Download Hist 1493 Final Exam Study Guide Dr. Warren Metcalf Yalta

Hist 1493
Final Exam Study Guide
Dr. Warren Metcalf

Yalta Conference— In early 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt, by this time very
ill, called for a summit meeting to discuss a host of political questions. The
three Allied leaders met at Yalta, in the Russian Crimea, in February of 1945.
Britain wanted to protect its colonial possessions and limit Soviet power. The
Soviet Union wanted Germany to pay reparations to fund its massive
rebuilding effort. The United States hoped to expand its influence and to
control the peace. There was an agreement that the priority would be the
unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. After the war, Germany and Berlin
would be split into four occupied zones.

George Kennan— In his “long telegram” (February 1946), he asserted that
Soviet fanaticism made even a temporary understanding impossible. His
widely circulated report fed a growing belief among American officials that
only toughness would work with the Soviets.

Containment Policy-- was a United States policy uniting military, economic,
and diplomatic strategies to limit the spread of Communism, enhance
America’s security and influence abroad, and prevent a "domino effect". A
component of the Cold War, the policy was a response to a series of moves by
the Soviet Union to expand Communist influence in Eastern Europe, China,
and Korea. Basis of the doctrine was articulated in a 1946 cable by U.S.
diplomat George F. Kennan.
o Who- United States
o What- A policy uniting military, economic, and diplomatic strategies
to limit the spread of communism, enhance America’s security and
influence abroad, and to prevent the domino effect.
o When- 1946
o Where- Around the World
o Why- It tried to contain communism to countries that were already
influenced by it.

Marshall Plan— In June of 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall
announced that the Unites States would finance a massive European
recovery program. Launched in 1948, it sent 12.4 Billion Dollars to Western
Europe to stimulate businesses at home. It required European’s spend the
money on United States-made products. The after effects proved a mixed
success. Caused inflation, failed to solve the balance of payment problems,
further divided Europe between East and West.

National Security Council Report (NSC-68)— It was a 58-page classified
report issued by the United States National Security Council on April 14,
1950, during the presidency of Harry S. Truman. Written during the
formative stage of the Cold War, it has become one of the most significant
historical documents of the Cold War. Truman officially signed NSC-68 on
September 30, 1950. NSC-68 called for significant peacetime military
spending, in which the U.S. possessed "superior overall power" and "in
dependable combination with other like-minded nations." It calls for a
military capable of: Defending the Western Hemisphere and essential allied
areas in order that their war-making capabilities can be developed, Providing
and protecting a mobilization base while the offensive forces required for
victory were being built up, Conducting offensive operations to destroy vital
elements of the Soviet war-making capacity, and to keep the enemy off
balance until the full offensive strength of the United States and its allies can
be brought to bear, Defending and maintaining the lines of communication
and base areas necessary to the execution of the above tasks, and Providing
such aid to allies as is essential to the execution of their role in the above
tasks.
 Who- Harry Truman
 What- called for significant peacetime military spending, in which the
US possessed “superior overall power” and “in dependable
combination with other like-minded nations”. Called for a military
capable of defending the Western Hemisphere and essential allied
areas in order that their war-making capabilities can be developed,
providing and protecting a mobilization base while the offensive
forces required for victory were being built up, conducting offensive
operations to destroy vital elements of the Soviet war-making
capacities, and to keep the enemy off balance until the fill offensive
strength of the US and its allies can be brought to bear, defending and
maintaining the lines of communication and base areas necessary to
execution of the above tasks, and providing such aid to allies as is
essential to the execution of their rile in the above tasks.
 When- April 1950
 Where- United States
 Why- allowed the US to keep building its military incase of future
wars, it would be superior to anyone else

Interstate Highway System— Authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act
of 1956. Influenced by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as he crossed the
country in the 1919 Army Convoy. Impressed by the German Autobahn
network, Eisenhower helped establish this system to create a more efficient
way of transnational automobile travel.

North Korean Invasion— Although reunification negotiations continued in
the months preceding the war, tension intensified. Cross-border skirmishes
and raids at the 38th Parallel persisted. The situation escalated into open
warfare when North Korean forces invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. It
was the first significant armed conflict of the Cold War. Truman claimed that
the Soviet’s had masterminded the attack—called it Communism.

