AP®︎ US History: Unit 8 Flashcards

Post-1945 U.S.–Soviet ideological and geopolitical rivalry fought through alliances, arms races, pressure, and proxy wars rather than sustained direct war

Churchill’s phrase for the political and ideological division between Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe and the Western democracies

U.S. policy of preventing further expansion of communist power and Soviet influence through economic, diplomatic, and military measures

American diplomat who developed containment as sustained political and economic pressure against cautious Soviet expansion

1947 policy pledging aid to free peoples resisting armed minorities or outside pressure, first applied to Greece and Turkey

1948–1952 U.S. aid program that helped restore Western Europe, reduced communist appeal, and tied recipients more closely to the United States

Soviet cutoff of land and water access to West Berlin in 1948–1949, overcome by a U.S.-British airlift that supplied the city until the blockade ended

1949 U.S.-led alliance declaring that an armed attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all

Soviet-led military alliance formed with Eastern European communist states in 1955 in response to NATO and West German membership

Postwar agreements establishing the IMF and World Bank to promote monetary stability, reconstruction, and an open global economy

International organization founded in 1945 for diplomacy and collective security, with vetoes for five permanent Security Council members

Law reorganizing national defense, unifying the armed services under a new defense structure, and creating the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency

1950 policy document portraying a global Soviet drive for domination and recommending major military expansion and defense spending

Mao’s 1949 victory on the mainland, which drove Chiang’s Nationalists to Taiwan and intensified American fears of communist expansion

1950–1953 limited war in which U.S.-led UN forces preserved South Korea after a North Korean invasion but failed to reunify Korea

Latitude line used to divide Soviet-occupied North Korea from American-occupied South Korea after World War II and restored as the approximate boundary after the Korean War

UN commander in Korea whom Truman removed after he publicly pressed to expand the limited war into China

Doctrine of deterring aggression by threatening an overwhelming, potentially nuclear response at places and with means of U.S. choosing

Willingness to approach the edge of war, including nuclear war, to pressure an adversary into retreating

Condition in which each superpower had a survivable nuclear arsenal capable of devastating retaliation after a first strike

First artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, that intensified U.S. fears about Soviet missile capabilities

U.S.–Soviet competition for technological prestige that expanded federal research and culminated in the American Moon landing

Federal space agency created in 1958 to organize the American response to Soviet advances in space

1960 Soviet downing of Francis Gary Powers’s American spy plane, exposing U.S. surveillance and disrupting a planned summit

Kennedy strategy expanding conventional and special forces so the United States could answer aggression without immediately using nuclear weapons

Kennedy program established in 1961 that used technical assistance and personal contact to build American influence in developing nations

Failed 1961 landing by CIA-trained Cuban exiles that strengthened Castro and pushed Cuba toward greater Soviet protection

Thirteen-day 1962 confrontation ended by Soviet missile removal, a U.S. no-invasion pledge, and secret removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey

1963 U.S.–Soviet agreement prohibiting nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater

Deliberate relaxation of Cold War tensions through diplomacy and arms control without ending ideological competition or containment

Policy of aiding allies with weapons, money, and air or naval power while expecting them to provide most ground troops

1972 agreement temporarily limiting certain U.S. and Soviet strategic missile launchers without substantially reducing their arsenals

1975 agreements accepting European boundaries, encouraging cooperation, and establishing human-rights commitments later used by Eastern-bloc dissidents

House committee that publicly investigated alleged communist influence and pressured witnesses to disclose their affiliations and identify others

Truman’s 1947 program screening federal workers for disloyalty, often using associations and undisclosed allegations rather than proof of espionage

Ten writers and directors imprisoned for contempt after refusing in 1947 to answer HUAC questions about Communist Party membership

Private entertainment-industry practice denying work to accused communists and uncooperative witnesses without requiring a criminal conviction

Former State Department official accused of Soviet activity who was convicted of perjury in 1950 after denying Whittaker Chambers’s allegations

Couple executed in 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage; later evidence confirmed Julius’s spying but left Ethel’s operational role much less certain

Use of sensational, poorly supported accusations, guilt by association, and demands to denounce others in order to attack alleged subversion

