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Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower led the massive invasion of Nazi occupied Europe that begon on D-Day. He ran for president and won serving two terms. Eisenhower managed the Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union under the threat of nuclear weapons. He strengthened Social Security by creating the Interstate Highway System. -
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Ray Kroc
Reay Kroc was an American entepreneur, he was best known for expanding McDonald's from a local chain to the the most profitable restaurant. Before becoming involved with McDonald's , Kroc worked as a salsemen for 17 years after World War I. He baught this restaurant in 1961. Kroc died at the age of 81 -
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Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th president of the United States after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He launched a progressive reform aimed at alleviating poverty and creating what he called a "Great Society" for all Americans. Kenedy also introduced things like Medicare and Head Start. Although he did many things that were good for us he failed to lead the nation out of Quagmire of the Vietnam War -
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Richard Nixon
Richarn Nixon was the 37th United States president ever to resign from office. Not wanting to face impeachmetn he stepped down halfway along his second term. He was going to be impeached over his efforts to cover up illegal activities by members in his administration in the Watergate scandal. His acheivments included forging diplomatic ties with China and the Soviet Union and withdrawing U.S troops from war in Vietnam -
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Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk developed the first vaccine for polio in 1955. In 1942 he became part of a group in the University of michigan School of Public Health to develop a vaccine against the flu. Later in 1947 he became head of the Virus Research Lab at the University of Pittsburgh. This is where he began the research for the polio vaccine. The vaccine was first released in the US on April 12, 1955. -
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John F. Kennedy
Jonh F. Kennedy became president in 1960. He was the first Roman Catholic to hold that office. Kennedy confronted many Cold War tensions including Cuba and Vietnam. He also renewed drive for public service and provided federal support for the growing civil rights movement. His assassination led him to be a more heroic figure. -
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Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan was a writer, a feminista and a women's rights activist. She published The Feminine Mystiqu in 1963, it was based on the fulfillment that woman had beyond their traditional roles. Friedan co-founded the National Orginization for Women in 1966 and served as their first president. -
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Gary Powers
Gary Powers was a CIA pilot and was charged with espionage by the Soviet Union on July 8, 1960. He was chaged after flying a secret mission over Moscow. The CIA recruited him in 1956 to fly U-2, a spy plane that could reach 80,000 feet making it vulnerable to Soviet anti-aircraft weapons. This plane was equipped with a camera. -
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Roy Benavidez
Roy Benavide was a soldier in the Vietman War. Roy was in the choper helicopter trying to rescue his fellow soldiers. He jumped out of the helicopter to rescue his friends that were surrounded. Although he was injured along the way he was able to help. He was given medals of honor for his bravery -
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Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman's career started with some civil rights work for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Soon after he starts using drugs and is in counterculture politics. He created the Youth International Party which was a flaboyant political group with no official membership or leadership. -
Huac
The House Un-American Activities Committee was founded in 1938. It was chaired by conservative Texas Democrat, Martin Dies. In 1969 it announces a new focus, domestic terrorism and received a new name, the House Internal Security Committee. Six years later in the beginning of Vietname and Watergate the full House abolished the committee. -
Venona Paper
The Venona Project was started in 1943. It was started under the orders of Cheif Military Intelligence. Clarke did not trust Joseph Stalin and feared that the Soviet Union would sign a seperate peace with the Third Reich. This would allow Germany to focus its millitary forces against Great Britiain and the US. -
G.I. Bill
The GI Bill was created to help veterans of World War II. It established hospitals and made low-interest motgages available and granted stipends covering tuition and expenses for veterans attending college or trade schools. Nearly 9 million veterans received close to $4 billion from the bill's unemployment compensation program. -
Iron Curtain
The term Iron Curtain had been in occasional and varied use as a metaphor since the 19th century. It came to prominence after it was used by the former British prime miniter Winston Churchill in a speech at Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946. In his speech of the communist states he said, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. -
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Baby Boom
Almost 9 months after world war ii ended "the cry of the baby was heard across the land." More babies were born in 1946 than ever before. This was the beginning of the baby boom. In 1947 another 3.8 million babies were born. Soldiers went home moved to a more promising land and started making families. -
Truman Doctrine
President Harry S. Truman presented this address before a joint session of Congress. His messages, known as the Truman Doctrin, asked Congress for $400 million in military and economic assisstance for Turkey and Greece. That would guide US diplomacy for the next 40 years. He declared, "It must be the policy of the US to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." -
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Cold War
Conflicts of national interst caused the World War II between the US and the Soviet Union to be replaced by a Cold War that lasted 45 years. At first the dispute over the future of Europ, it gre to include confrontations around the world -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery Program, channeled over $13 billion to finance the economic recovery of Europ between 1948 and 1951. It 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 commencent speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. -
Containment Policy
An article in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine proposed that the West adopt a policy of containment toward the Soviet Union. The articles author George Kennan who set up the US embassy in Moscow in 1943 called on the US to take steps to prevent Socievt expansion. He was convinced that if the Soviet Union failed to expand, its social system would eventually break down. -
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Berlin Airlift
