Cold War Foreign Policy
What is the Domino Theory?
If one country falls to communism, the rest of the countries in the region will also fall to communism (Vietnam War)
How did the Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union lead to changes on the US homefront?
Led to increased spending in American education for science and math to prepare the next generation to be leaders in these fields
What did the Supreme Court decide in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education? Why was this so important?
Explain the Watergate Scandal and the impact it had both on Nixon's presidency and the public's trust in government.
Watergate = the cover up of a break-in at the DNC headquarters, money from the President's reelection campaign was used to pay the burglars
Led to Nixon's resignation and led the public to not trust the government
What was the USA Patriot Act? Why is it considered controversial?
Expanded surveillance and intelligence sharing between agencies to combat terrorism post 9/11; controversial because of concerns over people's right to privacy and racial profiling
What were the Paris Peace Accords?
Peace treaty that officially ended the Vietnam War
What was the purpose of the House Un-American Activities Committee?
What did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 do?
Prohibited discrimination in voting (banned literacy tests, made many Southern states have to go through the Fed Gov before changing their voting laws)
What is Reagonomics? Did it work as intended?
Did not work as intended -- rich got richer
What was the US justification for going to war in Iraq?
Saddam Hussein was a dictator who aided and hid terrorist members of al-Qaeda; had WMDs
How did the Cuban Missile Crisis increase tension between the US and the Soviet Union?
US and the Soviet Union both had missiles pointed at each other (in Turkey & Cuba), bringing the world the closest to nuclear war it ever was
What was the Red Scare? Explain how Senator Joseph McCarthy became popular at this time and what ultimately led to his downfall?
Red Scare = fear of communism in the US, especially in gov; Senator McCarthy claimed he had a list of US gov officials who were communists -- people listened to him because they were scared; eventually it came out that he did not have a list and was accused of misleading the public
What did the emergence of the Black Power Movement signify during the Civil Rights Movement?
That not everyone agreed on the best way to achieve greater freedom; a splitting of the Civil Rights Movement
What mistakes did President Carter make that led to his loss in the 1980 presidential election?
He allowed the exiled Shah of Iran to come into the US for medical and ignored the wishes of Iranians to return him -- led to the Iranian Hostage Crisis of US embassy employees
What were the goals of the Affordable Care Act?
Require people to have health insurance; provide health insurance to millions of Americans who had previously been denied by insurance companies due to having "pre-existing conditions"
What was the purpose of the "Iron Curtain" for Stalin in the Soviet Union?
Build a "wall" between the Soviet Union and the rest of democratic Europe
Wall = Eastern European countries (Soviet satellite nations)
What decisions did LBJ make during the Vietnam War that negatively affected his presidency?
Increased the number of men drafted to go fight in the war; lied to the public about the US' ability to win the war
When Martin Luther King writes his famous "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" what is his biggest criticism of the "white moderate"?
That they ask him to continue to "wait" for rights
What significance did the fall of the Berlin Wall have on the Soviet Union and the Cold War?
Signified the end of communism in Eastern Europe & the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union
What did the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 do? What larger shift in Republican party values does this decision reflect?
Ended federal protections for abortion rights; shift towards "states rights" to get to do more extreme things that the federal government wouldn't be able to do
How did the US get involved in the Korean War without officially declaring war? How did this affect how Americans viewed the US government in the Cold War?
US worked with the United Nations to declare a UN Police Action that allowed the US to send troops to Korea without actually declaring war; this led Americans to distrust the government
Out of the Vietnam War comes the modern day Civil Rights Movement. Explain why this happened.
Many men who were drafted to go fight in the Vietnam War were young African Americans. Many young people back home did not support US involvement in the war because of the lack of equality in the country
What were the goals and tactics used by Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers?
Nonviolent protests, hunger strikes, national grape boycott
Why did the LA riots/uprising start? What was the response by President Bush and the federal government?
Started after a video showing the brutal beating of Rodney King by 4 white LAPD officers went viral & the officers were acquitted; Prez Bush sent in federal troops to restore order
Why was the 2000 presidential election controversial? Explain what happened and the result of the actions of the Supreme Court?
The election was too close to call and came down to the state of Florida, which had just put in place a new confusing voting system; Supreme Court had to intervene to decide whether or not to allow FL to keep counting votes, they decide not to & effectively declare George Bush the winner