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Dwight D. Eisenhower
He was the 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. "D." stands for David. He was a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45 from the Western Front. -
Ray Kroc
Raymond Albert "Ray" Kroc, an American businessman and philanthropist. He joined McDonald's in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world. Kroc was included in Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, and amassed a fortune during his lifetime. He owned the San Diego Padres baseball team from 1974 until his death in 1984 -
Lyndon B. Johnson
36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969, assuming the office after serving as the 37th Vice President of the United States under President John F. Kennedy. Johnson was a Democrat from Texas, who served as a United States Representative from 1937 to 1949 and as a United States Senator from 1949 to 1961. He spent six years as Senate Majority Leader, two as Senate Minority Leader, and two as Senate Majority Whip. -
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States from 1969 to 1974. The only U.S. president to resign the office. Nixon had previously served as a U.S. Representative and Senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. -
John F. Kennedy
35th President of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the establishment of the Peace Corps, developments in the Space Race, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Trade Expansion Act to lower tariffs, the Civil Rights Movement, the "New Frontier" domestic program, and abolition of the federal death penalty in the District of Columbia all took place during his presidency. -
Betty Friedan
American writer, activist, and feminist. Leading figure in the women's movement in the United States. 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now in equal partnership with men." -
Roy Benavidez
Master Sergeant Raul Perez "Roy" Benavidez was a member of the United States Army Special Forces and retired United States Army master sergeant who received the Medal of Honor for his valorous actions in combat near Lộc Ninh, South Vietnam on May 2, 1968. Benavidez enlisted in the Texas Army National Guard in 1952 during the Korean War, In June 1955, he switched from the Army National Guard to Army active duty. -
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was an American political and social activist and anarchist who co-founded the Youth International Party. Hoffman was arrested and tried for conspiracy and inciting to riot as a result of his role in protests that led to violent confrontations with police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, along with Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. The group was known collectively as the "Chicago Eight." -
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
An investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. It was originally created in 1938 in order to uncover citizens with Nazi ties inside the United States, but it concentrated its efforts instead on investigating possible Communist Party infiltration. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security". When the House abolished the committee in 1975,[1] its functions were transferred to the House Judiciary Committee. -
War Powers Act
also known as the First War Powers Act, was an American emergency law that increased Federal power during World War II. The act was signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and put into law on December 18th, 1941, less than two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. -
Rock n' Roll
A genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, from a combination of African-American genres such as blues, boogie-woogie, jump blues, jazz, and gospel music, together with Western swing and country music. -
G.I. Bill (Servicemen's Readjustment Act 1944)
Any Department of Veterans Affairs education benefit earned by members of Active Duty, Selected Reserve and National Guard Armed Forces and their families. The benefit is designed to help servicemembers and eligible veterans cover the costs associated with getting an education or training. Law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans. -
Iron Curtain
the imaginary boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolized efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the west and non-Soviet-controlled areas. -
Cold War
The Cold War was a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact). -
Containment Policy
A United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge its communist sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. -
Truman Doctrine
an American foreign policy created to counter Soviet geopolitical hegemony during the Cold War. It was first announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947 and further developed on July 12, 1948 when he pledged to contain Soviet threats to Greece and Turkey. No American military force was involved; instead Congress appropriated a free gift of financial aid to support the economies and the militaries of Greece and Turkey. More generally, the Truman doctrine implied Americ -
Marshall Plan
Also known as the European Recovery Program, channeled over $13 billion to finance the economic recovery of Europe between 1948 and 1951. The Marshall Plan successfully sparked economic recovery, meeting its objective of ‘restoring the confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole.’ The plan is named for Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who announced it in a commencement speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. -
Berlin Airlift
On June 15, 1948, the Soviet authorities announced that the Autobahn, the highway connecting western Germany to Berlin, would be closed indefinitely “for repairs.” Then, they halted all road traffic from west to east, and barred all barge and rail traffic from entering West Berlin. Thus began the blockade of Berlin. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Also called the North Atlantic Alliance. An intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. NATO's headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, where the Supreme Allied Commander also resides. -
Beatniks
Beatnik was a media stereotype prevalent throughout the 1950s to mid-1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s. -
