Unit 8: 1945-1980, Cold War, Vietnam, Civil Rights

• Post-WWII Economy


  Prosperous economy caused by federal spending, baby boom, and technological development
• Impact of Post-WWII Economy


  • Improved higher education (G.I. bill, education for returning soldiers)
  • Growth of the "sun belt" down south and warm and defense industries there
• Challenges to conformity


  • Artists (beat generation)
  • Intellectuals (the affluent society, book that reveals the economy is not as prosperous for all)
  • The youth
• Containment


  US policy to keep communism from spreading, seen through collective security (NATO), economic frameworks like the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, and conflicts in Korea/Vietnam
• Truman Doctrine


  US giving support, mainly military aid, to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or Communist insurrection
• Marshall Plan


  Post WWII plan to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, improve European prosperity and prevent the spread of communism
• Detente


  Strategic arms limitation treaties, easing of tensions
• Indirect confrontation


  Cuban missile crisis, closest the two sides ever came to war
• US and USSR sought allies among new, decolonized countries (India)
• US supported non-communist governments in Latin America, even if they weren't most democratic
• US involvement in Middle East, oil crises. 1793 oil embargo after US backed Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War
• Truman's Loyalty Program


  Made federal workers take a loyalty oath, criticized as a weapon of hysteria attacking law-abiding citizens
• McCarthyism


  "Second red scare" practice of publicizing accusations of disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence
• HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee)


  Investigated alleged disloyalty and rebel activities on the part of private citizens, public employees and organizations suspected of having Communist ties
• Rosenbergs


  Husband and wife executed for espionage in 1953 after being accused of sharing secrets about nuclear technology with the Soviet Union during WWII
• The Korean War had some domestic opposition, but many didn't really care
• The Vietnam War had large, sometimes violent protests, especially post 1968 (Tet Offensive) and 1970 (bombing of Cambodia) which led to the Kent State massacre
• Eisenhower Farewell Address


  1961, warned about the military-industrial complex (country needs to be careful about military spending during peacetime)
• During the Vietnam War, there were debates over executive branch power, such as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• Civil rights strategies


  • Legal challenges
  • Direct action
  • Nonviolent protests
• Brown v. Board


  Overruled Plessy v. Ferguson and the idea of separate but equal, stating it was unlawful to have separate but equal educational learning facilities
• Civil Rights Act of 1964


  Prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin
• E.O. 9981


  Abolished discrimination "on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin" in the United States Armed Forces, led to re-integration during the Korean War
• White resistance to desegregation


  • Southern Manifesto
  • Massive resistance
  • Little Rock 9
• Southern Manifesto


  Protest of 100 congressmen who said that the Supreme Court overstepped its power
• Massive resistance


  Shutting down schools instead of desegregating
• Little Rock 9


  Eisenhower using military to enforce desegregation
• Black Panthers


  Revolutionary organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality
• MLK Jr.


  Portrayed as nonviolent protestor
• Malcolm X


  Fought for rights by any means necessary
• The Feminine Mystique


  Betty Friedan's book that challenges the 1950s cult of domesticity and housewives living unfulfilled lives
• The Stonewall riots in 1969 marked the birth of the gay rights movement
• Cesar Chavez


  Led the grape pickers' strike and hunger strike to bring awareness to the plight of Mexican American farm workers
• The Indians of All Tribes (IAT) and American Indian Movement (AIM) used protests
• Liberalism


  Reached its zenith under the Great Society, sought to end discrimination, eliminate food stamps, Medicaid, education
• Medicaid


  A health plan for the poor passed in 1965 and paid for by general tax revenues and administered by the states
• Voting Rights Act of 1965


  Prohibits racial discrimination in voting
• The Supreme Court in the 1960s promoted individual freedoms, which helped to inspire a conservative movement
• Griswold v. Connecticut


  Established the right to privacy, stated banning birth control was illegal, paved the way for Roe v. Wade which made abortion legal
• Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)


  Popular college student organization that protested shortcomings in American life, notably racial injustice and the Vietnam War