Truman and General MacArthur— General Douglas MacArthur wanted to
attack China and destroy the Asian flank, which would put and end to
Communism in China. Truman, backed by the Joint Chief’s of Staff, fired
MacArthur. MacArthur returned home, a national hero, while Truman was on
the verge of impeachment.

McCarthy Hearings— They were a series of hearings held by the United
States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between March 1954 and
June 1954. The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating
conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph
McCarthy. The Army accused chief committee counsel Roy Cohn of
pressuring the Army to give preferential treatment to G. David Schine, a
former McCarthy aide and a friend of Cohn's. McCarthy counter-charged that
this accusation was made in bad faith and in retaliation for his recent
aggressive investigations of suspected Communists and security risks in the
Army. On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to "condemn" Senator
McCarthy by a vote of 67 to 22.

McCarthyism— It is the political action of making accusations of disloyalty,
subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term
specifically describes activities associated with the period in the United
States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to
the late 1950s and characterized by heightened fears of communist influence
on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined to
criticize the anti-communist pursuits of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy,
"McCarthyism" soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of
similar efforts. The term is also now used more generally to describe
reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the
character or patriotism of political adversaries. During the post–World War
II era of McCarthyism, many thousands of Americans were accused of being
Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of
aggressive investigations and questioning before government or privateindustry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such
suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry,
educators and union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite
inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a
person's real or supposed leftist associations or beliefs were often greatly
exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their
careers, and even imprisonment.

Brown v. Board of Education Decision— It was a landmark decision of the
United States Supreme Court, which overturned earlier rulings going back to
Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, by declaring that state laws that established
separate public schools for black and white students denied black children
equal educational opportunities. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Warren
Court's unanimous (9-0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities
are inherently unequal." As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a
violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the
United States Constitution. This victory paved the way for integration and the
civil rights movement
o Whoo What- Overturned the rulings of Plessy v. Ferguson. Declared that
state laws that established separate public schools for black and white
students denied black students equal education opportunities.
o When- May 1954
o Where- US/Supreme Court
o Why- This victory paved way for integration and the civil rights
movement.

Montgomery Bus Boycott— A group of African Americans in Montgomery,
Alabama, tired of the segregation on the public transit system, held a boycott
of the Montgomery Public Transportation. This lead to a significant downfall
in the income of the Bus Company. Many historical figures, such as Rosa
Parks were a part of this movement. It started when Rosa Parks was told to
get up from her seat after a white man had no place to sit on December 1,
1955, to the December 20, 1956 United States Supreme Court ruling that
declared segregation on the Alabama transit system to be unconstitutional.

Social Critics in the 1950s— Americans, obsessed with self-criticism even
as most participated wholeheartedly in the celebratory “consensus” culture
of their age rushed to buy books like John Keats’ The Crack in the Picture
Window (1957). Most of these critics were attempting to understand largescale significant changes in American society. Americans were contending
with some loss of autonomy in work as large corporations replaced smaller
businesses; they experienced the homogenizing force of mass production and
a national consumer culture; they saw distinctions among ethnic groups and
even among socioeconomic classes decline in importance.

David Riesman’s Other Directed People— Riesman's 1950 book, The
Lonely Crowd, a sociological study of modern conformity, which postulates
the existence of the "inner-directed" and "other-directed" personalities.
Riesman argues that the character of post WWII American society impels
individuals to "other-directedness", the preeminent example being modern
suburbia, where individuals seek their neighbors' approval and fear being
outcast from their community. This lifestyle has a coercive effect, which
compels people to abandon "inner-direction" of their lives, and induces them
to take on the goals, ideology, likes, and dislikes of their community.
Ironically, this creates a tightly grouped crowd of people that is yet incapable
of truly fulfilling each other's desire for companionship.

Eisenhower’s Presidential Style— With a republican in the White House
for the first time in 20 years, conservatives hoped to roll back such a New
Deal liberal program as the mandatory Social Security system. Eisenhower,
however, had no such intention, in part because it was politically almost
impossible to dismantle the New Deal and Fair Deal programs. Eisenhower,
as a moderate republican, adopted an approach he called “dynamic
conservatism”, which means he was “conservative when it comes to money,
and liberal when it comes to human beings.”

