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Dwight D. Eisenhower
He served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. Dwight D. Eisenhower led the massive invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe that began on D-Day (June 6, 1944). During his presidency, Eisenhower managed Cold War-era tensions with the Soviet Union under the looming threat of nuclear weapons, ended the war in Korea in 1953 and authorized a number of covert anti-communist operations by the CIA around the world. -
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Ray Krotc
He joined the California company McDonald's in 1954, just a few months after the McDonald brothers had branched out from their original 1940 operation in San Bernardino. Kroc was turning the chain into a nationwide company, making it the most successful fast food corporation in the world. -
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Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th president of the United States. Upon taking office, Johnson launched an ambitious slate of progressive reforms aimed at creating a “Great Society” for all Americans. Many of his programs had a profound and lasting impact in health, education and civil rights. -
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Richard Nixon
He was an American politician who served as the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 until 1974, when he resigned from office, the only U.S. president to do so. Nixon stepped down in 1974, halfway through his second term, rather than face impeachment over his efforts to cover up illegal activities by members of his administration in the Watergate scandal. -
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Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk was an American physician and medical researcher who developed the first safe and effective vaccine for polio. -
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John F. Kennedy
He served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 to 1963. As president, Kennedy confronted mounting Cold War tensions in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere. He also led a renewed drive for public service and eventually provided federal support for the growing civil rights movement. -
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Betty Friedan
She was an American feminist, activist and writer. She is best known for starting the "Second Wave" of feminism through the writing of her book "The Feminine Mystique". It was a bestseller and an inspiration for many women to join the women's rights movement. She founded the National Organization for Women. -
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Gary Powers
He was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 incident. -
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Roy Benavidez
He was a war hero of Vietnam, who had been presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor by Reagan. -
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Abbie Hoffman
He was an American political and social activist, anarchist, and revolutionary who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies"). -
HUAC
The House Committee on Un-American Activities was an investigating committee which investigated what it considered un-American propaganda. -
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Verona Papers
The following list of Americans in the Venona papers is a list of names deciphered from codenames contained in the Venona project, an American government effort from 1943-1980 to decrypt coded messages by intelligence forces of the Soviet Union. -
G.I. Bill
A law passed in 1944 that provided educational and other benefits for people who had served in the armed forces in World War II. Benefits are still available to persons honorably discharged from the armed forces. -
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Beatniks
committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, investigated allegations of communist activity in the U.S. during the early years of the Cold War (1945-91) Significance: By the late 1950s and early 1960s, HUAC's influence was in decline, and in 1969 it was renamed the Committee on Internal Security. -
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Baby Boom Generation
A 'baby boom' is a period marked by a significant increase of birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds. ... The most well-known baby boom occurred immediately after World War II during the Cold War. -
Iron Curtain
This was the symbol that physically divided Europe into 2 different seperate areas. On both sides, states developed their own economic and military alliances. The demolition of the wall started in Hungary during the summer of 1989. -
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Cold War
After World War II, the long period of intense rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States. -
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Containment Policy
the Cold War Policy of keeping communism within its already existing borders and not allowing communism to spread further -
Truman Doctrine
A speech by President Truman in March 1947 that set the course of U.S. foreign policy for the next generation, painting international affairs as a struggle between free democratic governments and tyrannical communist governments, and advocating American intervention to protect democratic governments. -
Marshall Plan
A massive foreign aid program to Western Europe of $17 billion over four years, beginning in 1948. Named after Secretary of State George Marshall, the program restored economic prosperity to the region and stabilized its system of democracy and capitalism. Western Europe. -
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Berlin Airlift
Stalin sets us a blockade around West Berlin; United States airlifts in supplies to West Berlin- its how we beat the Berlin Blockade; the Berlin Blockade made the city a worldwide symbol to resistance to communism -
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is a military and defense alliance formed by 12 countries in Western Europe and North America. It is the first peacetime alliance in US History and the most important for the past 60 years. The purpose of NATO was to protect its members from a
possible attack from the Soviet Union. -
“McCarthyism”
The term associated with Senator Joseph McCarthy who led the search for communists in America during the early 1950s through his leadership in the HUAC. -
Rock n’ Roll
is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, from African American musical styles such as gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues, along with country music. -
