Download Unit 8: 1945-1980 After World War II, the United States grappled with

Unit 8: 1945-1980
After World War II, the United States grappled with prosperity and unfamiliar international
responsibilities while struggling to live up to its ideals.
Key Concepts
8.1: The United States responded to an uncertain and unstable postwar world by asserting and
attempting to defend a position of global leadership, with far-reaching domestic and international
consequences.
8.2: Liberalism, based on anticommunism abroad and a firm belief in the efficacy of governmental and
especially federal power to achieve social goals at home, reached its apex in the mid-1960s and
generated a variety of political and cultural responses.
8.3: Postwar economic, demographic, and technological changes had a far-reaching impact on American
society, politics, and the environment.
Chapter 31: The Fair Deal and Containment
Harry S Truman
Baby-boom generation
GI Bill of Rights
How did Truman handle transition from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy?
Employment Act of 1946
Atomic Energy Commission
Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
National Security Act (1947)
United Nations charter
How/why did U.S-Soviet relations sour after the end of WWII?
Containment
George F. Kennan
Truman Doctrine
Marshall Plan
Berlin blockade and airlift
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
How did the legacy of WWII affect race relations and the push for civil rights in the United States?
Jackie Robinson
Fair Deal
What was the influence of race on the 1948 election?
Dixiecrats—Strom Thurmond
Progressives—Henry Wallace
What actions did Harry Truman take in the area of civil rights?
How did American interests and policies in Asia change as the Chinese communists gained control?
NSC-68
Korean War (1950-1953)
38th parallel
Why was Douglas MacArthur relieved of his command in Korea?
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
Alger Hiss
Richard M. Nixon
Joseph R. McCarthy
McCarran Internal Security Act (1950)
Smith Act (1940)
What historical factors led to the tensions between the U.S and the USSR during the Cold War?
Chapter 32: Through the Picture Window: Society and Culture, 1945-1960.
What problems lurked below the surface of the affluent society of post-war America?
Causes of post-war economic boom
-government and military spending
-technological innovations
-baby boom
-suburban expansion
-pent-up demand and savings
How did the GI Bill transform post-war America?
Consumer revolution
“sunbelt”
Levittown
Interstate Highway Act
Great Migration (continued)
Conformity
How did gender roles change in the post-war boom years?
Why was there a religious revival in the 1950s? What types of theology characterized that revival?
Norman Vincent Peale
Reinhold Niebuhr
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society
John Keats, The Crack in the Picture Window
David Riesman, The Lonely Crowd
Dr. Benjamin Spock, Baby and Child Care
What themes were expressed in the art and literature of the 1950s? How did they relate to 1950s
society?
The Beats
Allen Ginsberg, Howl
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Why did the 1950s see both a growth in teen culture and juvenile delinquency?
Rock and roll
Chapter 33: Conflict and Deadlock: The Eisenhower Years
Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Dynamic Conservatism”
How did Eisenhower approach the programs created under the New Deal?
How did Eisenhower achieve peace in Korea?
Army-McCarthy hearings
Earl Warren
John Foster Dulles-“liberation” and “massive retaliation”
New Look
“brinkmanship”
How did Eisenhower and Dulles deal with the growing tensions and violence in Vietnam?
SEATO
Suez Crisis
Sputnik
Eisenhower Doctrine
U-2, Francis Gary Powers
How did Eisenhower react to the communist revolution in Cuba?
Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)
“massive resistance”
“Southern Manifesto”
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Little Rock Nine
How do historians generally asses the Eisenhower presidency today? Why has that assessment changed
over time?
Chapter 34: New Frontiers: Politics and Social Change in the 1960s
John F. Kennedy
Richard M. Nixon
Election of 1960
“New Frontier”
Why did Kennedy have trouble enacting his legislative proposals?
Alliance for Progress
Peace Corps
Examine the success of Kennedy’s proposals for economic and social reform.
Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
Escobedo v. Illinois (1964)
Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
Sit-ins
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Freedom rides
James Meredith
Birmingham marches
George Wallace
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963)
Bay of Pigs
Cuban Missile Crisis
How did Kennedy attempt to deal with the worsening situation in Southeast Asia?
Lyndon B. Johnson
Civil Rights Act of 1964
War on Poverty
Michael Harrington, The Other America
Job Corps
Head Start
Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA)
Great Society
Barry Goldwater
Why did the Republicans suffer such an overwhelming defeat in the 1964 presidential election?
Medicare and Medicaid
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)
Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1966
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965
How effective were the Great Society programs at eliminating poverty and reforming society?
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Why did so many northern cities erupt in riots in the mid- to late-1960s?
Black power
Stokely Carmichael
Black Panther Party
Huey Newton
Malcolm X
Black Muslims
How did the black power movement transform the larger movement for civil rights?
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
Why did Johnson decide to “Americanize” the Vietnam War? What were the effects of this escalation?
Domino theory
Tet Offensive (1968)
How did the Vietnam War affect the economy and the programs of the Great Society?
Why did the massive American bombing campaign on North Vietnam and neighboring countries fail?
How did opposition to the Vietnam War in the U.S. grow into a significant political movement?
How did the MLK and RFK assassinations impact the American psyche, politics, and society?