Vietnam Conflict: Origins— Hostilities in Vietnam in 1950 increased. Ho
Chi Minh, the leader of North Vietnam, assisted the Vietcong in the south to
advance the reunification under communist government. Problem’s
escalated around Kennedy’s assassination. In early august 1964, an incident
in the gulf of Tonkin, US destroyers reported under attack which resulted to a
416-0 vote in the House and 88-2 in the Senate, congress passed the Gulf of
Tonkin resolution which gave the president the authority to retaliated
against Vietcong forces.

The Beats— is a term used to describe a group of American writers who
came to prominence in the 1950s, and the cultural phenomena that they
wrote about and inspired (later sometimes called "beatniks"). Central
elements of "Beat" culture include a rejection of materialism,
experimentation with drugs and alternate forms of sexuality, and an interest
in Eastern religion. The major works of Beat writing are Allen Ginsberg's
Howl (1956), William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch (1959) and Jack Kerouac's
On the Road (1957). Both Howl and Naked Lunch were the focus of obscenity
trials that ultimately helped to liberalize what could be published in the
United States. On the Road transformed Kerouac's friend Neal Cassady into a
youth-culture hero. The members of the Beat Generation quickly developed a
reputation as new bohemian hedonists, who celebrated non-conformity and
spontaneous creativity. The original "Beat Generation" writers met in New
York. Later, the central figures (with the exception of Burroughs) ended up
together in San Francisco in the mid-1950s where they met and became
friends with figures associated with the San Francisco Renaissance. During
the 1960s, the rapidly expanding Beat culture underwent a transformation:
the Beat Generation gave way to the Sixties Counterculture, which was
accompanied by a shift in public terminology from "beatnik" to "hippie."

U-2 Spy Plane Incident— The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold
War on May 1, 1960, during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower and
during the leadership of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, when an
American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet Union. The United States
government at first denied the plane's purpose and mission, but then was
forced to admit its role as a covert surveillance aircraft when the Soviet
government produced its remains (largely intact) and surviving pilot, Francis
Gary Powers. Coming just over two weeks before the scheduled opening of
an East–West summit in Paris, the incident was a great embarrassment to the
United States and prompted a marked deterioration in its relations with the
Soviet Union.

Federal Highway Act of 1956 The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956,
popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act
(Public Law 84-627), was enacted on June 29, 1956, when Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed the bill into law. Appropriating $25 billion for the
construction of 41,000 miles (66,000 km) of Interstate Highways over a 20year period, it was the largest public works project in American history to
that point. Eisenhower argued for the highways for the purpose of national
defense. In the event of an invasion by a foreign power, the military would
need good roads to be able to quickly transport troops around the country.
Following completion of the highways the cross-country journey that took
the convoy two months in 1919 was cut down to two weeks. Another result
of the act was the direct subsidization of the suburban road infrastructure,
making commutes between urban centers to suburbs much quicker,
furthering the flight of citizens and businesses and divestment from inner
cities, and compounding vehicle pollution and excessive petroleum use
problems.

John Foster Dulles— He served as U.S. Secretary of State under President
Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the
early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism
throughout the world. He advocated support of the French in their war
against the Viet Minh in Indochina and it is widely believed that he refused to
shake the hand of Zhou Enlai at the Geneva Conference in 1954. He also
played a major role in the Central Intelligence Agency operation to
overthrow the democratic Mossadegh government of Iran in 1953
(Operation Ajax) and the democratic Arbenz government of Guatemala in
1954 (Operation PBSUCCESS). In 1950, he worked alongside Richard Nixon
to reduce the French influence in Vietnam as well as asking the United States
to attempt to cooperate with the French in the aid of strengthening Diem's
Army.
 Bay of Pigs Invasion— This was an unsuccessful attempt by a CIA—trained
force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support from US
government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel
Castro. The plan was launched in April 1961, less than three months after
John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban
armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the
exile combatants in three days.

