Unit 8 Review Flashcards
GI Bill
also knows as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act; provided 0% down VA housing and college loans to returning servicemen in exchange for their service in WWII. Partly in place to keep returning service men from flooding the market with too many workers; provided opportunities for servicemen to move to the suburbs and go to college on the gov’t’s dime.
Yalta Conference
meeting between the Big 3 (Churchill, FDR and Stalin) in February, 1945 to decide what to do with Germany at the end of WWII. It was decided at this conference that the SU would enter the war in the Pacific against Japan 3 months after the war in Europe was over; Germany would be divided into 4 zones of occupation; the UN would be created as an international peacekeeping organization and free elections would be held in Eastern Europe.
Berlin Blockade
Soviet Union cuts off access and utilities to West Berlin in 1948, hoping to stop the US, GB and France from reuniting their portions to form West Germany.
Berlin Airlift
Response to Berlin Blockade: Allies responded with a Berlin Airlift; 2.3 million tons of supplies were sent to West Berlin over an 11 month span before the blockade was lifted.
containment policy
US foreign policy of the Cold War; originated in the years following WWII; US wouldn’t fight Communism where it existed, but would work to keep it from spreading to other countries/territories.
Truman Doctrine
aid to Greece and Turkey; GB asked US to provide aid to these two countries and US initially refused. Was not until the take over the Yugoslavia’s gov’t that the US sent $400 million to aid Greece and Turkey
Marshall Plan
proposed by Sec. of State John Marshall to aid European countries from falling to Communism in the years following WWII; $12.5 billion was sent in aid to western Europe.
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization - created as a direct response to the Berlin Blockade; first peacetime military alliance
Korean War
one of the first proxy wars the US fights with the Soviet Union; N. Korea expanded into S. Korea and UN forces, lead by US General Douglas MacArthur pushed them back almost to China, which caused the Chinese to get involved. Eventually a cease-fire was called after MacArthur was fired by Truman; no peace treaty to this day.
1960 Election
Democratic Candidate = JF Kennedy
Republican Candidate = Richard Nixon
First election where TV played a major role in the debate/election process. Kennedy was the first Catholic president.
McCarthyism
Part of the Red Scare led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy; he accused the State Dept. of harboring communists; this lead to a hunt throughout the US gov’t trying to find Soviet spies; hunt did not end until McCarthy started accusing high ranking military commanders of harboring communists within the US military.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
Supreme Court case that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal was OK); required school integration to take place.
flexible response
foreign policy strategy of Kennedy’s administration; allowed any measure/response to be used to combat Communism, including the use of nuclear weapons, if needed.
Bay of Pigs
failed US sponsored invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles
Cuban Missile Crisis
October, 1962: US discovered that SU was installing missiles on island of Cuba which could reach major cities in the US. US settled on a naval blockade of the island to keep the SU from installing nuclear weapons on these missiles; closest the US came to nuclear war during the Cold War.
Freedom Riders
college age students who spent the summer of 1963 (Freedom Summer) trying to integrate the interstate busing system in the south; Kennedy’s administration finally gets involved when Attorney General Bobby Kennedy encourages JFK to send Federal Marshals to protect the riders.
March on Washington
August, 1963; wide scale peaceful protest where MLK gave his, “I have a dream,” speech; protest was to try galvanize US Congress
Johnson’s Great Society
Domestic policy of LBJ’s presidency; Johnson wanted to fund his Great Society AND the Vietnam war without any changes in the budget, which caused drastic inflation in 1970.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
event that got the US directly involved in Vietnam; US naval ship was said to have been attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, and the resolution included sending ground troops to Vietnam, instead of just military advisors.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
passed as a memorial to JFK; created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; banned racial discrimination in private facilities that were open to the public; also included a ban on sexual discrimination, as well as racial discrimination.
Malcolm X
more militant counterpart to MLK in the Civil Rights movement; he promoted a more militant response to earn equal treatment, instead of MLK’s nonviolent, noncooperation approach
Nixon Doctrine
Nixon’s policy on the Cold War; said that Asian countries would have to fight wars against communism without large numbers of American troops
Vietnamization
Nixon Doctrine applied to Vietnam; more of the ground war in Vietnam would be handed over to S. Vietnamese troops and a gradual withdrawal of US troops would occur
Pentagon Papers
top-secret papers that were published in 1971; exposed the lie to the American people that led the US into the Vietnam War.
War Powers Act (1973)
a result of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution where LBJ was able to move troops to Vietnam without any kind of declaration of war by Congress; this act required congressional approval of extended troop commitments in foreign regions
Watergate
Nixon White House scandal where the President tried to cite executive privilege as an excuse to not hand over office tapes of conversations in the Oval Office to Congress. Nixon authorized the break-in and phone bugging of the Democratic National Convention headquarters and tried to used the FBI and CIA to cover up the break-in
Roe v. Wade
Supreme Court case that overturned state laws prohibiting abortion b/c it violated a woman’s 14th amendment right to privacy
Camp David Accords
peace agreement signed between Israel and Egypt under the leadership of President Carter; he proclaimed peace in the Middle East, but this set of guidelines was far from peaceful for either country; it did, however, give Israel an ally in the region.
Iranian Hostage Crisis
US Embassy workers in Tehran, Iran were taken hostage after the US refused to deport the former Shah of Iran, and return him to Iran for trial. He was in the US seeking medial treatment for cancer. Students in Tehran seized the embassy and held American workers hostage for 444 days. Carter tried negotiations, economic sanctions and a failed rescue attempt. It was not until Reagan was sworn in as president that the hostages were released.
