-
Servicemen's Readjustment Act
f. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill of Rights or the GI Bill, made generous provisions for sending the former solders to school. By raising educational levels and stimulating the construction industry, the GI Bill powerfully nurtured the long-lived economic expansion that took hold in the late 1940s. -
Yalta conference
a. February 1945, the Big Three (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) met in Yalta to discuss the war's end.
i. Final plans were laid for smashing the German lines and shackling the beaten Axis enemy. Stalin agreed that Poland, with revised boundaries, should have a representative government based on free elections-a pledge he soon broke. Bulgaria and Romania were likewise to have free elections-a pledge also broken. The Big Three also announced plans for fashioning a new international peaceke -
Iran crisis
a. In 1946, Stalin, seeking oil concessions, broke an agreement to remove his troops from Iran's northernmost province. He used the troops to aid a rebel movement. When Truman protested, Stalin backed down. -
National security act
c. The National Security Act also established the National Security Council (NSC) to advise the president on security matters and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to coordinate the government's foreign fact-gathering. -
Berlin crisis
a. President Kennedy met with Soviet leader Khrushchev at Vienna in June 1961. After making numerous threats, the Soviets finally acted. In August 1961, the Soviets began to construct the Berlin Wall, which was designed to stop the large population drain from East Germany to West Germany through Berlin. -
NATO establish
d. In 1948, the United States joined the European pact, called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). American participation strengthened the policy of containing the Soviet Union and provided a framework for the reintegration of Germany into the European family. The pact pledged each signed nation to regard an attack on one as an attack on all. The Senate passed the treaty on July 21, 1949 -
Period: to
Korean war
a. When Japan collapsed in 1945, Korea had been divided up into two sections: the Soviets controlled the north above the 38th parallel and the United States controlled south of that line.
b. On June 25, 1950, the North Korean army invaded South Korea. President Truman's National Security Council had recommended NSC-68, calling for the quadrupling of the United States' defense spending. Truman ordered a massive military buildup, well beyond what was necessary for the Korean War.
c. NSC-68 was -
Eisenhower defeats Stevenson for presidency
b. During the presidential campaign, reports of Nixon secretly tapping government funds arose. After Eisenhower considered dropping Nixon from the ballot, Nixon went on television and stated his apologies in the "Checkers speech"-this saved his place on the ballot.
c. The new technology of black-and-white television changed political campaigning. Television often over-simplified the complicated issues of the time.
d. Dwight Eisenhower won the election of 1952 by a large majority. -
US explodes first hydrogen bomb
d. In September 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb, 3 years before experts thought possible. To stay one step ahead, Truman ordered the development of the H-bomb (Hydrogen Bomb). The first H-bomb was exploded in 1952. The Soviets exploded their first H-bomb in 1953, and the nuclear arms race entered a dangerously competitive cycle. -
First Mcdonald's hamburger stands opens
-
Mongomery bus voycott by blacks begin
d. In December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest sparked a yearlong black boycott of the city busses and served notice throughout the South that blacks would no longer submit meekly to the absurdities and indignities of segregation. -
Suez crisis
a. In 1953, in an effort to secure Iranian oil for Western countries, the CIA engineered a coup that installed Mohammed Reza Pahlevi as the dictator of Iran.
b. President Nasser of Egypt was seeking funds to build a dam on the Nile River. After associating with the communists, secretary of state Dulles pulled back U.S. monetary aid for Egypt. As a result, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, which was owned by the French and British. In October of 1956, the Suez Crisis ensued as the French and -
Little Rock school desegragation
a. President Eisenhower was little inclined toward promoting integration. He shied away from upsetting "the customs and convictions of at least two generations of Americans." In September 1957, Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas mobilized the National Guard to prevent nine black students from enrolling in Little Rock's Central High School. Confronted with a direct challenge to federal authority, Eisenhower sent troops to escort the children to their classes. -
Castro leads cuban revolution
government in Guatemala.
b. Fidel Castro led a coup that overthrew the America-supported government of Cuba in 1959. Annoyed with Castro's anti-American attitude and Castro seizing valuable American properties in Cuba, the United States cut off the heavy U.S. imports of Cuban sugar.
c. Cuba's left-wing dictatorship quickly had the possibility to become a military satellite for the Soviet Union. In August 1960, Congress authorized $500 million to prevent communism from spreading in Latin Americ -
Landrum-Griffin Act
XII. Round Two for Ike
a. President Eisenhower was reelected in the election of 1956 as he beat his Democratic opponent, Adlai Stevenson.
b. In 1959, a drastic labor-reform bill grew out of recurrent strikes in important industries and corruption in unions. The Teamsters Union leader, "Dave" Beck was sentenced to prison for embezzlement. When his union replaced him with James R. Hoffa, the AF of L-CIO expelled the Teamsters. Hoffa was later jailed for jury tampering.
c. In 1959, President Ei -
OPEC establish
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela joined together to form the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). -
Kennedy defeats Nixon for presidency
a. On June 5, 1968, the night of the California primary, Robert Kennedy was shot and killed by an Arab immigrant resentful of the candidate's pro-Israel views. When the Democrats met in Chicago in August 1968, angry antiwar zealots, protesting outside the convention hall, violently clashed with police.
b. Hubert H. Humphrey, vice president of Johnson, won the Democratic nomination.
c. The Republicans nominated Richard Nixon for president and Spiro T. Agnew for vice president. The Republican pl -
Johnson defeats Goldwater for presidency
a. The Democrats nominated Lyndon Johnson to run for president for the election of 1964. The Republicans chose Senator Barry Goldwater. Goldwater attacked the federal income tax, the Social Security System, the Tennessee Valley Authority, civil rights legislation, the nuclear test-ban treaty, and the Great Society. -
24th admendment
b. President Johnson realized the problem that few blacks were registered to vote. The 24th Amendment, passed in 1964, abolished the poll tax in federal elections, yet blacks were still severely hampered from voting. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, banning literacy tests and sending federal voter registers into several southern states. -
US troops occupy DR
a. In April 1965, President Johnson sent 25,000 troops to the Dominican Republic to restore order after a revolt against the military government started. Johnson claimed, with shaky evidence, that the Dominican Republic was the target of a Castro like coup. He was widely condemned for his actions. -
MLK and Robery F Kennedy assassinated
-
Astronauts land on moon
President Kennedy erupted in wrath, causing the industry to lower its prices. Kennedy rejected the advice of those who wished greater government spending and instead chose to stimulate the economy by cutting taxes and putting more money directly into private hands. Kennedy also proposed a multibillion-dollar plan to land an American on the moon. -
US birthrate below replacement
a. In the decade and a half after 1945, the birth rate in the United States exploded as the "baby boom" took place. More than 50 million babies were born by the end of the 1950s. By 1973, the birth rates had dropped below the point necessary to maintain existing population figures.