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Period: to
Vietnam, Civil Rights Act, Cold War
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Yalta Confrence
This is the meeting between F.D.R., Churchill and Stalin. The Soviet Union seemed to gain most control of the Eastern Europe. The point of the confrence was to discuss what to do with Germany, to try german war criminals, and to disarm germany, and to pay back the debts. Stalin did not keep his promises and therefore the Cold War begins shortly after this. -
U.S. drops atomic Bomb on Hiroshima
This is after all the testing on the atomic bomb. This is time that we first use it. We drop it on Hiroshima Japan. This was absolutly devestating to the Japanese people. Also this is when we learn of the power we actually have, and how much devestation and destruction we can cause. "Little Boy" killed 80,000 civilians. -
Truman approves the H-Bomb
This is after Russia had tested their first atomic bomb. The United States was not expecting the Soviets to catch up to us so fast. So this ends up causing the United States to try and create an even more powerful tool of mass destruction. This would be the Hydrogen Bomb which was more than 100 times more powerful than the atomic bomb. So this is hightening the pressuers between Russia and the United States. -
Domino Theory
This was the idea that if one country (South Vietnam) fell to communism that the rest would. So that meant that the United States needed to be inolved because it was going to be the only way to keep the rest of the Middle East from becoming communist countries. So the U.S. felt a duty to stop the South Vietnam from falling to communism. So this was the main reason for the United States going to war with North Vietnam. -
Iranian Coup
The CIA was arranging to stage a coup in Iran because the United States favored the old prime minster Shah Pahlavi. But, then Mossadeq took over. So the united States staged a coup to bring back Pahlavi. -
Brown v. Board of Education
This is the court case that overturned the Plessy v. Fergeson case that stated the seperate but equal. Which in the Brown vs. Education, they proved that the seperate but equal was not equal and that blacks were not getting the equal oppertunities that white American citizens were getting. -
Thurgood Marshall
This was extremely significant because the first African American judge had been elected. His name was Thurgood Marshall, he was the one who ruled on the Brown v. Board court ruling. It was also a win for the NAACP because it meant that the African American community was winning these small battles and slowly making their way to equality. -
The Geneva Peace Accords
This is when Vietnam wanted to slip in two at the 17th parallel and they did. It was temporary, then in 1956 there would be a national election to reunite both Vietnams. At the time it was only temporary. This would now be under control of Ho Chi Min. South Vietna, found a non communist leader named Diem. The United States supported him, so therefore provided money and suppport to South Vietnam. -
Emmet Till
That a young black whistled at a white woman as a joke. Then two white men came to his house and took him and beat him to death. Then threw his body into a river. When they recovered his body his face was unrecongizable and no one had realized how bad the situation had escalated to. It had come to a point of life and death, and it was no longer under control. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott began with Rosa Parks. Working with Matin Luther King Jr. she decided that she didnt want to give up her seat on a bus to a white men. There were plenty of other seats to take and she refused to give it up. So this began the protest for people to no longer ride on the buses. Therefore making the bus company lose great amounts of money then desegergating the bus. -
Eisenhower Docterine (Speech)
This was when President Eisenhower had made a puropsal that the United States should protect the countries in the Middle East from the communsist threats. It was basically an effort of containment. It was to protect the United States values and our fortunes. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The idea of this law was to give people rights. The main point was to make sure African Americans had the right to vote. The main idea was to show that there was going to be more federal support of the civil rights act. That they were going to try and do something to give African Americans the rights they deserve. -
Little Rock Nine
This is when a all white school in Arkansas did not allow these nine black students to come into school after the supreme court ordered that the schools be desegergated. So President Eisenhower deicided to send in the National Guard to force integration. This caused issues because the people in the community were very upset becasue they didnt feel that it was constitutional. This became significant because was showing that seperate but equal was not equal. -
Sputnick Launched into Orbit
This is when Russia launched it's first orbital satillite, that was the size of a beach ball into space. It was to orbit the Earth, it did it in 98 minutes total. This may seem small, but this is what caused the space race between the United States and the U.S.S.R. This was to show that U.S.S.R. had become more scientifically advanced than the United States for a while. This launched a period where the two counrties would compete to have the most developed technology. -
U-2 Incident
During the Cold War, the United States went against the military restrictions of the Soviet Union. They were told they were not allowed to fly over their air space. This did not stop the United States from doing this. They continued, till one of the U-2 planes flying over was shot down and now considered an embaressment to the United States -
Washington White Papers
This was when the United States in letters had wrote that the NLF was basically a communist group. Therefore known as the Viet-Cong. The NLF were deeply offeneded because they considered themselves to be seperate and independent from the communist party. Also, that this group was made up of mostly non-communists. Many people that oppsed the war (anti-war) were in support of the NLF and taking their side and saying they were not affiliated with the communists. -
Bay of Pigs
During JFK's presidency, there was a time where the U.S. government tried to overthrown Fidel Castro. He took the people that were exiled from Cuba trained them and sent them back to Cuba to try and overthrow Fidel Castro. -
Freedom Rides
This is when African Americans would take interstate buses and travel into the deep south. The thing about these buses was that they were not segergated and blacks and whites didnt have to give up seats to each other because the buses went between multiple states. They would ride them to the deep south to prove that they did not need to be segergated. -
