Post WWII- The War on Terrorism
Unit 8
Overview of GPS: 20, 21, 25
I. SSUSH20: The student will analyze the domestic and international impact of the Cold War on the
US.
a. Describe the creation of the Marshall Plan, U.S. commitment to Europe, the Truman Doctrine, and the
origins and implications of the containment policy.
b. Explain the impact of the new communist regime in China and the outbreak of the
Korean War and how these events contributed to the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
c. Describe the Cuban Revolution, the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban missile crisis.
d. Describe the Vietnam War, the Tet offensive and growing opposition to the war.
II. SSUSH21: The student will explain economic growth and its impact on the United States, 1945-
1970.
a. Describe the baby boom and its impact as shown by Levittown and the Interstate
b. Describe the impact television has had on American culture; include the presidential debates
(Kennedy/Nixon,1960) and news coverage of the Civil Rights Movement.
c. Analyze the impact of technology on American life; include the development of the personal computer
and the cellular telephone.
d. Describe the impact of competition with the USSR as evidenced by the launch of Sputnik I and President
Eisenhower’s actions.
III. SSUSH25: The student will describe changes in national politics since 1968.
a. Describe President Richard M. Nixon’s opening of China, his resignation due to the Watergate scandal,
changing attitudes toward government, and the Presidency of Gerald Ford.
b. Explain the impact of Supreme Court decisions on ideas about civil liberties and civil rights; include
such decisions as Roe v. Wade (1973) and the Bakke decision on affirmative action.
c. Explain the Carter administration’s efforts in the Middle East; include the Camp David Accords, his
response to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and the Iranian hostage crisis.
d. Describe domestic and international events of Ronald Reagan’s presidency; include Reaganomics, the
Iran-contra scandal, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
e. Explain the relationship between Congress and President Bill Clinton; include the North American Free
Trade Agreement and his impeachment and acquittal.
f. Analyze the 2000 presidential election and its outcome, emphasizing the role of the electoral college.
g. Analyze the response of President George W. Bush to the attacks of September 11, 2001, on the United
States, the war against terrorism, and the subsequent American interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I. SSUSH20: Describe the creation of the Marshall Plan, U.S. commitment to Europe, the Truman
Doctrine, and the origins and implications of the containment policy.
Marshall Plan
The European Recovery Program, better known as the Marshall Plan for Secretary of State George
Marshall, was America’s main program for rebuilding Western Europe and opposing communism after
World War II. The plan was put into action in July 1947 and operated for four years. During that time, the
United States spent thirteen billion dollars on economic and technical assistance for the war-torn
democratic European countries that had been nearly destroyed during World War II. The Marshall Plan
offered the same aid to the Soviet Union and its allies if they would make political reforms and accepts
certain outside controls; however, the Soviets rejected this proposal.
Commitment to Europe
To halt the spread of communism to Western Europe from the Soviet-controlled nations of Eastern Europe,
the United States formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (http://www.nato.int/) with many
of the noncommunist nations in Europe, including former wartime allies Britain and France. In response,
the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact, an alliance of the communist nations it controlled in Eastern
Europe. Convinced the Soviets were attempting to establish a sphere of influence throughout the world, the
United States viewed these actions as a direct threat to American security. This determination to stop the
spread of communism is known as the policy of containment and was the basis for many U.S. foreign
policy decisions during the Cold War.
Europe during the Cold War-Blue- NATO - Red- Warsaw Pact
White- Neutral
NATO’s evolution
Truman Doctrine
In 1947, President Harry S. Truman proclaimed the Truman Doctrine. It stated the United States would
supply any nation with economic and military aid to prevent its falling under the Soviet sphere of influence.
Truman called upon the United States to “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by
armed minorities or by outside pressures.” Although Truman never referred directly to the U.S.S.R.,
anyone who heard the declaration, including the Soviet leaders, knew the Soviets were the “outside
pressures” Truman talked about.
The Cold War involved the building of physical and figurative walls. The Soviets built physical walls to
keep citizens of communist nations in, and democratic influences out. The Berlin Wall is a good example of
the walls the Soviets built. The United States built figurative “walls” surrounding communist nations to
keep their influence from spreading. An example of a figurative wall built by the United States is the 38th
Parallel, which divides North Korea from South Korea. The conflicts that arose between communist and
democratic nations were usually the result of attempts to break through these walls.
. Explain the impact of the new communist regime in China and the outbreak of the
Korean War and how these events contributed to the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
China Becomes a Communist Country.
For 2 decades, Chinese Communists had struggled against the nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek.
The US supported Chiang; during 1945-1949, the American government sent the nationals approximately
$3 Billion in aid. Many Americans were impressed by Chiang and admired the courage and determination
that the Chinese Nationalists showed in resisting the Japanese during then War. But US officials that dealt
with Chiang’s government found it corrupt and inefficient. Furthermore, the policies of Chiang’s
government undermined the Nationalists support. For example, the Nationalists collected a grain tax even
during the famine of 1944. When people protested a 10,000 percent increase in the price of rice, Chiang’s
secret police opened fire on the crowd.
