Final Flashcards
George Kennan
1947 American diplomat who developed the containment policy. He wrote the long telegram and the anonymous Mr. X article. Goal: contain the Soviet Union and not allow expansion. Idea that Russian goal was expansion self righteousness. Idea that diplomacy not be effective. ESCALATES COLD WAR.
Truman Doctrine
March, 1947. Wherever people are, threatened by totalitarian leadership, the U.S is willing to help (if there’s Soviet influence). Puts the U.S in a position to involve itself in other countries.
National Security Act 1947
Previously the War Department with no standing army.
1. Creates the Department of Defense and a standing army/permeant military mobilization.
2.Forms CIA. New focus on spying and intelligence operations.
3. National Security Council: works secretly on security with the CIA and Department of Defense.
Lavender Scare
- 1947 Truman Loyalty Program removes homosexuals from govt. as “security risks.”
- Kinsley Report 1948: 4-8% of men were gay. 37% of men reported some homosexual relationship/act in their lives. People began to wonder who was gay (same as wondering who was communist). Fear that homosexuality = world decay.
3.1950 Panic on the Potomac, 600 federal workers fired /resigned because they were considered security risks. Communists could use their homosexuality to blackmail them into spying (no evidence of this occurring).
Korean War
Following WWII Korea is split between U.S and Soviets. Supposed to be united by an election. U.S postpones election indefinitely.
-June 1950, North Korean troops cross 38th parallel to unite Korea under communism.
U.S sends troops through U.N police action. U.S pushes back to 38th and then keeps going. China then sends troops to push U.S back below 38th parallel.
-General MacArthur begins to criticize the war publicly. Truman fires him.
-War enters stalemate.
1953: Peace treaty of status quo ante. 38th parallel remains.
The Affluent Society
1950’s idea pioneered by John Kenneth Galbraith in his 1958 book “The Affluent Society”. IDEA: Although America was rich in consumer goods, it was poor in spirit.
The 1950’s was an era of consensus & a single American way: democracy, liberty, anticommunist, & material prosperity.
HOWEVER: African Americans were exceptions. Women also experienced a new era of traditionalism (new woman of the ’20s was gone).
Levittowns
1947 Abraham & sons Wiliam and Alfred begin mass production of housing. Everything needed for housing was packaged up nicely, crews created for each part of assembly. Mechanized tasks, non-union labor, owned lumber and nail factory. Subdivided land, laid roads, built houses, thus creating a subdivision. Homes were cheaper, uniform in style AND who lived in them. NOT sold to African Americans. Marked a revolution in housing an home building.
G.I Bill of Rights
1944: 1. paid for college for returning vets = COLLEGE EXPANSION.
2. Low interest longterm mortgages so vets could afford homes. CHEAPER THAN CITY.
3. 1st government bill to DENY HOMOSEXUALS (lavender scare).
Interstate Highway Act of 1956
GOAL:Create National interstate highway and defense.
Added defense interest to the bill to make it possible for the government to build roads. Created the ability for suburbanization. Rise of shopping malls.
Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
By FDR:1934
Federally ensured longterm low interest mortgages that wouldn’t default. New access to credit. Home ownership increased.
WHY: Cities had become crowded with African Americans from the great migration. White people flee to suburbs (white flight).
RESULT:
bias towards single family and new home construction.
“unbiased: professional estimates: rates the security of loans in an area, borrower, property, & neighborhoods. PROTECTION FROM ADVERSE INFLUENCE = RACE.
Brown v. Board of Education
1954: NAACP goes after “separate but equal” established by Plessy. Thurgood Marshall lawyer. TWO CASES under one umbrella (Brown I and Brown II). BROWN I (1954): Ruling that “separate but equal” no longer stands. Plessy was wrong.
BROWN II (1955): Desegregation should take place with “all deliberate speed.” Enables white resistance.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Dec. 1,1955: Following the constructed case of Rosa Parks. She refuses to give up her seat at the front of the bus. She doesn’t and is jailed. Jo Ann Robinson and E.D Nixon (NAACP) organize boycott and carpooling. 381 day boycott cripples the bus system. LEADS TO: 1956 INTRAstate bus segregation unconstitutional. Rise of Southern Christian Leadership Conference and MLK.
Rosa was chosen because of her character. She had been working with the NAACP previously.
The Sit in Movement
Feb 1st 1960: 4 college students sit in at Woolworths lunch counter, NC. They weren’t served, counter closes. More and more people show up and take abuses from white people. Sit in’s spread. 1961: 50k had done sit ins in over 126 cities.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Barred discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, and race in employment and places of public accommodation. Undid de jure segregation. Legislation pushed by LBJ. Splintered the Democratic party.
Voting Rights Act 1965
Outlawed southern strategies of disenfranchisement (ex: literacy tests). Empowered US Attorney General to oversee voter registration in any county where less than 50% of eligible voters were registers.
WITH CRA 1694 SIGNALED THE END oF JIM CROW IN THE SOUTH.
The Black Power Movement
Turn towards violence to accomplish the failures of peaceful civil rights movements. Embracing Black culture. SELF IDENTITY
-Malcolm X: Nation of Islam and Black Nationalism. He was a culture hero for Black nationalists. Questioned non-violence. Assassinated by a leader of the Nation of Islam in 1965.
-Stokely Carmicheal: (SNCC) Student non-violent Coordinating Committee.
-Floyd Mcckissick (CORE).
-Black Panther Party: oversee Black communities, protect from police brutality, and armed themselves publicly. Eventually merged with SNCC.
-Mohammed Ali:Refused to go to war when drafted, stripped of title and banned from boxing for 5 years (during his prime).
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Oct. 1962, US notices through U2 Recon planes that Soviets placed nukes in Cuba (within 90 miles of U.S territory). Divide between preemptive strike between Cuba or not. KENNEDY: embargoed Cuba and negotiations began. Soviets downed a US spy plane in response to the embargo. RESULTS: Soviets agree to pull missiles if US agrees to never invade Cuba and pull warheads out of Turkey. KENNEDY GAINS REPUTATION AS A COLD WAR WARRIOR. Closest Americans got to war with Soviets (tension at home).
The Great Society
LBJ’s expansion of the welfare state to include those left behind by the New Deal.
-Civil rights legislation (VRA & CRA)
-“War on Poverty”: 1964 Economic Opportunity Act (gives 1 billion to support those in poverty, Members in the community distribute aid directly).
-Creation of Department of housing: improve urban living.
-Immigration Act 1965: Undid the national origins act (quota system). = more asian immigration.
-medicare + medicaid
-Headstart:preschool for low income families.
OVERALL BYPASSED LOCAL POLITICIANS
