APUSH Unit 8 Vocabulary

Chapter 27 #1-15
Chapter 28 #16-31
Chapter 29 #32-48
Chapter 30 #49-62
Chapter 31 #63-73
1. Iron Curtain: Term coined by Winston Churchill to describe the Cold War divide
between western Europe and the Soviet Union's eastern European satellites.
2. Containment: U.S. cold war strategy that sought to prevent global soviet
expansion and influence through political, economic, and, if necessary, military
pressure as a means of combating the spread of communism
3. Truman Doctrine: President Truman's program of "containing" communism in
Eastern Europe and providing economic and military aid to any nations at risk of
Communist takeover
4. Marshall Plan: Secretary of State George C Marshall's post-WWII program
providing massive U.S. financial and technical assistance to war-torn European
countries.
5. Berlin Airlift: Effort by the United States and Great Britain to deliver massive
amounts of food and supplies flown into West Berlin in response to the Soviet
land blockade of the city.
6. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): Defensive political and military
alliance formed in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and ten Western
European nations to deter Soviet expansion in Europe.
7. National Security Act: Congressional legislation passed in 1947 that created
the Department of Defense, the National Security council, and the central
intelligence agency
8. Taft-Hartley Act: congressional legislation that banned "unfair labor practices"
by labor unions, required union leaders to sign anti-communist "loyalty oaths",
and prohibited federal employees from going on strike
9. Fair Deal: President Truman's proposals to build upon the New Deal with
national health insurance, the repeal of the Taft-Harvey (labor) Act, new civil
rights legislation, and other initiatives; most were rejected by the republican-
controlled congress.
10. Dixiecrats: Separated from democrats---pro Jim crow laws
11. NSC-68: A National Security Council document, approved by President Truman
in 1950, developed in response to the Soviet Union's growing influence and
nuclear capability; it called for an increase in the US conventional and nuclear
forces to carry out the policy of containment. Top-secret government report
12. House Un-American Activities Committee: (HUAC) committee of the US
House of Representatives formed in 1938; it was originally tasked with
investigating Nazi subversion during the Second World War and later shifted its
 focus to rooting out communists in the government and the motion picture
industry.
13. Alger Hiss: During the Red Scare, he served in several government
departments and was accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union. He was
convicted of lying of espionage. The case was politically damaging to the Truman
Administration because the president called the charges against Hiss a "Red
Herring"
14. Joseph McCarthy: In 1950, this senator became the shrewdest and most
ruthless exploiter of America's anxiety of communism. He claimed that the US
government was full of communists and led a witch hunt to find him, but he was
never able to uncover a single communist agent.
15. McCarran Internal Security Act: 1950 - Required Communists to register and
prohibited them from working for the government. Truman described it as a long
step toward totalitarianism. Was a response to the onset of the Korean war.
16. Federal Aid-Highway Act: Largest federal project in U.S. history that created a
national network of interstate highways. 1956
17. GI Bill of Rights: Provided unemployment, education, and financial benefits for
World War II veterans to ease their transition back to the civilian world. 1944
18. Suburbia: Communities formed from mass migration of middle-class whites from
urban centers
19. Baby Boom: Markedly higher birth rate in the years following World War II; led to
the biggest demographic "bubble" in American history.
20. Brown v. Board of Education: 1954 - The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v.
Ferguson, they declared "Separate but equal" from plessy v ferguson
unconstitutional. that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and
ordered all public schools desegregated.
21. "Massive Resistance": White rallying cry disrupting federal efforts to enforce
racial integration in the South.
22. Montgomery Bus Boycott: Boycott of bus system in Montgomery, Alabama,
organized by civil rights activists after the arrest of Rosa Parks.
23. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Leader of the Civil Rights Movement; preached
nonviolent approach and demanded equal rights for African Americans. Also led
the Montgomery bus boycott. I have a dream speech in the march on
Washington
24. Little Rock: Governor Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to surround
Central High School to keep the nine black students from entering the school,
because he believed black and whites should be segregated, despite Federal
laws on integration. President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne
Division to keep them safe, and for the first time, the troops were protecting the
black people.
25. Southern Christian Leadership Council: Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader.
They coordinated and supported nonviolent direct action to desegregate
southern buses. Did things with large groups and organizations, contrary to the
NAACP which only dealt with individuals.
26. Massive Retaliation: The "new look" defense policy of the Eisenhower
administration of the 1950's was to threaten "massive retaliation" with nuclear
weapons in response to any act of aggression by a potential enemy.
27. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA): Intelligence-gathering government agency
founded in 1947; under President Eisenhower's orders, secretly undermined
elected governments deemed susceptible to communism.
28. Dien Bien Phu: The place that the final battle took place that forced the French
out of Vietnam in the first Indochina war
29. Suez Crisis: July 26, 1956, Nasser (leader of Egypt) nationalized the Suez
Canal, Oct. 29, British, French and Israeli forces attacked Egypt. UN forced
British to withdraw; made it clear Britain was no longer a world power
30. Sputnik: The world's first space satellite. This meant the Soviet Union had a
missile powerful enough to reach the US.
31. U-2 Incident: The incident when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over
the Soviet Union. The U.S. denied the true purpose of the plane at first, but was
forced to acknowledge it when the U.S.S.R. produced the living pilot and the
largely intact plane to validate their claim of being spied on aerially. The incident
worsened East-West relations during the Cold War and was a great
embarrassment for the United States. Think of that movie "Bridge of Spies"
32. Bay of Pigs: In April 1961, a group of Cuban exiles organized and supported by
the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency landed on the southern coast of Cuba in an
effort to overthrow Fidel Castro. When the invasion ended in disaster, President
Kennedy took full responsibility for the failure.
33. Berlin Wall: A wall separating East and West Berlin built by East Germany in
1961 to keep citizens from escaping to the West
34. Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962 stand off between the US and Soviets sparked by
the discovery of soviet missile sites in Cuba; the crisis was the closest the world
has come to a nuclear war
35. Sit-Ins: protests by black college students, 1960-1961, who took seats at "whites
only" lunch counters and refused to leave until served; in 1960 over 50,000
participated in sit-ins across the South. Their success prompted the formation of
the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
36. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: Involved in the American Civil
Rights Movement formed by students whose purpose was coordinate a
nonviolent attack on segregation and other forms of racism.
37. "New Democrats": Ideologically centrist faction within the Democratic Party that
emerged after the victory of Republican George H. W. Bush in the 1988
presidential election. They are identified with more pragmatic and centrist
social/cultural/pluralist positions and neoliberal fiscal values
38. Freedom Riders: Activists who, beginning in 1961, traveled by bus through the
South to test federal court rulings that banned segregation on buses and trains.
39. March on Washington: Civil rights demonstration on August 28, 1963, where
the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
40. Black Power Movement: Militant form of civil rights protest focused on urban
communities in the North and led by Malcolm X that grew as a response to
impatience with the nonviolent tactics of Martin Luther King Jr.
41. Malcolm X: Charismatic Black Muslim leader who promoted separatism in the
early 1960s
42. Civil Right Act of 1964: legislation that outlawed discrimination in public
accommodations and employment, passed at the urging of president Lyndon B.
Johnson
43. Economic Opportunity Act: Key legislation in President Johnson's "War on
Poverty" that created the Office of Economic Opportunity and programs like Head
Start and the work-study financial-aid program for low-income college students.
1964
44. Great Society: Johnson proposed legislation to address problems of voting
rights, poverty, diseases, education, immigration, and the environment
45. Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965: Legislation that abolished
discriminatory quotas based upon immigrants' national origin and treated all
nationalities and races equally.
46. Voting Rights Act of 1965: legislation ensuring that all Americans were able to
vote, the law ended literacy tests and other means of restricting voting rights
47. Tonkin Gulf Resolution: Congressional resolution that granted the president
unlimited authority to defend US forces abroad, passed in August 1964 after an
allegedly unprovoked attacked on American warships off the coast of North
Vietnam
48. Tet Offensive: Surprise attack by the Viet Cong Guerrillas and the North
Vietnamese army on US and South Vietnamese forces in 1968 that shocked the
American public and led to widespread sentiment against the Vietnam War.
49. New Left: Term coined by the Students for a Democratic Society to distinguish
their efforts at grassroots democracy from those of the 1930s Old Left, which had
embraced orthodox Marxism.
50. Betty Friedan: feminist author of "The Feminine Mystique" in 1960. Her book
sparked a new consciousness among suburban women and helped launch the
second-wave feminist movement
51. Roe v. Wade: 1973 Supreme Court decision that ruled first trimester abortions
were permitted
*All state laws prohibiting such abortions were made unconstitutional
*The decision was based on a woman's right to privacy
*Led to criticism from Roman Catholics and right-to-life groups
52. Cesar Chavez: Non-violent leader of the United Farm Workers from 1963-1970.
Organized laborers in California and in the Southwest to strike against fruit and
vegetable growers. Unionized Mexican-American farm workers.