In contrast, the Communists led by Mao Zedong gained strength through the country. In areas that they
controlled, they worked to win peasants support. They encouraged reading, writing, and help to improve
food production. People flocked to the Red Army
Korean War
In 1950, the United States and the democratic government of South Korea went to war against the
communist government of North Korea. North Korea was being aided by the new Chinese communist
government that had recently won the Chinese Civil War.
Combat began when communist troops invaded South Korea. The United States sent its troops to force the
communists back to North Korea and drove them across the border.
The U.S. troops then followed the enemy into North Korea in an effort to eliminate communism from the
Korean peninsula. When the Americans reached the border between North Korea and China, the Chinese
attacked, forcing the Americans back to
South Korea.
At the end of World War II, the Allies agreed that Soviet forces would accept the surrender of Japanese
troops in Korea north of the 38th degree of latitude, while American troops would accept the Japanese
surrender south of that line. In 1947, after the failure of negotiations to achieve the unification of the two
separate Korean states that had thus been created, the United States turned the problem over to the United
Nations. The Soviet Union refused to cooperate with UN plans to hold general elections in the two Koreas,
and as a result, a Communist state was permanently established under Soviet auspices in the north and a
pro-Western state was set up in the south. By 1949 both the United States and the Soviet Union had
withdrawn the majority of their troops from the Korean Peninsula.
On June 25, 1950, the North Koreans, with the tacit approval of the Soviet Union, unleashed a carefully
planned attack southward across the 38th parallel. The United Nations Security Council met in emergency
session and passed a resolution calling for the assistance of all UN members in halting the North Korean
invasion. (The Soviet delegate, who was absent from the Security Council in protest against the UN's
failure to admit the People's Republic of China, was not present to veto the council's decision.) On June 27,
U.S. president Harry S. Truman, without asking Congress to declare war, ordered United States forces to
come to the assistance of South Korea as part of the UN "police action."
In the first weeks of the conflict the North Korean forces met little resistance and advanced rapidly. By
Sept. 10 they had driven the South Korean army and a small American force to the Busan (Pusan) area at
the southeast tip of Korea. A counteroffensive began on Sept. 15, when UN forces made a daring landing at
Incheon (Inchon) on the west coast. North Korean forces fell back and MacArthur received orders to pursue
them into North Korea. On Oct. 19, the North Korean capital of Pyongyang was captured; by Nov. 24,
North Korean forces were driven by the 8th Army, under Gen. Walton Walker, and the X Corp, under Gen.
Edward Almond, almost to the Yalu River, which marked the border of Communist China. As MacArthur
prepared for a final offensive, the Chinese Communists joined with the North Koreans to launch (Nov. 26)
a successful counterattack. The UN troops were forced back, and in Jan., 1951, the Communists again
advanced into the South, recapturing Seoul, the South Korean capital.
After months of heavy fighting, the center of the conflict was returned to the 38th parallel, where it
remained for the rest of the war. MacArthur, however, wished to mount another invasion of North Korea.
When MacArthur persisted in publicly criticizing U.S. policy, Truman, on the recommendation of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff removed (Apr. 10, 1951) him from command and installed Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway as
commander in chief. Gen. James Van Fleet then took command of the 8th Army. Ridgway began (July 10,
1951) truce negotiations with the North Koreans and Chinese, while small unit actions, bitter but
indecisive, continued. Gen. Van Fleet was denied permission to go on the offensive and end the “meat
grinder” war.
The war's unpopularity played an important role in the presidential victory of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who
had pledged to go to Korea to end the war. Negotiations broke down four different times, but after much
difficulty and nuclear threats by Eisenhower, an armistice agreement was signed (July 27, 1953).
Casualties in the war were heavy. U.S. losses were placed at over 54,000 dead and 103,000 wounded, while
Chinese and Korean casualties were each at least 10 times as high. Korean forces on both sides executed
many alleged civilian enemy sympathizers, especially in the early months of the war.
A FEW FACTS ABOUT "THE FORGOTTEN WAR"
33,741 US Dead, 23,615 Killed In Action, 92,134 US Wounded**
http://www.korean-war.com/USUnits.html US military units involved in Korean War.
(A 16-inch salvo from the USS Missouri at Chong Jin, Korea, in effort to cut Northern Korean
communications. October 21, 1950)
More information on Korea War: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/korea.htm
McCarthyism
Americans had an increased fear of communism after a communist regime took control of China in 1950
and the United States and South Korea went to war against North Korean communists who were being
aided by China’s new communist government. This spread of communism in Asia encouraged a desire
among some Americans to stop communism from spreading to the United States. A series of “Red Scares,”
highlighted by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s statements about alleged communist infiltration of the
U.S. government and U.S. Army, led to civil rights violations of those who were communists, were
suspected of being communists, or were suspected of knowing someone who might be a communist.
US Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R) WI.
In office: January 3, 1947 – May 2, 1957
Cuba
In 1956, Fidel Castro led the Cuban Revolution. Moncada Barracks, and ended in triumph with the ousting
of dictator Fulgencio Batista. After a tremendous failure at Moncada, nearly all of the rebels were killed or
captured. At his trial, Fidel Castro gave his famous speech, History Will Absolve Me, and was pardoned
after only two years. When released, he was forced into exile for his safety. In Mexico, he trained an army
which he prepared for a guerilla war against Batista. On December 2, 1956, Castro and 82 others aboard the
Granma landed in Cuba. Their numbers were quickly reduced by Batista's soldiers, but most of the
important leaders made their way into the Sierra Maestra mountains.
