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House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
The HUAC was a government agency that was formed to investigate private citizens in the US to see if any of them were giving the Soviets information. It was changed in the 60 to the House Committee on Internal Affairs. -
GI Bill
The Gi Bill or the or The Service Men's Readjustment Act, was a law passed that said of you fight in World War II when you get back the government will give you money to get help get you back on your feet. The government held true and forked over over tons of dollars for veterans to get an education, unemployment, finances, and housing. -
Baby Boom Generation
After America won World War II all of the soldiers came home and to their wives and girlfriends and got married and started a fmaily. Thus the baby boom. This was the spike in the number of borths in the US. This was also a time of different ways of raising your children too, back when people actually listened to doctors and experts. -
Rock n' Roll
Genre of music that originated during the Cold War era. It was made form a combination of gospel, jazz, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, and country. The genre has made many people famous like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis. -
Levittown
Was the first ever subdivision. It was the idea of houses close together, houses were prebuilt, and could be customized to the buyers liking. It is similar to what we see now today. The houses were cheaper and were usually nicer homes than what was available in the cities. -
Cold War
The Cold War wasn't really a war. it was a name for the war on communism. It encompasses many proxy wars between the US and the Soviets and Chinese. The two big Proxy wars were Korea and Vietnam. This was a time period where the world actually almost ended very quickly. -
Containment Policy
An idea that was originally presented by George Kennan. It was the solution adopted by the US to fight Communism. The idea was to keep communism isolated so that it doesn't spread like a disease from country to country and taking over the world. -
Truman Doctirne
President Truman said that he would provide aid to any country battling any authoritarian force threatening them. We provided financial aid for Greece, but it ismt just finiacial he swore to help them by providing troops, finances, and to help them politically. -
Rust Belt v. Sun Belt
Before the war many people were working and living in the city. This was called the rust belt because of all the metal and machines in the cities. After the war many soldiers came home and moved out of the cities and bought houses in subdivisions that were new. They got the money from the GI bill. The houses were away from the city and had grass and stuff, so they called it a sunbelt. -
Marshall Plan
Was the plan to provide aid to Western Europe. This would end up helping the European countries rebuild after all of the damages of the war. Millions of people were out of homes and were in refugee camps. -
Berlin Airlift
After Germany was defeated, it was divided among the allies, USSR was in control of the whole eastern portion. Tension developed at the beginning of the Cold War, in response USSR blockaded all access into the Eastern portion. The other countries controlling Germany decided to airlift in supplies such as fuel, food, water. This made the USSR look really bad nationally. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Or NATO. Is a an organization of countries that is similar to the UN. They strive to promote peace between countries by helping them find grounds on which they are both happy with settling their dispute on. -
1950s Prosperity
After World War 2 there was a lot of economic prosperity. War is the best way to reignite an economy because of all of the jobs that materialize. Everyone was happy, except we had growing tension with the soviets that got really bad. However it was still a very good time, economically for the US. -
Beatniks
A term that describes the people of the Beat Generation. They were opposed to the mores of society. They were a generation that was heavily defiant and look a lot like hippies, they were the hippies before the hippies were a thing. -
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the act of accusing innocent people of treason with powerful but unproven accusations. Named after Joseph McCarthy who did this during the Second Red Scare. -
Korean War
Proxy war between the United Sates and the United Nations vs. China and USSR. The war started when North Korea invaded South Korea, and crossed the 38th Parallel which bisected the country through the middle. In 1953 a cease fire was called, an armistice. The war is still present since no treaty was signed, but for now there is no fighting still today. -
Rosenberg Trial
The Rosenberg trial was the accusation and conviction of a couple that was killed for the Conspiracy to Commit Espionage, the country wasn't at war with the soviets so they couldn't convict them of treason. The only proof that they were spies was the confession of Joseph Greeneglass. The couple was executed for -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Army general and 34th president of the US. He was a commanding general in Europe during WW2. He was charged at the time with managing Cold War tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. While in office he made the interstate highway and also helped strengthen the Social Security System. -
Domino Theory
The idea that id one country fell to communism, it would cause another country to fall to communism, and another and aother like dominoes. This theory that we had was the reason that we developed the Containment policy, and is also the reason we fought the Korean and Vietnam wars. -
Space Race
Competition between The Societ Union and The US. Both were looking to gain in edge in Space. Both were afraid of the other having more space flight capability. -
Ray Kroc
Ray Kroc was an American business owner who at first sold milkshake machines. He came into contact with McDonald's in his sales. He saw the potential and then after a couple of years bought out the McDonald's owners and became the President of the company. -