Wisconsin Republican senator who rose through unsupported claims of communists in government and lost influence after the 1954 Army hearings and Senate condemnation

Televised 1954 hearings that exposed McCarthy’s aggressive methods during his dispute with the Army and accelerated his downfall

Provided veterans education aid, unemployment payments, and guaranteed low-interest loans, expanding the middle class, homeownership, and skilled employment

Sharp, prolonged rise in births from 1946 through 1964 that increased demand for housing, goods, schools, services, colleges, and later jobs

A social order in which possessions and purchasing signified success, modernity, identity, and family happiness

Large-scale postwar movement of mainly middle-class families to communities outside central cities, encouraged by mortgages, cars, highways, incomes, and mass-produced housing

Mass-produced Long Island suburb begun in 1947 that offered standardized, affordable homes to many veterans while initially excluding Black buyers

Authorized about 41,000 miles of interstate highways, stimulating private industries, trucking, commuting, suburbanization, and metropolitan decentralization

Movement of white residents from racially changing central cities to suburbs, encouraged by discriminatory housing, segregated schools, highways, and federal mortgages

Practice of labeling often-Black neighborhoods risky for mortgage lending, denying investment while favorable financing supported predominantly white suburbs

Rapidly growing South and West, where jobs, federal spending, affordable land, highways, and air conditioning attracted migrants and increased regional economic and political power

Relationship among the armed forces, federal government, and defense industries sustained by military contracts and research spending

Restricted unions by banning closed shops, permitting right-to-work laws, limiting union tactics, and allowing federal delays of strikes threatening national health or safety

Labor federation formed by the 1955 merger of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, uniting most major American unions

The leading postwar mass medium, spreading national programs, advertising, celebrities, and idealized family and gender roles

Black-influenced youth music combining rhythm and blues, gospel, blues, and country that challenged racial, sexual, and generational norms

Writers who rejected materialism, corporate conformity, conventional careers, sexual restraint, and suburban respectability

John Kenneth Galbraith’s 1958 book arguing that postwar private affluence coexisted with neglected public services and persistent poverty

Black press campaign during World War II demanding victory over fascism abroad and racism at home

Civil rights organization founded in 1942 that applied Gandhian nonviolent methods to racial discrimination

Truman’s 1948 order requiring equal treatment and opportunity in the armed forces, leading to gradual military desegregation

Unanimous 1954 decision declaring state-mandated public-school segregation unconstitutional because separate educational facilities are inherently unequal

Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren that expanded civil rights, voting equality, defendants’ rights, privacy, and church-state separation

1956 declaration by 101 southern members of Congress condemning Brown and pledging resistance to school desegregation

1957 confrontation in which nine Black students entered Central High School under federal military protection after Arkansas resisted integration

381-day nonviolent boycott that combined grassroots organizing, economic pressure, and litigation and ended with Montgomery’s buses desegregated

Experienced NAACP activist whose December 1955 refusal to surrender her bus seat triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Montgomery leader who became the leading national advocate of disciplined nonviolent resistance grounded in Christianity, democratic ideals, and Gandhian methods

Organization founded by King and other ministers in 1957 to use Black churches to coordinate, train, and publicize southern civil rights campaigns

Disciplined boycotts, demonstrations, and civil disobedience that disrupted injustice, exposed repression, and created pressure for government action

Foreign intelligence agency created in 1947 to collect and analyze information and conduct covert operations in support of American national-security policy

CIA-British operation that overthrew Mossadegh after oil nationalization and strengthened Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

1954 CIA operation using exiles, propaganda, and psychological warfare to overthrow Árbenz and install an authoritarian anti-communist regime

Post–World War II collapse of European empires and creation of independent nations across Africa and Asia

Organization founded in 1961 by countries seeking independence from both Cold War blocs while accepting aid from either side

1957 pledge of American economic or military aid to Middle Eastern countries threatened by international communism

Cuban revolutionary who overthrew Batista, nationalized American property, and aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union

Kennedy’s 1961 aid program promoting development, education, land reform, and democracy in Latin America, with limited results

Organization founded in 1960 to increase petroleum-producing nations’ control over oil production and prices

