Period 8 Part II (Chapters 8-15) Flashcards
Domino Theory
To justify spending over $1 billion in aid for South Vietnam, President Eisenhower made what became a famous analogy to a row of dominoes. According to this domino theory, if South Vietnam fell under Communist control, one nation after another in Southeast Asia would also fall, until Australia and New Zealand were in dire danger.
SEATO
To prevent South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from “falling” to communism, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles put together a regional defense pact called the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Agreeing to defend one another in case of an attack within the region, eight nations signed the pact in 1954: the United States, Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand the Philippines, Thailand, and Pakistan.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
Allegedly, North Vietnamese gunboats had fired on U.S. warships in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam’s coast. The president persuaded Congress that this aggressive act was sufficient reason for a military response by the United States. Congress approved the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which basically gave the president, as commander-in-chief, a blank check to take “all necessary measures” to protect U.S. interests in Vietnam. Johnson used this small, obscure naval incident to secure congressional authorization to send U.S. forces into combat.
Credibility Gap
Misinformation from military and civilian leaders combined with Johnson’s reluctance to speak frankly to the American people about the scope and the costs of the war created what the media called a credibility gap.
Tet Offensive
On the occasion of the Lunar New Year (Tet) in January 1968, the Vietcong launched an all-out surprise attack on almost every provincial capital and American base in South Vietnam. Although the attack took a fearful toll in the cities, the U.S. military counterattacked, inflicted much heavier losses on the Vietcong, and recovered the lost territory. As a military attack, the Tet Offensive failed. Even so, it had tremendous impact in the United States. The millions of Americans who watched TV news footage of the destruction interpreted the attacks as a setback for Johnson’s Vietnam policy. Victory was not imminent. Thus, for the Vietcong and North Vietnamese, Tet was a tremendous political victory in demoralizing the American public. In the New Hampshire primary in February, the antiwar McCarthy took 42% of the vote against Johnson.
Hawks v. Doves
Supporters of the war, or “hawks”, believed that the war was an act of Soviet-backed Communist aggression against South Vietnam and that it was part of a master plan to conquer all of Southeast Asia. Opponents of the war, or “doves”, viewed the conflict as a civil war fought by Vietnamese nationalists and some Communists who wanted to unite their country by overthrowing a corrupt Saigon government.
Vietnamization
A process begun by President Nixon, who announced that he would gradually withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam and give the South Vietnamese the money, the weapons, and the training that they needed to take over the full conduct of the war. Under this policy, U.S. troops in South Vietnamese went from more than 540,000 in 1969 to under 30,000 in 1972. Extending the idea of disengagement to other parts of Asia, the president proclaimed the Nixon Doctrine, declaring that in the future Asian allies would receive U.S. support but without the extensive use of U.S. ground forces.
Kent State
IN April 1970, Nixon expanded the Vietnam War by using U.S. forces to invade Cambodia in an effort to destroy Vietnamese Communist bases in that country. A nationwide protest on college campuses against this action resulted in the killing of four youths by National Guard troops at Kent State University in Ohio and two students and Jackson State University in Mississippi. In reaction to the escalation of the war, the U.S. Senate (but not the House) voted to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Pentagon Papers
A secret government study documenting the mistakes and deceptions of the government policymakers in dealing with Vietnam. The papers had been turned over, or “leaked”, to the press by Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department analyst.
War Powers Act
Required Nixon and any future president to report to Congress within 48 hours after taking military action. It further provided that Congress would have to approve any military action that lasted more than 60 days.
Great Society
Lyndon Johnson’s presidential program. As the new president, Johnson was determined to expand the social reforms of the New Deal. During his almost 30 years in Congress, he had learned how to get things done.
War on Poverty
In his best-selling book on poverty, The Other America (1962), Michael Harrington helped focus national attention on the 40 million Americans still living in poverty. President Johnson responded by declaring in 1964 an “unconditional war on poverty” and was supported in his goals by a Democratic Congress.
