-
House Un-American Activities Committee(HUAC)
The HUAC was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist ties. During the cold war the committee focused its investigations on real and suspected communists in positions of actual or supposed influence in the United States society. A significant step for HUAC was its investigation of the charges of espionage brought against Alger Hiss in 1948. -
G.I. Bill (Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944)
was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans. On June 22, 1944 the G.I. Bill of Rights, was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt. Benefits included cash payments of tuition and living expenses to attend high school, college or vocational/technical school, low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business, as well as one year of unemployment compensation. -
Baby Boom Generation
group born during the post–World War II baby boom, approximately between the years 1946 and 1964 were about 76.4 million babies born. As this generation grew older they started to show rebellion by listening to rock n' roll and wearing clothes that showed more cleavage. The nickname for this generation became "Generation X" -
Iron Curtain
was the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War. A term symbolizing the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself from open contact with the West. The terms comes from a speech Winston Churchill made on March 5, 1946 stating the iron curtain the soviets were creating to block themselves from the rest of the world. -
Levittown
is the name of several large suburban developments created in the United States of America by William Levitt. Built after World War II for returning veterans and their new families the communities offered attractive alternatives to cramped central city locations and apartments. The first Levittown was built in New York. -
McCarthyism
is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term comes from Joseph McCarthy who was a U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the United States federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, the controversy he generated led him to be censured by the United States Senate. -
Truman Doctrine
was an American foreign policy created to counter Soviet geopolitical spread during the Cold War. It was announced by President Truman on March 12, 1947 and again on July 12, 1948 when he pledged to contain Soviet threats in Greece and Turkey. -
Containment Policy
was a United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism. this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge its communist sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. An example of Containment is the Truman Doctrine -
Marshall Plan
was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $12 billion in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. It was mainly used to make the U.S. look good. The plan was in operation for four years beginning April 8, 1948. -
Berlin Airlift
At the end of the Second World War, U.S., British, and Soviet military forces divided and occupied Germany. Also divided into occupation zones, Berlin was located far inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany. U.S, and France controlled the west of Berlin while the Soviet Union controlled the East. On June 24, 1948 Soviet forces created a blockade in allied controlled areas. The Allies responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO)
is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. NATO's headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium. -
Beatniks
Were a group of American writers composed of mainly World War II veterans. Wrote about American values and culture which was the beginning of counter culture. Some authors include William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac. They were prevalent throughout the 1950s to mid-1960s. -
Rock n' Roll
originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s from musical styles such as gospel, jazz, blues, and country music. Rock n' Roll had strong African American influences. White artists such as Elvis Presley made Rock more acceptable to a wider audience. -
1950's Prosperity
During this time many soldiers who fought in WWII started having families and moving into Levittowns. The economy was growing and poverty was down. Everything seemed perfect with these Levittowns being filled with liked minded people who were okay with everyone seeming the same. -
Korean War
began when North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. South Korea was backed by the United States and the UN. North Korea was backed by the USSR and China. The fighting went back and forth for a while with both sides almost winning until the last two years of fighting became a war of attrition, with the front line close to the 38th parallel. To end the fighting an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953. The agreement separated North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. -
Rosenberg Trial
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were United States citizens who were executed for conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union. Julius Rosenberg sent information to Russia about the bomb from the Manhattan project. For this he and his wife were executed for treason even though there was no proof that his wife had any involvement in the espionage. -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Army general who served as the 34th President of the United States from January 20, 1953 to January 20, 1961. He was a five-star general during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe. He covertly opposed Joseph McCarthy and contributed to the end of McCarthyism. Eisenhower signed the bill that authorized the Interstate Highway System. President during the launch of Sputnik and U-2 incident. -
Ray Kroc
was an American businessman who joined McDonald's in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world. Kroc has been credited with making a number of innovative changes in the food-service franchise model. Chief among them was the sale of only single-store franchises instead of selling larger, territorial franchises -
Domino Theory
theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries, like when you knock a domino down causing an entire row of dominoes to fall. Prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s.President Dwight D. Eisenhower described the theory during an April 7, 1954, news conference, when referring to communism in Indochina -
Jonas Salk
was an American medical researcher and virologist. He developed the first successful polio vaccines. In 1948, he undertook a project funded by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to determine the number of different types of polio virus. Salk tested the vaccine on about one million children, who were known as the polio pioneers. This testing started in 1954, and the vaccine was announced as safe on April 12, 1955. -
Interstate Highway Act
was enacted on June 29, 1956, and signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. With an original authorization of $25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles (66,000 km) of the Interstate Highway System supposedly over a 10-year period, it was the largest public works project in American history through that time -
Sputnik
was the first man made satellite. he Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957. This surprise success triggered the Space Race, a part of the larger Cold War. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. -
