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Honors Modern American History and Government > Midterm > Flashcards

Midterm Flashcards

1
Q

An era of high tension and bitter rivalry between US and the Soviet Union following the end of WWII

A

Cold War

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2
Q

Term coined by Winston Churchill in 1946 to describe an imaginary line dividing Communist countries in the Soviet bloc from countries in Western Europe during the Cold War

A

Iron Curtain

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3
Q

US policy adopted in the late 1940s to stop the spread of Communism by providing economic and military aid to countries opposing the Soviets

A

Containment

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4
Q

American diplomat and expert on the Soviet Union; he developed the US policy of containment to counter Soviet expansion after WWII

A

George F. Kennan

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5
Q

1947, pledge to provide economic and military aid to countries threatened by Communism

A

Truman Doctrine

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6
Q

1947, plan for the reconstruction of Europe after WWII; announced by the US Secretary of State, George C. Marshall

A

Marshall Plan

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7
Q

A program in which the US and Britain shipped supplies by air to West Berlin during Soviet blockade of all routes to the city; lasted from 1948-1949

A

Berlin Airlift

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8
Q

An international defense alliance formed in 1949

A

NATO

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9
Q

Leader of the Chinese Nationalist government and a strong US ally; his government was defeated by the Communists in 1949

A

Chiang Kai-shek

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10
Q

Leader of the Chinese Communists, he led a successful revolution and established a Communist government in China in 1949

A

Mao Zedong

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11
Q

Committee formed in the House of Representatives in the 1930s to investigate radical groups in the US; it later came to focus on the threat of communism in the US during WWII and the Cold War

A

HUAC

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12
Q

Hollywood writers and directors who were thought to be radicals and called before HUAC; they refused to cooperate and were sentenced to short prison terms

A

Hollywood Ten

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13
Q

Former US government official who was accused in 1948 of participating in a Communist spy ring. He denied the charges, but was convicted of lying under oath in 1950

A

Alger Hiss

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14
Q

US senator from Wisconsin who gained national fame in the late 1940s and early 1950s by aggressively charging that communists were working in the US government. He lost support in 1954, after making baseless attacks on US Army officials

A

Joseph McCarthy

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15
Q

The name critics gave to Joseph McCarthy’s tactic of spreading fear and making baseless charges

A

McCarthyism

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16
Q

35th president of the US; he was the youngest person and the first Roman Catholic elected president. He was assassinated in Dallas, Texas in 1963

A

John F. Kennedy

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17
Q

Communist political leader of Cuba; he helped overthrow the Cuban government in 1959 and seized control of the country, exercising total control of the government and economy

A

Fidel Castro

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18
Q

1961, the failed attempt of Cuban exiles backed by US to overthrow the Cuban socialist government of Fidel Castro

A

Bay of Pigs Invasion

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19
Q

36th president of the US; he took office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy

A

Lyndon B. Johnson

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20
Q

1962; confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union over Soviet missiles in Cuba

A

Cuban Missile Crisis

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21
Q

A program that trains and sends volunteers to poor nations to serve as educators, health care workers, agricultural advisers, and in other jobs

A

Peace Corps

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22
Q

President Kennedy’s program to provide economic aid to Latin America

A

Alliance for Progress

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23
Q

A response strategy to nuclear tensions that involved strengthening conventional US forces to the nation would have options other than nuclear weapons in times of crisis

