Download Goal 11 84. McCarthyism: Red Scare of the 1950s, instigated by Sen

Goal 11
84. McCarthyism: Red Scare of the 1950s, instigated by Sen. Joseph McCarthy who claimed to have knowledge of
communists within high levels of the military and State Department. After holding increasingly inflammatory hearings in
which little physical evidence was presented, McCarthy was eventually discredited
85. Civil Rights Movement : 1950s and ‘60s fight for restoration of basic civil rights for African Americans, primarily in
the South. Following the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the
doctrine laid by the Plessy v Ferguson of “separate but equal” was overturned; the Court ordered the integration of schools
and other public facilities with “all deliberate speed.” Despite the Court’s order, however, states across the South refused
to comply, forcing President’s Eisenhower and Kennedy to use US Marshals and even the Army to compel states to
comply. Under the leadership of black minister Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., peaceful protests and boycotts were held
throughout the late ‘50s and 1960’s, culminating with his “I Have a Dream” speech delivered to a crowd in Washington,
DC. Not all activists were willing to follow Dr. King’s peaceful strategy of civil disobedience, however; more militant
examples of black power included radical groups like the Nation of Islam, under the guidance of Malcolm X, and the
Black Panthers. Tragically, both King and Malcolm X were assassinated for their beliefs, but not before Congress had
passed broad civil rights legislation.
86. Sputnik: in 1957, the Soviets were the first nation to put a satellite in orbit around the Earth, the Sputnik I. This
accomplishment shocked Americans, who began to worry that the Soviets would gain control of outer space and be able
to threaten US security; in response, the federal government created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) to oversee the American space program and passed the National Defense Education Act, a bill which increased
funding for education in math, science, and foreign languages in public schools.
87. Vietnam War: anti-communism military engagement in South East Asia, fought from the late 1950’s until the fall of
democratic South Vietnam to the communist North in 1975. US involvement was initially in an advisory role, but
accelerated into a combat role after the North Vietnam attacked US warships off the Vietnamese coast in the Gulf of
Tonkin. With the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Congress authorized President Lyndon Johnson to use whatever force
necessary to protect US interests in the region. The war was unpopular in the US and met with heavy protests due to its
unclear objectives, high casualties, use of the draft, and associated scandals, including the massacre of civilians by US
forces at My Lai and the publication of the Pentagon Papers, a set of uncensored government reports on the war.
Eventually President Richard Nixon bowed to the public will and withdrew US soldiers from Vietnam in 1973. The war is
generally seen as America’s only military defeat.
88. War Powers Act: 1973 Act of Congress which revoked the powers given to the president under the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution and required the president to notify Congress within 48 of the use of US troops in a combat role; additionally,
the president must receive Congressional approval if those troops are going to be engaged for longer than 60 days.
89. Cesar Chavez: labor rights activist who organized Hispanic migrant farmers into the United Farm Workers (UFW)
labor union in the 1970s and, through orchestrating a nationwide boycott on grape products, forced farm owners to
improve wages and working conditions for migrant workers.
90. The Feminine Mystique: book by Betty Freidan which is credited with launching the feminist movement of the 1960s
and '70s; Freidan and her supporters argued that being held to the role of housewife and mother was insufficient and that
women should have the same rights and opportunities as men.
91. Nixon Diplomacy: President Richard Nixon eased the tensions of the Cold War, a process known as détente, by
personally visiting China and the Soviet Union, and by signing the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) with the
Soviet Union, an agreement to reduce the number of nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles
92. Watergate Scandal: when a group of Nixon supporters were caught breaking into the Democratic Party's national
headquarters in the Watergate Building, President Nixon attempted to cover up the involvement of some of his top aides
(Nixon himself did not authorize the break in) to protect himself politically; Nixon soon found himself facing charges of
obstruction of justice and probable impeachment. Nixon elected to resign from office in 1974, becoming the only
president in US history to do so; Nixon was pardoned of any wrongdoing by his successor, Gerald Ford.
Goal 12
93. Camp David Accords: 1978 diplomatic victory of the Jimmy Carter administration; Carter orchestrated a peace
agreement between the Jewish state of Israel and its longtime enemy Egypt
94. Iran Hostage Crisis / Iran Contra Affair: after long-time US ally, the Shah of Iran was overthrown by Islamic
fundamentalists, relations between the two nations worsened, peaking when the US Embassy in Iran was attacked in 1979
and the staff taken as hostages for 444 days. The US broke off all diplomatic relations with Iran as a result. In the mid1980s, however, members of Ronald Reagan's administration began illegally selling the Iranian government weapons and
forwarding the proceeds from those sales to anti-communist rebels, known as Contras, in Central America. When
knowledge of these dealings went public, the scandal nearly brought down the Reagan administration.
95. Title IX: legislation which requires schools to fund women's athletic programs at the same level as men's; part of a
series of antidiscrimination bills passed in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s.
96. Reaganomics: also called supply-side economics, the collective economic policies of President Ronald Reagan;
Reagan believed that the best way to address an economic recession was to provide tax breaks to corporations and the
wealthy, rather than to the middle-class or poor, because the rich would reinvest the tax savings and create jobs, creating a
"trickle-down" effect which would benefit all socio-economic levels
97. NAFTA: the North American Free Trade Agreement, a treaty between the US, Canada, and Mexico which removed
trade barriers between the three nations; the agreement has been heavily criticized in the US, because it resulted in the loss
of manufacturing jobs to Mexico, where labor is cheaper; it has, however, kept the cost of some consumer goods lower.
98. Three Mile Island: Nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania which experienced a reactor accident in 1979; although all
safety measures in place worked and there were no fatalities, the event badly shook Americans' faith in nuclear power and
the construction of new nuclear power plants all but stopped for three decades.
99. 9/11: terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 against the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in
Washington, DC, which killed nearly 3000 and completely destroyed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. The
US responded by declaring a "war on terror" and invading Afghanistan and Iraq for their support of the al-Qaeda terror
network led by Osama bin Laden which had orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime was toppled
and in Iraq, ruler Saddam Hussein was overthrown and executed. In 2011, US forces carried out a commando raid in
Pakistan which killed Osama bin Laden and greatly weakened al-Qaeda. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Americans faced
some restrictions on civil liberties after passage of the PATRIOT Act and the creation of the Department of Homeland
Security, which heightened security at airports and along the US borders.
100. Affirmative action: the practice of setting aside a certain number of seats or positions, typically in college
admissions, for minority applicants who might not otherwise qualify for admission; the practice was rationalized under the
argument that minority groups did not enjoy the advantages of middle-class whites and, therefore, had fewer opportunities
to match the scores of white students. Affirmative action was challenged in the Supreme Court case Regents of University
of California v. Bakke; Allan Bakke, a white man, argued that he had been denied admission to the University of
California while lesser-qualified minority students had been admitted under affirmative action. The Court ruled that
setting aside a predetermined number of seats for minority students was discriminatory and, therefore, illegal.