Cold war/Vietnam Key Terms

  • House UN-American Activities committee (HUAC)

    to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties. investigate Fascist and Communist activities in the United States but came into prominence in 1947 during the second Red Scare in the Cold War era and the "Communist Witch Hunts".
  • Ray Kroc

    rose from humble beginnings --including stints as a paper cup salesman and jazz musician -- to become one of Time's "Most Important People of the Century" by building McDonald's into the most famous and successful fast-food restaurant in the world.
  • Rock n' Roll

    America had a secret weapon which wasn't the Nuclear threats but it was Elvis Presley himself and he was drafted during the Berlin Crisis the soviets thought that Elvis was just a regular problem. Major rocks groups helped express their words with music without any arguing or fighting of any sorts.
  • John F. Kennedy

    or fourteen days during October 1962, the world held its breath as John F Kennedy (known as JFK) and Nikita Khrushchev tried to reach a compromise and avoid nuclear war. Ernest May investigates how Kennedy demonstrated his leadership skills during the crisis.
  • G.I. Bill (Servicemen's readjustment act 1944)

    the G.I. Bill was created to help veterans of World War II. The Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966 extended these benefits to all veterans of the armed forces, including those who had served during peacetime. provided veterans of the Second World War funds for college education, unemployment insurance, and housing.
  • Anti-War Movement

    social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts.
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    Baby Boom Generation

    used to identify a massive increase in births following World War II. Baby boomers are those people born worldwide between 1946 and 1964, the time frame most commonly used to define them. The first baby boomers reached the standard retirement age of 65 in 2011. The reason this happened was because Older Americans, who had postponed marriage and childbirth during the Great Depression and World War II, were joined in the nation's maternity wards by young adults who were eager to start families.
  • Iron Curtain

    name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas
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    Containment party

    United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge its communist sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam.
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    Cold War

    began at the end of WWII and it was based in ideology between two superpowers (the U.S and Soviet Union) and their respective allies had many effects on society, both today and in the past. In Russia, military spending was cut dramatically and quickly. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the post Cold War world is widely considered as unipolar, with the United States the sole remaining superpower.
  • Truman Doctrine

    implied American support for other nations allegedly threatened by Soviet communism. The Truman Doctrine became the foundation of American foreign policy, and led, in 1949, to the formation of NATO, a military alliance that is still in effect.
  • Marshall Plan

    spoke of an urgent need to help the European recovery in his address at Harvard University in June 1947. The purpose of the Marshall Plan was to aid in the economic recovery of nations after WWII and to reduce the influence of Communist parties within them.
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    Berlin Airlift

    Truman,did not want to cause World War III. Instead, he ordered a massive airlift of supplies into West Berlin. On June 26, 1948, the first planes took off from bases in England and western Germany and landed in West Berlin.
  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization

    Created by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere. During the Cold war NATO's primary purpose was to unify and strengthen the Western Allies' military response to a possible invasion of western Europe by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies.
  • 1950's Prosperity

    The economy overall grew by 37% during the 1950s. Caused inflation, which had wreaked havoc on the economy immediately after World War II, was minimal, in part because of Eisenhower's persistent efforts to balance the federal budget.
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    Rust Belt Vs. Sun Belt

    The sun belt is the most important reason for these changes was the end of segregation in the South because of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and '60s. This movement forced the national government to make Southern state governments end segregation. Rust Belt refers to an economic region in the northeast United States, roughly covering the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, a region known as the manufacturing heartland of the nation.
  • McCarthyism

    McCarthy's Wheeling Speech. Senator Joe McCarthy and chief counsel Roy Cohn interrogating suspected communists. At a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia. McCarthy proclaimed that he was aware of 205 card-carrying members of the Communist Party who worked for the United States Department of State.
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    Korean War

    began when North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union and China, invaded South Korea, which was supported by the United States. General MacArthur, leader of the United Nations forces, drove the North Koreans back across the divide, yet encountered a Chinese invasion.After three years of a bloody and frustrating war, the United States, the People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea agree to an armistice, bringing the Korean War to an end.
  • Jonas Salk

