APUSH Ch 29

Bay of Pigs

In April 1961, a group of Cuban exiles organized and supported by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency landed on the southern coast of Cuba in an effort to overthrow Fidel Castro. The invasion ended in disaster, happened under President Kennedy

Berlin Wall

In 1961, the Soviet Union built a high barrier to seal off their sector of Berlin in order to stop the flow of refugees out of the Soviet zone of Germany. The wall was eventually torn down

Operation Mongoose

US effort to destroy Castro from within Cuba, through military invasion and assassination; under Kennedy and restricted after Missile Crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis

In October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union came close to nuclear war when President Kennedy insisted that Nikita Khrushchev (leader of the USSR) remove the 42 missiles he had secretly inserted in Cuba. The Soviets eventually did so, nuclear war was averted, and the crisis ended.

Vietcong

the guerrilla soldiers of the Communist faction in South Vietnam, also know as the National Liberation Front

Ngo Ding Diem

South Vietnam’s president , strong anti-comm. refused to take part in country wide election to prevent the election of communists. He was eventually overthrown

Rosa Parks

civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery (Alabama-1955) and so triggered the the bus boycott and the national civil rights movement

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, encouraged actions that supported the Civil Rights Movement and was led by MLK Jr., was a success (founded in 1957)

CORE

Congress of Racial Equality, and organization founded in 1942 that worked for black civil rights

sit in

a form of protest in which people sit and refuse to leave (a form of civil disobedience- used to promote the Civil Rights Movement)

SNCC

Student Non-violent Coordination Committee, founded in 1960 by black college students to provide a focus for the sit-in movement and to conduct voter registration drives in the South. They roused the fury of Southern segregationists

Freedom Ride

Bus trips taken by both black and white civil rights advocates in the 1960s. freedom rides in the South were designed to test the enforcement of federal regulations that prohibited segregation in interstate public transportation.

Malcolm X

He was a member of the Black Muslims and the Black Power movement. His wanted to find equality for black Americans using "any means necessary," and to separate, not integrate, blacks and whites. Later in life he changed his views about working with white America and was assassinated in 1965

Black Muslims

Developed by the black Muslim Leader Elijah Muhammad who preached black nationalism, separatism, and self-improvement. The movement attracted thousands of followers, including Malcolm X

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

A letter written by Martin Luther King Jr. after he had been arrested when he took part in a nonviolent march against segregation. Defended non-violent protests

"I have a dream"

Given August 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. by Martin Luther King, Jr. during the March on Washington. It was MLK’s most famous speech and it detailed his most ideal for America

Lee Harvey Oswald

supposedly assassinated JFK in Dallas, TX, by shooting him in the head, he was murdered by Jack Ruby

Warren Commission

Commission made by LBJ after killing of John F. Kennedy. Intended to investigate if someone paid for the assassination of Kennedy. Conclusion is that Oswald killed Kennedy on his own. Commissioner is Chief Justice Warren.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

This act made racial, religious, national origin, skin color and sex discrimination by employers illegal and gave the government the power to enforce all laws governing civil rights, including desegregation of schools and public places.

"War on Poverty"

Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in his 1964 State of the Union address as a part of his Great Society. A new Office of Economic Opportunity oversaw a variety of programs to help the poor, including the Job Corps and Head Start. VISTA and Medicaid were also a part of this

Economic Opportunity Act of 1964

established an Office of Economic Opportunity to provide young Americans with job training (the Job Corps) and created a volunteer network devoted to social work and edu in impoverished areas. it also set up community action programs to give the poor a voice in defining local housing, health and educational policies. Done as a part of LBJ’s Great Society

Head Start

a program for poor preschoolers, set up by the Elementary and Secondary Edu Act of 1965, which was designed to prepare them for elementary school and it gave nutritious meals and medical exams.

Great Society

President Johnson called his version of the Democratic reform program the Great Society. In 1965, Congress passed many Great Society measures, including Medicare, civil rights legislation, and federal aid to education. It meant to solve large social problems like hunger and poverty.

