Key Terms

• Cold War


  Tense standoff between the US and the USSR between 1945 and 1990
• Containment


  Idea that communism had to be stopped from spreading through both military and political pressure
• Marshall Plan


  American sponsored effort that provided economic aid to rebuild Western Europe
• NATO


  Anti-Soviet organization of Western nations who pledged mutual defense against communist aggresors
• McCarthyism


  Term for making ruthless and unfair charges of communism and treason without evidence
• Korean War


  First "hot" war of the Cold War, ending in a stalemate in 1953
• Executive Order 9981


  Desegregated the armed forces
• Massive Retaliation 


  Eisenhower's policy of threatening to use nuclear weapons to any act of Soviet aggression
• Shah Reza Pahlavi


  Came to power in Iran by US backed coup and became one of America's most trusted Cold War allies
• NASA


  Created in response to Sputnik, this agency is responsible for science and technology related to air and space
• Baby Boom


  Term for the dramatic rise in US birthrates that began immediately after World War II
• GI Bill


  Helped returning soldiers reintegrate into civilian life by offering home and business loans, tuition assistance, and job training programs
• Television


  Nation's leading leisure activity, it projected a bland, conformist image of middle-class life
• Levittown


  Suburban communities with mass-produced tract houses, typically inhabited by the white-middle class
• Redlining 


  Discriminatory practice of denying mortgages to residents of certain areas based on their race of ethnicity
• Interstate Highway Act (1956)


  Largest public works project that developed an efficient transportation system throughout the country
• Sunbelt


  The South and Southwestern portion of the US that experienced population and productivity expansion following the US
• Brown v Board of Education


  Supreme Court decision that abolished racial segregation in public schools
• Little Rock Nine


  African American students who challenged racial segregation in the public schools in Arkansas
• Montgomery Bus Boycott


  Organized by MLK and Rosa Parks to protest segregation in public transportation
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)


  Organization formed to mobilize black churches in nonviolent resistance for black rights
• Beat Generation


  Artists and writers who criticized the conformity of the 1950s
• Rock and Roll


  Popular with teenagers, this fused black rhythm and blues with white bluegrass and country style
• Domino Theory


  Idea that a communist takeover in one country would lead to communist takeovers in neighboring countries, especially in Southeast Asia
• Military Industrial Complex


  Term Eisenhower used in speech to describe relationship between government and defense contractors
• Cuban Missile Crisis


  Tense confrontation between JFK and Khrushchev that nearly led to nuclear war in October 1962
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)


  Student based civil rights organization using nonviolent means, such as sit-ins, to achieve civil rights
• March of Washington


  Civil Rights rally for "jobs and freedom" in 1963 where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech
• Great Society


  LBJ's broad program of welfare legislation and social reform that swept through Congress in 1965
• Voting Rights Act


  1965 legislation outlawing discriminatory voting practices - such as the literacy test
• Immigration and Nationality Act


  Abolished the quota system opening the doors to those "who can contribute most to this country"
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution


  The 1964 congressional action that became a "blank check" for the Vietnam War
• Feminine Mystique


  Challenged social expectations for women and helped launch second wave feminism of the 1960s and 1970s
• Cesar Chavez


  Leader of the UFW, helped inspire the Chicano movement as he advocated for better rights for Mexican Americans
• American Indian Movement


  Founded in 1968 to protest government polices and injustices suffered by Native Americans
• Stonewall Uprising


  Led to a rise in activism for equal rights in the LGBT movement
• Earl Warren


  Under him, the Supreme Court became vehicle for social change and individual rights
• Vietnamization 


  Nixon's plan to reduce American troops in Vietnam, leaving the fighting to the South Vietnamese supplied with American tanks, armor, and weaponry
• Detente


  Period of Cold War thawing characterized by the SALT I and II treaties
• Watergate


  The Pentagon Papers and this revealed instance of government secrecy, lies, and incompetence, causing Americans to mistrust their government