Cuban Missile Crisis— This was a confrontation between the Soviet Union,
Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War. In
September 1962, the Cuban and Soviet governments began to secretly build
bases in Cuba for a number of medium- and intermediate-range ballistic
nuclear missiles with the ability to strike most of the continental United
States. On October 14, 1962, a United States U-2 photoreconnaissance plane
captured photographic proof of Soviet missile bases under construction in
Cuba. This crisis was one of the major confrontations of the Cold War and is
generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to
turning into a nuclear conflict. The United States considered attacking Cuba
via air and sea and settled on a military "quarantine" of Cuba. The U.S.
announced that it would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to
Cuba and demanded that the Soviets dismantle the missile bases already
under construction or completed in Cuba and remove all offensive weapons.

Election of 1960— This marked the end of Dwight D. Eisenhower's two
terms as President. Eisenhower's Vice President, Richard Nixon, who had
transformed his office into a national political base, was the Republican
candidate, whereas the Democrats nominated Massachusetts Senator John F.
Kennedy. The electoral vote was the closest in any presidential election since
1916. In the popular vote, Kennedy's margin of victory was among the
closest ever in American history. The 1960 election also remains a source of
debate among some historians as to whether vote theft in selected states
aided Kennedy's victory. This was the first presidential election in which
Alaska and Hawaii participated.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference— In January 1957, in the
afterglow of the Montgomery Bus Boycott victory and consultations with
Bayard Rustin, Ella Baker, and others, Dr. King invited some 60 black
ministers and leaders to Ebenezer Church in Atlanta. Their goal was to form
an organization to coordinate and support nonviolent direct action as a
method of desegregating bus systems across the South. In addition to Rustin
and Baker, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth of Birmingham, Rev Joseph Lowery of
Mobile, Rev Ralph Abernathy of Montgomery, Rev C.K. Steele of Tallahassee,
all played key roles in this meeting. They began to plan a 1963 campaign in
the most violently racist city in America—Birmingham, AL. On May 2, 1963,
King and the parents put children, some as young as 6, on the front lines of
protest. Police commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor ordered the police to
turn water hoses on them and attack dogs. After President Kennedy saw this
on TV, he demanded that Birmingham’s white business and political elite
negotiate a settlement—under pressure, they agreed.

Students for a Democratic Society—This developed from the Student
League for Industrial Democracy (SLID). SDS was the organizational high
point for student radicalism in the United States and has been an important
influence on student organizing in the decades since its collapse.
Participatory democracy, direct action, radicalism, student power, shoestring
budgets, and its organizational structure are all present in varying degrees in
current national student activist groups. Though various organizations have
been formed in subsequent years as proposed national networks for leftwing student organizing, none has approached the scale of SDS, and most
have lasted a few years at best. In February 1965, United States President
Lyndon Johnson dramatically escalated the war in Vietnam by bombing
North Vietnam in Operation Flaming Dart and introducing ground troops
directly involved in fighting the Viet Cong in the South. Campus chapters of
SDS all over the country started to lead small, localized demonstrations
against the war and the NO became the focal group that organized the March
against the war in Washington on April 17.

Lyndon Johnson’s Legislative Legacy— "Great Society" legislation that
included laws that upheld civil rights, Public Broadcasting, Medicare,
Medicaid, environmental protection, aid to education, and his "War on
Poverty.
Acts passed by Johnson:
1964: Civil Rights Act of 1964
1964: Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964
1964: Wilderness Act
1964: Nurse Training Act
1964: Food Stamp Act of 1964
1964: Economic Opportunity Act
1965: Higher Education Act of 1965
1965: Social Security Act of 1965
1965: Voting Rights Act
1965: Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965
1966: Freedom of Information Act (United States)
1967: Age Discrimination in Employment Act[84]
1967: Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
1968: Architectural Barriers Act of 1968
1968: Bilingual Education Act
1968: Fair housing
1968: Gun Control Act of 1968

Great Society Programs/War on Poverty— The Great Society program,
with its name coined from one of Johnson's speeches, became Johnson's
agenda for Congress in January 1965: aid to education, attack on disease,
Medicare, Medicaid, urban renewal, beautification, conservation,
development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control
and prevention of crime, and removal of obstacles to the right to vote.
Congress, at times augmenting or amending, enacted many of Johnson's
recommendations. In 1964, upon Johnson's request, Congress passed the
Revenue Act of 1964 and the Economic Opportunity Act, which was in
association with the war on poverty. Johnson set in motion bills and acts,
creating programs such as Head Start, food stamps, work-study, Medicare
and Medicaid, which still exist today.