Silent Spring
Clean air and water laws were enacted in part as a response to Rachel Carson’s exposé of pesticides, Silent Spring (1962). This novel explained the negative environmental effects of DDT, a potent insecticide that had been used in American agriculture. Carson argued that unchecked industrial growth would destroy animal life and ultimately human life on earth. This best-selling book forced Americans to question whether “better living through chemistry” was the solution to or the cause of the emerging environmental crisis.
Immigration Act of 1965
Abolished discriminatory quotas based on national origins.
Letter from Birmingham Jail
From his jail cell, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an essay in which he argued, “[W]e need emulate neither the ‘do-nothingism’ of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the Black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle. . . .One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. . . .” This letter moved President Kennedy to support a tougher civil rights bill.
March on Washington 1963
In August 1963, King led one of the largest, most successful demonstration in U.S. history. About 200,000 Black and White people joined the peaceful March on Washington in support of jobs and the civil rights bill. The highlight of the demonstration was King’s impassioned “I Have a Dream” speech, which appealed for the end of racial prejudice and ended with everyone in the crowd singing “We Shall Overcome.”
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Made segregation illegal in all public facilities, including hotels and restaurants, and gave the federal government more power to enforce school desegregation.
24th Amendment
Abolished the practice of collecting a poll tax, one of the measures that, for decades, had discouraged poor people from voting.
Voting Rights Act 1965
Ended literacy tests and provided federal registrars in areas where African Americans had been kept from voting since Reconstruction.
Black Muslim
Seeking a new cultural identity based on Africa and Islam, the Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad preached Black nationalism, separatism, and self-improvement. The movement had already attracted thousands of followers by the time a young man named Malcolm Little became a convert while serving in prison. He adopted the name Malcolm X. Leaving prison in 1952, Malcolm X acquired a reputation as the movement’s most controversial voice. He criticized King as “an Uncle Tom” (subservient to Whites) and advocated self-defense — using Black violence to counter White violence. He eventually left the Black Muslims and moved away from defending violence, but he was assassinated by Black opponents in 1965.
Black Panthers
In 1966, the Black Panthers were organized by Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and other militants as a revolutionary socialist movement advocating self-rule for American blacks.
The Feminine Mystique
A book by Betty Friedan that gave the women’s movement new direction by encouraging middle-class women to seek fulfillment in professional careers in addition to filling the roles of wife, mother, and homemaker.
NOW
The National Organization for Women, which adopted the activist tactics of other civil rights movements to secure equal treatment of women, especially for job opportunities.
Title IX
A statute to end sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. Though far-reaching, the law is best known for its requirement that schools provide girls with equal athletic opportunities.
Equal Rights Amendment
A proposed constitutional amendment that stated, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” Although NOW and other groups campaigned hard for the ERA, it just missed ratification by the required 38 states. It was defeated in part because of a growing reaction against feminism by conservatives who feared the movement threatened the traditional roles of women.
AIM
To achieve self-determination and revival of tribal traditions, the American Indian Movement was founded in 1968. Militant actions soon followed, including AIM’s takeover of the abandoned prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay in 1969. AIM members also occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973, which was the site of the infamous massacre of American Indians by the U.S. cavalry in 1890.
Gay Rights Movement
In 1969, a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City, sparked both a riot and the gay rights movement. Gay activists urged homosexuals to be open about their identity and to work to end discrimination and violent abuse.
Warren Court
In the 1960s, the Warren Court made a series of decision that profoundly affected the criminal-justice system, state political systems, and the definition of individual rights. Some of the most important cases during this time were Mapp v. Ohio, Gideon v. Wainwright, Escobedo v. Illinois, Miranda v. Arizona, Yates v. United States, Engel v. Vitale, and Griswold v. Connecticut.
SDS
In 1962, a newly formed radical student organization called Students for a Democratic Society held a meeting in Port Huron, Michigan. Following the leadership of Tom Hayden, the group issued a declaration of purposes known as the Port Huron Statement. It called for university decisions to be made through participatory democracy so that students would have a voice in decisions affecting their lives. Activists and intellectuals who supported Hayden’s ideals became known as the New Left.
