| A | B |
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| counter culture | term that references a growing rebellion among young people of America during the 1960's. Also known as hippies and flower children. |
| bay of pigs | Failed invasion of Cuba by the US to overthrow Fidel Castro, a communist dictator. |
| free world | Term used to describe non-communist democracies of the Western world. |
| nuclear proliferation | The spreading of nuclear weapons to nations that have not previusly had them. |
| peaceful co-existence | the principle or policy that communists and non-communists ought to live together without tring to dominate or destroy each other. |
| detente | A period of relaxed tensions between then US and the Soviet Union. The two nations began for the first time to compromise on items of mutual interest. |
| sit-in | Demonstratyion in which people occupy a facility for a sustained period of time to achieve political or economic goals. |
| establishment | Term referring to the ruling elite or inner circle of a nation and its principal institutions. |
| literacy test | A literary examination that a person must pass before being allowed to vote. |
| ghetto | The district of the city where members of a religious or racial minority were forced to live either by legal restriction or informal social pressure. |
| black separatism | The doctrine that blacks in the US ought to separate themselves from whites, either in separate insitutions or in a separate political territory. Malcolm X advocated (supported) black separatism for a time. |
| hawk | term used to describe someone who favored vigorous prosecution or escalation of the conflict. |
| dove | Term used to describe someone who during the Vietnam War opposed the war and favored de-escalation or withdrawal of the US from Vietnam. |
| dissident | Someone who dissents, especially from established or normative institution or position. |
| flexible response | Kennedy foreign policy embraced a militiary response BEYOND the use of massive retailation intitiated by Secretary John Dulles. Use of an array of military options. |
| Robert Kennedy | Brother to JFK and appointed as ATTORNEY GENERAL. Bobby made it his goal to go after organized crime and pursue civil rights goals. |
| Robert McNamara | Appointed to the Defense Department. Advised two presidents, Kennedy and Johnson, on the course to take in Vietnam. |
| best and brightest | Phrase used to describe the people that Kennedy surrounded himself with in the White House. |
| New Frontier | Term used to describe Kennedy's goals for domestic policy in the US. Congress was not willing to pass many of Kennedy's NEw Frontier plans and a stalemate emerged betweent the White House and congress. |
| Peace Corps | Part of the New Frontier. A volunteer program where young Americans would go abroad and help build bridges, schools, hospitals, crops in under-developed areas of the world. |
| "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" | Quote from JFK inaugural address that called on Americans to volunteer in their communities, states, nation, and abroad. |
| J. Edgar Hoover | Head of the FBI. Hoover was suspicious of the Kennedy brothers and did not like them throwing their weight around, especially if it was in the direction of the FBI. J. Edgar Hoover considered himself and the FBI off limits to any attempts to reign him in. |
| Flaws of Flexible response | Because of the move away from massive retailiation, flexible response saw US soldiers drafted to places like Vietnam and then bogged down in un-winnable wars. Shooting would be much easier than diplomacy. |
| Man on the moon | Significant goal of the New Frontier, to place the first man on the moon. The US will suceed in doing so though Kennedy will not be alive to see it. |
| Nikita Kruschchev | Soviet premier. Tough, beligerent leader of the Soviet Union. Man who began the construction of the Berlin Wall. |
| Berlin Wall | Built by the Soviets, the Berlin wall separated East Germany (Soviet controlled) from West Germany (free) for almost three decades. The free world calls the Berlin Wall the WALL OF SHAME. |
| Common Market | Free Trade area of Europe that later will become the European Union. |
| Trade Expansion Act of 1962 | Authorized the cutting of tariffs by up to 50% to promote trade with Common Markets countries in Europe. Resulted in a significant expansion of European-US trade. c |
| Charles De Gaulle | President of France who stood in the way of trade with the US because he feared the US would become too powerful and intervening in European affairs. |
| Ngo Dinh Diem | South Vietnamese president the US helped to place in power. Diem will eventually become a huge embarassement to the US. |
| Coup against Diem | Occurred in 1963, the US quietly encouraged anti-Diem supporters to get Diem out of power...they did and Diem was dead. |
| "In the final analysis, it is there war to win or lose" | Kennedy statement after Diem's death. Kennedy sent 15,000 men to fight in Vietnam. |
| modernization theory | Theory used to explain US activist foreign policy in under developed nations. If the US could help these nations modernize they would then be that much more likely to pursue democracy and ally with the US. |
| Colossus of the North | How the US was seen by it's Latin American neighbors. Not a good relationship as it meant Latin America feared and resented the US. . |
| Alliance for Progress | US extends a hand of friendship to Latin America. Hailed as the Marshall Plan for Latin America. Results were disappointing. Little Alliance and little progress. |
| Fidel Castro | Communist dictator of Cuba and nemesis of both Eisenhower and Kennedy. |
