Key Terms

  • House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

    A committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, created to investigate disloyalty and subversive organizations. Its first chairman, Martin Dies, set the pattern for its anti-Communist investigations.
  • Gi Bill (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act 1944)

    Bill acted for soldiers of WW2 to find and have more opportunities after their act of duty
  • 1950’s Prosperity

    The economy overall grew by 37% during the 1950s. At the end of the decade, the median American family had 30% more purchasing power than at the beginning. 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. Except for a mild recession in 1954 and a more serious one in 1958, unemployment remained low, bottoming at less than 4.5% in the middle of the decade.
  • Baby Boom Generation

    Generation born from soldiers coming back from ww2.
  • Truman Doctrine

    An American foreign policy created to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. It was first announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman.
  • Cold War

    Was a state of tension between the eastern and western powers more specifically united states and russia or Communism and Anticommunism.
  • Levittown

    Created by William Levitt also known as the king of suburbia.
  • Containment Policy

    Containment was a 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.
  • Marshall Plan

    The Marshall Plan was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $12 billion in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II.
  • Berlin Airlift

    At the end of the Second World War, U.S., British, and Soviet military forces divided and occupied Germany. Also divided into occupation zones, Berlin was located far inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany.
  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

    An organization designed for countries to help one another in times of need sending aid, supplies, and support for allied countries in NATO and countries asking for support of NATO.
  • McCarthyism

    McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence.
  • Beatniks

    A term used for a group of people that were the pre-hippies of the society mainly writers, artists, and members of the pre-hippie counterculture.
  • Rock n' Roll

    Rock n’ Roll came to be used to describe a new form of music, steeped in blues, rhythm and blues, country, and gospel. Teenagers fell in love with this new form of music but parents were not very fond of it.
  • Korean War

    The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea.The United Nations,with the United States as the principle force,came to the aid of South Korea China came to the aid of North Korea While the Soviet Union gave some assistance.
  • Rosenberg Trial

    Julius Rosenberg was arrested in July 1950, a few weeks after the Korean War began. He was executed, along with his wife, Ethel, on June 19, 1953, a few weeks before it ended. The legal charge of which the Rosenbergs were convicted was vague: “Conspiracy to Commit Espionage.”
  • Jonas Salk

    Dr. Jonas Salk successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. Dr. Salk was celebrated as the great doctor benefactor of his time.
  • Ray Kroc

    Raymond Albert Kroc was an American businessman. He joined McDonald's in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world.
  • Domino Theory

    The domino theory was a theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s, that speculated that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect.
  • Vietnam War

    This conflict between communist and capitalist countries was part of the Cold War. The Viet Cong (also known as the National Liberation Front, or NLF), was a South Vietnamese communist force helped by the North. It fought a guerrilla war against the anti-communist forces in the South.
  • Interstate Highway Act

    The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act ,was enacted on June 29, 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law.
  • Space Race

    The competition between nations regarding achievements in the field of space exploration.
  • Sputnik

    Sputnik was the first manmade satellite launched by the USSR. This was a major blow to the American Scientific and technological community. Also brought more worries, if the Soviets had a rocket that could launch a satellite into earth orbit, then they would surely have one capable of launching a nuclear warhead around the world.
  • Moon Landing

    A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both manned and unmanned missions. The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission.
  • John F. Kennedy

    An American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.
  • Bay of Pigs

    The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the Caribbean Crisis or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.
  • Betty Friedan

    With her book The Feminine Mystique, Friedan broke new ground by exploring the idea of women finding personal fulfillment outside of their traditional roles.
  • Lyndon B. Johnson

    Envisioned “the great society” our 36th president taking JFK place after his assassination escalating the vietnam war, not running for a second term of presidency, Also known for signing the civil rights act in 1964
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia.
  • Great Society

    Created by Lyndon B Johnson for his agenda to the congress on January of 1965 giving aid to education, medicare, attack on disease, a wide scale fight against poverty etc.
  • Iron Curtain

    A barrier separating russia between them and european countries prior to the decline of communism.
  • Tet Offensive 1968

    Was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, launched on January 30, 1968, by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the United States Armed Forces, and their allies.
  • Richard Nixon

    An American politician who served as the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until 1974, when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office.
  • Vietnamization

    President Richard M. Nixon pledged to withdraw 150,000 more U.S. troops from South Vietnam in the next 12 months.
  • 26th Amendment

    The 26th amendment granted the right to vote to American citizens aged eighteen or older.
  • War Powers Act

    It's a US law passed in 1973 which allows Congress to limit the President's use of military forces. It states that the President must tell Congress within 48 hours if he sends armed forces anywhere, and Congress must give approval for them to stay there for more than 90 days.
  • Rust Belt VS Sun belt

    Rust Belt - 1980’s
    The region of the United States from the Great Lakes to the upper Midwest States, referring to economic decline, population loss, and urban decay due to the shrinking of its once-powerful industrial sector, also known as deindustrialization.
    Sun Belt - 1960’s
    The southern US from California to Florida, noted for resort areas and for the movement of businesses and population into these states from the colder northern states.
  • Anti-War Movement

    This began during the vietnam war where citizens protested against the vietnam war because of its harmful acts to the innocent lives in vietnam as well as the harmful and deceitful acts from our government.