declined sharply, the larger U.S. population led to a "----- boomlet" of births in the late 70s & 80s, as boomers themselves had children. This generation affected the U.S. economy for decades to come. Women quickly abandoned the workplace to return to the home. Demand grew for diaper services & baby foods. By the late 1940s, new schools, classrooms & teachers were desperately needed. By the early 1960s, college enrollments soared. By the 1950s, this meant staying at home was socially expected— & harder to resist. By 1964, the first of this generation were 18 years old. A relatively pampered generation that challenged the dominant ideals of the 50's & early 60's. A "generation gap" began to widen. Journalists came to talk of a war at home between "hawks" & "doves". Students pushed for greater freedom & more "relevance" in educational offerings. Many white college students from the North became active in the civil rights movement. Bitter strife rocked campuses over Vietnam after 1965.

napalm

American and South Vietnamese use of this, a jellied gasoline that sticks to the objects it burns, was common. Originally developed to burn down structures during World War II, in Vietnam, it was directed against human beings as well, as had occurred during the Korean War. Since the Vietnamese were all of one ethnicity, it was extremely difficult for U.S. forces to distinguish ARVN allies from PAVN or Viet Cong enemies. Introduction of more & more ground troops. Search & destroy missions against communist forces. Increased bombing. Use of Agent Orange & this to char both foliage & people. Pulitzer Prize winning 1972 photograph of 9-year-old Kim Phúc after a attack with this burned her clothes off.

Servicemen's Readjustment Act

By December 1945, the Army alone was discharging a million men per month. Returning GIs were expected to face months of unemployment as factories re-tooled for consumer goods— if they stayed open at all. Congress passed this. Memories of the Bonus Army meant these veterans would be better served. The act was better known as the G.I. Bill. G.I. stood for "government issue" & was common slang for the soldiers themselves. The government offered $20 a week for 52 weeks to veterans seeking work. Less than 20% of the money was ever collected. Instead, veterans took quick advantage of low-interest home loans & education subsidies. This set off a housing boom that jump-started the post-war economy.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Baker pushed for a "participatory Democracy" that built on the grassroots campaigns of active citizens instead of deferring to the leadership of educated elites and experts. As a result of her actions, in April 1960, this formed to carry the battle forward. Within a year, more than one hundred cities had desegregated at least some public accommodations in response to student- led demonstrations. The sit-ins inspired other forms of nonviolent protest intended to desegregate public spaces. "Sleep-ins" occupied motel lobbies, "read-ins" filled public libraries, and churches became the sites of "pray-ins." Students also took part in the 1961 "freedom rides" sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and this. The freedom riders encountered little difficulty until they reached Rock Hill, South Carolina, where a mob severely beat John Lewis, a freedom rider who later became chairman of this. Some of the greatest violence during this era was aimed at those who attempted to register African Americans to vote. In 1964, this, working with other civil rights groups, initiated its Mississippi Summer Project, also known as Freedom Summer. The purpose was to register African American voters in one of the most racist states in the nation. Volunteers also built "freedom schools" and community centers. They invited hundreds of white middle-class students, mostly from the North, to help in the task. Many volunteers were harassed, beaten, and arrested, and African American homes and churches were burned. Three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, were killed by the Ku Klux Klan. That summer, civil rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Robert Parris Moses formally organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) as an alternative to the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party. The Democratic National Convention's organizers, however, would allow only two MFDP delegates to be seated, and they were confined to the roles of nonvoting observers. Black Power meant a variety of things. One of the most famous users of the term was Stokely Carmichael, the chairman of this, who later changed his name to Kwame Ture. For Carmichael, Black Power was the power of African Americans to unite as a political force and create their own institutions apart from white-dominated ones, an idea first suggested in the 1920s by political leader and orator Marcus Garvey. Like Garvey, Carmichael became an advocate of black separatism, arguing that African Americans should live apart from whites and solve their problems for themselves. In keeping with this philosophy, Carmichael expelled their white members. He left them in 1967 and later joined the Black Panthers. Women played significant roles in organizations fighting for civil rights like this and SDS. However, they often found that those organizations, enlightened as they might be about racial issues or the war in Vietnam, could still be influenced by patriarchal ideas of male superiority. Two members of this, Casey Hayden and Mary King, presented some of their concerns about their organization's treatment of women in a document entitled "On the Position of Women in _____." Stokely Carmichael responded that the appropriate position for women in this was "prone." While Congress played a role by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the actions of civil rights groups such as CORE, the SCLC, and this were instrumental in forging new paths, pioneering new techniques and strategies, and achieving breakthrough successes. This (or SNCC, pronounced "snick") began to stage sit- ins to protest segregation in public places. Carefully trained student volunteers would quietly sit at lunch counters wait- ing to be served; when arrested, others would take their places.

Voting Rights Act

Deeply disturbed by the violence in Alabama and the refusal of Governor George Wallace to address it, Johnson introduced a bill in Congress that would remove obstacles for African American voters and lend federal support to their cause. His proposal, this of 1965, prohibited states and local governments from passing laws that discriminated against voters on the basis of race. Literacy tests and other barriers to voting that had kept ethnic minorities from the polls were thus outlawed. Following the passage of the act, a quarter of a million African Americans registered to vote, and by 1967, the majority of African Americans had done so. Johnson's final piece of civil rights legislation was the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, national origin, or religion. The African American civil rights movement made significant progress in the 1960s. While Congress played a role by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the actions of civil rights groups such as CORE, the SCLC, and SNCC were instrumental in forging new paths, pioneering new techniques and strategies, and achieving breakthrough successes. Similarly, Nixon consistently showed his opposition to busing to achieve racial desegregation. He saw that restricting African American activity was a way of undercutting a source of votes for the Democratic Party and sought to overhaul the provisions of this of 1965. In March 1970, he commented that he did not believe an "open" America had to be homogeneous or fully integrated, maintaining that it was "natural" for members of ethnic groups to live together in their own enclaves. In other policy areas, especially economic ones, Nixon was either moderate or supportive of the progress of African Americans; for example, he expanded affirmative action, a program begun during the Johnson administration to improve employment and educational opportunities for racial minorities. This of 1965 meant to end discrimination in political life.

Martin Luther King Jr.

