| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Consensus of the '50's | general agreement in American culture based on values of the broad middle class "the American way" & mindless conformity |
| Worldwide Boom | increase in birth rates in US (Baby Boom) & other industrialized nations in years right after the war |
| Levittown, USA | William Levitt applies mass production techniques to housing (Cape Codder houses), identical communities pop up all over the nation (called Levittowns) |
| Interstate Highway Act | 1956 Eisenhower 20 yr plan to build 41,000 mi of highway, largest public works project in history |
| Suburbs | Fled from cities, Minorities excluded, religious fervor & divisions btwn faiths upheld ('54 addition of "under god" to pledge of alliegence) |
| Working Women | More women work outside home '40s - '60's & more go to college although less work professional jobs |
| Media Portrayal of Women | Madonna (Doris Day, housewife, mother etc) v. Whore (Marilyn Monroe, sexy, independent etc), no in-between |
| Kinsey Report | "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male ('48) & Female ('53)" scientific study by Alfred Kinsey, turned traditional presumptions about sex & marriage on its head |
| Farm Policy | response to surplus of agricultural goods; lower support payments system to discourage farmers from overproducing basic commodities (corn, cotton, wheat) soil bank program that paid farmers to take land out of production |
| The Lonely Crowd, David Riesman | '50 Reisman sociologist, condemned stifling conformity in book (mostly in the workplace) |
| The Organization Man, William Whyte | '56 book that took Riesman critique from workplace to the home |
| Juvenille Delinquency | On the rise, centered in high schools "mini melting pots" middle class kids exposed to/adopt habits of lower classes (cigarette smoking/t-shirt wearing etc) |
| Rock N Roll | merger of 3 styles, pop, country & R&B, "Earth Angel"(crossover) - "Shake, Rattle, and Roll"(1st rock song #1 on pop charts), Elvis Presley |
| Beat Generation | Beatniks, self consciously rejected "excessive spiritual bankruptcy of middle class culture" jazz, philosophy, sex & drugs, Jack Kerouac "On the Road" ('57 novel) |
| John Foster Dulles | Eisenhower's Sec. of State, teamed up to develop new foreign policy |
| "New Look" in Foreign Policy | "Bigger Bang for the Buck" emphasis in tech, reduction of standing army |
| Taiwan & Chiang Kai-Shek | Dulles threatened to "unleash" Chiang on China from his post in Taiwan, China threatened to invade, Eisenhower sent 7th fleet to protect the island |
| Dien Bien Phu | French Military base in Vietnam, Viet Minh overtook result; US steps in, Geneva, Ho Chi Minh withdraws troops N of 17th parallel |
| US backs Ngo Dinh Diem | Diem US installed leader of S. Vietnam, does not provide free elections (even though it was required by Geneva) supported by Dulles b/c communist Viet Minh would win if an election was held democratically |
| Mossadeq Overthrown | CIA overthrows nationalist Iranian Govt- Mohammed Mossadeq, Operation Ajax ('51) |
| Guatemala's democracy crushed | Guatemalan leader pissed off US business, branded a communist, CIA overthrows uncooperative Democracy in favor of a US cooperative Military Dictatorship |
| Nikita Khrushchev | Stalin's successor, eased iron fist of old regime amid bouts of nationalism in Soviet controlled Eastern Europe |
| Eisenhower Doctrine | President can preempt congress's power to declare war in times of crisis |
| Cuban Revolution & Castro | US supported Batista overthrown in favor of Communist Castro |
| Missile Gap | response to Sputnik, first Russian space satellite, possibility that Soviets have more missiles than US |
| U-2 incident | Soviets shot down US spy plane, pilot found alive, Eisenhower had to admit he had authorized the spying |
| Catholic Issue | JFK, 1st Catholic president, embraced it |
| Robert McNamara | JFK Secretary of Defense, a "whiz kid" intelligent, comfortable w/ power, not afraid to use it |
| Big Steel Showdown | Steel hikes prices agains Kennedy's will, JFK boycotts big steel, prices go down, JFK & business relations soured |
| Alliance for Progress, Peace Corps | Alliance w/ L. America based on economic progress, Program that provided support for developing nations |
| Space Program | developed in competition w/ Russians, 1969 US lunar landing Apollo 11 |
| Bay of Pigs Invasion | US invasion of Cuba, Humiliating disaster for JFK |
| Berlin Wall | Wall erected through Berlin to prevent people from East Berlin (Soviet, economic trouble) moving to West Berlin (US, thriving) |
| Cuban Naval Blockade | result of soviet nuclear offensive site built on Cuba (90 mi from US coast), blockade keeps additional supplies from reaching the island |
| Nuclear Test Ban treaty | Wake of Cuban Missile Crisis (climax of Cold War, closest weve ever come to nuclear war) Soviets & US agree to prohibit all above-ground nuclear tests, both nations choose to avoid annihilating the human race w/ nuclear war |
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