Period 8 Part II (Chapters 8-15) Flashcards
(42 cards)
Domino Theory
To justify spending over $1 billion in aid for South Vietnam, President Eisenhower made what became a famous analogy to a row of dominoes. According to this domino theory, if South Vietnam fell under Communist control, one nation after another in Southeast Asia would also fall, until Australia and New Zealand were in dire danger.
SEATO
To prevent South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from “falling” to communism, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles put together a regional defense pact called the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Agreeing to defend one another in case of an attack within the region, eight nations signed the pact in 1954: the United States, Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand the Philippines, Thailand, and Pakistan.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
Allegedly, North Vietnamese gunboats had fired on U.S. warships in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam’s coast. The president persuaded Congress that this aggressive act was sufficient reason for a military response by the United States. Congress approved the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which basically gave the president, as commander-in-chief, a blank check to take “all necessary measures” to protect U.S. interests in Vietnam. Johnson used this small, obscure naval incident to secure congressional authorization to send U.S. forces into combat.
Credibility Gap
Misinformation from military and civilian leaders combined with Johnson’s reluctance to speak frankly to the American people about the scope and the costs of the war created what the media called a credibility gap.
Tet Offensive
On the occasion of the Lunar New Year (Tet) in January 1968, the Vietcong launched an all-out surprise attack on almost every provincial capital and American base in South Vietnam. Although the attack took a fearful toll in the cities, the U.S. military counterattacked, inflicted much heavier losses on the Vietcong, and recovered the lost territory. As a military attack, the Tet Offensive failed. Even so, it had tremendous impact in the United States. The millions of Americans who watched TV news footage of the destruction interpreted the attacks as a setback for Johnson’s Vietnam policy. Victory was not imminent. Thus, for the Vietcong and North Vietnamese, Tet was a tremendous political victory in demoralizing the American public. In the New Hampshire primary in February, the antiwar McCarthy took 42% of the vote against Johnson.
Hawks v. Doves
Supporters of the war, or “hawks”, believed that the war was an act of Soviet-backed Communist aggression against South Vietnam and that it was part of a master plan to conquer all of Southeast Asia. Opponents of the war, or “doves”, viewed the conflict as a civil war fought by Vietnamese nationalists and some Communists who wanted to unite their country by overthrowing a corrupt Saigon government.
Vietnamization
A process begun by President Nixon, who announced that he would gradually withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam and give the South Vietnamese the money, the weapons, and the training that they needed to take over the full conduct of the war. Under this policy, U.S. troops in South Vietnamese went from more than 540,000 in 1969 to under 30,000 in 1972. Extending the idea of disengagement to other parts of Asia, the president proclaimed the Nixon Doctrine, declaring that in the future Asian allies would receive U.S. support but without the extensive use of U.S. ground forces.
Kent State
IN April 1970, Nixon expanded the Vietnam War by using U.S. forces to invade Cambodia in an effort to destroy Vietnamese Communist bases in that country. A nationwide protest on college campuses against this action resulted in the killing of four youths by National Guard troops at Kent State University in Ohio and two students and Jackson State University in Mississippi. In reaction to the escalation of the war, the U.S. Senate (but not the House) voted to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Pentagon Papers
A secret government study documenting the mistakes and deceptions of the government policymakers in dealing with Vietnam. The papers had been turned over, or “leaked”, to the press by Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department analyst.
War Powers Act
Required Nixon and any future president to report to Congress within 48 hours after taking military action. It further provided that Congress would have to approve any military action that lasted more than 60 days.
Great Society
Lyndon Johnson’s presidential program. As the new president, Johnson was determined to expand the social reforms of the New Deal. During his almost 30 years in Congress, he had learned how to get things done.
War on Poverty
In his best-selling book on poverty, The Other America (1962), Michael Harrington helped focus national attention on the 40 million Americans still living in poverty. President Johnson responded by declaring in 1964 an “unconditional war on poverty” and was supported in his goals by a Democratic Congress.
Silent Spring
Clean air and water laws were enacted in part as a response to Rachel Carson’s exposé of pesticides, Silent Spring (1962). This novel explained the negative environmental effects of DDT, a potent insecticide that had been used in American agriculture. Carson argued that unchecked industrial growth would destroy animal life and ultimately human life on earth. This best-selling book forced Americans to question whether “better living through chemistry” was the solution to or the cause of the emerging environmental crisis.
Immigration Act of 1965
Abolished discriminatory quotas based on national origins.
Letter from Birmingham Jail
From his jail cell, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an essay in which he argued, “[W]e need emulate neither the ‘do-nothingism’ of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the Black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle. . . .One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. . . .” This letter moved President Kennedy to support a tougher civil rights bill.
March on Washington 1963
In August 1963, King led one of the largest, most successful demonstration in U.S. history. About 200,000 Black and White people joined the peaceful March on Washington in support of jobs and the civil rights bill. The highlight of the demonstration was King’s impassioned “I Have a Dream” speech, which appealed for the end of racial prejudice and ended with everyone in the crowd singing “We Shall Overcome.”
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Made segregation illegal in all public facilities, including hotels and restaurants, and gave the federal government more power to enforce school desegregation.
24th Amendment
Abolished the practice of collecting a poll tax, one of the measures that, for decades, had discouraged poor people from voting.
Voting Rights Act 1965
Ended literacy tests and provided federal registrars in areas where African Americans had been kept from voting since Reconstruction.
Black Muslim
Seeking a new cultural identity based on Africa and Islam, the Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad preached Black nationalism, separatism, and self-improvement. The movement had already attracted thousands of followers by the time a young man named Malcolm Little became a convert while serving in prison. He adopted the name Malcolm X. Leaving prison in 1952, Malcolm X acquired a reputation as the movement’s most controversial voice. He criticized King as “an Uncle Tom” (subservient to Whites) and advocated self-defense — using Black violence to counter White violence. He eventually left the Black Muslims and moved away from defending violence, but he was assassinated by Black opponents in 1965.
Black Panthers
In 1966, the Black Panthers were organized by Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and other militants as a revolutionary socialist movement advocating self-rule for American blacks.
The Feminine Mystique
A book by Betty Friedan that gave the women’s movement new direction by encouraging middle-class women to seek fulfillment in professional careers in addition to filling the roles of wife, mother, and homemaker.
NOW
The National Organization for Women, which adopted the activist tactics of other civil rights movements to secure equal treatment of women, especially for job opportunities.
Title IX
A statute to end sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. Though far-reaching, the law is best known for its requirement that schools provide girls with equal athletic opportunities.