Vietnamese nationalist and communist who led the struggle against French rule and later headed communist North Vietnam

War between France and the Viet Minh that ended with French defeat and the collapse of French colonial rule in Vietnam

The Viet Minh’s decisive 1954 defeat of French forces, which ended France’s effort to retain Vietnam

Settlement temporarily dividing Vietnam at the 17th parallel and calling for nationwide reunification elections in 1956

Belief that a communist victory in South Vietnam would cause nearby Southeast Asian countries to fall to communism in succession

U.S.-backed collective-defense alliance formed in 1954 to resist communist expansion in Southeast Asia but weakened by limited regional membership and military integration

U.S.-backed anticommunist leader of South Vietnam whose repressive government lacked broad support; he was overthrown and killed in a 1963 coup

1964 measure authorizing Johnson to take “all necessary measures” in Vietnam, enabling major escalation without a declaration of war

Sustained 1965–1968 American bombing campaign intended to pressure North Vietnam into ending its support for the war

System that conscripted young men for military service; unequal deferments and combat burdens intensified opposition to the war

Hawks supported escalating or continuing the Vietnam War, while doves favored de-escalation, negotiation, or American withdrawal

Coordinated communist attacks across South Vietnam in January 1968 that failed militarily but shattered claims that victory was near

Growing difference between government claims about progress in Vietnam and what journalists, soldiers, and the public believed the evidence showed

The 1968 killing of Vietnamese civilians by U.S. soldiers, revealed publicly in 1969 and used as evidence that the war was immoral

Nixon’s policy of withdrawing U.S. ground troops while expanding and equipping South Vietnamese forces to assume responsibility for the war

1970 American–South Vietnamese attack on communist sanctuaries in Cambodia that widened the war and intensified U.S. antiwar protests

The May 4, 1970 killing of four students by National Guardsmen during protests against Nixon's expansion of the war into Cambodia

Classified history leaked in 1971 showing that several administrations concealed doubts and misrepresented the expansion of U.S. involvement

1973 agreement providing a ceasefire, U.S. withdrawal, and prisoner return while leaving North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam

1973 law requiring notice to Congress within 48 hours and generally limiting unauthorized deployments to 60 days plus 30 days for withdrawal

North Vietnam’s capture of Saigon on April 30, 1975, ending South Vietnam and reunifying Vietnam under communist rule

Kennedy program connecting economic growth with federal investment in education, cities, science, and social welfare, though most proposals initially failed

President who used his legislative skill and 1964 electoral mandate to enact the Great Society

Johnson’s broad domestic reform program to reduce poverty, protect civil rights, expand opportunity, and improve quality of life through federal action

Great Society campaign using education, training, health, food, legal aid, and community programs to reduce poverty and expand opportunity

Michael Harrington’s 1962 book exposing the largely invisible poverty that persisted amid national prosperity

Law that launched major War on Poverty programs and created the Office of Economic Opportunity

Great Society health programs providing federal insurance mainly for Americans age 65 and older through Medicare and federal-state medical assistance for eligible low-income people through Medicaid

Law providing continuing federal aid to public schools, especially those serving large numbers of low-income children

Law abolishing national-origins quotas and emphasizing family reunification and occupational skills in immigration admissions

1961 Supreme Court decision applying the exclusionary rule to the states and barring illegally obtained evidence from state criminal trials

1962 Supreme Court decision allowing federal courts to hear legislative-apportionment cases and helping establish the principle of one person, one vote

1963 Supreme Court decision requiring states to provide attorneys to indigent defendants charged with serious crimes

1962 Supreme Court decision prohibiting state-sponsored prayer in public schools

1964 Supreme Court decision requiring both houses of state legislatures to be apportioned substantially by population under the principle of one person, one vote

1965 Supreme Court decision recognizing marital privacy and invalidating a state restriction on contraceptive use by married couples

1966 Supreme Court decision requiring police to inform detained suspects of their rights to remain silent and obtain an attorney before custodial interrogation

1967 Supreme Court decision invalidating state laws prohibiting interracial marriage

Student-led civil rights organization formed in 1960 out of the expanding sit-in movement, marking a new phase of nonviolent direct action