| Bay of Pigs Blunder | Failed attempt to ovethrow Castro by training Cuban exiles in the US to go back and get rid of Castro. Kennedy offered the would be revolutionaries no help and they quickly surrendered, executed or sent to prison. |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | Krushchev took advantage of Cuba's position 90 miles off the coast of America and sent nuclear tipped missiles to Cuba and set them up aiming at the US. |
| 13 Days | Time of fear and panic in the US as a nuclear war seemed eniment with the Soviets over the missile in Cuba. |
| "nuclear chicken" | Term used to describe the military and political manueverings of Kennedy and Krushchev as they both played a game of brinkmanship (willingness to go to edge of war) with each other. |
| Krushchev blinks | Soviet premier agreed to remove the missiles in Cuba and the US secretly removed missiles in Turkey pointing at the Soviet Union. Cuban Missile Crisis is over. |
| hot line | Telephone line was placed directly between the White House and the Kremlin in the Soviet Union to avoid any future missile crisis situations. |
| Limited Test Ban Treaty | Soviets and the US agreed not to test nuclear devices in the atmosphere. Step in the right direction but there are loopholes. What about underground or underwater? Not in the agreement. The test ban does indicate a THAW in the Cold War. |
| Kennedy's speech of peaceful coexistence | Given in June of 1963, after the missile crisis. Kennedy urges Americans to let go of the idea that the Soviet Union is the devil and instead try for peaceful coeistence. Detente is beginning. |
| Struggle for Civil Rights | Kennedy promised sweeping Civil Rights laws to rid the nation of discrimination but they were slow in arriving. |
| Freedom Rides | Blacks and whites got on buses together to force integration. One bus was torched and integration supporters were often meet by mobs of angry racists. |
| James Meredith | First black man to enroll at a formerly all white university, University of Mississippi. 400 federal marshalls and 3,000 troops were sent in to enroll Meredith. |
| Birmingham, Alabama | Considered the most segregated city in America. Martin Luther King Jr. launches a campaign to fight discrimination starting in this city. |
| Impact of television | Horrified America watched both the violence of racists towards civil rights protesters and the violence of the stalemate of Vietnam. |
| Kennedy "Moral Issue" speech | Also June of 1963, Kennedy goes on television and implores Americans to do the right thing concerning civil rights. He calls for new civil legislation to protect black citizens. |
| March on Washington | Martin Luther King Jr gives a speech in Washington D.C, in August of 1963. His speech is called "I Have A Dream" |
| "I Have A Dream" Speech | Speech by Martin Luther King Jr, where he describes a future America where his children will be judged based on their character NOT on the basis of their skin color. |
| November 22, 1963 | Assassination of Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. |
| Lee Harvey Oswald | Man responsible for killing JFK. Oswald was killed two days later by Jack Ruby for unknown reasons. |
| LBJ Brand of Presidency | Pushed through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Great Society (War on Poverty) legislations, embraced Vietnam as winnable and humbled by the fact it was not. |
| Civil Rights Act of 1964 | banned racial discrimination in most private facilities open to the public, strenghtened government power to end segregation in schools, created the EEOC or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to eliminate discrimination in hiring. |
| Title VII | Added to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it made it illegal to discriminate in hiring based on gender too. Huge victory for gender equality. |
| War on Poverty | Billion dollars to fight poverty in America |
| Great Society | Term used by Johnson to describe his domestic programs for desegregation, ending discrimination, and the war on poverty. |
| Barry Goldwater | Ran against Johnson in 1964 and lost. Daisy Girl Ad helped to bring about his defeat. |
| Daisy Girl Ad | Famous political commercial that ran only one time but that was enough. A little girl is depicted pulling off daisy petals and counting and then the commercial becomes a nuclear countdown ending in devastation. Goldwater backed the use of nuclear weapons and the commercial depicted him as a mad man willing to blow up the world. The beginning of political "attack" ad campaigns that still flourish today. |
| Tonkin Gulf | 2 American ships are attacked off the coast of Vietnam. Johnson goes to Congress and asks for permission to retailate. |
| Tonkin Gulf Resolution | Congress allows Johnson to "take all necessary measures" against hostiles in Vietnam. He just can't call it a war. Remembered as a huge mistake. The resolution places war making powers in the hands of one person rather than in the hands of many, Congress. |
| Department of Transportation | Organized under the Johnson adminsitration . |
| Housing and Urban Devolpment (HUD) | Organized under the Johnson Administration. |
| Robert C. Weaver | First black man appointed to a cabinet position. Weaver is an economist and serves as cabinet member for HUD. |
| Big Four Legislative achievements | Johnson successes: aid to education, medical care for the elderly (Medicare), immigration reform, and voting rights bill. |
| Medicaid | Aid to the poor |
| entitlements | Programs put in place for American to ensure benefits of health care, food stamps, and others programs without the need for congressional approval each year. Programs would last into perpetutity. |
| Freedom Summer of 1964 | Massive voter registration drive that included white and black student volunteers. |
| horror of Selma, Alabama | Civil Rights protesters were tear gassed, whipped, assaulted. Unitarian minister and white woman were murdered. |
