The United States And The Cold War (1945-1953)
By this point (1947) President Truman would put the policy of Containment into effect. What does this mean?
Blocking the expansion of Communist/Soviet power and its influence
What is the Significance of the Rosenbergs?
The Rosenbergs! Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were a Jewish Communist couple living in New York City and were accused and convicted by a jury of conspiracy to pass American secrets regarding the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union during WWII.
What is the Significance of the U-2 Incident?
The Soviets shot down the U-2 spy plane over soviet territory. Eisenhower first denied that the plane was involved in espionage and refused to apologize even after the Russians announced they had the captured pilot. This incident demolished any attempts at a second conference between Eisenhower and Khrushchev.
What is The March on Washington?
On August 28th, 1963, two weeks before the church bombing, 250,000 Americans of all races converged in Washington D.C
A. Who was president John F. Kennedy?
B. The Iran (Tehran) Crisis
A. Kennedy’s agenda envisioned new initiatives aimed at countering Communist influences in the world.
B. Khomeini’s followers subsequently invaded the American embassy in Tehran and captured 66 American hostages in 1979
What is the Marshall Plan?
What became known as The Marshall Plan offered a positive vision to go along with containment. The Marshall plan would send billions of dollars in economic aid to various nations in Western Europe.
What is McCarthyism?
”McCarthyism” became a word known in the political vocabulary often referring to abuse of power in the name of Anti-Communism.
What is Brown v. Board of Education?
Oliver Brown went to court because his 3rd grade daughter was forced to walk across multiple active railroad tracks every morning rather than attend a nearby school that was restricted for white students.
Chief Justice Warren managed to create unanimity amongst a divided court. On May 17th, 1954, Warren read the court decision aloud and concluded that, Segregation in public education violated the equal protection of laws put in place by the 14th Amendment.
What is The Bay of Pigs Invasion?
In April 1961, President Kennedy authorized the C.I.A to launch an invasion of Cuba at The Bay of Pigs
A. What are The Paris Peace Accords of 1973?
B. What is the Significance of Birmingham and the role television played?
A. After 5 years of peace talks the Paris Peace Agreement made the final withdrawal from Vietnam possible for the United States military.
B. The culmination of of the protests occurred in Birmingham, Alabama. This was considered by many as “the citadel of segregation” and gained a reputation as a violent city. At the end of WWII there were over fifty recorded bombings of African American homes and institutions.
What is the Berlin Airlift?
An 11 month long resupply via western transport aircraft that would fuel, food, and other supplies to their zones in Berlin.
In 1955 the Soviet Union made their own Eastern European Alliance. What was this called?
The Warsaw Impact which was a political and military alliance between the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries
A. On December 1st, 1955 an African American tailor’s assistant refused to give up their seat at the front of an Alabama bus to a white passenger. This person was?
B. Suburbs, cars, and highways now altered the American landscape as newer types of establishments were being built on and near these new highways. Such as?
A. Rosa Parks
B. Motels, Drive in Movie Theaters, Office complexes on the outskirts of cities, Eating establishments/Fast Food Restaurants
What is the Cuban Missile Crisis?
In October of 1962, American spy planes discovered that the Soviet Union was installing multiple missile sites on Cuba capable of launching nuclear warheads. It was a crisis because it put the U.S within range of nuclear attack.
A. Title IX
B. Watergate
A. This would prohibit any gender discrimination in institutions of higher education.
B. This landslide victory contained the beginning of the end for Richard Nixon as he was obsessed with secrecy. He believed that critics were a threat to national security and developed his own “enemies list” comprised of certain reporters, politicians, and celebrities.
What is NATO?
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization which pledged mutual defense and support of each other against any future Soviet attack or invasion.
During the 1950s alone the number of individual houses doubled with nearly all of them built in the developing suburbs. William and Alfred developed the most famous style of suburb that was called?
Levittown
What is the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
Rosa Parks' arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and pinpointed the beginning of the first mass phase of the Civil Rights Movement.
What was the Vietnam War?
By 1965 the protests for Civil Rights was soon transformed by a generational rebellion against the war in Vietnam. The Vietnam war escalated when President Johnson sent U.S. combat forces into Vietnam.
A. The Oil Embargo
B. Stagflation
A. Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an oil embargo on the United States after the U.S decision to re-supply the Israeli military.
B. Rising oil and gas prices also rippled through the world economy which contributed to stagnant economic growth and high inflation
What was the Korean War?
The Korean War made it clear that the Cold War was not just a European conflict, but it had now become a global conflict. The Korean War was the first American armed conflict that was fought by an integrated military since the American Revolution.
What is Massive Retaliation?
Massive Retaliation would be used and declared that any Soviet attack on an American ally would be countered by nuclear assault on the Soviet Union itself.
A. What was the “Golden Age of Capitalism”?
B. The Soviet launching of Sputnik, Which was?
A. This was a period of economic expansion, stable consumer prices, and a rising standard of living that continued into the 1970s.
B. It was the first artificial Earth satellite.
A. What is the Civil Rights Act?
B. Rehabilitation Act of 1973/Disability Rights
A. Prohibited racial discrimination in employment and public institutions.
B. This prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by federal agencies or receiving federal funding.
A. What is the Three Mile Island?
B. Regan and Gorbachev
A. President carter also believed that expanded use of nuclear energy could help reduce the dependence on imported oil. In 1979 there was a near-fatal accident at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania that released a large amount of radioactive steam into the atmosphere.
B. Regan served 2 terms as president and built good relations with the new soviet leader, Gorbachev who wanted to reform the Soviet Union's political system