The rebel forces began to rely on the peasants for support. Batista took to ruthlessly attacking pro-Castro
towns, which only stirred up more support for the rebel leader. A movement in the cities began as well.
Frank País, whom Castro had left in charge while in exile, began to attack the Batista government in
various ways. Anti-Batista students, though not associated with the Castro-led group of rebels,
unsuccesfully led an armed assault on the Presidential Palace. On May 24, 1958, Batista launch Operación
Verano. With seventeen battalions, tanks, planes, and ships, they planned to enter the Sierra Maestra and
force a showdown with Castro's rebels. Though greatly outnumbered, the rebels repeatedly inflicted heavy
casualties on the army and drove them back.
Columns commanded by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Raúl Castro, Camilo Cienfuegos, and others, took on
army units many times their size.
Batista's army was unprepared for the fighting conditions and the guerilla style of warfare; consequently,
desertion and surrender were commonplace among the dictator's forces. Eventually, Batista decided the
situation was hopeless.
His generals had arrived at the same conclusion, and were glad when Batista decided to give up the fight.
Batista fled to Spain, by then having amassed a fortune of $300 million through bribery and embezzlement.
Santa Clara was taken by Guevara's army, who then turned towards Havana. Santiago was surrendered
without a fight. The forts in Havana also surrendered, and Castro's forces occupied the city, bringing their
military victory to a close.
Castro became prime minister of Cuba early in 1957 and, at first, had American support. However, when he
allied himself with the Soviet Union, suspended all elections, and named himself president for life, the
United States turned against Castro.
In 1961, 1,500 Cuban exiles armed and trained by the CIA tried to stage an invasion at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs.
The small force was crushed by Castro after President Kennedy refused to involve the U.S. Armed Forces.
Twelve hundred of the invaders were captured, and the United States was forced to give fifty three million
dollars’ worth of food and supplies to Cuba for release of the captives.
The Soviets believed that, because Kennedy refused to involve the American military in Cuban affairs, he
would not interfere if the Soviets built military missile launch sites in Cuba, so they installed Soviet
missiles. The Soviet plan was that Cuba could use these missiles to prevent another U.S. - planned
invasion.
When an American spy plane took photos of a Soviet nuclear missile site being built in Cuba,
(
(Photos taken from US U-2 Spy plane 1962.)
Kennedy immediately began planning a response. Kennedy saw the photographs on October 16;[14] he
assembled the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm), fourteen key officials
and his brother Robert, at 9.00 a.m. The U.S. had no plan for dealing with such a threat, because U.S.
intelligence was convinced that the Soviets would not install nuclear missiles in Cuba. The EXCOM
quickly discussed five courses of action:
1. do nothing
2. use diplomatic pressure to get the Soviet Union to remove the missiles
3. an air attack on the missiles
4. a full military invasion
5. The naval blockade of Cuba, which was redefined as a more restrictive quarantine.[15]
Unanimously, the Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed that a full-scale attack and invasion was the only solution.
They agreed that the Soviets would not act to stop the U.S. from conquering Cuba; Kennedy was skeptical,
saying:
They, no more than we, can let these things go by without doing something. They can't, after all their
statements, permit us to take out their missiles, kill a lot of Russians, and then do nothing. If they don't take
action in Cuba, they certainly will in Berlin.
President Kennedy with Sec of Defense Robert McNamara
By October 19, frequent U-2 spy flights showed four operational sites. The 1st Armored Division was sent
to Georgia, and five army divisions were alerted for maximal action. The Strategic Air Command (SAC)
distributed its shorter-ranged B-47 Stratojet medium bombers to civilian airports and sent aloft its B-52
Stratofortress heavy bombers. While both types were on alert to be ready to attack, the key point of the B-
52 airborne alert is that a bomber in the air is invulnerable to an attack on its base. Dispersing the B-47s
presented the presumed enemy with a much harder mission of attacking every airfield containing bombers.
Another ExComm war meeting showed that air attacks would kill 10,000 to 20,000 people. Another spy
flight discovered bombers and cruise missiles on Cuba's north shore, and Kennedy authorized the blockade
of Cuba.
When the press questioned him about Cuban offensive weapons, Kennedy told them to suppress their
reports until after he addressed the nation; that evening he told the United Kingdom and other allies.
At 7 p.m. on October 22, President Kennedy delivered a televised radio address announcing the discovery
of the missiles
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/jfk-cuban.htm
Range of Soviet SS-4 MRBM and SS-5 IRBM’s in Cuba 1962.
Finally the Soviets agreed to remove their missiles if the United States would remove its nuclear missiles
installed near the Soviet Union in Turkey. The two nations removed their missiles in what is now known as
the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Vietnam War
US Involvement 1945-1975
Money-Advisers-War.
