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The Eisenhower Era

Terms in this set (33)

Dwight Eisenhower
President who sent federal troops to Little Rock to guarantee that the nine African-American students were protected and integration would occur.
Joseph McCarthy
US senator; claimed that their were Soviet spies and Communists within the government but had no evidence; discredited by the US senate
Earl Warren
Chief Justice on the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969, presided over the Brown V. Board of Education case
Rosa Parks
United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery (Alabama) and so triggered the national civil rights movement (born in 1913)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A noted orator, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Nobel Peace Prize (1964)
Ho Chi Minh
1950s and 60s; communist leader of North Vietnam; used geurilla warfare to fight anti-comunist, American-funded attacks under the Truman Doctrine; brilliant strategy drew out war and made it unwinnable
Ngo Dinh Diem
American ally in South Vietnam from 1954 to 1963; his repressive regime caused the Communist Viet Cong to thrive in the South and required increasing American military aid to stop a Communist takeover. he was killed in a coup in 1963.
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Arab leader, set out to modernize Egypt and end western domination, nationalized the Suez canal, led two wars against the Zionist state, remained a symbol of independence and pride, returned to socialism, nationalized banks and businesses, limited economic policies
Nikita Khrushchev
ruled the USSR from 1958-1964; lessened government control of soviet citizens; seeked peaceful coexistence with the West instead of confrontation
Fidel Castro
Cuban revolutionary leader who overthrew the regime of the dictator Batista in 1959 and soon after established a Communist state
John F. Kennedy
35th President of the United States 35th President of the United States; only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize; events during his administration include the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement and early events of the Vietnam War; assassinated in Dallas, TX in 1963
Betty Friedan
1921-2006. American feminist, activist and writer. Best known for starting the "Second Wave" of feminism through the writing of her book "The Feminine Mystique".
McCarthyism
In 1950, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy began a sensational campaign against communists in government that led to more than four years of charges and countercharges, ending when the Senate censured him in 1954. McCarthyism became the contemporary name for the red scare of the 1950's.
"Creeping Socialism"
Eisenhower's idea that the government was regulating too many things in business which was mostly a result of FDR's New Deal programs which led to his laissez faire policy
Desegregation
abolishment of racial segregation (Little Rock and MLK)
"Massive Retaliation"
The "new look" defense policy of the Eisenhower administration of the 1950's was to threaten "massive retaliation" with nuclear weapons in response to any act of aggression by a potential enemy.
Military-Industrial Complex
The private corporations and governmental institutions which control and equip the U.S. military - mainly the Pentagon, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy (nuclear weapons and research), and the private which operate military production plants for a profit.
Feminism
a belief that the sexes are equal in all categories including social, political, and economic elements. A political movement originated around this belief.
Brown v. Board of Education
1954 - The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.
Plessy v. Ferguson
a 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal
White Citizens' Councils
This was a white supremacist organization formed in 1954. It amounted to about 60,000 members, most being in the South. It opposed integration and fought for the protection of the "European-American" culture against other ethnicities. Members were highly associated with the KKK.
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957, primarily a voting rights bill, was the first civil rights legislation enacted in the United States since Reconstruction. It was proposed by Congress to President Dwight Eisenhower.
Geneva Conference
French wanted out of Vietnam , the agreement signed by Ho Chi Minh France divided Vietnam on the 17th parallel, confining Minh's government to the North. In the South, an independent government was headed by Diem.
South East Asia Treaty Organization
To contain the Soviet Union and China, the United States made several alliances with anti-Communist governments in the region. Japan, Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan all signed treaties that joined Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand to a collective defense of the region.
Hungarian Revolt
When the Hungarians tried to win their freedom from the Communist regime in 1956, they were crushed down by Soviet tanks. There was killing and slaughtering of the rebels going on by military forces.
Suez Crisis
Nasser took over the Suez Canal to show separation of Egypt from the West, but Israel, the British, Iraq, and France were all against Nasser's action. The U.S. stepped in before too much serious fighting began.
Eisenhower Doctrine
Eisenhower proposed and obtained a joint resolution from Congress authorizing the use of U.S. military forces to intervene in any country that appeared likely to fall to communism. Used in the Middle East.
Landrum-Griffith Act
When the United States was in desperate need of a labor reform, because many union leaders and big industries were involved in many scandals, Congress passed this act to prevent bullying tactics and make labor leaders keep accurate financial records.
U-2 Incident
The incident when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. The U.S. denied the true purpose of the plane at first, but was forced to when the U.S.S.R. produced the living pilot and the largely intact plane to validate their claim of being spied on aerially. The incident worsened East-West relations during the Cold War and was a great embarrassment for the United States.
Sputnik
First artificial Earth satellite, it was launched by Moscow in 1957 and sparked U.S. fears of Soviet dominance in technology and outer space. It led to the creation of NASA and the space race.
"Missile Gap"
The United States and the Soviet Union were involved in a race to discover who had more missiles and war equipment. The missile gap was the difference in how much the United States had compared to how much the Soviet Union had.
National Defense Education Act
Passed in response to Sputnik, it provided an oppurtunity and stimulus for college education for many Americans. It allocated funds for upgrading funds in the sciences, foreign language, guidance services, and teaching innovation.
The Feminine Mystique
written by Betty Friedan, journalist and mother of three children; described the problems of middle-class American women and the fact that women were being denied equality with men; said that women were kept from reaching their full human capacities
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