Voting Rights Act of 1965— Signed into law by President Lyndon B.
Johnson, a Democrat, on August 6, 1965. It outlawed discriminatory voting
practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement
of African Americans in the United States. It prohibited states from imposing
any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or
procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to
vote on account of race or color." Congress intended the Act to outlaw the
practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literacy tests in order
to register to vote, a principal means by which Southern states had prevented
African-Americans from exercising the franchise.
 Civil Rights Act of 1964— Enacted July 2, 1964. It was a landmark piece of
legislation in the United States that outlawed unequal application of voter
registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace
and by facilities that served the general public. Once the Act was
implemented, its effects were far-reaching and had tremendous long-term
impacts on the whole country. It prohibited discrimination in public facilities,
in government, and in employment, invalidating the Jim Crow laws in the
southern U.S. It became illegal to compel segregation of the races in schools,
housing, or hiring.

Lyndon B. Johnson’s Expansion of the Vietnam War—In February of
1965, in response to Vietcong attacks on American installations in South
Vietnam that killed 32 Americans, Johnson ordered “Operation Rolling
Thunder,” a bombing program that continued until October of 1968. On July
28, 1965, Johnson publicly announced a significant troop increase. By the end
of 1965, more than 180,000 U.S. ground troops were in South Vietnam. In
1966, the figure climbed to 385,000. In 1967 alone, U.S. warplanes flew
108,000 sorties and dropped 226,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam. By
1968, the troop count reached 536,100. Each American escalation brought
not victory, but a new North Vietnamese escalation. The Soviets and China
responded to the stepped-up U.S. involvement by increasing their material
assistance to the Hanoi Government.

Reasons For Wage and Price Inflation in the 1960s— After enacting a tax
cut in 1964 to stimulate economic growth and reduce unemployment,
President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress launched a series of expensive
domestic spending programs designed to alleviate poverty. Johnson also
increased military spending to pay for American involvement in the Vietnam
War. These large government programs, combined with strong consumer
spending, pushed the demand for goods and services beyond what the
economy could produce. Wages and prices started rising. Soon, rising wages
and prices fed each other in an ever-rising cycle.

Freedom Riders— On May 4, 1961, thirteen members of the Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE), a nonviolent civil rights organization formed during
WWII, purchased bus tickets in Washington, D.C., for a 1,500-mile trip
through the South to New Orleans, scheduled to arrive there on May 17,
1961. This racially integrated group, calling themselves the Freedom Riders,
meant to demonstrate that, despite Supreme Court rulings ordering the
desegregation of interstate buses and bus stations, that Jim Crow Laws still
ruled in the South. One of the buses was firebombed outside Anniston,
Alabama. Riders were badly beaten and lynched in Birmingham, Alabama.

March on Washington (1963)—On August 28, 1963, 250,000 Americans
gathered in the Washington Mall. They came from all over to show Congress
their support for Kennedy’s Civil Rights Bill; many also wanted federal action
to guarantee work opportunities. The march began at the Washington
Monument and ended at the Lincoln Memorial with a program of music and
speakers. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic “I Have A Dream”
speech advocating racial harmony at the Lincoln Memorial. About 80% of the
marchers were African American and the rest were white and other ethnic
groups. The march is widely credited as helping to pass the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and the National Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Tet Offensive—impact on public— On January 31, 1968, the first day of the
Vietnamese New Year (Tet), Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces struck all
across South Vietnam, capturing provincial capitals. During the carefully
planned offensive, the Saigon airport, the presidential palace, and the ARVN
headquarters came under attack. Eventually, the U.S. and South Vietnamese
units regained much of the ground they had lost, inflicting heavy casualties
and devastating numerous villages. The heavy fighting called into question
American military leaders’ confident predictions in earlier months that the
war would soon be won. Aware that the nation was suffering financial crisis
prompted by rampant deficit spending to sustain the war and other global
commitments, they knew that taking the initiative in Vietnam would cost
billions more, further derail the budget, panic foreign owners of dollars, and
wreck the economy. Clark Clifford, who had succeeded Robert McNamara as
Secretary of Defense, told Johnson that to “maintain public support for the
war without the support of these men” was impossible.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution—In early August 1964, an incident in the Gulf of
Tonkin, off the coast of North Vietnam, drew Johnson’s involvement. Twice in
three days, U.S. destroyers reported coming under attack from North
Vietnamese patrol boats. Despite a lack of evidence that the second attack
even occurred, Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes against selected North
Vietnamese patrol boat bases and an oil depot. By a vote of 416-0 in the
House of Representatives and 88-2 in the Senate, Congress quickly passed
the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the President authority to “take all
necessary measures to repel any armed attack against forces of the United
States and to prevent further aggression.” In doing so, Congress essentially
surrendered its war making powers to the Executive Branch.

