American Studies 2
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Terms
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- SALT 1
- a plan to limit nuclear arms the two nations had been working on for years
- Joseph McCarthy
- United States politician who unscrupulously accused many citizens of being Communists (1908-1957)
- Korean War
- The conflict between Communist North Korea and Non-Communist South Korea. The United Nations (led by the United States) helped South Korea.
- Malcom X
- spokesperson for african american self sufficiency
- camp david accords
- A peace treaty between Israel and Egypt where Egypt agreed to recognize the nation state of Israel
- reagonomics
- trickle down theory
- kent state
- 4 students killed by National Guardsmen after violent protesting in this university
- medicare
- health insurance provided by the federal govermetn for aged or disabled people
- lyndon johnson
- successor to Kennedy, started new round of reform known as Great Society, which included medicare and medicaid
- NOW national organization for women
- promoted full participation of women in american society
- roe vs. wade
- Supreme Court declared abortion to be a private decision, Right to Abortion
- ho chi minh trail
- Trail that ran through neutral countries that allowed the N.V. to get more supplies even during a blockade.
- Strategic denfense initiative
- reagans proposed defense system against soviet missile attack
- job corps
- no cost educational and vocational traning program for youth
- cuban missile crisis
- result of bay of pigs. castro allowed soviet to base nuclear missiles in cuba
- Berlin Airlift
- Joint effort by the US and Britian to fly food and supplies into W Berlin after the Soviet blocked off all ground routes into the city
- war powers act
- Act that grants emergency executive powers to president to run war effort
- pentagon papers
- classified information of the war
- iran contra scadal
- scandal in reagon administration involving use of money from secret Iranian arms sales
- peace corps.
- volunteered 2 years to help people in underdeveloped countries
- napalm
- gasoline jelled with aluminum soaps
- jimmy carter
- 1977-1981 Dealt with energy crisis, Iran Hostage situation, high inflation and high unemployment
- Brown vs. Board of Education
- Stated in 1954 that it was unconstitutional to maintain separate black and white schools
- newt gingrich
- called on republican congressional to endorse contract with america
- Marshall Plan
- a United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe (1948-1952)
- gerald ford
- president after Nixon, granted Nixon full pardon, helped control inflation and reduce role of government in people's lives
- SCLC
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference, churches link together to inform blacks about changes in the Civil Rights Movement, led by MLK Jr., was a success
- defense spending
- gov. spending for military or armed forces
- Warsaw Pact
- An alliance between the Soviet Union and other Eastern European nations. This was in response to the NATO
- iran hostage crisis
- the Shah of Iran (a US ally) came to US after a revolution in Iran and armed students took 52 American hostages. (contributed to the defeat of Carter in 1980 election)
- baby boom
- the larger than expected generation in United States born shortly after World War II
- Rosa Parks
- African American woman who refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus
- berlin wall
- symbolized communism and division of Germany separated communist and non-communist berlin
- persian gulf war
- limited military operation to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait
- NAFTA
- agreement calling for the removal of tarriffs among us. canada and mexico
- supply-side economics
- theory that tex reductions will increase investment
- Truman Doctrine
- President Truman's policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology
- my lai massacre
- Lieutenant Calli ordered US troops to kill a village of vietnamese people
- betty friedan
- American Feminist, writer of The Feminine Mystique, cofounded NOW
- warren commission
- 10 month investigation of the assassination of JFK
- al gore
- vice president under clinton. lost election of 2000
- george H. bush
- continued reagans conservative policies. brought together UN colilition to fight gulf war
- watergate
- Break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate building in 1972 that resulted in a cover-up and the subsequent resignation of Nixon
- containment
- (military) the act of containing something or someone
- yasir arafat
- palestine liberation leader. signed peace agreement with israel
- civil rights act of 1964
- outlawed discrimination in employment on the basis of race, sex, or religion
- new right
- politial coalition formed by conservtive groups
- detente
- the easing of tensions or strained relations (especially between nations)
- affirmative action
- policy that gives special consideration to women and members of minorities to make up for past discrimination
- beatniks
- a United States youth subculture of the 1950s
- bay of pigs invasion
- attempt to overthrow the cuban gov of fidel castro
- satellite Nations
- countries subject to Soviet domination
- contra
- rebel opposed to NIcaragua's communist gov.