1960 protest begun by four Black college students at a whites-only Woolworth lunch counter that spread to other cities

1961 interracial bus rides organized by CORE and continued by SNCC that exposed defiance of desegregation rulings and forced federal enforcement

SCLC’s 1963 campaign against segregation and employment discrimination whose televised repression generated national outrage and support for federal legislation

King’s 1963 defense of immediate nonviolent direct action, constructive tension, and civil disobedience against unjust laws

Peaceful 1963 demonstration of about 250,000 people that linked civil rights with economic justice and built support for federal legislation

Federal law banning discrimination in public accommodations and employment, strengthening school desegregation, and authorizing federal enforcement and funding pressure

1964 Mississippi campaign that registered Black voters, operated Freedom Schools, and drew national attention to violent political exclusion

Alternative Mississippi political party that challenged the state’s all-white Democratic delegation in 1964 and rejected an inadequate two-seat compromise

1965 voting-rights campaign whose Selma-to-Montgomery marches, especially the televised Bloody Sunday attack, generated pressure for the Voting Rights Act

Federal law banning literacy tests, authorizing federal voter registration, and requiring preclearance in covered jurisdictions, rapidly increasing Black registration

1964 constitutional amendment prohibiting poll taxes in federal elections

1965 Los Angeles unrest reflecting anger over police brutality, poverty, unemployment, and segregation that federal civil rights laws had not resolved

Johnson-appointed commission that blamed urban unrest on white racism and warned in 1968 of two separate and unequal societies

Black nationalist leader who promoted racial pride, autonomy, economic independence, international human rights, and armed self-defense rather than passive acceptance of violence

Black nationalist religious organization that advocated racial separation and economic independence and made Malcolm X a prominent national spokesman

Post-1965 call for racial pride, independent Black political power, community control, economic autonomy, and sometimes armed self-defense

SNCC leader who popularized the slogan Black Power during the 1966 March Against Fear

Black nationalist and revolutionary socialist organization advocating armed self-defense, community control, economic justice, and survival programs such as free breakfasts

Mexican American cofounder of the UFW who promoted nonviolence, fasting, marches, and consumer boycotts to improve farmworkers’ lives

Union formed from Mexican American and Filipino farmworker organizations; used strikes, marches, and boycotts to win recognition, higher wages, and better conditions

Mexican American movement emphasizing cultural pride, political power, educational equality, labor rights, and resistance to forced assimilation

Native organization founded in Minneapolis in 1968 that fought police brutality and demanded treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, and cultural survival

1969–1971 occupation by Indians of All Tribes that invoked treaty principles and made Alcatraz a symbol of intertribal activism and cultural renewal

AIM and Oglala Lakota’s 71-day 1973 occupation protesting federal Indian policy and the Pine Ridge reservation government

Law allowing tribal governments to operate federally funded education and social-service programs previously administered by federal agencies

1960s–1970s movement challenging gender inequality in employment, education, family life, politics, reproduction, and cultural expectations

Betty Friedan’s 1963 book describing the unspoken dissatisfaction of many middle-class suburban wives as the problem that has no name

Feminist author of The Feminine Mystique and cofounder of NOW who promoted women’s legal and institutional equality

Feminist organization founded in 1966 to pursue employment and educational equality, reproductive freedom, and the ERA.

Proposed amendment barring denial of equal rights on account of sex; it passed Congress in 1972 but fell three states short of ratification

1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded education, expanding equality in admissions, academics, employment, and athletics

1973 Supreme Court decision holding that constitutional privacy protected a woman’s decision to end a pregnancy while allowing increasing regulation as pregnancy progressed

Conservative activist who led opposition to the ERA by arguing that it threatened traditional gender roles and legal protections for women

Sustained resistance following a 1969 police raid on New York’s Stonewall Inn that became a turning point and symbol of gay liberation

Post-Stonewall movement demanding open LGBTQ+ identity and liberation from discriminatory laws, police harassment, and restrictive sexual and gender norms

Mostly young activists who sought participatory democracy and structural reform while criticizing conservatism and cautious mainstream liberalism

The leading national student organization of the New Left, known for campus activism, participatory democracy, and opposition to Vietnam