During his presidential campaign, Kennedy had intimated his support for civil rights, and his efforts to secure the release of civil rights leader., who was arrested following a demonstration, won him the African American vote. Lacking widespread backing in Congress, however, and anxious not to offend white southerners, Kennedy was cautious in assisting African Americans in their fight for full citizenship rights. In some places, such as Greensboro, North Carolina, local NAACP chapters had been influenced by whites who provided financing for the organization. This aid, together with the belief that more forceful efforts at reform would only increase white resistance, had persuaded some African American organizations to pursue a "politics of moderation" instead of attempting to radically alter the status quo. He inspirational appeal for peaceful change in the city of Greensboro in 1958, however, planted the seed for a more assertive civil rights movement. As the crowd gathered outside the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, and spilled across the National Mall, he delivered his most famous speech. In "I Have a Dream," he called for an end to racial injustice in the United States and envisioned a harmonious, integrated society. The speech marked the high point of the civil rights movement and established the legitimacy of its goals. However, it did not prevent white terrorism in the South, nor did it permanently sustain the tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience. In 1963, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) led by him mounted protests in some 186 cities throughout the South. The campaign in Birmingham that began in April and extended into the fall of 1963 attracted the most notice, however, when a peaceful protest was met with violence by police, who attacked demonstrators, including children, with fire hoses and dogs. The world looked on in horror as innocent people were assaulted and thousands arrested. He himself was jailed on Easter Sunday, 1963, and, in response to the pleas of white clergymen for peace and patience, he penned one of the most significant documents of the struggle—"Letter from a Birmingham Jail." In the letter, he argued that African Americans had waited patiently for more than three hundred years to be given the rights that all human beings deserved; the time for waiting was over. The vision of whites and African Americans working together peacefully to end racial injustice suffered a severe blow with the death of him in Memphis, Tennessee, in April 1968. He had gone there to support sanitation workers trying to unionize. In the city, he found a divided civil rights movement; older activists who supported his policy of nonviolence were being challenged by younger African Americans who advocated a more militant approach. On April 4, he was shot and killed while standing on the balcony of his motel. Within hours, the nation's cities exploded with violence as angry African Americans, shocked by his murder, burned and looted inner-city neighborhoods across the country. The episodes of violence that accompanied his murder were but the latest in a string of urban riots that had shaken the United States since the mid-1960s. He telegraphed words of encouragement to Chavez, whom he called a "brother. Chicago's mayor, Richard J. Daley, was anxious to demonstrate that he could maintain law and order, especially because several days of destructive rioting had followed the murder of him earlier that year. Rev. _________. was relatively new to town & thus a good compromise candidate to head the boycott. He was minister at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. He was arrested thirty times in his 38 year life. His house was bombed or nearly bombed several times. Death threats were routine. After winning in the court system, him & other leaders gave advice to Montgomery's black citizens: the whole bus is now for the use of all people. Take a vacant seat. Pray for guidance & commit yourself to complete non-violence in word & action as you enter the bus (etc.). Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent resistance to immoral laws inspired him to adapt the strategy in fighting Jim Crow; he also drew inspiration from Henry David Thoreau's On Civil Disobedience. President Kennedy's request for a civil rights bill met stiff opposition in Congress. To show support, he called for 500,000 African Americans to go to Washington D.C. At the Washington March, the highlight was his "I Have a Dream" speech. His original text wasn't moving the crowd; at Mahalia Jackson's urging, he began to ad lib bits of old sermons. To support voting rights, he called for a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery. After the Selma march & the Voting Rights Act, his movement began to seem old fashioned. Not everyone embraced his non- violence. Radicals demanded immediate rights, & self- protection against violence, if necessary. Malcolm Little, who adopted the name Malcolm X, may have been moving toward a less confrontational approach before he was assassinated in 1965; he & this man met only once. From 1966 until his death, he struggled to stay ahead of a rapidly changing society. His push for greater economic equality & an end to the Vietnam war brought criticism from multiple directions. Some even (cruelly) accused him of being an "Uncle Tom" — too deferential & too accommodating to white society. When he went to Memphis in early 1968 on behalf of striking sanitation workers, he seemed to be grasping for anything to maintain his relevance. He was fatally shot by a drifter named James Earl Ray. April 1968: he was assassinated. He had so many death threats he expected to die young. Sparked violence across the country.

Yom Kippur War

Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in October 1973. The situation was made worse in October 1973, when Syria and Egypt jointly attacked Israel to recover territory that had been lost in 1967, starting this. The Soviet Union significantly aided its allies, Egypt and Syria, and the United States supported Israel, earning the enmity of Arab nations. In retaliation, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) imposed an embargo on oil shipments to the United States from October 1973 to March 1974. The ensuing shortage of oil pushed its price from three dollars a barrel to twelve dollars a barrel. The average price of gasoline in the United States shot from thirty-eight cents a gallon before the embargo to fifty-five cents a gallon in June 1974, and the prices of other goods whose manufacture and transportation relied on oil or gas also rose and did not come down. The oil embargo had a lasting impact on the economy and underscored the nation's interdependency with international political and economic developments. October 1973: Egypt, Jordan, & Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. Known as this because the attacks came one of Judaism's most holy days. Despite the surprise attack, Israeli forces, greatly aided by emergency U.S. supplies, were successful everywhere. Seized the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan, & the entire Sinai peninsula from Egypt.

Griswold v. Connecticut

Established that there is an implied right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution. In the 1960s, a series of Supreme Court decisions clarified (or re-defined) civil liberties. Among those is this case. Which struck down a state law banning the use of birth control even by married couples; the decision claimed an implied 9th Amendment "right to privacy".

Interstate Highway System

Faced with high fuel prices, American consumers panicked. Gas stations limited the amount customers could purchase and closed on Sundays as supplies ran low. To conserve oil, Congress reduced the speed limit on these to fifty-five miles per hour. People were asked to turn down their thermostats, and automobile manufacturers in Detroit explored the possibility of building more fuel-efficient cars. Even after the embargo ended, prices continued to rise, and by the end of the Nixon years in 1974, inflation had soared to 12.2 percent. The ______________ Act of 1956 created a modern, controlled-access national highway system. The act encouraged even more auto production & boosted all related support industries. Less happily, the new roads encouraged "white flight" to suburbia & the rot of inner cities.

Sputnik

First artificial Earth satellite, it was launched by Moscow in 1957 and sparked U.S. fears of Soviet dominance in technology and outer space. It led to the creation of NASA and the space race. However, the United States often feared that the Soviets were making greater strides in developing technology with potential military applications. This was especially true following the Soviet Union's launch of this, the first manmade satellite, in October 1957. In September 1958, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, which pumped over $775 million into educational programs over four years, especially those programs that focused on math and science. The launch of the Soviet satellite frightened many in the United States, who feared that Soviet technology had surpassed their own. To calm these fears, Americans domesticated it, creating children's games based on it and using its shape as a decorative motif. 4 October 1957: one day before the most wondrous event in the history of the universe, the USSR shocked the world by launching an artificial satellite into Earth orbit. It was fairly primitive, weighed ~180 lbs, contained a radio transmitter that went "beep beep beep", fell back into the atmosphere & burned up after 3 months. Even so, Americans were aghast to be living under a "Red moon". The second version, launched less than a month after the first, weighed 1,000 lbs & carried a small dog named Laika into orbit. Clearly, Soviet rockets could hit any spot in the U.S. with a nuclear strike — within minutes. Embarrassed Americans were sure the U.S. could have been first into orbit had Eisenhower allowed use of secret Army technology. 6 December 1957: the U.S. Navy prepared to launch the first U.S. satellite. The press quickly dubbed this as Flopnik or Stayputnik. 31 January 1958: Explorer 1 became the first U.S. satellite.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

For many people inspired by the victories of Brown v. Board of Education and this, the glacial pace of progress in the segregated South was frustrating if not intolerable. A seamstress named Rosa Parks was arrested for violating the segregation laws of Montgomery, Alabama. Parks declined to move when a city bus filled to the point where white passengers needed seats normally delegated to black riders. For over a year, Blacks avoided this transportation. People carpooled & walked through all weather conditions. Many were arrested for an "illegal _______," including the leader of the protest... Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was relatively new to town & thus a good compromise candidate to head this. At the time this began, he was 26 years old. While the NAACP fought in the courts, MLK's organization led this. This was successful because the bus service was financially hurt by the absence of black riders. After winning in the court system, King & other leaders gave advice to Montgomery's black citizens: The whole bus is now for the use of all people. Take a vacant seat. Pray for guidance & commit yourself to complete non-violence in word & action as you enter the bus. In all things observe ordinary rules of courtesy & good behavior. Remember that this is not a victory for Negroes alone, but for all Montgomery & the South. Do not boast! Do not brag! Be loving enough to absorb evil & understanding enough to turn an enemy into a friend.