Counterculture
Expressed in rebellious styles of dress, music, drug use, and, for some, communal living. The apparent dress code of the “hippies” and “flower children” of the 1960s included long hair, beards, beads, and jeans. The folk music of John Baez and Bob Dylan gave voice to the younger generation’s protests, while the rock music of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin provided the beat and lyrics for the counterculture.
Woodstock
In 1969, a gathering of hundreds of thousands of young people at the Woodstock Music Festival in upper New York State reflected the zenith of the counterculture. However, as a result of experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD or becoming addicted to various other drugs, some young people destroyed their lives. The counterculture’s excesses and the economic uncertainties of the times led to its demise in the 1970s.
Three Mile Island
In 1979, opinion turned against building additional nuclear power plants after an accident at the Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania.
Earth Day
In 1970, the first Earth Day reflected the nation’s growing concerns over air and water pollution and the destruction of the natural environment, including wildlife. In New York city, 100,000 people showed their support for protecting the earth. Organizers estimated that 1,500 colleges and 10,000 schools took part in Earth Day. Time magazine estimated that about 20 million Americans participated in some activity related to the event. The popularity of the environmental movement grew after 1970 and became an important political issue.
EPA
To enforce federal regulations, President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. An independent federal agency, the EPA was given responsibility for regulating and enforcing federal programs and policies on air and water pollution, radiation issues, pesticides, and solid waste. The agency began with a staff of 8,000 and a budget of $455 million, but by 1981 it had a staff of nearly 13,000 and a budget of $1.35 billion. Enforcing environmental regulations proved to be a difficult and complex task, particularly as new legislation gave the agency more responsibilities.
Clean Air Act
Regulated air emissions from both stationary and mobile sources and authorized the EPA to set standards to protect public health by regulation emissions of hazardous air pollutants.
Clean Water Act
Also known as the Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1977, this aimed to regulate water pollution in the United States by establishing standards for surface water quality and controlling pollutant discharges.
Endangered Species Act
Created to protect critically imperiled species such as the American bald eagle from extinction as a “consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation.” It was also created to protect the ecosystems upon which wildlife depend. The habitat of wildlife became the source of contention between preservationists and land developers and industries. Th Endangered Species Act of 1973 was called “the Magna Carta of the environmental movement.”
Silent Majority
How Nixon referred to the millions of voters who had become disaffected by civil rights, liberal court rulings, antiwar protests, black militants, school busing to achieve racial balance, and the excesses of the youth counterculture. Many of them were Democrats, including southern Whites, northern Catholic blue-collar workers, and recent suburbanites who disagreed with the liberal drift of their party.
Watergate
The tragedy of Watergate went well beyond the public humiliation of Richard Nixon and the conviction and jailing of 26 White House officials and aides. Watergate had a paralyzing effect on the political system in the mid-1970s, a critical time both at home and overseas, when the country needed respected, strong, and confident leadership. The Watergate scandal consisted of a series of illegal activities and “dirty tricks” conducted by the Nixon administration and the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), including bribes, burglary, pardons, etc. This eventually led Nixon to resign from office.
Impeachment
A process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. Specifically regarding the Watergate scandal, the House of Representatives began impeachment hearings, which caused Nixon to reveal transcripts of some of the Watergate tapes in April 1974. The House Judiciary Committee eventually voted three articles of impeachment:
1. Obstruction of justice
2. Abuse of power
3. Contempt of Congress
National Malaise
In 1979, in what the press called Carter’s “national malaise” speech, he blamed the problems of the United States on a “moral and spiritual crisis” of the American people.
Moral Majority
Religion became an instrument of electoral politics when an evangelist from Virginia, Jerry Falwell, founded the Moral Majority, which financed campaigns to unseat liberal members of Congress.