SDS's 1962 manifesto criticizing racism, militarism, political apathy, and bureaucracy while calling for participatory democracy

The successful 1964 Berkeley student campaign against university restrictions on campus political advocacy and organizing

The youth movement, whose participants were often called hippies, that rejected conventional middle-class values and experimented with informal and alternative lifestyles

Young counterculture participants who rejected conventional middle-class values and embraced communal living, experimentation, peace, sexual freedom, and alternative lifestyles

The August 1969 festival where roughly 400,000 people created an enduring symbol of countercultural music, informality, and peaceful community

The expanding movement against the Vietnam War and draft, ranging from liberal demands for withdrawal to radical rejection of the political system

Nixon’s term for Americans who opposed protest, disorder, and rapid cultural change but were not highly visible political activists

Rachel Carson’s 1962 book documenting the ecological dangers of pesticides such as DDT and helping inspire the modern environmental movement

Marine biologist and author whose 1962 book Silent Spring exposed pesticide hazards and helped launch modern environmental activism

Broad movement linking pollution, public health, wildlife, and finite resources, using activism and federal regulation to protect interconnected ecosystems

First held April 22, 1970; mobilized about 20 million Americans and demonstrated that environmentalism had become a mainstream national movement

1970 law requiring federal agencies to study and disclose the environmental effects of major federal actions before proceeding

Federal agency created by Nixon in 1970 to consolidate and enforce national regulation of air, water, pesticides, chemicals, and other hazards

Authorized national air-quality standards and required state plans plus emissions controls for industries and motor vehicles

1972 law restricting pollutant discharges, requiring permits for point sources, and funding municipal sewage-treatment facilities

1973 law protecting threatened and endangered species and habitats, even when protection could halt development projects

1979 Pennsylvania nuclear accident involving a partial core meltdown that caused no established immediate radiation deaths but intensified opposition and safety regulation

1973 cutoff of oil to the United States and other supporters of Israel, demonstrating the diplomatic power of petroleum producers

1970s energy disruptions caused by the 1973 Arab oil embargo and 1979 Iranian upheaval, producing shortages, gasoline lines, price increases, inflation, and demands for conservation

Unusual 1970s combination of economic stagnation, unemployment, and high inflation

Republican whose 1964 presidential campaign promoted limited government, individual responsibility, and strong anticommunism while helping organize modern conservatism

Republican effort to attract white southern voters through states’ rights, law and order, limits on federal intervention, and opposition to busing

Nixon policy seeking to return authority to state and local governments through revenue sharing, block grants, and reduced federal control of domestic programs

Conservative appeal linking crime, urban unrest, campus demonstrations, and antiwar protests to the claim that liberal authorities had lost control

Policies considering race in employment, education, or contracting to address past discrimination and continuing inequality

1978 Supreme Court decision striking down a fixed racial admissions quota but allowing race to remain one admissions factor

Scandal involving the 1972 Democratic headquarters break-in and Nixon administration cover-up that led to Nixon’s resignation and deeper public distrust

1974 unanimous Supreme Court decision rejecting Nixon’s claim of absolute executive privilege and ordering release of the Watergate tapes

Ford’s 1974 pardon of Nixon, defended as ending a national ordeal but widely viewed as protecting a powerful official from accountability

Carter-mediated 1978 agreements leading to Egyptian recognition of Israel, Israeli withdrawal from Sinai, and a 1979 peace treaty

1979–1981 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, where 52 Americans were held for 444 days amid a failed rescue mission

Carter’s July 1979 address linking energy dependence and political distrust to a national loss of faith, though he never used the word “malaise.”

Organized conservative network that united economic, social, religious, and anticommunist activists through policy groups, fundraising, media, and voter mobilization

Politically organized conservative Christians who mobilized against abortion, feminism, gay rights, secular education, and other perceived threats to traditional family and religious values

Organization founded by Jerry Falwell in 1979 to mobilize conservative Christians around abortion, family, education, and electoral politics

Television preacher who founded the Moral Majority and organized conservative Christians as a political constituency

California’s 1978 measure sharply limiting property taxes and requiring supermajorities for certain future tax increases