The Vietnam War was a struggle for control of Vietnam. While the conflict originally began during the
French colonial rule in the region, the United States became involved in the 1950s by providing economic
and limited military aid. Then, in the early 1960s, U.S. involvement began to increase; it lasted until the
early 1970s. The democratic government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States, battled
communist North Vietnam and a military organization called the Viet Cong. U.S. policymakers believed
that if Vietnam came to be ruled by a communist government, communism would spread throughout
Southeast Asia and perhaps beyond.
US Escalates the Vietnam War: On August 2, 1964, the USS Maddox, on an intelligence mission along
North Vietnam's coast, fired upon and damaged several torpedo boats that had been stalking it in the Gulf
of Tonkin. A second attack was reported two days later on the USS Turner Joy and Maddox in the same
area. The circumstances of the attack were murky. Lyndon Johnson commented to Undersecretary of State
George Ball that "those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish." The second attack led to
retaliatory air strikes, prompted Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and gave the president
power to conduct military operations in Southeast Asia without declaring war. In the same month, Johnson
pledged that he was not "... committing American boys to fighting a war that I think ought to be fought by
the boys of Asia to help protect their own land."
Major Battles of the Vietnam War
Battle at the Hamlet of Ap Bac - January 2, 1963
Siege of Khe Sanh - January 21, 1968
Tet Offensive - January 30
First Battle of Saigon - March 7, 1968
Eastertide Offensive - March 30, 1972
Fall of Saigon - April 29, 1975
In 1968, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese army started the eight-month-long Tet Offensive. It was the
Viet Cong’s largest and most damaging campaign of the entire war. Ultimately, the Tet Offensive failed to
achieve its goal of driving the Americans out of Vietnam but it did lead many people in the United States to
question how and why Johnson had told them America was winning the war.
Early on 31 January 1968, North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces attacked 27 of South Vietnam's 44
provincial capitals and scores of villages. Timed to take advantage of a truce declared for the annual lunar
New Year celebrations, it utterly failed to prompt an uprising, although government supporters were
methodically massacred in a telling use of terrorism. With the exception of the battles of Saigon and Hué,
US and South Vietnamese forces quickly defeated the attacks and Vietcong units indigenous to South
Vietnam were indeed decimated.
But the Tet offensive was a brilliant political success for Hanoi. Believing that progress was being made in
the war, members of the Johnson administration and the American public was shocked by the scope and
intensity of the offensive. On 31 March, a haggard Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek re-
election and the long process of disengagement began.
This led some Americans who had been quiet up until then to raise their voices in protest against the war.
Many college campuses were home to groups formed to protest American involvement in Vietnam. The
goals of these groups differed, but most favored ending the draft and removing all American troops from
Vietnam.
Anti-Vietnam Protest in Washington Dc 1970
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon occurred on April 30, 1975 when the South Vietnamese government announced its
unconditional surrender to the Vietcong.
The President, Duong Van Minh, who has been in office for just three days, made the announcement in a
radio broadcast to the nation early in the morning. He asked the South Vietnamese forces to lay down
their arms and called on the Vietcong to halt all hostilities.
Directly addressing the Enemy forces, he stated: "We are here to hand over to you the power in order to
avoid bloodshed."
The announcement was followed by the swift arrival of Vietcong troops. Their entrance was virtually
unopposed, contradicting any predictions of a long and bloody final battle for the city.
The front line of tanks smashed through the gates of the presidential palace within minutes, and at 1130
local time (0330 GMT), decades of war came to an end.
Vietcong troops, many barefoot and some no more than teenagers, rounded up government soldiers, and
raised their red and blue flags. The looting which has ravaged the city over the last 24 hours stopped, and
power was restored later in the day. Only the United States embassy remained closed and silent,
ransacked by looters.
Saigon was immediately renamed Ho Chi Minh City. A statement by the Provisional Revolutionary
Government, or PRG, in Paris, promised a policy of non-alignment, and the peaceful reunification of
Vietnam.
The capitulation of the South Vietnamese government came just four hours after the last frenzied
evacuation of Americans from the city. President Ford, who had requested humanitarian aid for the
Vietnamese, let it be known that he was proud to have saved what Vietnamese he could in the last, frantic
helicopter evacuation.
There is said to be deep humiliation in the United States government at the desperation and chaos of the
final hours of America's presence in Vietnam.
The President ordered United States ships to remain indefinitely off the Vietnamese coast to pick up
refugees: but even this gesture was snubbed by the North Vietnamese, who have prevented any more
refugees from fleeing.
The US involvement in Vietnam was over.
Evacuation of refugees in Saigon, South Vietnam
II SSUSH 21: The student will explain economic growth and its impact on the US 1945-1970.
a. Describe the baby boom and its impact as shown by Levittown and the Interstate
Economic Growth
After World War II, soldiers returned home to America and settled back into the lives they had left behind.
One effect of this was a huge growth in population called the Baby Boom. From the mid-1940s to the mid-
1960s the birthrate quickly increased, reaching its high point in 1957, a year when over four million babies
were born. The generation referred to as Baby Boomers is the largest generation in American history.
Another effect of the soldiers’ return was a housing shortage. The veterans’ new and growing families
needed homes to live in. In response, housing developers such as William Levitt created methods of
building houses faster, cheaper, and more efficiently.
