America in an Era of Turmoil (1960-1975)

Question 1

New Frontier

Answer 1

group of domestic policies proposed by John Kennedy that included Medicare and aid to education and urban renewal; many of these policies were not enacted until the presidency of Lyndon Johnson

Question 2

Great Society

Answer 2

overarching plan by President Johnson to assist the underprivileged in American society; it included the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Head Start and Medicare programs. Some Great Society programs were later reduced due to the Vietnam War

Question 3

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Answer 3

major civil rights legislation that outlawed racial discrimination in public facilities, in employment, and in voter registration

Question 4

Black power

Answer 4

philosophy of some younger blacks in the 1960s who were impatient with the slow pace of desegregation; its advocates believed that blacks should create and control their own political and cultural institutions rather than seeking integration into white-dominated society

Question 5

Roe v. Wade (1973)

Answer 5

Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal with some restrictions

Question 6

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Answer 6

Congressional resolution passed in August 1964 following reports that U.S. Navy ships had been fired on by North Vietnamese gunboats off the Vietnam coast; it gave the president the power to fight the Vietnam War without approval from Congress

Question 7

Students for a Democratic Society

Answer 7

radical, activist, student organization created in 1960 that advocated a more democratic participatory society. This was one of the major student organization opposing the Vietnam War

Question 8

Counterculture

Answer 8

movement by young people in the 1960s who rejected political involvement and emphasized the need for personal versus of political revolution. members of the counterculture wore long hair and experimented with drugs, sex, and unconventional living.

Question 9

Kent State University

Answer 9

campus in Ohio where four students who were part of a 1970 protest against U.S. involvement in Cambodia were shot and killed by National Guardsmen

Question 10

Warren Commission

Answer 10

group that investigated the assassination of JFK. After hearing testimony, the commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, although many conspiracy theorists questions these findings and believe Oswald did not act alone.

Question 11

Great Society

Answer 11

Aggressive program by president Johnson in 1965 to attack the major social problems in America; Great Society programs included the War on Poverty, Medicare and Medicaid programs for elderly Americans, greater protection for civil rights, and better funding for education. Balancing the Great Society and the Vietnam war would prove difficult for the Johnson administration.

Question 12

Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA)

Answer 12

program in 1964 that sent volunteers to help poor Americans living in urban and rural settings; this program was described as a domestic peace corps and was one of many initiatives that were a part of Johnson’s War on Poverty.

Question 13

Head Start

Answer 13

on of Lydon Johnson’s War on Poverty programs that gave substantial funding for a nursery school program to prepare children of poor parents for kindergarten.

Question 14

Medicare

Answer 14

part of Lydon Johnson’s Great Society program, this acted as a form of health insurance for retired/disabled Americans. Through Medicare, the federal government would pay for services received by elderly patients at doctor’s offices and hospitals.

Question 15

sit-in

Answer 15

tactic used by the civil rights movement in the early 1960s; a group of civil rights workers would typically occupy a lunch counter in a segregated establishment in the South and refused to leave, thus disrupting the business. During sit-ins, civil rights workers suffered physical and emotional abuse.

Question 16

Freedom Rides

Answer 16

buses of black and white civil rights workers who in 1961 rode on interstate buses to the Depp South to see if Southern states were abiding by the 1960 Supreme Court ruling banning segregation. Buses met mob violence in numerous cities and federal marshals were called in to protect the freedom riders.

Question 17

March on Washington

Answer 17

over 200,000 came to Washington for this August 1963 event demanding civil rights. MLK’s famous “I have a dream speech” was a key event and this was not lost on President Johnson who pushed for civil rights legislation the following year.

Question 18

Kerner Commission

Answer 18

established in 1967 to study the reason for urban riots, the commission spoke about the impact of poverty and racism on the lives of urban blacks in America and emphasized that white institutions created and condoned the ghettoes of America.

Question 19

black nationalism

Answer 19

spurred by Malcolm X and other black leaders, a call for black pride and advancement without the help of whites; this appeared to be a repudiation of the calls for peaceful integration by MLK. Race riots in Northern cities in the mid-1960s were at least partially fueled by black nationalism.