Malcolm X— A onetime pimp and street hustler, who had converted while in
prison to the Nation of Islam faith, who offered African Americans a new
direction of leadership. By the early 1960s, Malcolm X had become the Black
Muslims’ chief spokesperson, and his advice was straightforward. Members
of the Nation of Islam, who believed Malcolm X had betrayed their cause by
breaking with the Black Muslims to start his own, more racially tolerant
organization, murdered him in early 1965. In death, Malcolm X became a
powerful symbol of black defiance and self-respect.

Black Power Movement—To be truly free from white oppression, Stokely
Carmichael, SNCC chairman proclaimed, blacks had to “stand up and take
over”—to elect black candidates, to organize their own schools, to control
their own institutions, to embrace “Black Power.” The most well known black
radicals of the Black Power Movement were the Black Panthers, formed in
Oakland, CA, in 1966. The Panthers’ platform attracted many young African
Americans, while their public embrace of violence frightened many whites.

Presidential Election of 1968—Nixon’s Appeal— This did little to heal the
nation. Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey, Johnson’s Vice President,
seemed a continuation of the old politics. Republican Candidate Richard
Nixon, called for “law and order” to appeal to those who were angry about
racial violence and tired of social unrest. On Vietnam, Nixon vowed he could
“end the war and win the peace.” Governor George Wallace ran as a thirdparty candidate—won 5 southern states, drawing almost 14% of the popular
vote. Some consider the election of 1968 a realigning election that
permanently disrupted the New Deal Coalition that had dominated
presidential politics for 36 years.

New Left Protest Movement— In the United States, the "New Left" was the
name loosely associated with liberal, sometimes radical, political movements
that took place during the 1960s, primarily among college students. At the
core of this were the Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS. The New Left
can be defined as “a loosely organized, mostly financially well off white
student movement that promoted participatory democracy, crusaded for
civil rights and various types of university reforms and protested against the
Vietnam war.” The New Left opposed what it saw as the prevailing authority
structures in society, which it termed "The Establishment," and those who
rejected this authority became known as "anti-Establishment." The New Left
did not seek to recruit industrial workers, but rather concentrated on a social
activist approach to organization, convinced that they could be the source for
a better kind of social revolution.

The Counterculture—Philosophy and Rationale— As the 1960s
progressed, widespread tensions developed in American society that tended
to flow along generational lines regarding the war in Vietnam, race relations,
sexual mores, women's rights, traditional modes of authority, and a
materialist interpretation of the American Dream. White, middle-class youth
—who made up the bulk of the counterculture—had sufficient leisure time to
turn their attention to social issues. These social issues included support for
civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights movements, and a rejection of the
Vietnam War. Hippies became the largest countercultural group in the United
States. The counterculture also had access to a media eager to present their
concerns to a wider public. Demonstrations for social justice created farreaching changes affecting many aspects of society. Rejection of mainstream
culture was best embodied in the new genres of psychedelic rock music, popart and new explorations in spirituality. Musicians who exemplified this era
include The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors,
Cream, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Janis Joplin. The
counterculture in the United States reached its peak between 1966 and the
early 1970s. It eventually waned for several reasons: mainstream America's
disdain for unrepentant hedonism and conspicuous drug use, and the
troubles caused by these excesses; the death of many notable countercultural
figures; the end of the Vietnam War; and the end of Civil Rights protests
following passage of remedial legislation. The counterculture continues to
influence social movements, art and society in general.

