Chapter 28 - Uncivil Wars: Liberal Crisis and Conservative Rebirth, 1961-1972 Flashcards
Great Society
Lyndon B. Johnson’s domestic program, which included civil rights legislation, antipoverty programs, government subsidy of medical care, federal aid to education, consumer protection, and aid to the arts and humanities
Economic Opportunity Act of 1964
created a series of programs; including Head Start, the Job Corps, and Upward Bound; aimed to alleviate poverty and spur economic growth in impoverished areas
Medicare
a health plan for the elderly funded by a surcharge on Social Security payroll taxes
Medicaid
a health plan for the poor paid for by general tax revenues and administered by states
Equal Pay Act of 1963
established equal pay for equal work
The Feminine Mystique
an influential book written in 1963 by Betty Friedan critiquing the ideal whereby women were encouraged to confine themselves to roles within the domestic sphere
Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
commission appointed by President Kennedy in 1961, which issued a 1963 report documenting job and educational discrimination
National Organization for Women (NOW)
women’s civil rights organization formed in 1966 that grew from eliminating gender discrimination to supporting more radical feminist issues by the 1970s
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
1964 resolution that gave the president virtually unlimited authority in conducting the Vietnam War (terminated in 1971 following outrage over U.S. invasion of Cambodia)
Operation Rolling Thunder
massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam authorized by President Johnson in 1965; ended up hardening the will of the North Vietnamese to continue fighting
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
organization for social change founded by college students in 1960
Port Huron Statement
1962 manifesto by Students for a Democratic Society expressing the students’ disillusionment with the nation’s consumer culture and the gulf between the rich and the poor, as well as a rejection of Cold War foreign policy
New Left
term applied to radical students of the 1960s and 1970s who wanted to distinguish themselves from the “Old Left” (communists and socialists of the 1930s and 1940s)
Young Americans for Freedom (YAF)
largest student political organization in the country whose conservative members defended free enterprise and supported the war in Vietnam
Sharon Statement
outline of YAF’s principles drafted by its founding members
counter-culture
culture embracing values of lifestyles opposing those of the mainstream culture (hippies)
Tet offensive
major campaign of attacks launched throughout South Vietnam in January 1968 by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong - major turning point in war
1968 Democratic National Convention
political divisions caused by Vietnam War consumed the party as thousands of protesters came to Chicago for the convention
Chicago Moratorium Committee
organized demonstrations against the Vietnam War
women’s liberation
new branch of feminism from the 1960s that attracted young, college-educated women from the New Left
Title IX
1972 law that broadened the 1964 Civil Rights At to include educational institutions - made women’s athletics important on college campuses
Stonewall Inn
two-day riot by Stonewall Inn patrons after the police raided the gay bar in Greenwich Village in 1969; led to rapid rise of gay liberation movement
silent majority
term used by Nixon in 1969 to describe those who supported his positions but did not publicly assert their voices (in contrast to antiwar, civil rights, and women’s movements)
Vietnamization
new U.S. policy of delegating the ground fighting to the South Vietnamese in the Vietnam War
My Lai
1968 execution by U.S. Army troops of nearly 500 people in the South Vietnamese village of My Lai
detente
easing of conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Nixon administration
Warren Court
Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren which expanded the Constitution’s promise of equality and civil rights
Lyndon B. Johnson
36th president who enacted the Great Society
Barry Goldwater
antigovernment Republican nominee against Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 election
Betty Friedan
modern feminist and author of The Feminine Mystique
Ngo Dinh Diem
dictator of South Vietnam
Robert Kennedy
senator and JFK’s brother
Richard M. Nixon
37th president and the only to resign
George C. Wallace
third-party candidate in 1968 election
Henry Kissinger
diplomat during the Vietnam War