Brown vs. Board of Education

For many people inspired by the victories of this and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the glacial pace of progress in the segregated South was frustrating if not intolerable. In some places, such as Greensboro, North Carolina, local NAACP chapters had been influenced by whites who provided financing for the organization. This aid, together with the belief that more forceful efforts at reform would only increase white resistance, had persuaded some African American organizations to pursue a "politics of moderation" instead of attempting to radically alter the status quo. Like the African American movement, the Mexican American civil rights movement won its earliest victories in the federal courts. In 1947, in Mendez v. Westminster, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that segregating children of Hispanic descent was unconstitutional. In 1954, the same year as this, Mexican Americans prevailed in Hernandez v. Texas, when the U.S. Supreme Court extended the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment to all ethnic groups in the United States. Nixon and Agnew's message thus appealed to northern middle-class and blue-collar whites as well as southern whites who had fled to the suburbs in the wake of the Supreme Court's pro-integration decision in this. The NAACP challenged school segregation in federal court, & at the Supreme Court was represented by lead attorney Thurgood Marshall. In this, the Plessy doctrine of "separate but equal" was formally overturned. Lyndon Johnson later named Marshall as the first Black Supreme Court Justice.

Barry Goldwater

From 1962, when he lost his bid for the governorship of California, to 1968, Nixon had been collecting political credits by branding himself as a candidate who could appeal to mainstream voters and by tirelessly working for other Republican candidates. In 1964, for example, he vigorously supported this man's presidential bid and thus built good relationships with the new conservative movement in the Republican Party. Although he lost the 1964 election, his vigorous rejection of New Deal state and social legislation, along with his support of states' rights, proved popular in the Deep South, which had resisted federal efforts at racial integration. Taking a lesson from his experience, Nixon also employed a southern strategy in 1968. Denouncing segregation and the denial of the vote to African Americans, he nevertheless maintained that southern states be allowed to pursue racial equality at their own pace and criticized forced integration. By 1962, Reagan had formally switched political parties, and in 1964, he actively campaigned for the Republican presidential nominee __________. Election of 1964: Campaign marked the beginning of the Republican Party's shift to the far right. The GOP nominated this Senator of Arizona. His slogan, "In your heart you know he's right". The Democrat's response: "In your guts you know he's nuts." The "Daisy ad," shown once, painted him as too extreme to be let near the nuclear arsenal. He carried once reliably Democratic states in the deep south unhappy with civil rights legislation. Even so, LBJ won an overwhelming victory in both the popular vote & the electoral college. Delegates nominated Richard Nixon next. GOP had no one else any more credible after this debacle of 1964.

Shah of Iran

Great friend of the US for two and a half decades but Iranians want to nationalize their oil and improve economy, sparks Iranian Revolution and Shah is overthrown (1979). Carter's biggest foreign policy problem was the Iranian hostage crisis, whose roots lay in the 1950s. In 1953, the United States had assisted Great Britain in the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, a rival of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (this). Mossadegh had sought greater Iranian control over the nation's oil wealth, which was claimed by British companies. Following the coup, the shah assumed complete control of Iran's government. He then disposed of political enemies and eliminated dissent through the use of SAVAK, a secret police force trained by the United States. The United States also supplied the shah's government with billions of dollars in aid. As Iran's oil revenue grew, especially after the 1973 oil embargo against the United States, the pace of its economic development and the size of its educated middle class also increased, and the country became less dependent on U.S. aid. Its population increasingly blamed the United States for the death of Iranian democracy and faulted it for its consistent support of Israel.Despite the shah's unpopularity among his own people, the result of both his brutal policies and his desire to Westernize Iran, the United States supported his regime. In February 1979, the shah was overthrown when revolution broke out, and a few months later, he departed for the United States for medical treatment. The long history of U.S. support for him and its offer of refuge greatly angered Iranian revolutionaries.

Freedom Riders

Group of civil rights workers who took bus trips through southern states in 1961 to protest illegal bus segregation. Students also took part in these sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The intent of the African American and white volunteers who undertook these bus rides south was to test enforcement of a U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibiting segregation on interstate transportation and to protest segregated waiting rooms in southern terminals. Departing Washington, DC, on May 4, the volunteers headed south on buses that challenged the seating order of Jim Crow segregation. Whites would ride in the back, African-Americans would sit in the front, and on other occasions, riders of different races would share the same bench seat. These encountered little difficulty until they reached Rock Hill, South Carolina, where a mob severely beat John Lewis, one of these, who later became chairman of SNCC. The danger increased as the riders continued through Georgia into Alabama, where one of the two buses was firebombed outside the town of Anniston. The second group continued to Birmingham, where the riders were attacked by the Ku Klux Klan as they attempted to disembark at the city bus station. The remaining volunteers continued to Mississippi, where they were arrested when they attempted to desegregate the waiting rooms in the Jackson bus terminal. The grassroots efforts of people like them to change discriminatory laws and longstanding racist traditions grew more widely known in the mid-1960s. The approaching centennial of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation spawned the slogan "Free by '63" among civil rights activists. As African Americans increased their calls for full rights for all Americans, many civil rights groups changed their tactics to reflect this new urgency. President Kennedy was now in office & at best, reluctant on the issue of civil rights. To keep civil rights at the forefront of national attention, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)approved a risky plan to test small-town bus stops & highways in the deep south. Volunteers would ride busses from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans & use "whites only" waiting rooms, lunch counters, & restrooms along the way. CORE volunteers, White & Black, got on buses & sat inter-racially on the bus. They went into bus station lunch counters. At early stops in the upper south, things went fairly smoothly. Outside Anniston, Alabama, one bus was firebombed & the riders were attacked as they got off. Shaken, the Riders continued on to Montgomery... A mob attacked them at the Montgomery bus station. Attorney General Robert Kennedy asked the Interstate Commerce Commission for regulations superseding state & local laws requiring segregated facilities in interstate travel. In September 1961, the Commission complied & facilities serving interstate traffic were required to integrate.

Robert Kennedy

He was a Democrat who ran for president in 1968 promoting civil rights and other equality based ideals. He was ultimately assassinated in 1968, leaving Nixon to take the presidency but instilling hope in many Americans. Kennedy's assassination in 1963, and the assassinations five years later of Martin Luther King, Jr. and this man, made it dramatically clear that not all Americans shared this vision of a more inclusive democracy. Kennedy appointed his younger brother as attorney general, much to the chagrin of many who viewed the appointment as a blatant example of nepotism. On October 22, Kennedy demanded that Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev remove the missiles. He also ordered a naval quarantine placed around Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from approaching. Despite his use of the word "quarantine" instead of "blockade," for a blockade was considered an act of war, a potential war with the Soviet Union was nevertheless on the president's mind. As U.S. ships headed for Cuba, the army was told to prepare for war, and Kennedy appeared on national television to declare his intention to defend the Western Hemisphere from Soviet aggression. Behind the scenes, this man and Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin worked toward a compromise that would allow both superpowers to back down without either side's seeming intimidated by the other. On October 26, Khrushchev agreed to remove the Russian missiles in exchange for Kennedy's promise not to invade Cuba. On October 27, Kennedy's agreement was made public, and the crisis ended. Not made public, but nevertheless part of the agreement, was Kennedy's promise to remove U.S. warheads from Turkey, as close to Soviet targets as the Cuban missiles had been to American ones. African American student James Meredith, encouraged by Kennedy's speeches, attempted to enroll at the segregated University of Mississippi in 1962, riots broke out on campus. The president responded by sending the U.S. Army and National Guard to Oxford, Mississippi, to support the U.S. Marshals that his brother, the attorney general, had dispatched. Minnesota senator Eugene McCarthy, who had called for an end to the war and the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, received nearly as many votes in the New Hampshire presidential primary as Johnson did, even though he had been expected to fare very poorly. McCarthy's success in New Hampshire encouraged this man to announce his candidacy as well. McCarthy's popularity encouraged this man to also enter the race. Realizing that his war policies could unleash a divisive fight within his own party for the nomination, Johnson announced his withdrawal on March 31, fracturing the Democratic Party. One faction consisted of the traditional party leaders who appealed to unionized, blue-collar constituents and white ethnics (Americans with recent European immigrant backgrounds). This group fell in behind Johnson's vice president, Hubert H. Humphrey, who took up the mainstream party's torch almost immediately after Johnson's announcement. The second group consisted of idealistic young activists who had slogged through the snows of New Hampshire to give McCarthy a boost and saw themselves as the future of the Democratic Party. The third group, composed of Catholics, African Americans and other minorities, and some of the young, antiwar element, galvanized around this man. Many liberals and young antiwar activists, disappointed by his selection over McCarthy and still shocked by the death of this man, did not vote for Humphrey. He mounted a late campaign. In June, he won the California primary, his biggest primary victory. He was gunned down following his victory speech. Coming barely two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the younger Kennedy's death seemed to signal a country spiraling out of control. Both Gene McCarthy & this man ran to the left of Vice-President Humphrey.

