Key Events in the Presidencies
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carralexandra3 on May 9, 2012
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27 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Containment | This is a foreign policy strategy created and executed by the US after WWII founding its first key purpose in the Truman Doctrine of 1947. |
| Truman Doctrine | A policy set forth by the U.S. President Harry S. Truman in a speech on March 12, 1947 stating that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere. Historians often consider it as the start of the Cold War. |
| Cold War | The name given to the relationship that developed primarily between the USA and the USSR after World War II. It was to dominate international affairs for decades and many major crises occurred - the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some. |
| Marshall Plan | The large-large scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. |
| Desegregation of the Military | The desegregation of the armed forces was a major civil rights victory for African Americans. Though a number of whites in the military resisted and racism continued to exist within the armed forces, Executive Order 9981 was the first major blow to segregation, giving hope to African-American activists that change was possible. |
| Korean War - Truman | Officially began after North Korea invaded South Korea by crossing the boundaries of the two regions known as the 38th parallel. Beginning as a civil conflict between two provisional government competing of control, the Korean War quickly escalated into a multi-national conflict. It ended with a ceasefire between the two warring factions, North and South Korea, but without the security of a formally established peace treaty. The North Koreans found backing from Russia and China while sympathies for the South lay with the United Nations and the United States. |
| Firing MacArthur | MacArthur wanted to end communism for good by finishing off China while it was still weak. Truman was afraid this strategy would bring Russia into the war and potentially could lead to atomic war, and therefore wanted to use a "containment strategy" that would limit the scope and avoid expansion of additional international involvement. MacArthur was outspoken and aggressive in his pursuit of following through on his plans and disobeyed the lawful order of the President to obtain clearance. |
| Eisenhower Doctrine | Refers to a speech by President Dwight David Eisenhower on 5 January 1957, within a "Special Message to the Congress on the Situation in the Middle East." Under this a country could request American economic assistance and/or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression from another state. |
| Korean War - Eisenhower | President Eisenhower fulfilled a campaign promise by going to Korea. The U.S. commander in Korea, General Mark Clark, had a prepared estimate for Eisenhower on the forces required for an offensive to win the war, but to Clark's surprise Eisenhower was interested only in negotiations. Eisenhower and the communists ended the war on July 27, 1953, a little over six months after Eisenhower became president. |
| Arkansas Nine | In the 1950's, this is one of the first incidences when the Civil Right Movement makes a national impact. Nine African American students are trying to go to an all-white school. The governor denies them the right to be allowed. The governor hires the civil guard to surround the school. Eisenhower federalizes the Arkansas National Guard and they are now under his command and commands them to let the students in. He then sends the 101st to make sure the students get in. They military remains for the rest of the school year. |
| Appointment of Earl Warren as Chief Justice | President Eisenhower appointed him Chief Justice to succeed Fred M. Vinson. One of the most dynamic of Chief Justices, he led the court toward a number of landmark decisions in the fields of civil rights and individual liberties. Among these were the unanimous 1954 decision, written by him, ending segregation in the nation's schools; the one man, one vote rulings, which opened the way for legislative and Congressional reapportionment; and decisions in criminal case guaranteeing the right to counsel and protecting the accused from police abuse. In 1963-1964, he headed the commission that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy. |
| Brown vs. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas | This is a Supreme Court case that outlaws the segregation of public schools. This is the piece of legal work that allowed the Arkansas Nine into the school. This also introduces the person that will be the counsel to Brown. |
| Martin Luther King Jr. | The lawyer for Brown during this case. He is a champion for civil rights and will go to be a member of the Supreme Court. |
| Bay of Pigs Fiasco | The invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA- trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the invading combatants within three days. The actual operation was started under the Eisenhower Administration but doesn't come into being until the Kennedy office. The operation was supposedly starting with a bombing run from Central America to Cuba, then going back to home base Then the amphibious landing was supposed to happen. Then they were supposed to be met by Cuban communists. The downfall of the invasion began before it even started when the New York Times published the timeline of the invasion so Castro was sitting there waiting for the invasion to happen. This paints Kennedy that he is a weak president. |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | The closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. Luckily, thanks to the bravery of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, war was averted. By spy plane, we figure out the Soviets are building missile sights and these could house missiles that can launch nuclear weapons. Kennedy decides we are going to quarantine Cuba deciding to deny any missile into the area. The Soviets still ships the missiles and declares that if they are stopped they will call it piracy. Kennedy calls the armed forces and brings the military alert to its highest level. People are convinced they will need the bomb shelters they have been building. The United States maintain its blockade and as the Russian ships are sited they are blocked by the U.S. war ships. The Soviet Union sends a letter to Kennedy asking him t promise not to invade Cuba and draw their radio sites from Turkey. Kennedy knew that he has achieved what he wanted. Within the next 24 hours, another letter from the Soviet demands other things that Kennedy was not planning on doing. Kennedy ignores the second letter and responds to the first and the Cuban missiles crisis is ended. The Soviet ships are turned around and it costs Khrushchev his job by the Communist party of the U.S.S.R. Kennedy has also painted himself as a strong capable leader of the U.S. |