These methods led to the creation of the first suburbs–communities outside of a city and mostly made up of
single-family houses for people whose family members worked in the city. The first example of a suburb
was on New York’s Long Island, where William Levitt’s Levittown was the first master-planned
community in America.
Because the new suburbs were outside the limits of large cities, there was little public transportation
available for the suburban residents. They needed cars and increased car ownership meant more roads were
needed, so Congress passed the Interstate Highway Act, authorizing the construction of a national
network of highways to connect every major city in America. In all, 41,000 miles of new expressways, or
freeways, were built.
It was a record-size public works project.
US Interstate Highway system.
Television Changes
B. Describe the impact television has had on American culture; include the presidential debates
(Kennedy/Nixon, 1960) and news coverage of the Civil Rights Movement.
The first regular television broadcasts began in 1949, providing just two hours a week of news and
entertainment to a very small area on the East Coast. By 1956, over 500 stations were broadcasting all over
America, bringing news and entertainment into the living rooms of most Americans.
In the 1960 national election campaign, the Kennedy/ Nixon presidential debates were the first ones ever
shown on TV. Seventy million people tuned in. Although Nixon was more knowledgeable about foreign
policy and other topics, Kennedy looked and spoke more forcefully because he had been coached by
television producers. Kennedy’s performance in the debate helped him win the presidency. The Kennedy/
Nixon debates changed the shape of American politics.
Vice-President Richard Nixon Senator John F. Kennedy
TV newscasts also changed the shape of American culture. Americans who might never have attended a
civil rights demonstration saw and heard them on their TVs in the 1960s. In 1963, TV reporters showed
helmeted police officers from Birmingham, Alabama, spraying African American children who had been
walking in a protest march with high-pressure fire hoses, setting police dogs to attack them, and then
clubbing them. TV news coverage of the civil rights movement helped many Americans turn their
sympathies toward ending racial segregation and persuaded Kennedy that new laws were the only way to
end the racial violence and give African Americans the civil rights they were demanding.
The President is killed.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald,
apprehended for the crime, was himself fatally shot by Jack Ruby before he could be formally charged or
brought to trial. Four days after Kennedy and Oswald were killed; President Lyndon Johnson created the
Warren Commission to investigate the assassination.
John F. Kennedy's grave with Eternal Flame at Arlington National Cemetery. On March 14, 1967
Kennedy's body was moved to a permanent burial place and memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
Eternal Flame Lee Harvey Oswald
Kennedy's life and the subsequent conspiracy theories surrounding his death have been the inspiration for
many films. Recent ones include Nigel Turner's 1988 mini series The Men Who Killed Kennedy, Oliver
Stone's 1991 blockbuster, JFK, and 1993's JFK: Reckless Youth, which looked at Kennedy's early years.
John F. Kennedy was the most recent Democratic president to push for income tax cuts to improve the
economy. He was also the most recent Northern Democrat to win the Presidency.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/
.
Racial Integration
African Americans fought bravely in World War II and also worked in war industries in the United States
during the war. After the war, they once again faced the racial discrimination that had been traditional
before the war, but many people took bold actions to end discrimination and promote integration. Review
the following details of six major events in the recent history of the civil rights movement.
• 1948––President Harry Truman issued an executive order to integrate the U.S. Armed Forces and end
discrimination in the hiring of U.S. government employees. In turn, this led to the civil rights laws enacted
in the 1960s.
• 1954––In the Brown v. Board of Education case, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that state laws
establishing “separate but equal” public schools denied African American students the equal education
promised in the 14th Amendment. The Court’s decision reversed prior rulings dating back to the Plessy v.
Ferguson case in 1896. Many people were unhappy with this decision, and some even refused to follow it.
The governor of Arkansas ordered the National Guard to keep nine African American students from
attending Little Rock’s Central High School; President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock to
force the high school to integrate.
• 1963––Martin Luther King, Jr., was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, while demonstrating against
racial segregation. In jail he wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail to address fears white religious leaders
had that he was moving too fast toward desegregation. In his letter, King explained why victims of
segregation, violent attacks, and murder found it difficult to wait for those injustices to end. Later the same
year, King delivered his most famous speech, I Have a Dream, to over 250,000 people at the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington, D.C. In this speech, King asked for peace and racial harmony.
• 1964––The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon
Johnson. This law prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and gender. It allowed
all citizens the right to enter any park, restroom, library, theater, and public building in the United States.
One factor that prompted this law was the long struggle for civil rights undertaken by America’s African
American population. Another factor was King’s famous I Have a Dream speech; its moving words helped
create widespread support for this law. Other factors were news reports of presidential actions that
combated civil rights violations, such as Truman’s in 1948 and Eisenhower’s in 1954, and Kennedy
sending federal troops to Mississippi (1962) and Alabama (1963) to force the integration of public
universities there.
• 1965––The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed the requirement for would-be voters in the United States
to take literacy tests to register to vote because this requirement was judged as unfair to minorities. The act
provided money to pay for programs to register voters in areas with large numbers of unregistered
minorities, and it gave the Department of Justice the right to oversee the voting laws in certain districts that
had used tactics such as literacy tests or poll taxes to limit voting.