Levittown

In 1947, William ________ used mass production techniques to build inexpensive homes in surburban New York to help relieve the postwar housing shortage. This became a symbol of the movement to the suburbs in the years after WWII. Housing was so tight after World War II that many young couples had to move in with one set of their parents— or accept unusual options. To address the housing shortage, contractors adapted techniques learned in war production to create quickly, easily built housing developments. The best known were called this. They consisted of rows of basically identical houses with identical floor plans. Contractors used concrete slabs rather than traditional basements or raised foundations. The first of these was built on a former potato field on Long Island. Soon similar mass-produced suburbs sprang up around the U.S., not all built by Bill _______ company. Bill _______ himself claimed that suburban homes represented "American values". He refused to sell homes to blacks & other minorities. By the end of the 1950s, 1/3 of all Americans lived in suburbs of mass produced houses such as these.

Ho Chi Minh

In Indochina, nationalist independence movements, most notably Vietnam's Viet Minh under the leadership of him, had strong Communist sympathies. President Harry S. Truman had no love for France's colonial regime in Southeast Asia but did not want to risk the loyalty of its Western European ally against the Soviet Union. In 1950, the Truman administration sent a small military advisory group to Vietnam and provided financial aid to help France defeat the Viet Minh. In 1954, Vietnamese forces finally defeated the French, and the country was temporarily divided at the seventeenth parallel. Him and the Viet Minh controlled the North. In the South, the last Vietnamese emperor and ally to France, Bao Dai, named the French-educated, anti-Communist Ngo Dinh Diem as his prime minister. But Diem refused to abide by the Geneva Accords, the treaty ending the conflict that called for countrywide national elections in 1956, with the victor to rule a reunified nation. After a fraudulent election in the South in 1955, he ousted Bao Dai and proclaimed himself president of the Republic of Vietnam. He cancelled the 1956 elections in the South and began to round up Communists and supporters of him.Realizing that Diem would never agree to the reunification of the country under his leadership, the North Vietnamese began efforts to overthrow the government of the South by encouraging insurgents to attack South Vietnamese officials. By 1960, North Vietnam had also created the National Liberation Front (NLF) to resist Diem and carry out an insurgency in the South. The United States, fearing the spread of Communism under him, supported Diem, assuming he would create a democratic, pro-Western government in South Vietnam. However, Diem's oppressive and corrupt government made him a very unpopular ruler, particularly with farmers, students, and Buddhists, and many in the South actively assisted the NLF and North Vietnam in trying to overthrow his government. The French pulled out of Indochina in 1954 after defeat at Dien Bien Phu. The northern half of the country became a communist-style "people's republic" led by him. The south was controlled by a corrupt government under Ngo Dinh Diem. Indochina was divided at the 17th parallel after French withdrawal in 1954. The north was ruled from Hanoi by a communist-style gov't under him. The south was ruled from Saigon by a mostly corrupt but pro-western gov't under Ngo Diem. The United Nations called for elections to determine the future of North & South Vietnam. Most agree that 80% of Vietnamese would have voted for him. The Diem gov't in South Vietnam cancelled elections & asked for U.S. help to prevent communist takeover. North Vietnamese had been crossing through officially neutral Cambodia to move troops & arms along this trail into South Vietnam.

Apollo 11

In response to the lead that the Soviets had taken in the space race when Yuri Gagarin became the first human to successfully orbit the earth, Kennedy urged Congress to not only put a man into space but also land an American on the moon, a goal finally accomplished in 1969. This investment advanced a variety of military technologies, especially the nation's long-range missile capability, resulting in numerous profitable spin-offs for the aviation and communication industries. It also funded a growing middle class of government workers, engineers, and defense contractors in states ranging from California to Texas to Florida—a region that would come to be known as the Sun Belt—becoming a symbol of American technological superiority. At the same time, however, the use of massive federal resources for space technologies did not change the economic outlook for low-income communities and underprivileged regions. On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space, as millions across the country watched the television coverage of his mission, including Vice President Johnson, President Kennedy, and Jacqueline Kennedy in the White House. This was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC.

Miranda vs. Arizona

In the 1960s, a series of Supreme Court decisions clarified (or re-defined) civil liberties. Among those was this case. Which decided that police must inform suspects of their Constitutional rights at the time of arrest.

Engel vs. Vitale

In the 1960s, a series of Supreme Court decisions clarified (or re-defined) civil liberties. This being among those cases. It decided that there should be no official school prayer or requirement for recitation.

Gulf of Tonkin

Incident in 1964 that President Johnson used to justify increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Claim was that two U.S. ships had been attacked. President Johnson had never been the cold warrior Kennedy was, but believed that the credibility of the nation and his office depended on maintaining a foreign policy of containment. When, on August 2, the U.S. destroyer USS Maddox conducted an arguably provocative intelligence-gathering mission here, it reported an attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Two days later, the Maddox was supposedly struck again, and a second ship, the USS Turner Joy, reported that it also had been fired upon. The North Vietnamese denied the second attack, and Johnson himself doubted the reliability of the crews' report. The National Security Agency has since revealed that the August 4 attacks did not occur. Relying on information available at the time, however, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara reported to Congress that U.S. ships had been fired upon in international waters while conducting routine operations. On August 7, with only two dissenting votes, Congress passed the _____________ Resolution, and on August 10, the president signed the resolution into law. The resolution gave President Johnson the authority to use military force in Vietnam without asking Congress for a declaration of war. It dramatically increased the power of the U.S. president and transformed the American role in Vietnam from advisor to combatant. As early as 1967, critics of the war in Vietnam had begun to call for the repeal of the ___________ Resolution, which gave President Johnson the authority to conduct military operations in Vietnam in defense of an ally, South Vietnam. Nixon initially opposed the repeal efforts, claiming that doing so might have consequences that reached far beyond Vietnam. Nevertheless, by 1969, he was beginning troop withdrawals from Vietnam while simultaneously looking for a "knockout blow" against the North Vietnamese. In sum, the Nixon administration was in need of an exit strategy. Ongoing protests, campus violence, and the expansion of the war into Cambodia deeply disillusioned Americans about their role in Vietnam. Understanding the nation's mood, Nixon dropped his opposition to a repeal of the _____________ Resolution of 1964. In January 1971, he signed Congress's revocation of the notorious blanket military authorization. Gallup polls taken in May of that year revealed that only 28 percent of the respondents supported the war; many felt it was not only a mistake but also immoral. Events here in August 1964 provided rationale for deeper involvement in Vietnam. Apparent attacks on U.S. naval vessels by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. LBJ painted events as "unprovoked aggression" against U.S. forces. A Congressional resolution that authorized LBJ to take "all necessary measures to repel armed attack". Essentially a blank check to Johnson. Only 2 votes against it in the Senate. As instability in Vietnam mounted, LBJ's advisers offered conflicting advice. U.S. Senate repealed this Resolution.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Iranian religious leader who led the revolution against the Shah of Iran.