Nixon and China—In early 1972, Nixon made a historic trip to “Red China,”
where he and the venerable Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai
agreed to disagree on a number of issues, except one: The Soviet Union
should not be permitted to make gains in Asia. Relations with China
improved slightly, and official diplomatic recognition and the exchange of
ambassadors came in 1979.

Détente—Measured cooperation with the Soviet Union through negotiations
within a general environment of rivalry, drawn from the French word for
“relaxation.” Détente’s primary purpose was to check Soviet expansion and
limit the Soviet arms buildup, though now that goal would be accomplished
through diplomacy and mutual concessions. The second part sought to curb
revolution and radicalism in the Third World so as to quash threats to
American interests. In May 1972, the U.S. and USSR agreed on the ABM
Treaty (the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems) to slow
the costly arms race by limiting the construction and deployment of
intercontinental ballistic missiles and antiballistic missile defenses.

Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique— Written in 1963, this novel had a
surprise popularity that signaled that there was ample fuel for a revived
Women’s Movement. Writing as a housewife, Friedan described “the problem
with no name,” the dissatisfaction of educated, middle-class wives and
mothers like herself, who—looking at their nice homes and families—
wondered guiltily if that was all there was to life. Friedan, instead of blaming
individual women for failing to adapt to women’s proper role, blamed the
role itself and the society that created it. She co-founded National
Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966, which aimed to bring women "into
the mainstream of American society now in fully equal partnership with
men." Friedan joined other leading feminists in founding the National
Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) in 1971.

Equal Rights Amendment—reasons for failure— This was a proposed
amendment to the United States Constitution which was intended to
guarantee that equal rights under any federal, state, or local law could not be
denied on account of sex. Alice Paul originally wrote the ERA. On March 22,
1972, it passed both houses of Congress, but failed to gain ratification before
its June 30, 1982 deadline. Beliefs that the wife should submit to her
husband’s leadership, as stated in the Bible, plus fears about changing gender
roles and expectations, fueled the STOP-ERA movement led by Phyllis
Schlafly, a lawyer and a prominent conservative political activist. Many
women saw feminism as an attack on the choices they had made and felt that
by opposing the ERA they were defending their traditional roles. By the mid1970s, the STOP-ERA movement had stalled the Equal Rights Amendment. It
fell 3 states short of ratification and expired in 1982.

Altamont—An infamous rock concert held on Saturday, December 6, 1969,
at the Altamont Speedway in northern California, between Tracy and
Livermore. Headlined and organized by The Rolling Stones, it also featured,
in order of appearance: Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito
Brothers, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with the Rolling Stones taking the
stage as the final act. The Grateful Dead were also scheduled to perform, but
declined to play shortly before their scheduled appearance due to the
increasing violence at the venue. That's the way things went at Altamont—so
badly that the Grateful Dead, prime organizers and movers of the festival,
didn't even get to play.
 Woodstock— This was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3
Days of Peace & Music", held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm near the
hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to
August 18, 1969. Bethel, in Sullivan County, is 43 miles southwest of the
town of Woodstock, New York, in adjoining Ulster County. During the
sometimes-rainy weekend, thirty-two acts performed outdoors in front of
500,000 concert-goers. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most
pivotal moments in popular music history.

Stagflation, Economy During Nixon/Ford Years—Throughout most of the
1970s, the U.S. economy floundered in a condition that economist’s dubbed
“stagflation”: a stagnant economy characterized by high unemployment
combined with out-of-control inflation. When the government increased
spending to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment, inflation
grew. When the government tried to rein in inflation by cutting government
spending, the recession deepened and unemployment rates skyrocketed.

Nixon-Kissinger Policy to End Vietnam War—The Paris Peace Accords,
intended to establish peace in Vietnam and an end to the Vietnam Conflict,
ended direct U.S. military involvement and temporarily stopped the fighting
between north and south. The governments of the North Vietnam, South
Vietnam, and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary
Government (PRG) that represented indigenous South Vietnamese
revolutionaries, signed the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring
Peace in Vietnam on January 27, 1973.

