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Interstate Highway Act
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)The Eisenhower administration proposed a 20-year plan to build a massive interstate highway system of some 41,000 miles. The federal gov. picked up 90 percent of the cost through a Highway Trust Fund, financed by special taxes on cars, gas, tires, lubricants, and auto parts. This was significant to American life because it increased average annual driving by 400 percent. They were able to get to shopping centers, stores, gas stations, etc. much easier (p. 776). -
Little Rock crisis
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)Nine black student were scheduled to enroll in the all white Central High School. Instead, the school board urged them to stay home. Gov. Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard on the excuse of maintaining order. This was important because for a year, the Guard preserved order until Faubus closed the schools. Under pressure of another federal court ruling, Little Rock schools reopened and resumed the plan for gradual intergration (p. 806-807). -
Cuban Missile Crisis
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)The peril of nuclear confrontation became dramatically clear in the Cuban missile crisis. President Kennedy had emphasized repeartedly that the US would treat any attempt to place offensive weapons in Cuba as an unacceptable threat. The Cuban missile crisis was important because it was the closest the world had come to "destroying the human race." It did not end the cold war, however, indeed, both nations endured long, drawn-out regional wars before scaling back their ambitions (p.795-797). -
Tonkin Gulf crisis
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson. DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)Three North Vietnamese patrol boats exchanged fire with the American destroyer Maddox. Two nights later, in inky blackness and a heavy thunderstorm, a second incident occurred. The president publicized both incidents as "open aggression on the high sea" and ordered retaliatory air raids on North Vietnam. This was important because it gave broad congressional approval for expansion of the Vietnam War (p. 831). -
The Great Society
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)Johnson announced a legislative vision that would extend welfare programs on a scale beyond Franklin's New Deal. The Great Society helped to compensate the poor for their disadvantaged homes. It also pushed through the Medicare Act to provide for the elderly. It also reformed immigration policy, in ways that reflected the global changes. This was significant because it helped with the elimination of poverty and racial injustice (p.815). -
National Organization for Women (NOW)
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)Activist women were less willing to remain silent. Betty Friedan joined a group of 24 women and 2 men who formed the NOW. This became important because they pursuaded President Johnson to include women along with African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities as a group covered by federal affirmative action programs. After the 1957 birthrate declined; improved methods of contraception permitted smaller families. By 1970 40 percent of all women were employed outside the home (p.844). -
Black Panthers
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)The Black Panter Party of Oakland called on the black community to arm. Because California law forbade carrying concealed weapons, Panther leader Huey Newton and his followers openly brandished shotguns and rifles as they patrolled the streets protecting blacks from police harassment. This was important because the Panther Party practiced militant self-defense of minority communites to protect themselves against the US government (p. 811). -
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I)
Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev signed the treaty.This was important because for the first time during the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union had agreed to limit the number of nuclear missiles in their arsenals. Americans were pleased at the prospect of lower cold war tensions. But it was not clear that the linkages achieved in Moscow and Beijing would help free the US from its war with Vietnam (p. 840).
