US Unit 9
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MrSchild Teacher on April 30, 2012
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US History Unit 9 Modern America Chapters 30-32
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35 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Viet Cong | a Communist-led army and guerrilla force in South Vietnam that fought its government and was supported by North Vietnam. |
| escalate | increase in extent or intensity |
| counterculture | a culture with lifestyles and values opposed to those of the established culture |
| doves | Those who opposed the war |
| hawks | those who supported the war |
| pardon | a warrant granting release from punishment for an offense |
| trade deficit | the situation when the value of a country's foreign imports exceeds the value of its exports. |
| fundamentalist | a person who believes in the literal meaning of religious texts and strict obedience to religious laws. |
| deregulation | the act of cutting the restrictions and regulations that government places on businesses |
| federal debt | the amount of money owed by the government |
| supply-side economics | An economic philosophy that holds the sharply cutting taxes will increase the incentive people have to work, save, and invest. Greater investments will lead to more jobs, a more productive economy, and more tax revenues for the government. |
| NAFTA | North American Free Trade Agreement; allows open trade with US, Mexico, and Canada |
| Gulf of Tonkin Resolution | The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress passed on August 7, 1964 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, for the use of military force in Southeast Asia. |
| executive privilege | The power to keep executive communications confidential, especially if they relate to national security. |
| surplus | excess; amount left over after necessary expenses are paid |
| Iranian Hostage Crisis | In 1979, Iranian fundamentalists seized the American embassy in Tehran and held fifty-three American diplomats hostage for over a year. The Iranian hostage crisis weakened the Carter presidency; the hostages were finally released on January 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan became president. |
| Ho Chi Minh | Vietnamese revolutionary leader; Communist and Vietnamese nationalist; fought for Vietnamese independence against Japan, France, and the U.S.; died in 1969, six years before his government declared victory in the Vietnam War and completed Vietnam's reunification under Communist rule |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | Democratic President of the United States, 1963-1969; John F. Kennedy's Vice President, took office after assassination, then won full term of his own in 1964 elections; enacted sweeping domestic reforms (Great Society); escalated American involvement in Vietnam. |
| William Westmoreland | US general army general, who commanded US military operations in the Vietnam War at its peak (1964-1968), during the Tet Offensive, he adopted a strategy of attrition against the national liberation front of South Vietnam and the North Vietnamese army. He later served as US army chief of staff from 1968 to 1972. |
| Richard M. Nixon | Republican President from 1968 to 1972; resigned from office in 1974 due to Watergate scandal. Promised he would reduce US troop levels in Vietnam, but force levels remained high and he actually expanded the war into Laos and Cambodia. Pursued a plan he called "Vietnamization" to push the South Vietnamese army to shoulder the bulk of the fighting. |
| Gerald R. Ford | Republican President from 1974 to 1977. He was never elected president, became president after Nixon resigned; granted a full pardon of Nixon likely resulted in his losing the 1976 election; US withdrew from Vietnam under him. |
| Jimmy Carter | Democratic President from 1977 to 1981. He was criticized for Iranian Hostage Crisis, fuel shortages, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which caused him to lose the 1980 election. |
| Ronald Reagan | Republican President from 1981 to 1989. He ran on a campaign based on the common man and "populist" ideas. While president, he developed the trickle down effect of government incentives (supply-side economics). He cut welfare and public works programs. He used the strategic defense initiative to avoid conflict, his meetings with Gorbachev were the first steps to ending the Cold War. He was also responsible for the Iran-Contra affair which bought hostages with guns. |
| George HW Bush | Republican President from 1989 to 1993. President during Operation Desert Storm, went against his no-taxes promise, economy hurt him while running for reelection in 1992. |
| Bill Clinton | Democratic President from 1993 to 2001. His plan to provide universal health care to all Americans was defeated. His few domestic and international successes were overshadowed by the intern scandal that led to his impeachment and eventual acquittal. |
| Saddam Hussein | President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003; waged war on Iran in 1980-1988. In 1990, he ordered an invasion of Kuwait but was defeated by US and its allies in the Persian Gulf War (1991); defeated by US led invasion in 2003. |
| Norman Schwarzkopf | Commander of US Central Command in the Persian Gulf War; Commander of the Coalition Forces; led Operation Desert Storm. |
| Mikhail Gorbachev | Soviet statesman whose foreign policy brought an end to the Cold War and whose domestic policy introduced major reforms |
| Ngo Dinh Diem | President of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1963; staunch anti-Communist, but unpopular and paranoid leader who expelled, imprisoned, and sometimes executed those who opposed his regime; Refused to ally with Ho Chi Minh after the Franco-Vietnamese War; long supported by US, but ineffectual leadership led to his assassination in a military coup supported by the US. |
| Tet Offensive | Viet Cong forces, supported by North Vietnamese troops, shocked US troops with surprise waves of attacks deep in South Vietnamese territory. The offensive began on January 31, 1968, the beginning of the Vietnamese Tet holiday. US and South Vietnamese forces defeated the Tet Offensive, but public support for the war in the US plummeted. |
| Kent State Shooting | Ohio National Guard shot and killed four students on the fourth day of anti-war demonstrations. The shooting occurred on May 4, 1970 on the campus of Kent State University. College campuses nationwide shut down in response and photos of the dead were printed worldwide, intensifying opposition to the war. |
| Watergate | The events and scandal surrounding a break-in and cover-up by the Nixon Administration. The break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel occurred in June 1972 and the subsequent cover-up led to the resignation of President Nixon in August 1974. The Watergate scandal led to Congress passing laws to correct abuses of power and violations to the Constitution, including laws to limiting campaign spending and strengthening the Freedom of Information Act. |
| Camp David Accords | Agreements between Israel and Egypt signed on September 17, 1978, that led in the following year to a peace treaty between those two countries. The agreement was worked out by President Jimmy Carter between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar el-Sādāt. The agreement was the first treaty ever between Israel and any Arab state and gave the hope of sustained peace in the Middle East. |
| Persian Gulf War | International conflict that was triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and US led coalition bombardment and ground assault ending with the defeat of the Iraqi forces. The conflict began in August 1990 with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and ended with the US led coalition ground assault in February 1991. Iraqi forces were led by their President Saddam Hussein and US Coalition forces were led by General Norman Schwarzkopf. |
| Iran-Contra Scandal | A political scandal in the during the Reagan administration, senior administration officials secretly sold arms to Iran in exchange for the release of hostages and fund Nicaraguan Contras. The scandal began in August 1985 and lasted through March 1987 and involved Reagan officials, Iranians, and Nicaraguan Contras. |
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