APUSH Chapter 37

The Feminine Mystique

Classic feminist protest literature, written by Betty Friedan, that helped launch the modern women’s movement; an indictment of the "stifling boredom" of suburban housewifery.

rock n’ roll

Genre of popular music that fused black rhythm and blues with white bluegrass and country styles, crossing the cultural divide that had separated black and white musical traditions.

Checkers Speech

Televised speech made by vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon, in which he responded to scandalous reports regarding a misuse of funds while he was in the Senate; the speech, in which he referred to the family’s dog, saved his candidacy and illustrated the political potential of television.

McCarthyism

Term for the dangerous forces of unfairness and fear that a democratic society can unleash; refers to the ruthless red-hunting of Senator McCarthy, who destroyed countless careers by feeding on the America’s fears of communist infiltration, damaging the American traditions of fair play and free speech.

Army-McCarthy Hearings

Televised hearings in which the U.S. Army fought back against Senator McCarthy’s unwarranted accusations; the broadcast fascinated the American public and led to McCarthy’s downfall, as he appeared irrational, reckless, and mean-spirited; he was condemned by Congress a few months later.

Jim Crow laws

Rigid set of antiquated segregation laws that governed all aspects of southern blacks’ existence, keeping them economically inferior and politically powerless.

Montgomery bus boycott

Yearlong boycott sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks for violating the city’s Jim Crow statues by sitting in the "whites only" section of a city bus.

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

Unanimous Supreme Court decision which ruled that segregation in public schools was "inherently unequal" and thus unconstitutional and that desegregation should go ahead with "all deliberate speed"; reversed the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson decision that had ruled that "separate but equal" facilities were allowable under the Constitution.

SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)

Formed in 1960 by impassioned southern black students to give more focus and force to the wave of "sit-in" protests organized to compel equal treatment in restaurants, transportation, employment, housing, and voter registration; members lost patience with the tactics of Dr. King’s SCLC and the NAACP.

Operation Wetback

Massive roundup of one million illegal Mexican immigrants; a response to the Mexican government’s concerns that illegal immigration would undercut the bracero program.

Federal Highway Act of 1956

Act that authorized a $27 billion public works project to build 42,000 miles of modern, multilane roads across the nation; created countless jobs but speeded suburbanization, with disastrous consequences for cities; also led to concerns about environmental impact and energy consumption.

policy of boldness

Foreign policy promoted by Secretary of State Dulles, which condemned "containment" of communism, promising to both "roll back" communism’s gains and "liberate captive peoples", while also cutting military spending by building up a fleet of superbombers equipped with nuclear bombs; in practice, the policy was too aggressive for minor crises such as the failed Hungarian uprising and also proved to be staggeringly expensive.

Hungarian uprising

1956 rebellion by the Hungarians against their Soviet-controlled government; their desperate appeals for aid from America went unanswered and they were brutally crushed; exposed the rigid futility of the US policy of "massive retaliation."

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

Battle between French colonial forces in Indochina and Viet Minh guerillas; the Vietnamese nationalists were ultimately victorious and Vietnam was divided into two halves, with the North controlled by a communist regime led by Ho Chi Minh and the South governed by pro-Western Ngo Dinh Diem.

Suez Crisis

When Egyptian president Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, British, French, and Israeli forces staged a joint assault on Egypt, cutting off Western Europe’s oil supply; when the United States, who had been kept in the dark about the plan, refused to release emergency oil supplies, the allies were compelled to withdraw troops and the United Nations was forced to intervene.

OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)

Organization formed by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela in 1960 to protect their oil interests; developed a stranglehold on the Western economies over the next two decades, as America went from being an "oil power" to becoming a net oil importer.

Sputnik

Soviet satellite launched into orbit in 1957, astounding the world and rattling America’s self-confidence regarding scientific superiority and military security; Eisenhower established NASA and set aside billions for missile development.

Kitchen Debate

Debate between Khrushchev and Richard Nixon in 1959 which brought him particular notice leading up to the 1960 election.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Republican candidate for president in 1952; a popular war hero who promised to end the war in Korea, he was overwhelmingly elected over Adlai Stevenson; portrayed himself as a "unpolitical" president, and presided over peace and prosperity during his administration.

Richard Nixon

After gaining notoriety as a relentless red-hunter, he served as vice president under Eisenhower, overcoming a financial scandal during the campaign; lost to Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election, after a series of televised debates in which he came across as tired and pallid.

Betty Friedan

Feminist author; wrote "The Feminine Mystique", criticizing the postwar "cult of domesticity."

Elvis Presley

Singer whose music helped to transform and revolutionize popular music in the 1950s; fused rhythm and blues with bluegrass and country to form a new genre of music known as rock n’ roll.

Joseph McCarthy

Republican senator who gained notoriety by accusing Secretary of State Acheson of knowingly employing Communist party members; although none were found, he continued his witch hunt, recklessly and ruthlessly ruining the careers of countless individuals by falsely naming them as communist sympathizers; eventually exposed and discredited after attacking the U.S. Army during televised hearings.

Rosa Parks

College-educated black seamstress who made history by taking a seat in the "whites only" section of a Montgomery, Alabama bus; her arrest for violating the city’s antiquated Jim Crow laws sparked a yearlong bus boycott.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Civil Rights leader who gained prominence during the Montgomery bus boycott; advocated nonviolent action and formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to mobilize the vast power of black churches on behalf of civil rights.

Earl Warren

Chief Supreme Court Justice during the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision that declared segregation unconstitutional; shocked and angered traditionalists who put up signs calling for his impeachment.

John Foster Dulles

Secretary of State under Eisenhower who promoted a "policy of boldness" to combat communism.

Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet leader who succeeded Stalin.

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnamese nationalist leader who successfully led his guerilla forces against the French colonialists; established a communist regime in North Vietnam after the division of Vietnam in 1954.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

President of Egypt and ardent Arab nationalist; when America withdrew its offer of support for the building of a much-needed dam on the Nile, he responded by nationalizing the Suez canal, leading to an attack by French, British, and Israeli forces and touching off the Suez crisis.

Fidel Castro

Cuban revolutionary who ousted Fulgencio Batista; when he began to expropriate American properties in Cuba, the United States cut off imports of Cuban sugar; he responded by allying with the Soviet Union, a move that caused the US to break off diplomatic relations and impose a strict trade embargo.

John F. Kennedy

Democratic candidate in the 1960 presidential election; won a close race against Richard Nixon, becoming the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected president; his campaign was boosted after a series of televised debates in which he appeared glamorous and energetic compared to Nixon.

Lyndon B. Johnson

The Senate majority leader from Texas, he lost the presidential nomination to JFK, disappointing the South, but accepted the offer to run as vice president on the Democratic ticket.