Roe v. Wade— It was a landmark decision in 1973 by the Supreme Court on
the issue of abortion. The Court held that a woman's right to an abortion is
determined by her current trimester of pregnancy:
o In the first trimester, the state cannot restrict a woman's right to an
abortion in any way. The court stated that this trimester begins at
conception and ends at the "point at which the fetus becomes 'viable'."
o In the second trimester, the state may only regulate the abortion
procedure "in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health" as
defined in the companion case of Doe v. Bolton.
o In the third trimester, the state can choose to restrict or proscribe
abortion as it sees fit when the fetus is viable ("except where it is
necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of
the life or health of the mother").

Watergate Cover-up and Resulting Scandal—On June 17, 1972, four
months before the Presidential election, five men were caught breaking into
the Democratic National Committee’s offices at the Watergate apartment and
office complex in Washington, D.C. Nixon was not directly involved with this.
But instead of distancing himself and firing those responsible, he chose to
cover up their connection to the break-ins. He had the CIA stop the FBI’s
investigation, citing reasons of national security. However, reporters Carl
Bernstein and Bob Woodward would not give up on the story. Aided by an
anonymous, highly placed government official code-named “Deep Throat,”
they began to follow a trail that led straight to the White House.

Watergate Tapes and Nixon Culpability—On July 13, 1973, a White House
aide told the Senate Committee that Nixon regularly recorded his
conversations in the Oval Office. These tapes were believed to be able to
prove Nixon’s direct involvement with the Watergate Scandal—but Nixon
refused to turn the tapes over to Congress. Under court order, Nixon began to
release edited portions of the Oval Office tapes to Congress. In July 1974, the
Supreme Court ruled that Nixon had to release all the tapes. Despite
“mysterious” erasures on two key tapes, the House Judiciary Committee
found evidence to impeach Nixon on three grounds: obstruction of justice,
abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. On August 9, 1974, facing certain
impeachment and conviction, Nixon became the first president of the U.S. to
resign his office.

Camp David Accords/Middle East Peace Process—Considered the
crowning accomplishment of Carter’s presidency. It was the first mediated
peace treaty between Israel and an Arab nation. At a meeting in Camp David,
Maryland in September 1978 with Egyptian and Israeli leaders, President
Carter persuaded them to agree to a peace treaty, gained Israel’s promise to
withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula, and forged a provisional agreement that
provided for a continued negotiations on the future status of the Palestinian
people living in Jordan’s West Bank and Egypt’s Gaza Strip. On March 26,
1979, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar
al-Sadat signed the formal treaty on the White House lawn.

Reaganomics— Instead of focusing on the complexities of global
competition, deindustrialization, and OPEC’s control of oil, Reagan argued
that U.S. economic problems were caused by government intrusion of the
“free-market” economic system. Reaganomics sought to “unshackle” the freeenterprise system from government regulation and control, to slash spending
on social programs, to limit government’s use of taxes to redistribute income
among the American people, and to balance the budget by reducing the role
of the federal government. Reagan’s economic policy was based largely on
supply-side economics, the theory that tax cuts (rather than government
spending) will create economic growth.

Deficit Spending Under Reagan— Reagan's tax policies were accused of
pushing both the international transactions current account and the federal
budget into deficit and led to a significant increase in public debt. Debt more
than tripled from 900 billion dollars to 2.8 trillion dollars during Reagan's
tenure. Advocates of the Laffer curve contend that the tax cuts did lead to a
near doubling of tax receipts ($517 billion in 1980 to $1.032 trillion in 1990),
so that the deficits were actually caused by an increase in government
spending. However, according to the White House's Office of Management
and Budget, the doubling of revenue is significantly smaller when looking at
real inflation-adjusted figures ($1.334 trillion in 1980 to $1.679 trillion in
1990, measured in 2008 dollars). Political opponents chided his policies as
"Trickle-down economics," due to the significant cuts in the upper tax
brackets. There was a massive increase in Cold War related defense spending
that caused large budget deficits, the U.S. trade deficit expansion, and
contributed to the Savings and Loan crisis, In order to cover new federal
budget deficits, the United States borrowed heavily both domestically and
abroad, raising the national debt from $700 billion to $3 trillion, and the
United States moved from being the world's largest international creditor to
the world's largest debtor nation. Reagan described the new debt as the
"greatest disappointment" of his presidency.