Pentagon Papers

Just as influential as antiwar protests and campus violence in turning people against the war was the publication of documents the media dubbed these in June 1971. These were excerpts from a study prepared during the Johnson administration that revealed the true nature of the conflict in Vietnam. The public learned for the first time that the United States had been planning to oust Ngo Dinh Diem from the South Vietnamese government, that Johnson meant to expand the U.S. role in Vietnam and bomb North Vietnam even as he stated publicly that he had no intentions of doing so, and that his administration had sought to deliberately provoke North Vietnamese attacks in order to justify escalating American involvement. Copies of the study had been given to the New York Times and other newspapers by Daniel Ellsberg, one of the military analysts who had contributed to it. To avoid setting a precedent by allowing the press to publish confidential documents, Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell, sought an injunction against the New York Times to prevent its publication of future articles based on these. The newspaper appealed. On June 30, 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the government could not prevent the publication of the articles. Government documents leaked to the New York Times that revealed the true nature of the conflict in Vietnam and turned many definitively against the war. The 1971 release of these revealed the true nature of the war to an increasingly disapproving and disenchanted public. June 1971: New York Times published these, which exposed years of deceit by the Kennedy & Johnson administrations regarding Vietnam.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Kennedy feared the loss of support from southern white Democrats and the impact a struggle over civil rights could have on his foreign policy agenda as well as on his reelection in 1964. But he thought voter registration drives far preferable to the boycotts, sit-ins, and integration marches that had generated such intense global media coverage in previous years. Encouraged by Congress's passage of this, which permitted federal courts to appoint referees to guarantee that qualified persons would be registered to vote, Kennedy focused on the passage of a constitutional amendment outlawing poll taxes, a tactic that southern states used to disenfranchise African American voters. Originally proposed by President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights, the idea had been largely forgotten during Eisenhower's time in office. Kennedy, however, revived it and convinced Spessard Holland, a conservative Florida senator, to introduce the proposed amendment in Congress. It passed both houses of Congress and was sent to the states for ratification in September 1962. Following similar violence at the University of Alabama when two African American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, attempted to enroll in 1963, Kennedy responded with a bill that would give the federal government greater power to enforce school desegregation, prohibit segregation in public accommodations, and outlaw discrimination in employment. Kennedy would not live to see his bill enacted; it would become law during Lyndon Johnson's administration as this. The eradication of poverty was matched in importance by the Great Society's advancement of civil rights. Indeed, the condition of the poor could not be alleviated if racial discrimination limited their access to jobs, education, and housing. Realizing this, Johnson drove the long-awaited act, proposed by Kennedy in June 1963 in the wake of riots at the University of Alabama, through Congress. Under Kennedy's leadership, the bill had passed the House of Representatives but was stalled in the Senate by a filibuster. Johnson, a master politician, marshaled his considerable personal influence and memories of his fallen predecessor to break the filibuster. This, the most far-reaching of these yet passed by Congress, banned discrimination in public accommodations, sought to aid schools in efforts to desegregate, and prohibited federal funding of programs that permitted racial segregation. Further, it barred discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, or gender, and established an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Following the passage of the act, a quarter of a million African Americans registered to vote, and by 1967, the majority of African Americans had done so. Johnson's final piece of civil rights legislation was this of 1968, which prohibited discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, national origin, or religion. This of 1964, which prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, and religion, also prohibited, in Title VII, discrimination on the basis of sex. Ironically, protection for women had been included at the suggestion of a Virginia congressman in an attempt to prevent the act's passage; his reasoning seemed to be that, while a white man might accept that African Americans needed and deserved protection from discrimination, the idea that women deserved equality with men would be far too radical for any of his male colleagues to contemplate. Nevertheless, the act passed, although the struggle to achieve equal pay for equal work continues today. LBJ quickly achieved the major domestic goals of JFK's New Frontier including the Senate finally passed this of 1964. But LBJ declined to support Freedom Summer efforts to register black voters in Mississippi, or a racially diverse Freedom Democratic convention that summer.

Mendez v Westminster

Made it illegal to segregate Mexican American children in California schools. Like the African American movement, the Mexican American civil rights movement won its earliest victories in the federal courts. In 1947, in this, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that segregating children of Hispanic descent was unconstitutional. 1946: the 9th Circuit Court ruled separate schools for Mexican-Americans were unconstitutional as a result of this.

Iran-Contra

News broke that administration was selling arms to Iran to secure release of Americans being held hostage by Islamic militants. Administration had channeled profits to _____ forces in Nicaragua, circumventing an explicit Congressional ban on U.S. military aid to them. Many felt this was a more serious breach of the law than Watergate, BUT Reagan was a much more popular President than Richard Nixon. Ultimately, Reagan's folksy testimony that he could remember no details about either the release of hostages or the funding of the _______ more or less led the investigation to peter out.

Kent State

Nixon authorized the bombing of neighboring Cambodia, which had declared its neutrality, in an effort to destroy North Vietnamese and Viet Cong bases within that country and cut off supply routes between North and South Vietnam. The bombing was kept secret from both Congress and the American public. In April 1970, Nixon decided to follow up with an invasion of Cambodia. The invasion could not be kept secret, and when Nixon announced it on television on April 30, 1970, protests sprang up across the country. The most tragic and politically damaging occurred on May 1, 1970, was here in Ohio. Violence erupted in the town of Kent after an initial student demonstration on campus, and the next day, the mayor asked Ohio's governor to send in the National Guard. Troops were sent to the university's campus, where students had set fire to the ROTC building and were fighting off firemen and policemen trying to extinguish it. The National Guard used teargas to break up the demonstration, and several students were arrested. On April 30, 1970, Richard Nixon announces plans for the Cambodia Campaign, provoking protests on college campuses across the country. Within days, the governor of Ohio had called in the National Guard in response to student demonstrations here. News of these shootings shocked students around the country. Millions refused to attend class, as strikes were held at hundreds of colleges and high schools across the United States. On May 8, an antiwar protest took place in New York City, and the next day, 100,000 protesters assembled in Washington, DC. Not everyone sympathized with the slain students, however. Nixon had earlier referred to student demonstrators as "bums," and construction workers attacked the New York City protestors. A Gallup poll revealed that most Americans blamed the students for the tragic events here. Nixon escalated it by bombing Hanoi and invading Cambodia; his actions provoked massive antiwar demonstrations in the United States that often ended in violence, such as the tragic shooting of unarmed student protestors here in 1970. Massive student protests here. National Guard ordered students to disperse. Guardsmen opened fire on student protestors. 4 students were killed, & 9 wounded. Five days later, 100,000 protested in D.C. Two months later, Nixon withdrew U.S. troops from Cambodia.

Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP)

Nixon's victory over a Democratic party in disarray was the most remarkable landslide since Franklin D. Roosevelt's reelection in 1936. But Nixon's victory was short-lived, however, for it was soon discovered that he and members of his administration had routinely engaged in unethical and illegal behavior during his first term. During the presidential campaign, this decided to play "dirty tricks" on Nixon's opponents. Before the New Hampshire Democratic primary, a forged letter supposedly written by Democratic-hopeful Edmund Muskie in which he insulted French Canadians, one of the state's largest ethnic groups, was leaked to the press. Men were assigned to spy on both McGovern and Senator Edward Kennedy. One of them managed to masquerade as a reporter on board McGovern's press plane. Men pretending to work for the campaigns of Nixon's Democratic opponents contacted vendors in various states to rent or purchase materials for rallies; the rallies were never held, of course, and Democratic politicians were accused of failing to pay the bills they owed. It's most notorious operation, however, was its break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the Watergate office complex in Washington, DC, as well as its subsequent cover- up. On the evening of June 17, 1972, the police arrested five men inside DNC headquarters. According to a plan originally proposed by its' general counsel and White House plumber G. Gordon Liddy, the men were to wiretap DNC telephones. The FBI quickly discovered that two of the men had E. Howard Hunt's name in their address books. Hunt was a former CIA officer and also one of the plumbers. In the following weeks, yet more connections were found between the burglars and this, and in October 1972, the FBI revealed evidence of illegal intelligence gathering by this for the purpose of sabotaging the Democratic Party. Nixon won his reelection handily in November. Had the president and his reelection team not pursued a strategy of dirty tricks, Richard Nixon would have governed his second term with one of the largest political leads in the twentieth century. Initially, Nixon was able to hide his connection to the break-in and the other wrongdoings alleged against members of this. However, by early 1973, the situation quickly began to unravel. In January, the Watergate burglars were convicted, along with Hunt and Liddy. Trial judge John Sirica was not convinced that all the guilty had been discovered. On March 23, 1973, Judge Sirica publicly read a letter from one of the Watergate burglars, alleging that perjury had been committed during the trial. Less than two weeks later, Jeb Magruder, a deputy director of this, admitted lying under oath and indicated that Dean and John Mitchell, who had resigned as attorney general to become the director of this, were also involved in the break-in and its cover- up. Dean confessed, and on April 30, Nixon fired him and requested the resignation of his aides John Ehrlichman and H. R. Haldeman, also implicated. To defuse criticism and avoid suspicion that he was participating in a cover-up, Nixon also announced the resignation of the current attorney general, Richard Kleindienst, a close friend, and appointed Elliott Richardson to the position. In May 1973, Richardson named Archibald Cox special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate affair. The GOP had formed this. 17 June 1972: five men working for this were caught breaking into Democratic Headquarters. Located at hotel/office complex called Watergate. Nixon brushed it aside, claimed no knowledge of it. November 1972: Nixon won in a landslide. March 1973: the Watergate burglars are given very stiff sentences by Judge John Sirica. John Mitchell Attorney-General & chair of this, was indicted and jailed.

1973 War Powers Act

November 1973. Requires president to report any commitment of U.S. troops to Congress within 48 hours. Forbids armed forces remaining in action more than 60 days (with an additional 30 days for withdrawal) unless Congress authorizes it or declares war. Nixon vetoed it, & Congress over-rode his veto. All Presidents since have called it unconstitutional. President must notify Congress in 48 Hours of battle & Congress must approve if in war zone for more than 30 days.

Bayard Rustin

One of Martin Luther King's aids though most of his involvement in the movement was kept secret because of his morals arrest and supposed homosexuality. He was very involved in the planning of the March on Washington (1963) introduced King to the ideas of Ghandi. An American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. He worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement in 1941 to press for an end to racial discrimination in employment. He later organized Freedom Rides and helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership, teaching King about nonviolence and later serving as an organizer for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. During the 1970s and 1980s, he served on many humanitarian missions, such as aiding refugees from Communist Vietnam and Cambodia. At the time of his death in 1987, he was on a humanitarian mission in Haiti. Due to criticism over his sexuality, he usually acted as an influential adviser behind the scenes to civil-rights leaders. In the 1980s, he became a public advocate on behalf of gay causes.

Rachel Carson

One of the first people to realize the global dangers of pesticide abuse (DDT). Wrote Silent Spring. She trained in marine biology & worked for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Success as a nature writer enabled her to work independently. Silent Spring (1962) called only for "more responsible use" of pesticides. Her book's title alluded to a future in which no birds were left to sing. She was both attacked & dis- missed by the chemical industry as well as by free-market extremists. She died of cancer in 1964. Widely considered the founder of the modern environmental movement.

March on Washington 1963

Perhaps the most famous of the civil rights-era demonstrations was this for Jobs and Freedom, held in August 1963, on the one hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Its purpose was to pressure President Kennedy to act on his promises regarding civil rights. The date was the eighth anniversary of the brutal racist murder of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. As the crowd gathered outside the Lincoln Memorial and spilled across the National Mall, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his most famous speech. In "I Have a Dream," King called for an end to racial injustice in the United States and envisioned a harmonious, integrated society. The speech marked the high point of the civil rights movement and established the legitimacy of its goals. However, it did not prevent white terrorism in the South, nor did it permanently sustain the tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience. Although thousands attended, many of the march's organizers had hoped that enough people would come to Washington to shut down the city. Support facilities, busses, police & medical services, sanitation, & thousands of details were handled with remarkable speed. The highlight was King's "I Have a Dream" speech. King's original text wasn't moving the crowd; at Mahalia Jackson's urging, he began to ad lib bits of old sermons. The march was a big success, but cheers were soon replaced with sorrow.

Strategic Defense Initiative

Popularly known as "Star Wars," President Reagan's ______ proposed the construction of an elaborate computer-controlled, anti-missile defense system capable of destroying enemy missiles in outer spaced. Critics claimed that this could never be perfected. While trying to shrink the federal budget and the size of government sphere at home, Reagan led an unprecedented military buildup in which money flowed to the Pentagon to pay for expensive new forms of weaponry. The press drew attention to the inefficiency of the nation's military industrial complex, offering as examples expense bills that included $640 toilet seats and $7,400 coffee machines. One of the most controversial aspects of Reagan's plan was this, which he proposed in 1983. This, or "Star Wars," called for the development of a defensive shield to protect the United States from a Soviet missile strike. Scientists argued that much of the needed technology had not yet been developed and might never be. Others contended that the plan would violate existing treaties with the Soviet Union and worried about the Soviet response. The system was never built, and the plan, estimated to have cost some $7.5 billion, was finally abandoned. Reagan claimed USSR had engaged in arms buildup during 1970's & vowed to catch up. Proposed a space-based satellite shield against incoming missiles. Critics quickly dubbed this "Star Wars". Billions were eventually spent on this, without success.