    He created a Polio Vaccine and took a position at University of Pittsburgh, where he began conducting research on polio, also known as infantile paralysis. By 1951, Salk had determined that there were three distinct types of polio viruses and was able to develop a "killed virus" vaccine for the disease.
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower

    became commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces and led Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa.His administration provided major aid to help the French fight off Vietnamese Communists in the First Indochina War.he served as the first Supreme Commander of NATO
  • Rosenberg Trial

    The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins in New York Southern District federal court. Judge Irving R. Kaufman presides over the espionage prosecution of the couple accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians (treason could not be charged because the United States was not at war with the Soviet Union).
  • Levittown

    Levittown, New York was the first truly mass-produced suburb and is widely regarded as the archetype for postwar suburbs throughout the country. William Levitt, who assumed control of Levitt & Sons in 1954, is considered the father of modern suburbia in the United States.
  • Domino Theory

    President Eisenhower was the first to refer to countries in danger of Communist takeover as dominoes, in response to a journalist's question about Indochina in a news conference, though he did not use the term "domino theory".
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    Vietnam War

    he US had lost the Vietnam War and also taken a major blow in the Cold War. missing-in-action are listed on the wall. The Vietnam War can be considered a "proxy" war in the Cold War. Although the Soviet Union and the United States did not directly go to war, they each supported a different side in the war.
  • Interstate highway Act

    to amend and supplement the Federal-Aid Road Act approved July 11, 1916, to authorize appropriations for continuing the construction of highways; to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to provide additional revenue from the taxes on motor fuel, tires and trucks and buses; and for other purposes
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    Space Race

    paved the way for technology today. During the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the space race developed and was a big competition between the two. The Apollo 11 mission was arguably the most significant event during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet
  • Sputnik

    ormer Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path.
  • Beatniks

    media stereotype prevalent throughout the 1950s to mid-1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s.
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    Bay of pigs

    A left-wing revolution in Cuba had ended in 1959 with the ouster of President Fulgencia Batista and the establishment of a new government under Premier Fidel Castro. It also led to a reassessment of Cuba policy by the Kennedy administration.
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    Cuban Missile Crisis

    direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict.
  • Betty Friedan

    her book The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan broke new ground by exploring the idea of women finding personal fulfillment outside of their traditional roles. She also helped advance the women's rights movement as one of the founders of the National Organization for Women
  • Lyndon B. Johnson

    Known for his domineering personality and the "Johnson treatment", his aggressive coercion of powerful politicians to advance legislation.
  • Great Society

    set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The main goal was the elimination of poverty and racial injustice.impact of his Great Society programs were felt, the portion of Americans living below the poverty line dropped from 22.2 percent to 12.6 percent, the most dramatic decline over such a brief period in this century.
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    two U.S. destroyers stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam radioed that they had been fired upon by North Vietnamese forces. In response to these reported incidents, President Lyndon B. Johnson requested permission from the U.S. Congress to increase the U.S. military presence in Indochina.
  • Tet Offensive

    during the lunar new year holiday, North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated attack against a number of targets in South Vietnam. The Tet Offensive played an important role in weakening U.S. public support for the war in Vietnam.
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    Moon Landing

    first moon landing was that it gave a nation dredged in the midst of war abroad and sociopolitical upheaval at home a reason to be proud. Kennedy's commitment to the moon landing.
  • Vietnamization

    policy of the Richard Nixon administration to end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War through a program to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops."
  • 26th Amendment

    “Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Vote” During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt lowered the minimum age for the military draft age to 18, at a time when the minimum voting age, meaning more amounts of people are able to vote and are able to be more equal with others.
  • War Powers Act

    Congress passed the War Powers Resolution in the aftermath of the Vietnam War to address these concerns and provide a set of procedures for both the President and Congress to follow in situations where the introduction of U.S. forces abroad could lead to their involvement in armed conflict
  • Richard Nixon

    known for corruption and the Watergate scandal which resulted in the public losing trust in him and his resignation. He was the only president ti have only resigned from the office