The creation of the Berlin Wall
During World War two, Germany had been seperated into four sections and there was now East and West Berlin. Life in West Berlin was better becuase the United States was supporting them because they had the same type of goernment as the United States. So they were financially taken care of. The East side was not. It was controlled by a communist group so the U.S. didnt support them. So they were poor and came to the West side.So the East built a wall to keep them from going West. -
Operation Ranch Hand
This is when the United States failed to do much damage to the vietcong people. So they decided to use this toxic chemical and torch it into the forests. This would eventually lead to thousands of acres of land being ruined. Also, it lead to the chemical getting into the food chain which caused major deformaties in some of the civilians. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
This is when President Kennedy thought that the Soviets were bringing in Nuclear Weapons into Cuba. This meant that these nuclear weapons would be closer to the United States therefore a bigger threat. This would make it so the missles would reach the United States. This was the six longests days where the United States and the Soviet Union were the closest to a full out nuclear war. -
Nuclear Test Ban Ratified
Due to the public concern, the U.S., U.S.S.R. and the U.K. signed a treaty that said they could no longer test nuclear bombs and technology in the atmosphere, ocean and in outerspace. They were worried about fallouts from the parts that they launcehed. This was important because for the time being, it haulted the production of the weapons which put the citizens at ease a little more. They felt a bit safer. -
March on Washington
This is where 250,000 men and women walked around the Wahington Monument Mall and protested for equal rights. This is where the famous "I have a dream" speech took place. This made a large impact on the civil rights movement. They wanted desegergation in federal facilities and equal access to jobs and oppertunities. This was widely televised. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This was the 24th ammendement that eliminated any poll taxes, and literacy tests on the voting. It would make it fair for everyone to vote. It would not segergate against African Americans because they didnt have enough money or they could not read. Now everyone had the chance to vote without any restrictions. -
The Gulf of Tolkin
It basically said that the United States ship was sunk and it caused an outrage in the American community which started the Vietnam war and sent people over to fight immediatly. -
Sinking of the U.S.S. Maddox
North Vietnam was getting mad at the United States presence in the oceans around Vietnam. So in retaliation they sunk the U.S.S. Maddox, which was a pride of the United States and therefore was one of the major points that sent the United States into battle with the Vietcong. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
This is when the NLF had attacked U.S. military installations in South Vietnam. So the U.S. started bombing North Vietnam, which made the NLF reconsider their tactics. Besides bombing the U.S. used phorsphorus and napalm bombs that were poision and killed thousands of innocent civilians -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This is when president L.B.J. declared that there would be no literacy tests as qualifications to see if certain people could vote. It also outlawed denying the right to vote on the account of race and or ethnicity or color. It also established that the federal government would be able to oversee the elections. Now states could not change these laws without federal permission. -
The Tet Offense
This is when the Vietcong was supposed to be observing a holiday for themselves. Instead they went and attacked the cities in Vietnam and won over hundreds of them. It took the United States 25 days to retake the city of Hue from the V.C.This now caused the public to dislike and now have a negative public view of the war. -
The My Lai Massacure
This is when 400 men, women and children were killed by American troops.This story was trying to be covered up, but by the workds of a very sky writer, he found out the truth and blew the credibility of the U.S. military. Which made the people in American regret the war even more. They already wanted the United States out of the war, this just proved their point more. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
This stopped the segergation in the housing market. Meaning that there would be no more special places where blacks and whites live. They could choose where to leave. So the blacks were not stuck in the city and the wihtes could live in the suburbs. It made it so everyone had a chance in buying in on the housing market. -
Battle of Hamburger Hill
This place was surrounded by jungle and on the boarder of Loas, the United States said it was a very important place to take. They soon abandoned it and left it there. The American people were outraged at the military and the people were completely oppsed and did not support the war anymore. -
Launch of Apollo 11
This is a very significant event for the United States because they successfully put a crew of three men on the moon. Where they actually landed on the moon and performed the first moon walk. This pushed the United States in front in the space race. It proved that at the moment we were further in the space race and had better technology than the Soviets. -
The Paris Peace Agreement
This was when the United States had made a peace agreement that they would not stop supporting South Vietnam and not let them fall to communism. But, the agreement did state that the hostilities between North Vietnam and the United States would end. This didnt end the conflict in Vietnam because there was still the fight that Saigon did not want to fall to communism. So this was really the end, to Vietnam War. -
Swann V. Charolette-Mecklenberg
This is to go along with the Brown V. Board decision. This was to force students to integrate. It would bus kids from innercity to the suburbs. So the kids from the suburbds would go to school in the cities. The supreme court ruled that this way of integration was appropriate and constitutional and this lead to other states mimicking their idea of integration. -
American Pulls Out
The American Troops finally pull out of Vietnam and they cut all the military aid that was there. They could no longer afford it and found a sneaky way out and it was dragging on way to long. So they left and after a few years the South Vietnam feel to Communism and America felt they did what they could
