Period 8 Flashcards
Tet offensive
Was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, launched on January 30, 1968, by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People’s Army of Vietnam against the forces of South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. It was a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian commands and control centers throughout South Vietnam.[10] The name of the offensive comes from the Tết holiday, the Vietnamese New Year, when the first major attacks took place.[11]
The communists launched a wave of attacks in the late night hours of 30 January in the I and II Corps Tactical Zones of South Vietnam. This early attack did not lead to widespread defensive measures. When the main communist operation began the next morning the offensive was countrywide and well coordinated, eventually more than 80,000 communist troops striking more than 100 towns and cities, including 36 of 44 provincial capitals, five of the six autonomous cities, 72 of 245 district towns, and the southern capital.[12] The offensive was the largest military operation conducted by either side up to that point in the war.
GI Bill
1944 offically known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, this law helped returning World War II soldiers reintegrate into civilian life by securing loans to buy homes and farms and set up small businesses and by making tuition and stipends available for them to attend college and job training programs; it was also intended to cushion the blow of 15 million returning servicemen on the employment market and to nurture the postwar economy
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (est. 1949) military alliance of Western European powers and the United States and Canada established to defend against the common threat from the Soviet Union, marking a giant stride forward for European unity and American internationalism. whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.
Gulf of Tonkin resolution
On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. Johnson got authorization isn’t out a full declaration of war.
Kent state Massacre
The Kent State shootings (also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre)[1][2][3] occurred at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, in the United States and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.
Some of the students who were shot had been protesting the Cambodian Campaign, which President Richard Nixon announced during a television address on April 30. Other students who were shot had been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance.[6][7]
There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of four million students,[8] and the event further affected public opinion—at an already socially contentious time—over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.[9]
The other America
Edward Michael “Mike” Harrington was an American democratic socialist, writer, political activist, political theorist, professor of political science, radio commentator and founding member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Though he published over fifty books, The Other America was Harrington’s best known, and likely most influential book. Harrington believed that American Socialists could support certain Democratic Party candidates, including candidates for President, and many believe The Other America influenced the presidencies of both John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. In a nutshell, the book was a study of poverty in the United States, published in 1962 by Macmillan. It found a small but emerging audience in an America that was developing a greater self-awareness after the struggles of WWII and the Korean War.
Civil rights act of 1964
This act outlawed segregation of public accomodations. established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce the law,made the federal government responsible for finding instances of discrimination, and made illegal discrimination based on race, religion, ethinic orgin, or gender. Unfortunately, the act did not effectively addess many problems associated with voting rights.
Truman doctrine
Stated that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere. Stopping the spread of the sphere of communist influence. Addressing a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947, President Harry S. Truman asked for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Greece and Turkey and established a doctrine, aptly characterized the Truman Doctrine, that would guide U.S. diplomacy for the next forty years.
Bay of pigs
was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. A counter-revolutionary military, trained and funded by the United States government’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF) and intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from Guatemala, the invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, under the direct command of Prime Minister Fidel Castro.
Freedom summer
1964 a voter registration drive in Mississippi spearheaded by the collaboration of civil rights groups, the campaign drew the activism of thousands of black and white civil rights workers, many of whom were students from the north, and was marred by the abduction and murder of three such workers at the hands of white racists. Register as many as possible
Little rock 9
as a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 347 U.S. 483, on May 17, 1954. Tied to the 14th Amendment, the decision declared all laws establishing segregated schools to be unconstitutional, and it called for the desegregation of all schools throughout the nation.[1] After the decision, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attempted to register black students in previously all-white schools in cities throughout the South. In Little Rock, the capital city of Arkansas, the Little Rock School Board agreed to comply with the high court’s ruling. Virgil Blossom, the Superintendent of Schools, submitted a plan of gradual integration to the school board on May 24, 1955, which the board unanimously approved. The plan would be implemented during the fall of the 1957 school year, which would begin in September 1957.
Marshal plan
an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave $13 billion (approximately $130 billion in current dollar value as of March 2016) in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous again, and prevent the spread of communism. Announced by Secretary of State George Marshall