SSUSH 21-c. Analyze the impact of technology on American life; include the development of the personal
computer and the cellular telephone
Technological Wonders
In addition to the television, other post-War advances in technology brought Americans closer together
than ever before. Telephone lines covered the country, allowing people to stay in contact regardless of
distance. By the 1970s, early versions of today’s personal computers, the Internet, and cellular phones
gave a few Americans a glimpse of the technologies that someday would connect everyone to each other
regardless of where they were and would become as common as typewriters and public phone booths were
in the 1970s.
Early Personal Computer
First Cellular Phone 1973 by Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola.
SSUSH 21-d. Describe the impact of competition with the USSR as evidenced by the launch of Sputnik I
and President Eisenhower’s actions.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite–Sputnik I–a feat that caused
many Americans to believe the United States had “fallen behind” the Soviet Union in terms of
understanding science and the uses of technology. Sputnik traveled around the globe at 18,000 miles per
hour circling the globe once every 96 minutes. The success of the Soviet satellite launch led to increased
U.S. government spending on education, especially in mathematics and science, and on national military
defense programs. President Eisenhower and some of his advisors, when they realized the significance of
the Soviet achievement, met to discuss the alarming developments. The first attempt by the Americans was
a miserable failure, with the rockets toppling to the ground in a huge fireball. However, on January 31,
1958, the US launched its first satellite- Explorer I. However, it took later successes in the 1960s for the
United States to surpass the propaganda coup achieved with the launch of Sputnik. Moreover, Sputnik I
increased Cold War tensions by heightening U.S. fears that the Soviet Union might use rockets to launch
nuclear weapons against the United States and its allied nations.
Sputnik I Explorer I US President Eisenhower
III. SSUSH25: The student will describe changes in national politics since 1968.
a. Describe President Richard M. Nixon’s opening of China, his resignation due to the Watergate scandal,
changing attitudes toward government, and the Presidency of Gerald Ford.
President Nixon and President Ford Administrations Richard Nixon’s presidency was one of great
successes and criminal scandals.
President Nixon’s visit to China in 1971 was one of the successes. This was an important step in formally
normalizing relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. It marked the first time
a U.S. president had visited the PRC, who at that time considered the U.S. one of its staunchest foes. He
visited to seek scientific, cultural, and trade agreements and to take advantage of a 10-year standoff
between China and the Soviet Union. Nixon hoped to win the Chinese to his side in case he had future
negotiations with the Soviets.
US President Richard Nixon meets with Chinese Leader Mao Zedong, 1972
Later, Nixon was part of the Watergate scandal, which centered on his administration’s attempt to cover
up a burglary of the offices of the Democratic Party in the Watergate apartment and office complex in
Washington, D.C. The crime was committed by Nixon’s reelection campaign team, who sought political
information. Nixon won reelection in 1972, but his efforts to cover up the crime soon unraveled and, facing
impeachment, he resigned in 1974.
Richard Nixon
The scandal left Americans dismayed by Nixon’s actions and cynical about politics in general. It also led to
changes in campaign financing and to laws requiring high- level government officials to disclose their
finances. Because Nixon and many of the people involved in Watergate were lawyers, the reputation of the
legal profession suffered too. Nixon was succeeded by his vice president, Gerald Ford, whose two- year
presidency was damaged by his connection to Nixon. It was damaged again when he pardoned Nixon for
any crimes he may have committed. One bright spot is that the Vietnam War ended during the Ford
administration by following a path established by Nixon, but Ford’s domestic policies failed to stop
growing inflation and unemployment, and America experienced its worst economic recession since the
Great Depression.
SSUSH 25 b. Explain the impact of Supreme Court decisions on ideas about civil liberties and civil rights;
include such decisions as Roe v. Wade (1973) and the Bakke decision on affirmative action.
Supreme Court Decisions
The Supreme Court ruled on many cases that would change the perception of civil liberties and civil rights
in America. Two controversial cases with the greatest impact were Roe v. Wade and Regents of University
of California v. Bakke (also known as the Bakke decision).
· Roe v. Wade––1973–– Argued December 9, 1971, Reargued October 11, 1972, Decided January 22,
1973. -- Addressed the right of women to choose whether to have an abortion under certain circumstances.
By expanding the constitutional right of privacy to include abortion, the Court extended civil liberties
protections. The Roe v. Wade decision prompted national debate that continues today. Debated subjects
include whether and to what extent abortion should be legal, who should decide the legality of abortion,
what methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication, and what the role should be of
religious and moral views in the political sphere. Roe v. Wade reshaped national politics, dividing much of
the nation into pro-Roe (mostly pro-choice) and anti-Roe (mostly pro-life) camps, while activating
grassroots movements on both sides.
· Regents of University of California v. Bakke––1978–– Argued October 8, 1977 Decided June 28, 1978--
Ruled race can be used when considering applicants to colleges, but racial quotas cannot be used. The
Court barred the use of quota systems in college admissions but expanded Americans’ civil rights by giving
constitutional protection to affirmative action programs that give equal access to minorities.