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1950’s prosperity
The Decade of Prosperity. The economy overall grew by 37% during the 1950s. Inflation, was wreaked havoc on the economy immediately after World War II, was minimal, in part because of Eisenhower's persistent efforts to balance the federal budget. -
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1950’s culture
The tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, known as the Cold War, was another defining element of the 1950s. ... Many people in the United States worried that communists, or “subversives,” could destroy American society from the inside as well as from the outside. -
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Korean War
Korean War definition. A war, also called the Korean conflict, fought in the early 1950s between the United Nations, supported by the United States, and the communist Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). The war began in 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea. -
Rosenberg Trial
American radicals accused of passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during World War II. Although the death penalty was not mandatory for their crime, their 1953 execution reflected the national anti-communist hysteria. -
Domino Theory
It was a foreign policy during the 1950s to 1980s that states if one one land in a region came under the influence of communism, then surrounding countries would follow. -
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Vietnam War/ Fall of Saigon
The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States attempting to prevent the spread of communism. More than 3 million people were killed in the Vietnam War and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians. The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War. -
interstate Highway Act
The Interstate Highway Act prohibited rebates, pools, and required railroads to publish rates openly. Forbade discrimination against shippers. Outlawed charging more for a short haul then a long one for over corporate wealth. -
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Space Race
It was the battle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to be the "best" in exploring space. In October 1957, the Soviet Union surprised the world by launching Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth. The resulting outcry in the United States forced the Eisenhower administration to increase defense spending and accelerate America's space program. -
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1960’s culture
The Sixties dominated by the Vietnam War, Civil Rights Protests, the 60s also saw the assassinations of US President John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Cuban Missile Crisis, and finally ended on a good note when the first man is landed on the moon . -
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Bay of Pigs
was an unsuccessful attempt by a CIA -trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support from US government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. At the last moment to avoid the public involvement of the United State JFK called off the air support promised to the Cuban exile forces. As a result the Cuban armed forces, defeated the exile combatants in three day resulting in a humiliating defeat for the United States. -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban missile crisis was an arms race crisis between the US and the Soviet Union in 1962. Americans began to feel threatened in early September of that year when Cuba and the Soviets placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. The US was still wanting other nations to keep their hands off of Cuba and other Latin American countries, so this Soviet intervention was a huge deal. Luckily the Soviets flinched first and an agreement was made. -
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Great Society
The purpose of the Great Society was to expand the power of the government to improve the quality of life for Americans. The Vietnam War took money away from the Great Society Programs because the money was spent on the war and took money away from helping people. -
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Anti-War Movement
The movement against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began small but gained national prominence, after the United States began bombing North Vietnam in earnest. The Conscription Act in 1863 forced men between 20-45 years old to be eligible for conscription but one could avoid it if they paid 300 or got someone in their place.The “silent majority” was a term President Nixon used when he called for national solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to gather support for his policies. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
It was The Congressional resolution that gave President Johnson power to wage war in Southeast Asia. -
Miranda v. Arizona
The Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination requires law enforcement officials to advise a suspect interrogated in custody of his or her rights to remain silent and to obtain an attorney. Miranda v. Arizona was a Supreme Court case that overturned Ernesto Miranda's conviction for kidnapping and rape because he had not been informed of his legal rights prior to confessing. -
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Tet Offensive
The National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese forces launched a huge attack on the Vietnamese New Year (Tet). -
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1970’s culture
The 1970s were a tumultuous time. In some ways, the decade was a continuation of the 1960s. Women, African Americans, Native Americans, gays and lesbians and other marginalized people continued their fight for equality, and many Americans joined the protest against the ongoing war in Vietnam. -
Vietnamization
Vietnamization was a strategy that aimed to reduce American involvement in the Vietnam War by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam. -
War Powers Act
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 was a United States Congress joint resolution saying that the President can send U.S. armed forces into action abroad only by authorization of Congress or if the United States is already under attack or serious threat by another nation. -
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1980’s culture
The 1980s were a decadent, disastrous, and innovative time in United States history. Beginning under the shadow of the Iran hostage crisis, and ending with the symbolic fall of communism with the Berlin Wall, the '80s hosted an impressive gamut of environmental, political, and pop cultural events.