| Berlin Speech | This comes about because of the Cold War tensions in Germany. Khrushchev wants to get rid of West Berlin because it is a "shining example of the difference between communist and the free." Kennedy fears the East Germans will take over West Berlin so he calls up the reserve. All of a sudden East Germany shuts down all entrances and exits and the next morning there is a fence surrounding West Berlin. Within a year, there is a wall to keep the people from East Berlin from escaping to the West. This speech wins him international support almost everywhere and makes him an enemy of communist. Kennedy is now the poster boy for democracy. |
| Kennedy Assassination | The 35th President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was fatally shot while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas governor John Connaly and the latter's wife Nellie, in a Presidential motorcade. Kennedy is the most recent of the four Presidents who were assassinated. He followed Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William McKinley, all of the fatally shot. |
| Great Society | Two main goals of these social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched during this period. The Great Society resembled the New Deal domestic agenda of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but differed sharply in types of programs enacted. |
| Civil Rights Act | A landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace, and by facilities that served the general public. |
| Vietnam War - Johnson | Despite promises to bring a swift end to American involvement in Indochina, Johnson steadily increased the number of U.S. troops deployed to Vietnam, oping to ensure a U.S. victory before withdrawing forces. No American president had yet "lost" a war, and Johnson hoped he wouldn't be the first. By the end of his second term as president, his approval rates had plummeted and his hopes for bringing an end to the war in Vietnam had dissolved. On 31 March 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, Johnson announced to the American people that he would not seek reelection. |
| Gulf of Tonkin Incident | When Johnson became President upon the assassination of Kennedy, he was not in favor of the Vietnam War. Johnson announces that two of our ships were attacked. What was not said was that they were both patrolling islands of North Vietnam. The following day, the Congress gives Johnson the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Johnson took this to mean that Congress gave him a declaration of war. Even though Johnson doesn't like it, the number of troops in Vietnam is still increasing. |
| Tet Offensive | The Vietcong assault on the U.S. Embassy marked the start of the Tet Offensive, a series of massive coordinated attacks throughout South Vietnam. The Tet Offensive caused 1968 to become a critical year in the Vietnam War. On the Vietnamese New year, January 30, 1968, Vietcong and North Vietnam attacked Communists and U.S. military bases. This was a huge military defeat for North Vietnam. This one of few times the North Vietnam and Vietcong launched conventional style attacks on the American forces. This was an American and South Vietnam victory. |
| Vietnam War - Nixon | During his Presidential campaign, Nixon had pledged that if elected he would end the war in Vietnam. Once in office, he and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger devised plans to fulfill this promise. In 1969 Kissinger began secret peace negotiations in Paris with North Vietnamese revolutionary Le Duc Tho. |
| U.S. Relations with China | Nixon comes to the conclusion that the Soviet Union and China were not linked together and they disagreed on many things. Nixon tries to split these two apart in order to further his friendship/partnership with both countries. |
| Watergate Scandal | A political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970's as a result of the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate business office complex in Washington D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. The scandal eventually led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, the President of the United States, on August 9, 1974, the only resignation of a U.S. President. The scandal also resulted in the indictment , trial, conviction and incarceration of 43 people including dozens of top Nixon administration officials. |
| Unique Presidency - Ford | As the first president appointed to the vice-presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment (after Spiro Agnew had resigned because he was in a scandal), when he became President upon Richard Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974, he became the only President of the United States who was never elected President nor Vice-President by the Electoral College. |
| Nixon Pardon | Ford pardoned Nixon to stop a civil war. Many young people, those for whom Nixon got the vote, eliminated the draft and got us out of Vietnam, were ready to pull Congress down. This was one of the first things Ford does in his presidency. He wanted to put the scandal behind and let the government go on. As right as it was, it cost him his presidency and will not be reelected. |
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