A

Flexible Response

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24
Q

The nickname given to President Kennedy’s plans for changing the nation

A

New Frontier

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25
Authorization to act
Mandate
26
American jurist and politician, he was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969. Under his leadership the court made many decisions that extended individual rights
Earl Warren
27
A term that refers to the years when Earl Warren served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Warren Court
28
A commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy
Warren Commission
29
Vietnamese revolutionary leader and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 to 1969; he wanted to bring communism to South Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh
30
A group that resisted the Japanese occupation in Vietnam
Vietminh
31
A belief that if Vietnam fell to Communists, other countries of Southeast Asia would follow
Domino Theory
32
Site of a battle between French and Vietminh in 1954; the French lost the battle and control of Vietnam
Dien Bien Phu
33
1954; international meeting in Geneva, Switzerland to restore peace in Indochina
Geneva Conference
34
Vietnamese political leader; he became president of South Vietnam in 1955. He was assassinated in 1963
Ngo Dinh Diem
35
The military forces of the National Liberation Front, a group that wanted to overthrow the government in Vietnam
Vietcong
36
1964; congressional resolution that authorized military action in Southeast Asia
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
37
A US bombing campaign in North Vietnam in March 1965
Operation Rolling Thunder
38
a series of major attacks launched by Communist forces in South Vietnam in 1968
Tet Offensive
39
American businessman and public official; he was the US secretary of defense from 1961-1968
Robert S. McNamara
40
American politician, he was a US senator who vied for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination against President Johnson
Eugene McCarthy
41
American politician, he was vice president under President Johnson, and presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in 1968 after Johnson decided not to seek re-election
Hubert Humphrey
42
American politician, he was a four-time governor of Alabama who fought against segregation in the South in the 1960s
George Wallace
43
German-born political scientist; he was an important foreign policy advisor during the 1960s and 1970s. HE won the Nobel Prize for Peace for negotiating the cease-fire agreement that ended the Vietnam War
Henry Kissinger
44
a plan to end the Vietnam war that involved turning over the fighting to the South Vietnamese while US troops gradually pulled out
Vietnamization
45
papers that revealed that government officials had been misleading the American people about the progress of the Vietnam War for many years
Pentagon Papers
46
basing foreign policies on realistic views of national interest rather than on broad rules or principles
Realpolitik
47
efforts President Nixon took in the late 1960s and early 1970s to lower Cold War tensions
Détente
48
discussions between the US and the Soviets to slow the ongoing arms race in the late 1960s and early 1970s
SALT I
49
organization that coordinates petroleum policies of major producing countries
OPEC, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
50
a political scandal that resulted in President Nixon's resignation in 1974
Watergate Scandal
51
38th President of the US; he became President after the resignation of Richard Nixon
Gerald R. Ford
52
39th president of the US; he negotiated a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2002 for his work in international diplomacy
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter
53
Continuing discussions in 1979 between the US; set limits on certain kinds of nuclear weapons
SALT II
54
1978; peace agreement mediated by President Carter between Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin
Camp David Accords
55
Islamic leader who led a revolution to overthrow Iran's government in 1979; he ruled the country for the next ten years on a strongly anti-American platform
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
56
American politician and the 40th president of the US; his presidency focused on arms control, economics, and the end of the Cold War
Ronald Reagan
57
a coalition of conservative media commentators, think tanks, and grassroots Christian groups
New Right
58
The economic theory that tax cuts and business incentives will stimulate the economy
Supply-Side Economics
59
the amount by which government spending for a year exceeds the government income
Budget Deficit
60
President Reagan's proposed defensive space shield that would knock out incoming Soviet missiles
Strategic Defense Initiative
61
Russian politician, he was the last president of the Soviet Union before the country's collapse in 1991
Mikhail Gorbachev
62
a treaty between the US and the Soviet Union that ordered the destruction of thousands of missiles
INF Treaty
63
The South African government's official policy of legalized racial segregation throughout society
Apartheid
64
secret US sales of weapons to Iran in an attempt to secure the release of US hostages held in Lebanon in 1968
Iran-Contra Affair
65
American politician and 41st president of the US; he was president at the end of the Cold War and during Operation Desert Storm
George H. W. Bush
66
Russian word for "opening"; refers to a new era of media freedom on the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev
Glasnost
67
Russian word for "restructuring"; refers to the restructuring of the corrupt government bureaucracy in the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev
Perestroika
68
1989; a large pro-democracy protest in China that resulted in the government using military force, killing hundreds
Tiananmen Square Massacre
69
President of Iraq from 1979-2003; he began wars with Iran and Kuwait, and established a brutal dictatorship in Iraq. He was captured and removed from power in 2003 by American-led forces; in 2006 he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal of crimes against humanity and was executed
Saddam Hussein
70
US led war to end Iraq's occupation of Kuwait in 1990-91
Operation Desert Storm
71
42nd president of the US; he became the second US president to be impeached
Bill Clinton
72
the use of violence by individuals and groups to advance political goals
Terrorism
73
1993; an agreement in which the US, Mexico, and Canada became one large free-trade zone
NAFTA
74
American politician and 43rd president of the US; the son of former president George H. W. Bush
George W. Bush
75
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., that took place on September 11, 2001
9/11
76
Founder of al Qaeda, the terrorist network responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001 and other attacks
Osama Bin Laden
77
Osama bin Laden's terrorist network
al Qaeda
78
group that took control over most of Afghanistan following the Soviet occupation in 1979
Taliban
79
US government department created by the Bush administration after the attacks of September 11, 2001, to protect the US
Department of Homeland Security
80
2001; law passed by congress making it easier for the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to collect information about suspected terrorists
USA Patriot Act

Honors Modern American History and Government (1 decks)

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