Truman/Eisenhower
This 1944 act provided veterans with funds for college education, low-interest mortgages, and unemployment insurance, fueling the post-war middle class
G.I. Bill
This foreign policy strategy aimed to prevent the spread of communism beyond where it already existed.
Containment
The 1960 election featured the first _____ version of Presidential Debates, where Kennedy's appearance was noted as a major advantage over Nixon.
Televised / TV
This was the name of LBJ’s domestic program that aimed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice.
the Great Society
While in prison following a protest, MLK Jr. wrote this famous document defending the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism.
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
In 1948, President Truman bypassed a hesitant Congress by issuing Executive Order 9981 to achieve this social change in the military.
integration (desegregation) of the Armed Forces
This economic aid package provided billions of dollars to help rebuild Western Europe after WWII to ensure they didn't turn to communism.
Marshall Plan
This failed 1961 CIA-backed invasion of Cuba by exiles was a major embarrassment for the Kennedy administration.
The Bay of Pigs
Passed in 1964, this resolution gave the President broad powers to escalate U.S. military involvement in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
This labor leader and civil rights activist co-founded the United Farm Workers and used nonviolent tactics to seek better pay for Hispanic/Latino farmworkers.
Cesar Chavez
This 1956 Eisenhower-era legislation was the largest public works project in U.S. history, designed for both civilian travel and rapid military mobilization.
National Interstate and Defense Highways Act
Triggered by the 1957 launch of this Soviet satellite, the U.S. increased funding for science education and established NASA.
Sputnik
This 13-day confrontation in 1962 brought the U.S. and USSR to the brink of nuclear war over Soviet missiles placed 90 miles from Florida.
Cuban Missile Crisis
This Great Society program was created to provide health insurance for the elderly.
Medicare
This technology brought the brutality of the Civil Rights Movement—including the attacks on Freedom Riders—into American living rooms, changing public opinion.
Television
This 1954 landmark Supreme Court case overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and ruled that "separate but equal" has no place in public education.
Brown v. Board of Education
This "police action" from 1950–1953 was the first major hot conflict of the Cold War, ending in a stalemate at the 38th Parallel.
Korean War
President Kennedy set a national goal of achieving this feat by the end of the 1960s, a goal eventually realized in 1969.
landing a man on the moon
This 1968 military campaign by the Viet Cong proved to many Americans that the war in Vietnam was not close to being won. Leading to Johnson not running for re-election.
Tet Offensive
Organized largely by SNCC and CORE, these 1961 protests involved activists riding interstate buses into the segregated South to test Supreme Court rulings that banned segregated seating.
Freedom Rides
This term describes the "witch hunt" for suspected communists in the U.S. government during the early 1950s, led by a Wisconsin Senator.
McCarthyism
This 1947 policy stated the U.S. would provide political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from authoritarian forces. In particular, Turkey & Greece.
Truman Doctrine
The assassination of JFK in 1963 created a wave of national mourning that helped his successor push through this major 1964 legislation.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Following the Selma to Montgomery marches, LBJ signed this 1965 act to eliminate literacy tests and other barriers to African American suffrage.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This 1964 project, led by SNCC, brought hundreds of college students to Mississippi to register African American voters and set up "Freedom Schools."
Freedom Summer