History Final

ID Terms
1) Emmett Till: 14 year old Black child who was brutally murdered and disfigured for
allegedly whistling at a white woman in a store in Mississippi in 1955. His captors and
murderers were put on trial and were acquitted of their crimes by an all-white, all-male
jury. Emmetts death spurred the American Civil Rights Movement
2) Southern Manifesto: In 1956, Howard Smith delivered a speech on the House
floor in defiance of the Brown vs. Topeka decision, which determined that separate
school facilities for black and white children was unconstitutional. The Manifesto
attacked Brown vs. Topeka as an abuse of judicial power that trespassed upon states
rights, and it called for southerners to do everything they lawfully can to resist the chaos
and confusion that would happen if school spaces were integrated.
3) March on Birmingham: In 1963, activists in Birmingham, Alabama launched one
of the most influential campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement: Project C. It would be
the beginning of a series of lunch counter sit-ins, marches on City Hall, and boycotts on
downtown merchants to protest segregation laws in the city. The marches were met with
brute force by police officers with billy clubs, police dogs, and high-pressure fire hoses.
4) Robert F. Williams: The first African-American civil rights leader to advocate
armed resistance to racial oppression and violence. Formed the Black Guard, an armed
group committed to protecting Monroe, North Carolinas black population. Accused of
kidnapping a white couple, Williams and his family fled the country and accepted asylum
in Cuba and China before returning to the US to advise political relations with China.
5) New Frontier: Used by John F. Kennedy in his presidential acceptance speech, it
refers to the economic and social programs of his presidency. Referred to Kennedys
commitment to renewal and change. Called for advancing the civil and economic rights
of men, raising the minimum wage, guaranteeing equal pay for women, rebuilding the
inner cities, increasing federal aid for education, initiating a Peace Corps, developing a
Medicare program to assist the elderly, and scientific advancement, primarily space
exploration.
6) Cuban Missile Crisis: A 13-day confrontation between the United States and the
Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba: it was the closest the Cold
War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war
7) Domino Theory: 1950s to 1980s; Speculated that if one country in a region came
under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a
domino effect
8) Tet Offensive: the largest military campaign of the Vietnam War; launched on
January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Peoples Army of
Vietnam against the forces of South Vietnam, the US, and their allies; series of surprise
attacks against military and civilian commands and control centers around South
Vietnam; named after the Tet holiday, the Vietnamese New Year, when the first major
attacks took place
9) Roe Vs. Wade: landmark decision by the US Supreme Court in 1973 that a right
to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a

womans decision to have an abortion, but that this right must be balanced against the
states two legitimate interests in regulating abortions: protecting womens health and the
potentiality of human life; resolved this balancing test by tying state regulation of abortion
to the third trimester of pregnancy
10) Detente: A name given to a period of improved relations between the United
States and the Soviet Union that began in 1971 and took form when President Nixon
visited the secretary-general of the Soviet Communist Party, Leonid Brezhnev, in
Moscow in May of 1972
11) Betty Friedan: An American writer, activist, and feminist who was a leading figure
in the womens movement in the US; Her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often
credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century;
cofounded and elected the first president of the National Organization for Women;
organized the nationwide Womens Strike for Equality on the 50th anniversary of the
ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which granted women the right to
vote
12) Camp David Accords: Agreements between Israel and Egypt signed on
September 17, 1978, that led to a peace treaty between those two countries. President
Carter oversaw the signing of the Accords in Maryland. The outcome had three parts: a
process for Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza; a framework for the
conclusion of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel; and a similar framework for
peace treaties between Israel and its other neighbours
13) Crisis of Confidence: President Carters talk about energy policy; believed
American economy in crisis; Americans suffering from a deeper moral and spiritual
crisis; lack of moral and spiritual confidence is at the core of Americas inability to hoist
itself out of its economic troubles; admitted that part of the problem was his failure to
provide strong leadership on issues like energy and oil consumption
14) Reagonomics: A popular term used to refer to the economic policies of Ronald
Reagan, which called for widespread tax cuts, decreased social spending, increased
military spending, and the deregulation of domestic markets
15) North American Free Trade Agreement: An agreement between Canada, the US,
and Mexico designed to remove tariff barriers among the three countries
16) Brown vs. Board of Education: A landmark US Supreme Court case in 1954
declaring state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to
be unconstitutional; it overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which allowed statesponsored segregation in public education
17) Montgomery Bus Boycott: African Americans refused to ride city buses in
Montgomery, Alabama to protest segregated seating in 1955 to 1956; sparked by the
unjust arrest of Rosa Parks; regarded as the first large-scale demonstration against
segregation in the US
18) Civil Rights Act: (1964) outlawed discrimination based on race, color, age, sex,
religion, or national origin and ended unequal application of voter registration
requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace, and by facilities that
served the general public (1968) provided equal housing opportunities regardless of
race, creed, or national origin and made it a federal crime to injure, intimidate, or

interfere with anyone because of their race, color, religion, or national origin; both signed
by President Lyndon Johnson
19) Inchon Landing: On September 15, 1950, during the Korean War, US Marines
forces made a surprise landing at the port of Inchon on the west coast of Korea. The
attack was carried out by Commander Douglas MacArthur. This made it easy for US
troops to break North Korean supply lines and push inland to capture Seoul.
20) Bay of Pigs: An attempt in 1961 by the CIA to overthrow Fidel Castro using
Cuban exiles that had fled their country after he came to power. The invasion was a
terrible failure that embarrassed the US and strengthened the Communist cause in Cuba
21) Great Society: A set of domestic programs launched by President Lyndon
Johnson in 1964 that hoped to eliminate and racial injustice
22) Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: gave broad congressional approval for expansion of
the Vietnam War; authorized President Johnson to take any measures he believed
necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and
security in southeast Asia; became the legal basis for the Johnson and Nixon
administrations prosecution of the Vietnam War
23) Vietnamization: A policy of the Nixon administration to end US involvement in the
Vietnam War through a program to expand, equip, and train South Vietnams forces and
assign to them a combat role, while at the same time steadily reducing the number of US
combat troops
24) Silent Majority: An unspecified large group of people in a country or group who
do not express their opinions publicly; A term used by President Richard Nixon to
indicate his belief that the great body of Americans supported his policies and that those
who demonstrated against the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War
amounted to only a noisy minority.
25) Watergate: A major political scandal in the 1970s as a result of the break-in at the
Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex and
President Nixons attempted cover-up of his involvement; robbers were caught
attempting to wiretap phones and steal secret documents to insure Nixons reelection
26) Energy Crisis: In the 1970s, American oil consumption was increasing even as oil
production was declining, leading to an increased dependence on oil imports from other
countries; Americans were told not to worry about the rising gas prices because it was
thought that Arab oil exporters couldnt afford to lose the revenue from the US; in 1973,
an oil embargo imposed by OAPEC led to fuel shortages and extremely high prices
27) Iran Hostage Crisis: On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed
the US Embassy in Tehran and took more than 60 Americans hostage because of
President Jimmy Carters decision to allow Irans deposed Shah to receive cancer
treatment in America, and to show an end to American interference in its affairs
28) Iran Contra Affair: A political scandal during the second term of Reagans
presidency, in which senior administration officials secretly made it easy to sell weapons
to Iran in the hopes that the US hostages in Lebanon would be released and to fund the
Contras in Nicaragua
29) Persian Gulf War: In 1991, triggered by Saddam Husseins invasion of Kuwait
with Iraqi military forces with the aim of acquiring Kuwaits large oil reserves