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Ray Kroc
Ray Kroc was a business man and one of the known founders of the largest food chain in the world. He created McDonald's. He died at the age of 81 -
Jonas Salk
Medical researcher and virologist. He helped to develop polio vaccinations and this helped many. He is still well accredited for finding this discovery. -
Levittown
This is the name for large suburban communities that were priced at low costs. It wasn't as expensive to live somewhere that was better than what you had growing up. -
House Un-American Activities Committee
This organization was created to test and observe other organizations to see if they were staying loyal to the U.S. It was big during the cold war times because people thought there were many communists in the government. -
Rock n' Roll
This was a genre of music invented shortly after the end of WWII. Someone well known for helping start the spread of rock and roll was Elvis. It was known as rebel music however kind of like the start of jazz. -
GI Bill
Servicemen's readjustment act of 1944. Attempt to thwart a social economic crisis. Bill provided education, training, unemployment benefits. -
Baby Boom
This was a time period after WWII ended. Many people got home from war and just wanted to start families. This is what helped levittowns get so big. -
Iron Curtain
The term was popularized by winston churchill in one of his speeches. It was a metaphor used to divide the western Europe and Soviet bloc. Stalin called the speech a call to war. -
Cold War
This started because when we bombed Japan we didn't really let the Soviets know. We also had different economic systems and ideology. We were both getting suspicious with each other and didn't really trust one another. -
Truman Doctrine
Designed to contain communism. Announced he would give economic aid to Greece along with Turkey. It extended everywhere and support was given to noncommunist governments. -
Containment Policy
The containment policy was something we had put in place so that communism wouldn't be something that would spread. We didn't want the spread of communism. We would pay countries and lend hands just to do so. -
Marshall Plan
Western Europe struggled to revive after the war. Millions were in refugee camps. The Marshall Plan proposed aid to all European nations to rebuild and help. -
Berlin Airlift
Germany was divided after WWII and Berlin was in the soviet zone. Soviets closed all rail and highway routes into city. Air corridors however remained open. -
NATO
Also known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Twelve original states in a mutual defense alliance. There is now 26 and the soviets created the Warsaw pact in response. -
1950's Prosperity
This was the time period where young people were not growing as quickly as they wanted to. They wanted to grow up and start having families to care and look after. -
McCarthyism
Created because of a senator from Wisconsin that believed there were many communists within the government. He also claimed he had a list of them but never showed proof. Many innocent people were accused of communist ties. -
Korean War
Korea was being ruled by Japan until the end of WWII. The Soviets declared war on Japan who had an agreement with the U.S. This lead to the north and south fighting. They split at the 38th parallel with soviet control in the north and the US with control in the south. -
Rosenberg Trial
This was the trial in response to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They were thought to be spies for the Soviets and were found guilty. They were executed for sending U.S. info on the bomb. -
Dwight D Eisenhower
Dwight was an American politician and Army general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He was chief of the U.S. during beginning of the Vietnam war. -
Domino Theory
This was the theory that we had at the end of WWII. We thought communism would spread like dominos. If one country became communist we thought another one would follow in the footsteps. -
Vietnam War
Also known as the second Indochina war. French had surrendered control of vietnam in 1953. At first we took little action and had little attention towards it. -
Interstate Highway Act
This was one of the largest public working projects at the time. It helped many Americans travel places quicker. It cost 25 billion at the time and was going to be over a 10 year period. -
Space Race
The space race was literally a race to see who get control of space first. This included rockets, satellites, and getting to the moon. We landed on the moon first. -
Sputnik
First man made satellite. Launched by ussr in 1957. Orbited Earth every 96 minutes. -
Beatniks
Beatniks were one of the subcultures that didn't want to do what everyone else was doing. They were someone thought to be a rebel. -
John F Kennedy
He was the president at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and some of the cold war. He was the 35th president of the U.S. and was shot in downtown dallas during one of his tours. -
Bay of Pigs
Unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Castro regime in Cuba. Failed due to poor training and little support from Cuban's. Foreign policy defeat for Kennedy admin. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Soviet missiles were discovered in Cuba. It was deemed an unacceptable threat to U.S. Security. JFK created task forces to help deal with missiles. -
Betty Friedan
She was an american writer and a women's activist. She was very influential and known as intellectual. She helped with many women's rights. -
Anti-War Movement
This movement was created when the word was getting out about us possibly going to war with the ussr. Not everyone was on board with fighting because they wanted peace. Another war would cause a lot more deaths than what had already happened. -
Lyndon B. Johnson
He was the 36th president of the US. He was the one who created the Great Society and he helped lead a lot of Civil rights programs. He wanted to end segregation and wanted more civil rights. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
This was a joint resolution that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. -
Great Society
The great society was created to help stop poverty and racism. It seems those things will never end but they still tried to get organizations like this going to end them. -
Tet Offensive 1968
This was during the vietnam war. The north launched a series of attacks in many areas of the south. They were caught off guard and the south lost a lot. -
Richard Nixon
37th President of the United States. He was the first president to resign from office. He was a us representative and a senator from California. -
Moon Landing
This was the landing of the Apollo 11 on the moon. This was the first time that anyone had made it to the moon. Some believe it was actually fake. -
Vietnamization
Vietnamization of the war was a policy of the Richard Nixon administration to end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. We used this to help a lot in the war. -
26th Amendment
This gave the right for people 18 and older to be legal to vote in the United States. Richard Nixon was the one who signed the bill. -
War Powers Act
This act keeps the president in order. Its one of the checks and balances the president has with congress. He can't just start orders without consent.