My Lai

Racism on the part of some U.S. soldiers and a desire to retaliate against those they perceived to be responsible for harming U.S. troops affected the conduct of the war. A war correspondent who served in Vietnam noted, "In motivating the GI to fight by appealing to his racist feelings, the United States military discovered that it had liberated an emotion over which it was to lose control." It was not unusual for U.S. soldiers to evacuate and burn villages suspected of shielding Viet Cong fighters, both to deprive the enemy of potential support and to enact revenge for enemy brutality. Troops shot at farmers' water buffalo for arget practice. American and South Vietnamese use of napalm, a jellied gasoline that sticks to the objects it burns, was common. Originally developed to burn down structures during World War II, in Vietnam, it was directed against human beings as well, as had occurred during the Korean War. On March 16, 1968, men from the U.S. Army's Twenty-Third Infantry Division committed one of the most notorious atrocities of the war. About one hundred soldiers commanded by Captain Ernest Medina were sent to destroy this village, which was suspected of hiding Viet Cong fighters. Although there was later disagreement regarding the captain's exact words, the platoon leaders believed the order to destroy the enemy included killing women and children. Having suffered twenty-eight casualties in the past three months, the men of Charlie Company were under severe stress and extremely apprehensive as they approached the village. Two platoons entered it, shooting randomly. A group of seventy to eighty unarmed people, including children and infants, were forced into an irrigation ditch by members of the First Platoon under the command of Lt. William L. Calley, Jr. Despite their proclamations of innocence, the villagers were shot. Houses were set on fire, and as the inhabitants tried to flee, they were killed with rifles, machine guns, and grenades. The U.S. troops were never fired upon, and one soldier later testified that he did not see any man who looked like a Viet Cong fighter. The precise number of civilians killed that day is unclear: The numbers range from 347 to 504. None were armed. Although not all the soldiers here took part in the killings, no one attempted to stop the massacre before the arrival by helicopter of Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, who, along with his crew, attempted to evacuate women and children. Upon returning to his base, Thompson immediately reported the events taking place here. Shortly thereafter, Medina ordered Charlie Company to cease fire. Although Thompson's crewmembers confirmed his account, none of the men from Charlie Company gave a report, and a cover-up began almost immediately. The army first claimed that 150 people, the majority of them Viet Cong, had been killed during a firefight with Charlie Company. Hearing details from friends in Charlie Company, a helicopter gunner by the name of Ron Ridenhour began to conduct his own investigation and, in April 1969, wrote to thirty members of Congress, demanding an investigation. By September 1969, the army charged Lt. Calley with premeditated murder. Many Americans were horrified at the graphic footage of the massacre; the incident confirmed their belief that the war was unjust and not being fought on behalf of the Vietnamese people. However, nearly half of the respondents to a Minnesota poll did not believe that the incident here had actually happened. U.S. soldiers could not possibly do such horrible things, they felt; they were certain that American goals in Vietnam were honorable and speculated that the antiwar movement had concocted the story to generate sympathy for the enemy. Calley was found guilty in March 1971, and sentenced to life in prison. Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of Americans joined a "Free Calley" campaign. Two days later, President Nixon released him from custody and placed him under him house arrest at Fort Benning, Georgia. In August of that same year, Calley's sentence was reduced to twenty years, and in September 1974, he was paroled. The only soldier convicted in the massacre, he spent a total of three-and-a-half years under house arrest for his crimes. American troops had raped & massacred 200-500 women & children in this village. This was not revealed to the public until 1969. Americans were revolted & increasingly dissatisfied with the handling of the war. Not only what was happening to the Vietnamese: what was it doing to American boys?

oil shocks

Response to U.S support for Israel during the Israeli-Palestini conflict which led to an embargo on ___ from petro countries- led to huge price increases in ___ and all ___ based products. Syria and Egypt jointly attacked Israel to recover territory that had been lost in 1967, starting the Yom Kippur War. The Soviet Union significantly aided its allies, Egypt and Syria, and the United States supported Israel, earning the enmity of Arab nations. In retaliation, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) imposed an embargo on ___ shipments to the United States from October 1973 to March 1974. The ensuing shortage of ___ pushed its price from three dollars a barrel to twelve dollars a barrel. The average price of gasoline in the United. States shot from thirty-eight cents a gallon before the embargo to fifty-five cents a gallon in June 1974, and the prices of other goods whose manufacture and transportation relied on ___ or gas also rose and did not come down. The ___ embargo had a lasting impact on the economy and underscored the nation's interdependency with international political and economic developments. Faced with high fuel prices, American consumers panicked. Gas stations limited the amount customers could purchase and closed on Sundays as supplies ran low. To conserve ___, Congress reduced the speed limit on interstate highways to fifty-five miles per hour. People were asked to turn down their thermostats, and automobile manufacturers in Detroit explored the possibility of building more fuel-efficient cars. Even after the embargo ended, prices continued to rise, and by the end of the Nixon years in 1974, inflation had soared to 12.2 percent. The ___ shortage triggered a rush to purchase gasoline, and gas stations around the country were choked with cars waiting to fill up. Eventually, fuel shortages caused gas stations to develop various ways to ration gasoline to their customers, such as the "flag policy" used by gas dealers in Oregon. Because the high cost of fuel continued to hinder economic expansion, the creation of an energy program became a central focus of his administration. Carter stressed energy conservation, encouraging people to insulate their houses and rewarding them with tax credits if they did so, and pushing for the use of coal, nuclear power, and alternative energy sources such as solar power to replace ___ and natural gas. To this end, Carter created the Department of Energy. Carter's biggest foreign policy problem was the Iranian hostage crisis, whose roots lay in the 1950s. In 1953, the United States had assisted Great Britain in the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, a rival of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran. Mossadegh had sought greater Iranian control over the nation's ___ wealth, which was claimed by British companies. The United States also supplied the shah's government with billions of dollars in aid. As Iran's ___ revenue grew, especially after the 1973 ___ embargo against the United States, the pace of its economic development and the size of its educated middle class also increased, and the country became less dependent on U.S. aid. Its population increasingly blamed the United States for the death of Iranian democracy and faulted it for its consistent support of Israel. Carter's handling of the crisis appeared even less effective in the way the media portrayed it publicly. This contributed to a growing sense of malaise, a feeling that the United States' best days were behind it and the country had entered a period of decline. This belief was compounded by continuing economic problems, and the ___ shortage and subsequent rise in prices that followed the Iranian Revolution. The president's decision to import less ____ to the United States and remove price controls on ___ and gasoline did not help matters. In 1979, Carter sought to reassure the nation and the rest of the world, especially the Soviet Union, that the United States was still able to defend its interests. 1974: in response to U.S. aid to Israel, OPEC staged an ___ embargo. The price of a barrel of ___ quadrupled & gas prices shot up (to over 50 cents a gallon!) Long lines at gas stations led to consumer anger & an increasingly sour mood among the electorate. Rising ___ prices heightened inflationary pressures.

Little Rock Nine

September 1957: a group of eleven students were selected to integrate Central High. They were academically superior & counseled & trained to avoid confrontation. Gov. Orval Faubus claimed he could not protect them & promptly left the state for a conference. The students made it past a jeering crowd but later that day were evacuated due to fears for their safety. Not enthusiastic about civil rights (personally thought segregation was ok). However, Ike refused to tolerate state defiance of a federal law or a direct order to enforce the law. Sent 101st Airborne to Little Rock to maintain order as the students once more attempted to enroll in school. Nine of them endured several years of isolation, taunts, & ostracism before graduating. A few white students reached out & offered civility if not friendship. 1997: President Clinton welcomed them back to Central High for a reunion, & praised their courage & perseverance.