- richard nixon
- the only president forced to resign, after the watergate scandal. Great with foreign policy
- ERA equal rights amendment
- proposed constitutional ammendment, never ratified-no discrimination of sex
- tet offensive
- Attack By North Vietnamese and Vietcong Troops Against South Vietnam During The Vietnam War
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- became the spokesperson for the Montgomery bus boycott
- rachel carson
- one of the first people to realize the global dangers of pesticide abuse (DDT). Wrote Silent Spring.
- george w. bush
- led efforts to unite world against terrorism. won electoral votes
- Freedom rides
- designed to test whether southern states would obey Supreme Court rulings for African American rights
- non violent protest
- a peacesful way of protesting against restrictive policies.
- agent orange
- a herbicide used in the Vietnam War to defoliate forest areas
- NASA
- conducts research on problems of flight on earth and space
- spiro agnew
- VP that resigned due to accepting bribes
- great society
- President Johnson's ambitious program of social reforms.
- NATO
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization; an alliance made to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country; US, England, France, Canada, Western European countries
- gulf of tonkin resolution
- allowed the president to take all necassay measures to repel armed attack or prevent further aggression
- rock and roll
- a genre of popular music originating in the 1950s
- iron curtain
- • Describes the divisions between communist and non-communists
- fall of saigon
- North Vietnam Captures Saigon the capital of the south
- plumbers
- people whose job it was to stop leaks of what Nixon was trying to achieve from being let out of the White House
- Interstate Highway Act
- a 1956 law initiated by Truman that authorized 41,000 miles of highways to be built
- Cold War
- war of threat between US and USSR
- vietnamization
- withdrawing U.S. troops and emphasizing asitional responsiblilites of South Vietnam
- ronald reagan
- conservative president. supported supply side economics. created huge budget defecits
- three mile island
- Nuclear Reactor that suffers a meltdown in 1979 near Harrisburg, PA
- deferment
- an official postponement to a call to serve
- EPA environmental protection agency
- enforced national pollution control standards
- CREEP
- Nixon Whitehouse fundraising organization, laundred money in what came to be know as Watergate Scandal
- Taft Hartley Act
- Allowed the government to apply for a court order to delay for 80 days any strike that threatened public health or safety.
- New frontier
- used by JFk in acceptance speech. his domestic and foreign programs
- 38th parallel
- line of latitude that separated North and South Korea
- bill gates
- founder of microsoft, revolutionized personal computing.
- Levittown
- Towns in which houses were built on an assembly line. The houses were cheap and all families could afford them.
- brinkmanship
- the policy of pushing a dangerous situation to the brink of disaster (to the limits of safety)
- OPEC
- an organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the production and sale of petroleum
- Nuremberg Trials
- SSeries of trials in 1945 conducted by an International Military Tribunal in which former Nazi leaders were charged with crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes
- Jonas Salk
- invented the polio vaccine in 1950s
- de facto segregation
- segregation (especially in schools) that happens in fact although not required by law
- John F. Kennedy
- President during cuban missile crisis. Assasinated in 1968
- Plessy vs. Ferguson
- Supreme Court case which ruled that \separate but equal\ was constitutional,
- SNCC
- Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
- head start
- program to overcome the negative effects of poverty on young children
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- leader of the Allied forces in Europe then was elected to be Pres. of the USA
- vietnam war
- the conflict in which South Vietnam, supported by the U.S. was defeated by Communist North Vietnam
- Sputnik
- a Russian artificial satellite
- william clinton
- advocated ecomnomic and healthcare reform. 2nd pres. to be impeached
- March on Washington
- held in 1963 to show support for the Civil Rights Bill in Congress. Martin Luther King gave his famous "I have a dream..." speech. 250,000 people attended the rally