.SSUSH 25- c. Explain the Carter administration’s efforts in the Middle East; include the Camp David
Accords, his response to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and the Iranian hostage crisis.
Carter Administration
Jimmy Carter’s presidency was strongly influenced by international issues. He tried to bring peace to the
Middle East and, in the Camp David Accords, negotiated a peace agreement between the Egyptian
president and the Israeli prime minister at Camp David (a presidential retreat in Maryland) in 1978. This
was the first time there had been a signed peace agreement between Middle Eastern nations. Although the
agreement left many differences unresolved, it did solve urgent problems facing the two nations.
US President Jimmy Carter (C) Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (L) Egyptian President Anwar El
Sadat (R)
In 1978, the Iranian Revolution replaced a shah (king) friendly to America with a Muslim religious
leader unfriendly to America. When Carter let the shah enter the United States for medical treatment, angry
Iranian revolutionaries invaded the U.S. embassy in Iran and took 52 Americans captive. The Iranian
Hostage Crisis lasted 444 days, until the captives were released after the election of Ronald Reagan as
president, and it nurtured anti-Americanism among Muslims around the world.
US Hostage in Iran 1979 Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Ayatollah Khomeini
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 U.S.
diplomats were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of
Islamist students took over the American embassy in support of the Iranian revolution.
The episode reached a climax when after failed attempts to negotiate a release, the United States military
attempted a rescue operation, Operation Eagle Claw, on April 24, 1980, which resulted in an aborted
mission, the crash of two aircraft and the deaths of eight American military men and one Iranian civilian.
Operation Eagle Claw: These units are known to have participated:
USS Nimitz (CVN-68), Marine Detachment and Battle Group (USS California (CGN-36), USS
South Carolina (CGN-37) and USS Texas (CGN-39))
USS Coral Sea (CV-43), Marine Detachment and Battle Group
1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (“Delta Force”), including mission commander
Col. Charlie Beckwith and subsequent notables Maj. Peter Schoomaker (later Army Chief of
Staff), Maj. William G. Boykin (later Lt. Gen.), and MSG Eric L. Haney (later Command
Sergeant Major and author of Inside Delta Force)
75th Ranger Regiment
United States Army Special Forces
USS Okinawa (LPH-3), 31st M.E.U., 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, and HMM-165 (see numerous
Navy and Marine Corps deployment reports)
USAF 1st Special Operations Wing, 8th and 16th Special Operations Squadrons (AC-130/MC-
130), USAF RED HORSE units, and numerous support organizations
USAF 1st Combat Communication Group
Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron FOURTEEN (RH-53D Sea Stallions)
It ended with the signing of the Algiers Accords in Algeria on January 19, 1981. The hostages were
formally released into United States custody the following day, just minutes after the new American
president Ronald Reagan was sworn in.
SSUSH 25- d. Describe domestic and international events of Ronald Reagan’s presidency; include
Reaganomics, the Iran-contra scandal, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
US President Ronald Reagan
Reagan Administration
Ronald Reagan was president for much of the 1980s. During that time, many important events helped shape
American politics to this day. As a conservative, Reagan wanted to decrease the size and role of the federal
government.
-Reaganomics was the nickname for Reagan’s economic policy. It included budget cuts, tax cuts, and
increased defense spending. By cutting social welfare budgets, his policy hurt lower-income Americans
and, overall, Reaganomics led to a severe recession.
-The Iran-Contra Scandal was Reagan’s biggest failure in international policy. Administration officials
sold weapons to Iran––an enemy of the United States–– and then violated more laws by using the profits
from those arms sales to fund a rebellion in Nicaragua fought by rebels called the Contras (a Spanish
nickname for “counter-revolutionaries”). Details of this scandal are still largely unknown to the public.
It began as an operation to improve U.S.-Iranian relations, wherein Israel would ship weapons to a
relatively moderate, politically influential group of Iranians; the U.S. would then resupply Israel and
receive the Israeli payment. The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the
release of six U.S. hostages, who were being held by the Lebanese Shia Islamist group Hezbollah. The plan
eventually deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold
weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages. Large modifications to the plan
were conjured by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a
portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anti-communist
rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua. While President Ronald Reagan was a supporter of the Contra cause,
there has not been any evidence uncovered showing that he authorized this plan.
Lt Col. Oliver North, USMC
-The collapse of the Soviet Union was Reagan’s biggest success in international policy. The Soviet
Union’s last leader set up policies allowing freedom of speech and of the press and other reforms putting
the U.S.S.R. on a path to democratic government, but these reforms got out of the leader’s control and
eventually led to the breakup of the 15 states that were the Soviet Union. Five of those states now comprise
Russia, and the other ten are independent countries.
“We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance
of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that
would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General
Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if
you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down
this wall!” – Speech given by President Reagan in Berlin, West Germany on June 12, 1987 calling for
Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbechev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
SSUSH 25-e. Explain the relationship between Congress and President Bill Clinton; include the North
American Free Trade Agreement and his impeachment and acquittal.
US President Bill Clinton
Clinton Administration
Bill Clinton’s presidency included ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA
brought Mexico into a free-trade (tariff- free) zone already existing between the United States and Canada.