Medicare

1965; health care for the aged, a federally administered system of health insurance available to persons aged 65 and over. Created by LBJ

Medicaid

a federal and state assistance program that pays for health care services for people who cannot afford them (low-income families)

Elementary and Secondary Education Act

1965; implemented by LBJ , provided education aid to states based on the number of children from low income homes. It created Head Start (a program for poor preschoolers)

Voting Rights Act of 1965

1965; invalidated the use of any test or device to deny the vote and authorized federal examiners to register voters in states that had disenfranchised blacks; as more blacks became politically active and elected black representatives, it created jobs, contracts, and facilities and services for the black community, encouraging greater social equality and decreasing the wealth and education gap

Immigration Act of 1965

Ended quotas based on national origin; occupation and skills are now the criteria used to judge entry into the US, set immigration limit

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

resolution of Congress passed in1964, in direct response to a minor naval engagement known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. It is of historical significance because it gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, to take all necessary measures to repel armed attack or prevent further aggression

Eugene McCarthy

1968 Democratic candidate for President who ran to succeed incumbent Lyndon Baines Johnson on an anti-war platform.

General Westmoreland

the commander of u.s. forces in Vietnam.

Tet Offensive

1968; National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese forces launched a huge attack on the Vietnamese New Year (Tet), eventual defeat for communism (with huge casualties), but Americans reacted sharply, with declining approval of LBJ and more anti-war sentiment

New Hampshire Primary

traditionally, these are the first of the public votes for the new presidential election. The point at which McCarthy became a formidable opponent in the Democratic Party

Robert Kennedy

american politician; attorney general during brother’s (JFK) presidency and was assassinated during his bid for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination

Hubert Humphrey

LBJ’s vice president and McCarthy’s opposition in 1968 primary after LBJ stepped down. He won the Democratic nomination but not the presidency, strong civil rights activist from Minnesota

Chicago Convention

1968 Democratic National Convention, turned violent when leaders (specially the mayor) overreacted and set police on protesters

Sirhan Sirhan

assassinated Robert Kennedy in 1968; he was a young Palestinian he was apparently enraged by Kennedy’s pro- Israeli policy. He was shot in the head, like his brother

Spiro Agnew

Nixon’s vice-president resigned and pleaded "no contest" to charges of tax evasion on payments made to him when he was governor of Maryland. He was replaced by Gerald R. Ford.

George Wallace

pro-segregation governor of Alabama who ran for pres. in 1968 on American Independent Party ticket of segregation and law and order, loses to Nixon; runs in 1972 but gets shot and is left paralyzed

Vietnamization

President Richard Nixons strategy for ending U.S involvement in the Vietnam war, involving a gradual withdrawal of American troops and replacement of them with South Vietnamese forces (trained by American troops)

My Lai

a village in northern Vietnam where more than 200 unarmed civilians, including women and children, were massacred by US troops in May 1968

Cambodia

Nixon claimed that Communist/North Vietnamese forces hid out here, he sent American troops to destroy these bases. Further decreased popular opinion

Kent State

Ohio college where an anti-war protest got way out of hand, the Nat’l Guard was called in and killed 4 people (innocent & unarmed, some had no involvement, wounded 9)

detene

French meaning the relaxation of tension, and indicates a warming of relations between US and USSR and the US and China in the early 1970’s, under Nixon.

SALT

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty; negotiations between the United States and the USSR opened in 1969 in Helsinki designed to limit both countries’ stock of nuclear weapons

George McGovern

Democratic Senator running against Nixon on antiwar platform in 1972 election, he lost in a landslide

Wage/Price Freeze

1971; following price inflation, followed by a pay board and a price commission with authority to limit wage and price increases when the freeze ended

EPA

Environmental Protection Agency; an independent federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment, under Nixon

Clean Air Act

1970- law that established national standards for states, strict auto emissions guidelines, and regulations that set air pollution standards for private industry

CREEP

Richard Nixon’s committee for re-electing the president. Found to have been engaged in a "dirty tricks" campaign against the democrats in 1972. They raised tens of millions of dollars in campaign funds using unethical means. They were involved in the infamous Watergate cover-up.

John Dean

Nixon’s lawyer who participated in the Watergate cover-up; in a plea bargain he testified that President Nixon knew and participated in the cover-up. Many did not believe his testimony until the White house tapes surfaced

Saturday Night Massacre

dismissal of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus (who refused to follow Nixon’s order to dismiss Cox) during the Watergate scandal 1973

25th Amendment

clarifies presidential succession; if the president dies the vice-president steps up, and the vice-president elects someone from congress to take the place of vice-president and then needs to be voted on by congress, and so on down the line

United States vs. Richard Nixon

1974; a Supreme Court ruling that obliged President Nixon to turn over to the Watergate special prosecutor sixty-four White House audiotapes; these helped prove that Nixon had known about the cover-up of the Watergate burglary