Question 20

Nation of Islam

Answer 20

supporters were called “Black Muslims” and this group was founded by Elijah Muhammad and preached Islamic principles along with black pride and black separatism. Malcolm X was a member of the Nation of Islam.

Question 21

Black Panthers

Answer 21

group founded in California to protect blacks from police harassment; promoted black militant power; also ran social programs in California cities. It was founded by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton.

Question 22

feminist movement

Answer 22

movement dedicated to the belief that women should have the same rights/benefits as men. Feminism gained supporters during the Progressive Era and in the 1960s. NOW was established in 1966 by Betty Friedan and had nearly 200,000 members in 1969.

Question 23

National Organization for Women (NOW)

Answer 23

to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men.

Question 24

American Indian Movement (AIM)

Answer 24

Native American organization founded in 1968 to protest government policies and injustices suffered by Native Americans; for example, in 1973 organized armed occupation of Wounded Knee.

Question 25

United Farm Workers

Answer 25

organized by Cesar Chavez in 1961, this union represented Mexican Americans engaged in the lowest levels of agricultural work. In 1965 Chavez organized a strike against grape growers that hired Mexican-American workers in California, eventually winning the promise of benefits and minimum wage guarantees for the workers.

Question 26

Bay of Pigs

Answer 26

failed 1961 invasion of Cuba by the U.S. which supported anti-Castro refugees and was designed to topple Castro from power. The prestige of the U.S. and the newly elected president JFK was damaged by this failed coup attempt.

Question 27

Berlin Wall

Answer 27

concrete structure built in 1961 by Soviets and East Germany physically dividing East and West Berlin. To many in the West, the wall was symbolic of Communist repression in the Cold War. The wall was torn down in 1989.

Question 28

Vietcong

Answer 28

forces that existed within South Vietnam that were fighting for the North Vietnamese. they were pivotal in the Tet Offensive and played a crucial role in the defeat of the South Vietnamese government.

Question 29

Tet Offensive

Answer 29

January 1968 attack launched on American and South Vietnamese forces by North Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers. Although Vietcong troops occupied the American embassy for several hours, the end result was a crushing defeat for the anti-American forces. The psychological effects left that Vietcong forces believed they could gain ground and left Americans feeling that the war would last for a long time.

Question 30

napalm

Answer 30

first used in flamethrowers for U.S. ground troops; they burned down sections of forest and bushes in hopes of eliminating any enemy guerrilla fighters. Napalm was banned by the 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons as an incendiary weapon with indiscriminate effects.

Question 31

My Lai Massacre

Answer 31

1968 unit under the command of Lieutenant William Calley killed over 300 people in this small Vietnamese village. The antiwar movement took the attack as a symbol of “immorality” of U.S. efforts in Vietnam.

Question 32

Port Huron Statement

Answer 32

manifesto of SDS, a radical student group from the 1960s. This called for a greater role for university students in the nation’s affairs, rejected the traditional role of the university, and rejected the foreign policy goals that America was embracing at the time.

Question 33

Free Speech Movement

Answer 33

protests at USC Berkley in 1964 and 1965 that opposed the control that the university and the “establishment” in general, had over the lives of university students. Protesters demanded changes in university regulations and also broader changes in American society.

Question 34

Woodstock Music Festival

Answer 34

1969 event that was viewed as the pinnacle of 1960s counterculture. 400,000 young people came together for a weekend of music and a lack of conflict. The difficulty of mixing counterculture and radical politics was demonstrated when Peter Townshend kicked Abbie Hoffman off the stage.

Question 35

Vietnamization

Answer 35

process begun by Nixon of removing American troops from Vietnam and turning more of the fighting over to the South Vietnamese. Nixon continued to use intense bombing to aid the South Vietnamese efforts as more American troops were being pulled out of Vietnam. In 1973, a peace treaty was finally signed with North Vietnam and in March 1975, Vietcong forces captured Saigon and won the war.

Question 36

Pentagon Papers

Answer 36

a government study of American involvement in Vietnam that outlined in detail many of the mistakes that America made there. In 1971, a former analyst for the Defense Department, Daniel Ellsberg, released these to the NYT.