John F. Kennedy
35th President of the United States and elected on January 20, 1961. President during the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, Moon landing proposal, Berlin Wall Crisis, and Limited Test Ban Theory. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the military officials tried to push Kennedy to start a war but he went the peaceful route. He and his brother Robert Kennedy also started to take initiative with civil rights. On November 22, 1963 Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. -
Bay of Pigs
was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961.They intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. They Launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua, the invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, under the direct command of Prime Minister Fidel Castro. -
Space Race
competition between the U.S. and Soviet Union for supremacy in space. Started when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space in 1957. The Soviet Union launched the first man into space on April 12, 1961. In an effort to beat the Soviets President Kennedy announced that the U.S. would to land men on the moon on May 25, 1961. The U.S. accomplished this mission on July 20, 1969 with the Apollo 11. Some would say the end of the space race would have been in 1991 with the end of the Soviet Union. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American ballistic missile deployment in Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. After a long period of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Khrushchev that the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and the U.S. would dismantle all U.S. built Jupiter MRBMs in Turkey and Italy. -
Betty Friedan
was an American writer, activist, and feminist. She was a lead figure in the feminist movement due to her book The Feminine Mystique which was published February 19, 1963. Her book is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women. -
Lyndon B. Johnson
36th President of the United States from November 22, 1963 to January 20, 1969. Became president due to JFK being assassinated. President during the Cvil Rights Act of 1964, "Great Society", Tet Offensive of 1968, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Brought America into Vietnam War, and Voting Rights Act. -
Great Society
was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 to 1965. They were launched to end poverty and racial injustice. President Johnson first used the term "Great Society" during a speech at Ohio University on May 22, 1964, then unveiled the program in greater detail at an appearance at University of Michigan. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, rural poverty, and transportation were launched during this period. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
was a joint resolution that the United States Congress signed on August 10, 1964,by President Lyndon B. Johnson in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident which involved two separate confrontations involving North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. The original American report blamed North Vietnam for firing 3 torpedo first, but eventually became very controversial with widespread claims that either one or both incidents were false, and possibly deliberately. -
Anti-War Movement
movement against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began small among peace activists but gained national attention in 1965, after the United States began bombing North Vietnam in earnest. On October 21, 1967, one of the most prominent anti-war demonstrations took place, as some 100,000 protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. In response to a strong anti-war mandate, Nixon announced the effective end to U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia in January 1973. -
Tet offensive 1968
was a military campaign during the Vietnam War. It was the North Vietnamese against the South Vietnamese and the U.S. The attack was launched on January 30, 1968, by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam. On February 24, 1968, the Tet Offensive ends as U.S. and South Vietnamese troops recapture the ancient capital of Hue from communist forces. -
Richard Nixon
Elected the 37th President of the United States of America on January 20, 1969. He was President during the Vietnam War and Moon Landing. Tried to ease tensions with the Soviet Union by using a tactic called Détente which was the "thawing" of the cold war. He visited China and the Soviet Union. The leader of Russia, Leonid Brezhnev visited the U.S. and signed the prevention of nuclear war agreement. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974 due to the watergate scandal. -
Vietnamization
was a policy of the Richard Nixon administration to end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War through a program to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops. -
Moon Landing
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first two humans,Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the Moon. Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16, and was the fifth manned mission of NASA's Apollo program. The mission duration was a total of 8 days, 3 hours, 18 minutes, and 35 seconds. -
Rust Belt vs Sun Belt
The Rust Belt is a term for the region from the Great Lakes to the upper Midwest States, referring to economic decline, population loss, and urban decay due to the shrinking of its once-powerful industrial sector, also known as deindustrialization. The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest featuring warm climate, with extended summers and brief, relatively mild winters, -
26th Amendment
In the 1970 case Oregon v. Mitchell, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress had the right to regulate the minimum age in federal elections, but not at the state and local level. Amid increasing support for a Constitutional amendment, Congress passed the 26th Amendment in March 1971; the states promptly ratified it, and President Richard M. Nixon signed it into law. The amendment became part of the Constitution on July 1, 1971 -
War Powers Act
is a federal law intended to check the president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress. The War Powers Resolution was passed by both the House of Representatives and Senate but was vetoed by President Richard Nixon. By a two-thirds vote in each house, Congress overrode the veto and enacted the joint resolution into law on November 7, 1973. -
Vietnam War
war between North and South Vietnam. The U.S. gave support to South Vietnam which eventually became a war between the U.S, and North Vietnam. The U.S. joined because North Vietnam was communist. LBJ needed a reason to enter the U.S. into war so he staged the Gulf of Tonkin Incident to make it look like North Vietnam fired first and fired again 2 days later. Eventually Nixon withdrew troops from Vietnam due to the protest. The War ended on April 30, 1975 when South Vietnam's Capital fell. -
Cold War
was a state of tension between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. Began after the U.S. nuked Japan without telling the Soviet Union. There was direct fighting between the two sides, although there were proxy wars, supported by the two sides like the Korean War and Vietnam War. Other events that happened as a result of the Cold War were the Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin Wall Crisis, U-2 Incident, etc. President Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev announced the end of the Cold Wr in 1989
