The changing political environment, 1917-80 Flashcards
Define ‘republicans’
The Republican Party came to be associated with the ideas of minimal government intervention in business and daily life, low taxes and conservative policies. Not all Republicans always followed these ideas.
Define ‘democrats’
The democratic party was associated with the ideas of civil rights (with a significant number of exceptions in the south), unions in the workplace and progressive reform. After the 1930s, Democrats were also associated with the idea of government intervention for social and economic reform.
Define ‘separation of powers’
Laws were made by a legislative group (congress) carried out by an executive group (the president and his administration) and enforced by a judicial group (supreme court). Each group could curb the action of some of the others, making sure no one group had all the power.
Define ‘congress’
The law-making body of the USA. It has two elected bodies, the senate and the house of representatives, that both have to agree laws before they become active. The president can veto any laws agreed by congress.
Write a short paragraph defining ‘normalcy’
Harding’s conception of normalcy for the 1920s included deregulation, civic engagement, and isolationism. He rejected the idealism of Woodrow Wilson and the activism of Roosevelt, favouring the earlier isolationist policy of the United States.
List three components of isolationism
Isolationists advocated non-involvement in European and Asian conflicts and non-entanglement in international politics. Although the United States took measures to avoid political and military conflicts across the oceans, it continued to expand economically and protect its interests in Latin America.
List the essential differences between Woodrow Wilson and the Republican presidents who followed him.
Republicans did not get involved with the country’s economy and took on a ‘laissez-faire’ attitude
How was rugged individualism different from laissez-faire in the way it presented its central idea?
Laissez-faire meant the government would limit its intervention in the economy. Hoover said too much interference would mean economic normality would not return. Rugged individualism meant people were expected to overcome problems and succeed by their own efforts. They were not to depend on help from the government.
Give three important ways in which Roosevelt changed the presidency and explain their importance.
Created a significant White House staff to make increased federal intervention in government work.
He instituted a series of radio broadcasts, known as ‘fireside chats’, in which he explained policies to people as if he was chatting to them in their front rooms.
Held ‘off the record’ press meetings twice a week with selected reporters at the white house.
These briefings meant that they all had the same understanding of what was going on and felt involved and on his side.
List the steps by which Roosevelt led the USA into the Second World War.
In a fireside chat after the outbreak of war, he assured people that the USA would remain neutral.
Without taking the USA into the war, Roosevelt geared the USA up for war production, technically to supply the Allies.
He proposed a ‘lend-lease’ scheme, theoretically lending Britain the supplies, to be returned after the war.
Another scheme of Roosevelt’s was the destroyers-for-bases deal, which allowed Roosevelt to give Britain 50 naval destroyers in return for the use of bases in British-held countries.
The USA entered the war on 8 December 1941, after the Japanese, allies of Germany, bombed the US fleet at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands.
Compile a list of similarities and differences between the First and Second ‘Red Scares’.
1917-1920, Foreign subversion (overthrow the government), bomb scares, fear of foreigners
1947-1957, domestic subversion (overthrow the government), nuclear bomb threat, fear of communists in the government and the community, blacklists (movies, radio, tv, and books)
inflation, labour strikes, followed World Wars, civil rights violations (Palmer, McCarthy, and Nixon- exploited fears to advance their careers), controversial trials (Sacco and Vanzetti, and the Rosenbergs)
List three ways in which hippies were different from radical student groups; list three ways in which they were similar.
Both wanted to change society, started of protesting peacefully, disliked the government
wanted to loosen the tight family system, supported a wider sexual freedom, drugs freely available
wanted equality, protested violently, caused damage in their protests.
In what ways were the Korean War and the Vietnam War similar?
The Vietnam and Korean Wars are both similar in that in each case a communist North fought a capitalist South, and in both cases, the United States of America helped prop up a government that might have otherwise fallen.
In what ways were the Korean War and the Vietnam War different?
In each case, the Communist North vowed sooner or later to “liberate” the South, which, in turn, fell under the loosely defined protection of the West. The Communist offensive in Korea in 1950 was sudden and direct, while in Vietnam a decade later it was gradual and corrosive.
What implication did the setting up of Vietnam Veterans Against the War have for domestic politics and why?
Cast a shadow over four presidencies and drove successive presidents into unpopular domestic policies.