| Johnson's "We Shall Overcome" Speech | Given after the tragic events of Selma and Mississippi, Johnson clearly stated that the federal government would not be intimidated, and all Americans must overcome hatred and bigotry. |
| Civil Rights Act of 1965 | outlawed literacy tests to vote and sent federal voter registrars into several southern states. Finally, black southerners had voting power and change would end racist policies across the US. |
| End of an era | Civil Rights Act of 1965 marked the end of an era and integration began full force. |
| Watts riot | Black ghetto in LA. Riots began as a response to police brutality. Rioters destroyed their own neighborhoods. 31 blacks and 3 whites were killed. Marked the beginning of militant confrontation in northern and western cities and increasing movement by violent spokesman aimed at black separatism. |
| Malcolm X | Black separatist who believed in the teachings of the Nation of Islam, respond to violence with violence. Malcolm X later changed his mind to align more closely with civil disobedience, compromise, and love and was killed by rival members of the Nation of Islam in 1965. |
| Black Panther Party | Openly brandished weapons on the streets. |
| Stokely Carmicheal | Began the SNCC or Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee which eventually became very violent. Began the black power movement |
| Black Power Movement | Carmicheal stated that black power would " smash everything Western civilization has created". Radical black power members wanted separate races while more moderate black power advocates wanted equal political and economic rights. |
| April 4, 1968 | Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis Tennessee by a sniper. |
| gunboat diplomacy | Term used to describe Johnson attempt to keep Domincan Republic free from communism. He failed and evidence of communism was lose at best. |
| Ho Chi Minh | Communist in North Vietnam who aimed to control all of Vietnam. |
| Vietcong | Communist soliders who followed Ho Chi Minh |
| Operation Rolling Thunder | Three weeks of air raids that Johnson believed would bring Ho Chi Minh to his knees and surrender. Instead, it just motivated the Vietcong to fight harder. |
| escalation | slowly bringing more force to bear on US enemies like Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. Believed it would drive the enemy to defeat with a minimum loss of life. Instead, Ho Chi Minh matched every US escalation with his own. |
| Spectators in their own war | Phrase used to describe the small part the South Vietnamese played in fighting off Ho Chi Minh and his Vietcong soldiers. |
| Six Day War 1967 | Israel successful fought off a Egyptian led invasion. Egypt was backed by the Soviets. When it was over, Israel had expanded into Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, and the West Bank of the Jordan River bringing some 1 million Palestinian Arabs under direct Israeli control. Tensions still flare today in these areas. |
| Anti-War Protests | More and more Americans began to see the Vietnam would remain a "bloody stalemate" and protests flared up across the US on main streets, capitals, and colleges. Known as the "doves" |
| Draft dodgers | Young men who when they received their draft notice did not go to Selective Service office but left the nation or hid. |
| "Hell no, we won't go" | Phrase chanted by anti-war protestors. |
| Napalm, cluster bombs, Agent Orange | New weapons being used by the US to subdue the Vietcong but in reality hurting many innocent South Vietnamese and US soldiers in the process. |
| "credibility gap" | The distance between the truth of what was happening in Vietnam and the lies that the WHite House was spinning for the US public. |
| Vietnam War | Longest and the most unpopular foreign war in US history. |
| Violations of the Constitution | Johnson ordered the CIA to ILLEGALLY spy on anti-war activists calling it for the good of national security. The doves and peace movement were prime targets of this unconstitutional action. |
| Vietnam topples Johnson | Loses so much public support that he will announce the he will NOT be running for a second term. |
| Tet Offensive | Surprise Vietcong attack in South Vietnam that lasts for one month. Vietcong simultaneously attack 100 cities and the US Embassy before being force out a monthy later. The "light at the end of the tunnel" Johnson insists is happening is no where to be seen. |
| Robert F. Kennedy | Runs for president against another Dem, Eugene McCarthy. Kennedy is assassinated while on the campaign trail. |
| Richard M. Nixon | Republican candidate who will win the election of 1968 by promising to end the war in Vietnam. A promise he has no intention of keeping. |
| counter culture | Youth movement that believed that the US government was untrustworthy. In fact, the phrase they used was "TRUST NO ONE OVER THIRTY". Included the hippies and flower children. Had their roots in long standing distrust of government that goes back to American revolution days. |
| Free Speech Movement | One of the first groups to organize against established authority. Founded on Berkeley campus in 1964. Became radical very quickly where patriotism became a dirty word. |
| Sexual Revolution | Introduction of the birth control bill oof 1960, pioneering gay rights movement |
| Weathermen | Underground terrorist group that formed from the dying embers of the Students for a Democratic Society. |
| Urban riots, LSD, Weatherman terrorists, marijuana | Rose from the ashes of the peaceful civil rights movement and changed America dramatically. |
| Three P's | Three reasons for the dramatic counter revolution: population bulge (young boomers coming of age), protest against racism and Vietnam War, and perceived notion that prosperity was permanent. |