On June 24, 1948 the Soviet Union blocked all road and taril travel to and fromWest Berlin, which was located within the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany. The Soviet action was in response to the refusal of American and British officials to allow Russia more say in the economic futur and Germany. On June 26, 1948, the first planes took off from bases in England and western Germany and landed in West Berlin. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Orginization (NATO) was created by the US, Canada and several Western European nations in1949. Its goal was to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the US entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere.The US veiwed an economically strong, rearmed and integreted Europe as vital to the prevention of communist expansion across the continent. -
Domino Theory
The domino theory began in the early 1950s. It was thought that if communist was victorious in one nation other would follow quickly. In Southeast Asia the US gvernemtn used the domino theory to justify its support of non-communist regime in South Vietnam against communist government of North Vietnam. -
1950's Prosperity/ Culture
During the 1950s the US was the world's strongest military power. Its economy was booming and it had begun the proserity of new cars and suburban houses were available to more people than ever before. The 50s were also an era of great conflict. The nascent civil rights movenment and the crusde against communism at home and abroad the exposed the underlying division in American Society. -
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Korean War
The Korean War began when soldiers fron the North Korean Peopl's Army went across the 38th parallel, the boundry between the Soviet backed Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. By July Americans troops had entered the war on South Korea's side. It was war against the forces of international communism. -
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Resenberg Trial
The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins in New York Southern District federal court. Judge Irving R. Kaifman presides over the espionage prosecution of the couple accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians. The Rosenbergs, and co-defendent, Morton Sobell, were defended by the father and sone team of Emanuel and Alexander Bloch. -
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Space Race
The space race was a competition between USA and USSR to explore space in different methods. In America the space program was headed by the National Aronautics and Space Administration who were given control of all non military activity in Space. -
1960s Culture
In the beginning of the 60s, many Americans beleived they were standing at the dawn of a golden age. John F. Kennedy became president in 1961. The governmetn possessed big answers to big problem. However this golden age never materialized. By the end of the 1960s it seemed that the nation was falling apart. -
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Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs invasion began when a CiA-financed and trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the communist government of FIdel Castro. The attack was a failure. On that day around 1,200 exiles armed with American eapons and using American landing craft waded ashore at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The hop was that the exile force would serve as a rallying point for the Cuban citenry, who would upthrow Castro's govt. -
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Cuban Missle Crisis
The Cuban Crisis is a time whenthe US and the Soviet Union almost had a nuclear war. After the US discovered offensive nuclear missles in Cuba it started a tense period of 13 days while everyone else watched to see of the Soviets would remove the missles just 90 miles from the US. -
Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave broad congressional approval for expansion of the Vietnam war. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his advisers feared that the public would not support an expansion of the War. Rebel forces had established control over nearly half of South Vietnam. Senator Baryy Goldwater, the republican nominee for president was criticizing the Johnson administration for not pursuing the war more aggressively -
Great Society
In his State of the Union address President Lyndon B. Johnson outlined the goals of the Great Society. They were a set of domectic programs designed to advance civil rights and aid those in poverty. Later in May he introduced his vison of it again. He said "The great society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice to which we are totally comitted in our time." -
Medicare & Medicaid
In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Medicare into law. Medicare is a health insurance program for elderly Americans. Former President harry S. Truman was enrolled as Medicare's first beneficiary and received the first medicare card. Johnson wanted to recognize him because he was the first president to propose national health insurance which was opposed by Congress during his time. medicaid was established to help those who received help with money. Today there are others who have medicaid. -
Anti-War Movement
When the war bagn in Vietnam many Americans beleived that defending South Vietnam from communist aggression was in the national interest. As the war draged on more and more Americans grew weary of mounting casualties and escalating costs. The draft was another source of resentment among college students. The average age of those drafted was 19. Student did not like that they were old enough to fight and die and not be able to vote or drink. -
Tet Offensive
Some 70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched the Tet Offensive. It was a coordinated series of feirce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam. The leader of the Communist People's Army of Vietnam, General Vo Nguyen Giap, planned the offensive in an attempt to foment rebellion among the South population and encourage the US to scale back its support of the Saigon regime. -
Rust Belt & Sun Belt
Immediatly following American industry was at the peak of its dominance. American people were moving to these cities, many in the north and Midwestern parts of the US. By 1950s the decline in factories the high unemployment the region got its nickname Rust Belt. With this loss people started moving to the suburbs in the south. The Sun Belt is the lower third of the country. There was new things like AC. -
1970 Culture
Women, African Americans, Native Americans, gays and lesbians and others continued to fight for equality. Many Americans joined the protest against the ongoing war in Vietnam. A "new Right" mobilized in defense of political conservatism and traditional family roles and the behavior of President Richard Nixon undermined many people's faith in the good intentions of the federal government. By the end of the decade these divisions and dissapointments had set a tone for public life that many would a -
Fall of Saigon
Saigon was the capital cit of South Vietname. It fell to North Vietnamese forces. The fall of Saigon marked the end of the Vietnam war. After the indroduction of Vietnamisation, US forces in South Vietnam had been reduced leaving the military of South Vietnam to defend their country agaisnt the North -
1980 Culture
Many Americans embraced a new conservatism in social, economic and political life during the 1980s, characterized by policies of President Ronald Reagan. Often remembered for its materialsim and consumerism the decade also saw the rise of the "yuppie" an explosion of blocksbuster movies and the emergence of cable networks like MTV which intoduced the music video and launched the careers of many iconic stars.