Tet Offensive

Support began to ebb, however, as more troops were deployed. Frustrated by losses suffered by the South's Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), General William Westmoreland called for the United States to take more responsibility for fighting the war. By April 1966, more Americans were being killed in battle than ARVN troops. Johnson, however, maintained that the war could be won if the United States stayed the course, and in November 1967, Westmoreland proclaimed the end was in sight. Westmoreland's predictions were called into question, however, when in January 1968, the North Vietnamese launched their most aggressive assault on the South, deploying close to eighty-five thousand troops. During this, as these attacks were known, nearly one hundred cities in the South were attacked, including the capital of Saigon. In heavy fighting, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces recaptured all the points taken by the enemy. During this, North Vietnamese and South Communist rebel armies known as Viet Cong attacked South Vietnamese and U.S. targets throughout Vietnam, with Saigon as the focus. ____, the lunar New Year, was an important holiday in Vietnam and temporary ceasefires usually took place at this time. Although North Vietnamese forces suffered far more casualties than the roughly forty-one hundred U.S. soldiers killed, public opinion in the United States, fueled by graphic images provided in unprecedented media coverage, turned against the war. Disastrous surprise attacks like this persuaded many that the war would not be over soon and raised doubts about whether Johnson's administration was telling the truth about the real state of affairs. In May 1968, with over 400,000 U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, Johnson began peace talks with the North. When Eugene McCarthy, the Democratic senator from Minnesota, announced that he would challenge Johnson in the primaries in an explicitly antiwar campaign, Johnson was overwhelmingly favored by Democratic voters. But then this in Vietnam exploded on American television screens on January 31, playing out on the nightly news for weeks. January: North Vietnamese army regulars & the Viet Cong planned extensive attacks throughout South Vietnam to coincide with the Vietnamese (lunar calendar) month of ___. Many attacks would be launched from bordering Laos & Cambodia. Militarily, this was a failure. U.S. forces were more than capable of repelling the attacks & inflicted considerable damage to enemy forces. Psychologically, this was a complete success for the Viet Cong & North Vietnamese. This proved the war was nowhere near over & communists were not defeated. LBJ decided not to run for reelection. Halted bombing of N. Vietnam, promised to devote remaining time in office to a peaceful end of the war.

Silent Majority

Term used by President Nixon to describe Americans who opposed the counterculture. Nixon also courted northern, blue-collar workers, to acknowledge their belief that their voices were seldom heard. These voters feared the social changes taking place in the country: Antiwar protests challenged their own sense of patriotism and civic duty, whereas the recreational use of new drugs threatened their cherished principles of self-discipline, and urban riots invoked the specter of a racial reckoning. Government action on behalf of the marginalized raised the question of whether its traditional constituency—the white middle class—would lose its privileged place in American politics. Some felt left behind as the government turned to the problems of African Americans. Nixon's promises of stability and his emphasis on law and order appealed to them. He portrayed himself as a fervent patriot who would take a strong stand against racial unrest and antiwar protests. A majority whose political will is usually not heard—in this case, northern, white, blue- collar voters.

the "hot line"

The showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union over Cuba's missiles had put the world on the brink of a nuclear war. Both sides already had long-range bombers with nuclear weapons airborne or ready for launch, and were only hours away from the first strike. In the long run, this nearly catastrophic example of nuclear brinksmanship ended up making the world safer. A telephone line was installed, linking Washington and Moscow to avert future crises, and in 1963, Kennedy and Khrushchev signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, prohibiting tests of nuclear weapons in Earth's atmosphere.

Peace Corps

To counter Soviet influence in the developing world, Kennedy supported a variety of measures. Kennedy also established the Agency for International Development to oversee the distribution of foreign aid, and he founded this, which recruited idealistic young people to undertake humanitarian projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. He hoped that by augmenting the food supply and improving healthcare and education, the U.S. government could encourage developing nations to align themselves with the United States and reject Soviet or Chinese overtures. The first group of these volunteers departed for the four corners of the globe in 1961, serving as an instrument of "soft power" in the Cold War. Kennedy's various aid projects, like this, fit closely with his administration's flexible response, which Robert McNamara advocated as a better alternative to the all-or-nothing defensive strategy of mutually assured destruction favored during Eisenhower's presidency. The plan was to develop different strategies, tactics, and even military capabilities to respond more appropriately to small or medium-sized insurgencies, and political or diplomatic crises. Volunteers in Service to America recruited people to offer educational programs and other community services in poor areas, just as this did abroad.

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) Talks

Two rounds of bilateral conferences and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union—the Cold War superpowers—on the issue of armament control. The two rounds of talks and agreements were SALT I and SALT II. Ford was more successful in other parts of the world. He continued Nixon's policy of détente with the Soviet Union, and he and Secretary of State Kissinger achieved further progress in the second round of these. Under Nixon, negotiations had begun to reduce ballistic missiles & nuclear warheads. The first treaty was signed between the U.S. & U.S.S.R. in 1974. The second treaty came a few years later.

Nixon's Vietnam Strategy

Vietnamization- slow withdrawl of US troops, less ground fighting, dropping bombs, train South Korean army to fight and defend themselves. Takes a lot of time. As the conflict wore on and reports of brutalities increased, the antiwar movement grew in strength. To take the political pressure off himself and his administration, and find a way to exit Vietnam "with honor," Nixon began the process of Vietnamization, turning more responsibility for the war over to South Vietnamese forces by training them and providing American weaponry, while withdrawing U.S. troops from the field. At the same time, however, Nixon authorized the bombing of neighboring Cambodia, which had declared its neutrality, in an effort to destroy North Vietnamese and Viet Cong bases within that country and cut off supply routes between North and South Vietnam. The bombing was kept secret from both Congress and the American public. In April 1970, Nixon decided to follow up with an invasion of Cambodia. Vietnamization: the Nixon administration's policy of turning over responsibility for the defense of South Vietnam to Vietnamese forces. Nixon was mostly interested in foreign affairs. He pursued a policy called "Vietnamization". 540,000 American troops would be pulled out & the South Vietnamese would fight their own war, the U.S. would only supply arms & money. This was called the Nixon Doctrine.

Oval Office Tapes

Without evidence clearly implicating the president, the investigation might have ended if not for the testimony of Alexander Butterfield, a low-ranking member of the administration, that a voice-activated recording system had been installed in the Oval Office. The President's most intimate conversations had been recorded. Cox and the Senate subpoenaed them. Nixon, however, refused to hand them over and cited executive privilege, the right of the president to refuse certain subpoenas. When he offered to supply summaries of the conversations, Cox refused. On October 20, 1973, in an event that became known as the Saturday Night Massacre, Nixon ordered Attorney General Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson refused and resigned, as did Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus when confronted with the same order. Control of the Justice Department then fell to Solicitor General Robert Bork, who complied with Nixon's order. In December, the House Judiciary Committee began its own investigation to determine whether there was enough evidence of wrongdoing to impeach the president. The public was enraged by Nixon's actions. It seemed as though the president had placed himself above the law. Telegrams flooded the White House. The House of Representatives began to discuss impeachment. In April 1974, when Nixon agreed to release transcripts of them, it was too little, too late. Yet, while revealing nothing about Nixon's knowledge of Watergate, the transcripts showed him to be coarse, dishonest, and cruel. At the end of its hearings, in July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach. However, before the full House could vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release the actual recordings of his conversations, not just transcripts or summaries. One of them revealed that he had in fact been told about White House involvement in the Watergate break-in shortly after it occurred. In a speech on August 5, 1974, Nixon, pleading a poor memory, accepted blame for the Watergate scandal. Warned by other Republicans that he would be found guilty by the Senate and removed from office, he resigned the presidency on August 8. During testimony, another White House staffer let slip that Oval Office conversations had been recorded. Nixon, who had explicitly denied participation in or knowledge of the burglary, refused to give Congress the recordings. Claimed "executive privilege" over the recordings. Nixon was obliged to admit that subordinates had participated in the cover-up, but denied personal knowledge of it. Court said Nixon had to give all of them to Congress. Those already released revealed Nixon's habitual foul language, anti-Semitism, & general paranoia. Newspapers of the day repeatedly used the phrase "expletive deleted" in transcripts. Nixon finally released the three most damaging recordings. Proved Nixon had known of the break-in within days & had ordered the cover-up.