53. Red Power: Activism by militant Native American groups to protest living
conditions on Indian reservations through demonstrations, legal action, and, at
times, violence. A sense of identity. Resulted from Alcatraz democrats
54. Stonewall Riots: - New York city - Triggered activist protests among gays and
lesbians - police raided gay bar - people fought back - became symbol of
oppression of gays, began the gay pride movement
55. Southern Strategy: Nixon's reelection plan designed to appeal to conservative
whites in the South. He assured southern conservatives that he would slow the
federal enforcement of civil rights laws and appoint pro-southern justices to the
supreme court - he fulfilled these promises as president
56. Affirmative Action: programs designed to increase minority participation in
some institution (businesses, schools, labor unions, or government agencies) by
taking positive steps to appoint more minority-group members
57. Environmental Protection Agency: Federal environmental agency created in
1970 by Nixon to appease the demands of congressional Democrats for a federal
environmental watchdog agency.
58. Vietnamization: President Richard Nixon's strategy for ending U.S involvement
in the Vietnam war, involving a gradual withdrawal of American troops and
replacement of them with South Vietnamese forces
59. Kent State: During the spring of 1970, students on college campuses across the
country protested the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. At Kent
State University, the National Guard attempted to quell the rioting students. The
guardsmen panicked and shot at rock-throwing demonstrators. Four student
bystanders were killed.
60. Detente: A policy of reducing Cold War tensions that was adopted by the United
States during the presidency of Richard Nixon.
61. Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I): Agreement between the United
States and Soviet Union intended to prohibit the development of missile defense
 systems in both, and also limiting the quantity of nuclear warheads for both as
well.
62. Watergate: Scandal that exposed the criminality and corruption of the Nixon
administration and ultimately led to President Nixon's resignation in 1974.
63. War Powers Act: Legislation requiring the president to inform Congress within
48 hours of the deployment of US troops abroad and to withdraw them after 60
days unless congress approves their continued deployment.
64. Camp Davis Accords: Peace agreement in 1978 between Prime Minister
Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar of Egypt, the first Arab head of
the state to officially recognize the state of Israel.
65. Iranian Hostage Crisis: Storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 by
Iranian revolutionaries, who held fifty-two Americans hostage for 444 days,
despite President Carter's appeals for their release as well as a botched rescue
attempt.
66. Moral Majority: Televangelist Jerry Falwell's political lobbying organization, the
name of which became synonymous with the religious right-conservative
evangelical Protestants who helped ensure President Ronald Reagan's 1980
victory.
67. Supply-Side Economics ("Reaganomics"): An economic philosophy that holds
the sharply cutting taxes will increase the incentive people have to work, save,
and invest. Greater investments will lead to more jobs, a more productive
economy, and more tax revenues for the government. Decreased government
spending
68. Sandra Day O'Connor: She was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court
of the United States and was appointed by President Reagan. Reagan's critics
charged that her appointment was a token of gesture and not a sign of any real
commitment to gender equality.
69. Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars"): Ronald Reagan's proposed space-
based anti-missile defense system, aroused great controversy and escalated the
arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union
70. Grenada: A tiny Caribbean island seized by a radical military council in 1983,
which Reagan ordered the U.S. military to reclaim-a quick action that made him
appear decisive and gained much popular support from both Americans and
Grenadans.
71. Iran-Contra Affair: Reagan administration scandal in 1987 over the secret,
unlawful U.S. sale of arms to Iran in partial exchange for the release of hostages
in Lebanon; the arms money in turn was used illegally to aid Nicaraguan right-
wing insurgents, the Contras.
72. Mikhail Gorbachev: In the late 1980's, this Soviet leader attempted to reform the
Soviet Union through his programs of perestroika and glasnost and pursued a
 renewal of detente with America, signing new arms-control agreements with
President Reagan. He allowed the velvet revolutions of Eastern Europe to occur
without outside interference. Eventually the political, social, and economic
upheaval he had unleashed would lead to the breakup of the Soviet Union.
73. Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty: Agreement signed by U.S.
president Ronald Reagan and Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev to eliminate the
deployment of intermediate-range missiles with nuclear warheads.
74. Operation Desert Storm: Assault by American-led multinational forces that
quickly defeated Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein in the First Gulf War, ending
the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.