1950s Culture; 1960s Culture; 1970s Culture; 1980s Culture
The United States in the 1950s experienced marked economic growth. The counterculture movement dominated the second half of the 1960s. It was also full of drugs and new music. Historians have portrayed the 1970s as a "pivot of change" in world history focusing especially on the economic upheavals. The 1980s saw great socioeconomic change due to advances in technology and the beginning of globalization. -
1950s Prosperity (Rise of Suburbs and White Flight)
Racial fears, affordable housing, and the desire to leave decaying cities were all factors that prompted many white Americans to flee to Suburbia. White Flight is a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of people of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. -
McCarthyism
Making accusations of subversion or treason without proper evidence. It also means "the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism." During the McCarthy era, thousands of Americans were accused of being communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. -
Korean War
A war between North and South Korea, in which a United Nations force led by the United States fought for the South, and China fought for the North, which was also assisted by the Soviet Union. -
Rosenberg Trial
The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins in New York Southern District federal court. Judge Irving R. Kaufman presides over the espionage prosecution of the couple accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians (treason could not be charged because the United States was not at war with the Soviet Union). -
Baby Boom Generation
Baby boomers are people born during the demographic post–World War II baby boom approximately between the years 1946 and 1964. The post-war population increase was first described as a "boom" by Sylvia F. Porter in a column in the May 4th, 1951, edition of the New York Post, based on the increase in the population of the U.S. of 2,357,000 in 1950. -
Jonas Salk
American Medical Researcher and virologist. He discovered and developed the first successful polio vaccine. -
Domino Theory
The domino theory was a theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s, that speculated that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. The domino theory was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world. -
Space Race (Sputnik and Moon Landings)
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States for being the best in spaceflight capability. The Space Race spawned pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, unmanned space probes of the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon. The Soviet Union beat the US in having its first satellite in space, Sputnkik 1, and having the first man on the Moon, Yuri Gagarin. -
Vietnam War (including the Fall of Saigon 1975)
Also known as the Second Indochina War, was a Cold War-era proxy war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from November 1, 1955 to the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. The Fall of Saigon, or the Liberation of Saigon, was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People’s Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. -
Interstate Highway Act
Popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act. With an original authorization of US$100,000 for the construction of 41,000 miles (66,000 km) of the Interstate Highway System supposedly over a 10-year period, it was the largest public works project in American history through that time. the term "Defense" in the Act's title was for two reasons: First, some of the original cost was diverted from defense funds. Second, most US Air Force bases have a direct link to the system. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion, known in Latin America as Invasión de Playa Girón, was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506. Intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis, the Caribbean Crisis, or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning Soviet ballistic missiles deployment in Cuba. Along with being televised worldwide, it was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. -
Great Society
A set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The main goal was the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. -
Miranda v. Arizona
A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. 5-4 majority, the Court held that both inculpatory & exculpatory statements made in response to interrogation by defendant in custody will be admissible at trial only if prosecution can show that the defendant was informed of the right to consult with an attorney before & during questioning & of the right against self-incrimination before questioning, & that the defendant not only understood these rights, but voluntarily waived them. -
Anti-War Movement
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. Many activists distinguish between anti-war movements and peace movements. Anti-war activists work through protest and other grassroots means to attempt to pressure a government (or governments) to put an end to a particular war or conflict. -
Tet Offensive 1968
70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched the Tet Offensive (named for the lunar new year holiday called Tet), a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam. General Vo Nguyen Giap, leader of the Communist People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN), planned the offensive in an attempt both to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its support of the Saigon regime. -
Vietnamization
a policy of the Richard Nixon administration to end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War through a program to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops." -
26th Amendment
Changed a portion of the 14th Amendment. Section 1. 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. -
Rust Belt and Sun Belt
The Rust Belt area is a region that consists of areas in the Midwestern and Northeastern United States. The areas are particularly defined by cities that have depleted populations and economies by 1970. People moved there because of booming steel and iron industries there. The Sun Belt consists of the warm climate states that make up the Southern third of the Continental United States. The people who flocked to the Sun Belt included workers, immigrants, professionals, and retirees.
