US History Final - Semester 2

Herbert Hoover

Hoover was blamed for the Great Depression; homeless shelters called “Hoovervilles"; cut taxes and increased spending for public works; Revenue Act; expanded credit

FDR’s Response to the Great Depression

New Deal; fireside chats; alphabet agencies; Emergency Banking Act; bank holiday

Great Depression

unemployment, poverty, and despair among people; became widespread a year after Wall Street collapsed in 1929

Banking Crisis

banks unable to stay open; people who had money in banks that closed lost their money; FDR called a “bank holiday”

Fireside Chats

radio chats hosted by FDR to keep the nation “informed and inspired”; informal

Three R’s of the New Deal

recovery, reform, and relief

Appeasement

Chamberlain and Daladier agreed to allow Hitler to take the Sudetenland - but nothing more; “peace for our time”; Hitler took Czechoslovakia

D-Day

Operation Overlord; June 6, 1944; Allies landed on 5 beaches in Normandy, France; largest invasion in history; France, Holland, and Belgium were freed

Start of WWII

Hitler invaded Poland in 1939

Pearl Harbor

Dec 7, 1941; Japanese warplanes attacked Pearl Harbor; 300 aircraft destroyed in 3 hours; not a complete success for either

Atomic Bomb

Allies wanted Japan to surrender; first bomb dropped on August 6 on Hiroshima; second dropped on August 9 in Nagasaki; Japanese surrendered on August 14

FDR’s Presidency

committed to forming the UN; served four terms; died 8 weeks after Yalta

Cold War

began in 1945; ended in 1991; US and USSR had a severe mistrust of each other; US was worried about Communism spreading; USSR was mad at US for entering the war so late

Brown v. Board of Education

US Supreme Court ruled it was illegal to segregate schools; “separate is not equal"; created legal foundation to challenge segregation law; NAACP won

Civil Rights Movement

During the 1960s, more and more Americans started supporting the legitimate demand for equal rights for all black Americans; Civil Rights Act of 1964; Voting Rights Act of 1965; 24th Amendment

Interstate Highway System

is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States; Dwight D Eisenhower

Berlin Wall

“peaceful coexistence”; Soviets and Americans clashed over Berlin; Berlin Wall was erected to prevent East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin

New Frontier

the name of Kennedy’s legislative program; Peace Corps; Alliance for Progress

JFK Presidency

nominated in 1960; 1st televised debates between presidential candidates; Youngest person ever elected; first catholic president; embodied a dramatic change; appealed to patriotism; assassinated in 1963

Vietnam War

US was helping South Vietnam to defend against Communism from the North and Viet Cong- pro-communist South Vietnamese guerrillas; Gulf of Tonkin; Tet Offensive; Paris Peace Talks; war was said to be unwinnable; lack of commitment from the public

Space Race

race between US and USSR for the technology and space exploration; began in 1955; Soviets put the first man-made satellite in orbit in 57 with Sputnik I and the first man in space in 61; America landed the first man on the moon in 69

Medicare

government health insurance program to help elderly people pay for medical care

Roe v. Wade

1973; the Supreme Court declared that most state laws that restricted abortion were unconstitutional

Impeachment

a charge of misconduct made against the holder of a public office; if the official is convicted they are removed from office

Gerald Ford’s Presidency

initially replaced Spiro Agnew as V.P.; reputation as a decent and honest man; Nixon pardon; first person to serve as president who had never been elected as president or vice president; many countries fell to communism and the economy was sluggish

25th Amendment

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Stagflation

high inflation and high unemployment experienced at the same time

Nixon Pardon

Ford pardoned Nixon from any crimes he may have committed; caused Ford’s popularity to fall

Watergate

in 1973 police arrested 5 burglars who had broken into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Office Complex; the Watergate Affair called for further investigation revealing a pattern of questionable and illegal activities- Spiro Agnew taking bribes, Nixon’s recording devices in the Oval Office

Carter Doctrine

the US would resist any Soviet attempt to push farther south into the Persian Gulf

Iranian Hostage Crisis

when Carter allowed the Shah into the US, angered Iranians took 50+ Americans hostage; sanctions, negotiations, world opinions, and military rescues failed; hostages were released when the next president was inaugurated

SALT II Treaty

was to limit the number and kinds of nuclear weapons of the Soviets and Americans; failed to pass because of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan- muhajjadeen

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would invalidate many state and federal laws that discriminate against women; its central underlying principle is that sex should not determine the legal rights of men or women; failed to be ratified

Ronald Reagan’s Presidency

Reagan Revolution; Reaganomics; Economic Tax Recovery Act of 1981; budged deficit, national debt increased; economy rebounded in 1983; Reagan Doctrine; START; Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty; Strategic Defense Initiative; Iran-Contra Affair ruined second term; increased military budget

Grenada

US invaded and established a new, anti-Communist government; meant to send a message to stop Communism

Contras

anti-Communist guerrillas in Nicaragua

Sandra Day O’Connor

the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; She was both the first woman nominated and the first confirmed to the court; Nominated by Ronald Reagan in 1981

Iran-Contra Affair

members of the National Security Council sold weapons to Iran in exchange for help releasing American hostages in Lebanon; money from the arms deal was sent to help the Contras; urt Reagan’s Reputation

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

nicknamed the "Star Wars program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons; announced by President Ronald Reagan

Reaganomics

Reagan’s prescription for America’s inflation ills was supply-side economics; higher productivity and a larger supply of goods help lower prices and energize the economy by providing fuller employment; “trickle-down economics”

Mikhail Gorbachev

leader of the Soviet Union; called for perestroika “restructuring” and glasnost “openness”; START; INF Treaty

US Patriot Act

signed in 2001 to fight terrorism and increase safety by George W Bush

Department of Homeland Security

the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security; Its stated missions involve anti-terrorism, border security, immigration and customs, cyber security, and disaster prevention and management; It began operations in 2003, formed as a result of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, enacted in response to the September 11 attacks.

Gulf War

a 1990–1991 armed campaign in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm; came to a close with the American-led Liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.

Osama Bin Laden

founder of Al Qaeda; planned the 9/11 attacks; subject of a decade long manhunt; killed on May 2, 2011

Impeached Presidents

Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021; Nixon faced inquiries but resigned