Election of 1968
Chicago Democratic National Convention (1968)
American Independent Party--George Wallace
Chapter 35: Rebellion and Reaction in the 1960s and 1970s
New Left
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Tom Hayden
Port Huron Statement
Free speech movement
Anti-war movement
Yippies
Abbie Hoffman
Weathermen
Counterculture
Communes
“hippies”
Woodstock and Altamont
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique
National Organization for Women (NOW)
Title IX
Roe v. Wade
Equal Rights Amendment
The “pill”
United Farm Workers (UFW)
Cesar Chavez
American Indian Movement (AIM)
BIA sit-in
Wounded Knee occupation
Stonewall riots
Gay Liberation Front
“silent majority”
Henry Kissinger
“peace with honor”
“Vietnamization”
Cambodian “incursion”
My Lai Massacre
Kent State
Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg
“Christmas bombings”
Paris accords
“southern strategy”
Warren Burger
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971)
How did the President, Congress, and the American public react to court-ordered busing?
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Twenty-Sixth Amendment
Clean Air Act
What caused the inflation and economic problems of the early 1970s?
OPEC oil embargo
“stagflation”
What were the effects of Nixon’s economic policies during the recession of the 1970s
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Endangered Species Act
National Environmental Policy Act
Environmental Protection Agency
Moon landing
Nixon in China
Détente
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)
Shuttle diplomacy
Election of 1972
George S. McGovern
“dirty tricks”
Watergate break-in
Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP)
“the cover-up”
Saturday Night Massacre
John Erlichman, H.R. Haldeman, John Mitchell
United States v. Richard M. Nixon
Articles of impeachment
What were the effects of Watergate on the American public and political system?
War Powers Act (1973)
Gerald Ford
Whip Inflation Now
Mayaguez incident
Jimmy Carter
Department of Energy
Department of Education
Gas crisis
Panama Canal Zone Treaty
Camp David Accords
Iran Hostage Crisis
Critical Thinking Questions/Possible Essays
Compare and contrast United States foreign policy after the First World War and after the Second World
War. Consider the periods 1919-1928 and 1945-1950.
Analyze the influence of TWO of the following on American-Soviet relations in the decade following the
Second World War.
Yalta Conference
Communist Revolution in China
McCarthyism
Harry S Truman was a realistic, pragmatic president who skillfully led the American people against the
menace posed by the Soviet Union. Support, modify, or refute this generalization for President
Truman’s foreign policy from 1945 to 1953.
How do you account for the appeal of McCarthyism in the United States in the era following the Second
World War?
Social dislocations resulting from wartime conditions frequently bring lasting change within a society.
Evaluate the relevance of this generalization to American society in the 20th century in view of the
experiences of blacks AND women.
To what extent did the decade of the 1950s deserve its reputation as an age of political, social, and
cultural conformity?
Compare and contrast United States society in the 1920s and the 1950s with respect to TWO of the
following:
Race relations
Role of women
Consumerism
What accounted for the growth between 1940 and 1965 of popular and governmental concern for the
position of blacks in society?
Compare and contrast the Cold War foreign policies of TWO of the following presidents.
Harry Truman (1945-1953)
Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961)
Richard Nixon (1969-1974)
Evaluate the impact of the Second World War on the United States in the 1950s and 1960s in terms of
TWO of the following:
Education
International relations
Science and technology
In what ways did the Great Society resemble the New Deal in its origins, goals, and social and political
legacy? Cite specific programs and policies in support of your arguments.
Foreign affairs rather than domestic issues shaped presidential politics in the election year 1968.
Support, modify, or refute this statement with specific reference to foreign and domestic issues.
1968 was a turning point for the United States. Support, modify, or refute this assessment. In your
answer discuss TWO of the following:
National politics
Vietnam War
Civil rights
Compare the goals and strategies of black reform movements in the period 1890-1910 to the goals and
strategies of black reform movements in the period 1950-1970.
How did the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s address the failures of
Reconstruction?
Analyze the changes that occurred during the 1960s in the goals, strategies, and support of the
movement for African American Civil Rights.
Analyze the successes and failures of the United States Cold War policy of containment as it developed
in TWO of the following regions of the world during the period 1945-1975.
East and Southeast Asia
Europe
Latin America
Middle East
Describe THREE of the following and analyze the ways in which each of the three has affected the status
of women in American society since 1940.
Changing economic conditions
The rebirth of an organized women’s movement
Advances in reproductive technology
The persistence of traditional definitions of women’s roles
Reform movements of the 20th century have shown continuity in their goals and strategies. Support,
modify, or refute this statement for ONE of the following pairs of reform movements.
Progressivism and the New Deal
Women’s suffrage and post-Second World War Feminism
The New Deal and the Great Society
Discuss with respect to TWO of the following, the view that the 1960s represented a period of profound
cultural change.
Education
Gender roles
Music
Race relations
Analyze the ways in which TWO of the following shaped American politics after the Second World War.
Anticommunism in the 1940s and 1950s
The women’s liberation movement in the 1960s
The “silent majority” in the 1970s
Analyze the extent to which TWO of the following transformed American society in the 1960s and
1970s.
The Civil Rights movement
The antiwar movement
The women’s movement
Between 1960 and 1975 there was great progress in the struggle for political and social equality.
Support, modify, or refute this statement with respect to TWO of the following groups during that
period.
African Americans
Asian Americans
Latinos
Native Americans
Women