Jonas Salk
American medical researcher and a virologist. He created the vaccination for Polio. He was hailed as a miracle worker when he was able to end the polio epidemic taking place in the US at the time. He gave the vaccine for free, it also wasn't patented. -
Vietnam War
The Bietnam war was originally a war between the North (Communist) and the South (Captialist). The state of Vietnam was a colony of China for thousands of years and then the French took over and made it a colony. When the Viet Minh party came in they wanted communism. The US was super extreme towards communism so they helped out south Vietnam and we ended up losing the war. -
Interstate Highway Act
The act was passed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, and it initially created 41,000 miles of highways that would eliminate unsafe roads and traffic jams. People also said it would allow for quick evacuation in case of atomic attack. The idea of the highway is for speedy and safe transportation. -
Sputnik
Sputnik was the first artificial satellite launched into space. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I which orbited the Earth, it was about the size of a beach ball, but weighed 1bout 85 kg and took about 93 minutes to complete an orbit. It ushered the space race. -
Bay of Pigs
The CIA's attempt at pushing Fidel Castro out of power after he took it by force from the previous leader of Cuba. The CIA decided to train a bunch of Cuban nationalists who would then by force take over Cuba and then start up an new form of government to take the place of the communism that was taking lace there. It failed and Castro remained in power. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet Union put nuclear missiles a couple miles off the coast of America. They did this in response to our missiles that we put in Turkey. In the days that followed we were in a very big struggle with the soviets and we were a pin drop away from nuclear war with Soviets. -
John F. Kennedy
He was the 35th President of the United states. He clashed with Kruschev in Cuba and gave the go ahead for the CIA to start coops so they could overthrow a communist government. He was an influential leader in America, ever up to his death in Dallas. -
Betty Friedan
American writer, activist, and feminist. She wrote a book that sparked the second feminist movement called The Feminine Mystique. She fought for social equality of women and was a big deal in America during the 60s. -
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th president of the United States, he took office after Kennedy was killed. His first orders of business were to take a stand against racism and poverty. He is must known for his work in the Vietnam war. He made the people think that we were winning the war when we were losing it. He also lied to the public about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. He was not well liked for escalating the Vietnam War to the size he got it to. -
Great Society
Set of programs launched by Lyndon B. Johnson. They were set up to eliminate poverty and injustice. The programs were set up in response to his speech that was the start of the war on poverty and racism,. However, his efforts failed because there is still racism and poverty today. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
America was losing support for the war in Vietnam. LBJ wanted to escalate but he knew the people wouldn't want to do that. The USS Maddox, a Allen B. Summer-class Destroyer was in the Gulf of Tonkin and was attacked twice by North Vietnamese gun boats. This allowed LBJ to escalate the war without going to congress, it also gave the people a reason to fight in Vietnam. -
Anti-War Movement
The anti-war movement was a protest in the Unites Sates. They were protesting the war in Vietnam. The people didn't want to get involved in Vietnam because it didn't have much to do with them. There was large support for the war at the beginning then Johnson escalated the war and more and more of our soldiers were dying. We also were killing innocent South Vietnamese citizens, which we didn't like. -
Tet Offensive
The attack launched by the NVA on the South. It was a surprise attack during the Tet holiday, it took the US which was pulling out troops, and the south Vietnamese army by surprise, but we still were able to stop the attack. Both sides today still claim victory. -
Vietnamization
Policy during the Vietnam war during the Nixon administration. Instead of sending more troops to Vietnam they decided to train South Vietnam soldiers so they could fight in ground combat roles, this would allow the US to pull troops out of Vietnam. This was only for ground combat roles though, Operation Rolling Thunder was still in effect. -
Moon Landing
The United States completed the first maned trip to the moon. We were able to beat the Soviets to the moon, which didn't do much, except give us bragging rights. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to step on the moon. -
26th Amendment
Before 1971, the voting age in America was 21. But since you can be drafted at 18 they decided to make that the voting age. The amendment was signed by Nixon in 1971, after the US Supreme Court case Oregon v. Mitchell. -
War Powers Act
A law that limits the presidents power to commit the United States of the US Congress. IT says the president can not send US soldiers abroad without the declaration of war from Congress. -
Richard Nixon
37th President of the US. He helped get us completely out of Vietnam. He also helped foster a new relationship with the Soviets and the Chinese. He is the only president to resign from office rather than be impeached.However, he is also the president who deescalated the war in Vietnam. -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the wall that the Soviets built in East Germany. When it was first built it was a wall made so that it would keep people from going to the other sectors of the country. It later was not only a physical wall but also an ideological wall. It kept the people from having anything to do with other countries not belonging to the Soviets.
