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Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
investigate Fascist and Communist activities in the United States but came into prominence -
G.I. Bill (Servicemens Readjustment Act 1944)
Signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 22, 1944, this act, also known as the GI Bill, provided veterans of the Second World War funds for college education, unemployment insurance, and housing. -
Cold War
the state of political hostility that existed between the Soviet bloc countries and the US-led Western powers from 1945 to 1990. -
Baby Boom Generation
massive increase in births following World War II. Baby boomers are those people born worldwide between 1946 and 1964, the time frame most commonly used to define them. -
the notional barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West prior to the decline of communism that followed the political events in eastern Europe in 1989.
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Containment Policy
A United States foreign policy doctrine adopted by the Harry S. Truman administration in 1947, operating on the principle that communist governments will eventually fall apart as long as they are prevented from expanding their influence. -
Truman Doctrine
American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. -
Marshall Plan
A program by which the United States gave large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after the devastation of World War II. -
Berlin Airlift
brought food and other needed goods into West Berlin by air after the government of East Germany -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
intergovernmental military alliance between several North American and European countries based on the North Atlantic Treaty -
McCarthyism
campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy -
Rock n' Roll
characterized by a heavy beat and simple melodies. Rock and roll was an amalgam of black rhythm and blues and white country music, -
1950's Prosperity
The economy overall grew by 37% during the 1950s. -
Levittown
Levittown is the name of seven large suburban housing developments -
Beatniks
a young person in the 1950s and early 1960s belonging to a subculture associated with the beat generation. -
Korean war
between North Korea, aided by Communist China, and South Korea, aided by the United States and other United Nations members forming a United Nations armed force: truce signed July 27, 1953. -
Jonas Salk
a specialist in virology, Salk vaccine that is injected against poliomyelitis -
Rosenberg Trial
American couple who were executed in 1953 as spies for the Soviet Union -
Domino Theory
he theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Created the domino theory -
Vietnam War
was a Cold War conflict pitting the U.S. and the remnants of the French colonial government in South Vietnam against the indigenous but communist Vietnamese -
Ray Kroc
Founder of McDonalds. -
interstate Highway Act
National Interstate and Defense Highways Act -
Space race
the competition between nations regarding achievements in the field of space exploration. -
Sputnik
the first satellite to be placed in orbit. -
Anti-War Movement
is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. -
JFK
sent military advisors and then troops into South Vietnam. After Kennedy's assassination -
Cuban Missile Crisis
A confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962 over the presence of missile sites in Cuba -
Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic party political leader of the twentieth century, who was president -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
joint resolution that the United States Congress passed in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. -
Great Society
a domestic program in the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson that instituted federally sponsored social welfare programs. -
Tet Offensive
A series of major attacks by communist forces in the Vietnam War. Early in 1968, Vietnamese communist troops seized and briefly held some major cities at the time of the lunar new year -
Betty Friedan
was an American writer, activist, and feminist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States. Friedan signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to withhold tax payments as an act of protest against the Vietnam War. -
Vietnamization
the US policy of withdrawing its troops and transferring the responsibility and direction of the war effort to the government of South Vietnam. -
Moon Landing
Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins—who lay in the couches of an Apollo spacecraft bolted atop a Saturn V launch vehicle, awaiting ignition of five clustered rocket engines to boost them toward the first lunar landing. -
Richard Nixon
President Nixon believed his Vietnamization strategy, which involved building up South Vietnam's armed forces and withdrawing U.S. troops, would prepare the South Vietnamese to act in their own defense against a North Vietnamese takeover and allow the United States to leave Vietnam with its honor intact. -
26th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age. -
War Powers Act
allows Congress to limit the President's use of military forces. It states that the President must tell Congress within 48 hours if he sends armed forces anywhere, and Congress must give approval for them to stay there for more than 90 days. -
Russ Belt V. Sun Belt
deindustrialization, or economic decline, population loss, and urban decay due to the shrinking of its once-powerful industrial sector.