Opponents believed NAFTA would send U.S. jobs to Mexico and harm the environment, while supporters
believed it would open up the growing Mexican market to U.S. companies; these pros and cons are still
argued today.
Implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) began on January 1, 1994. This
agreement will remove most barriers to trade and investment among the United States, Canada, and
Mexico.
Under the NAFTA, all non-tariff barriers to agricultural trade
between the United States and Mexico were eliminated. In
addition, many tariffs were eliminated immediately, with others
being phased out over periods of 5 to 15 years. This allowed for
an orderly adjustment to free trade with Mexico, with full
implementation beginning January 1, 2008.
The agricultural provisions of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade
Agreement, in effect since 1989, were incorporated into the
NAFTA. Under these provisions, all tariffs affecting agricultural
trade between the United States and Canada, with a few exceptions
for items covered by tariff-rate quotas, were removed by January 1, 1998.
Mexico and Canada reached a separate bilateral NAFTA agreement on market access for agricultural
products. The Mexican-Canadian agreement eliminated most tariffs either immediately or over 5, 10, or 15
years. Tariffs between the two countries affecting trade in dairy, poultry, eggs, and sugar are maintained.
Clinton also became the second president in U.S. history to suffer impeachment. The House of
Representatives charged him with perjury and obstruction of justice. The charges were based on
accusations of improper use of money from a real estate deal and allegations he had lied under oath about
an improper relationship with a White House intern. Clinton denied the charges and the Senate then
acquitted him, allowing Clinton to remain in office and finish his second term.
-- The House held no serious impeachment hearings before the mid-term elections. Though the mid-term
elections held in November 1998 were at the 6-year point in an 8-year presidency (a time in the electoral
cycle where the party holding the White House usually loses Congressional seats) the Democratic Party
gained several seats. To hold impeachment proceedings, the Republican leadership called a lame duck
session in December 1998.
The impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist presiding.
While the House Judiciary Committee hearings ended in a straight party line vote, there was lively debate
on the House floor. The two charges passed in the House (largely on the basis of Republican support but
with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge
arose from Clinton's testimony about his relationship to Monica Lewinsky during a sexual harassment
lawsuit (later dismissed, appealed and settled for $850,000) brought by former Arkansas state employee
Paula Jones. The obstruction charge was based on his actions during the subsequent investigation of that
testimony. The Senate later voted to acquit Clinton on both charges. The Senate refused to convene to hold
an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress.
Clinton was represented by Washington law firm Williams & Connolly.
The Senate concluded a twenty-one day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote on both counts falling
short of the Constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an office holder. The
final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty. Some Republicans voted not
guilty for both charges. On the perjury charge, fifty-five senators voted to acquit, including ten
Republicans, and forty-five voted to convict; on the obstruction charge the Senate voted 50-50.
SSUSH 25- f. Analyze the 2000 presidential election and its outcome, emphasizing the role of the Electoral
College.
2000 Presidential Election
The presidential election of 2000 saw Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore, facing the Republican governor of
Texas, George W. Bush, as well as consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who ran as a third-party candidate.
Polls showed the race would be close, and it turned out to be one of the closest elections in American
history. Gore won the national popular vote by over 500,000 of the 105 million votes cast, but when
American voters cast ballots for president, the national popular vote has no legal significance. Rather,
Americans are voting for members of the Electoral College representing each candidate. Each state is
assigned “electors” in equal number to its total amount of U.S. representatives and senators. (Georgia had
thirteen electors in 2000: eleven representatives and two senators). In the 2000 election, Bush won by
receiving 271 votes in the Electoral College to Gore’s 266.
2000 Presidential Election Electoral Vote Map: Need 270 to win
Bush 271
Gore 267
SSUSH 25- g. Analyze the response of President George W. Bush to the attacks of September 11, 2001, on
the United States, the war against terrorism, and the subsequent American interventions in Afghanistan
and Iraq.
Bush Administration
George W. Bush’s presidency will always be remembered for al-Qaeda’s attacks on September 11, 2001
(9/11). In response, and with overwhelming support of both Congress and the American people, he signed a
law the next month to allow the U.S. government to hold foreign citizens suspected of being terrorists for
up to seven days without charging them with a crime. This law also increased the ability of American law-
enforcement agencies to search private communications and personal records. Then he created the
Department of Homeland Security and charged it with protecting the United States from terrorist attacks
and responding to natural disasters. 2,998 Americans lost their lives that day and another 6200+ were
injured.
World trade Towers September 11, 2001
In October 2001, another of Bush’s responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks was his authorizing Operation
Enduring Freedom, the invasion of Afghanistan by Taliban government was harboring the al-Qaeda
leadership. The allied forces quickly defeated the Taliban government and destroyed the al-Qaeda network
in Afghanistan; however, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden escaped.
The invasion of Afghanistan was part of Bush’s larger war on terrorism, for which he built an
international coalition to fight the al-Qaeda network and other terrorist groups. In March 2003, American
and British troops invaded Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Iraq’s president, Saddam Hussein, went into
hiding while U.S. forces searched for the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that Bush feared Hussein
had and could supply to terrorists for use against the United States. No WMD were found before Hussein
was captured. He was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed in 2006.