Recent America Test 2

Bobby Montgomery
Recent America test #2
October 22, 2006


John Maynard Keynes – Was an English economist that had a major impact on modern economic and political theory as well as the governments' fiscal policy. His popular expression "In the very long run we are all dead" is still quoted.
LBJ used the Keynesian techniques of fine tuning taxation and the federal spending. This helped to bring a better quality of life to the American peoples.

Apollo Program – The Apollo program was the program that NASA used to beat the Russians in the space race. It was a series of manned space flights that was devoted to landing a man on the moon and in July of 1969 Apollo 11 successfully landed two men on the moon using the Saturn launch vehicle. The men successfully returned back to Earth.

“Freedom Riders” – The Freedom Riders were a group of men and women mainly African American however they were from many different backgrounds and ethnicities who boarded buses and headed to the South to challenge the 1960 U.S. Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in all public facilities.

Robert Kennedy –Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), was one of the younger brothers to John F. Kennedy. He worked closely with the President during the Cuban Missile Crisis but his contribution to the African-American Civil Rights Movement is his greatest contribution.

SCLC – 69 93-95 11
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), formerly known as the Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration is a civil rights organization founded in January 1957. This group was organized by Martin Luther King and it reflected Martin Luther King’s core beliefs. In 1964 it received a Nobel Peace prize.

George Wallace –George Corney Wallace He is best known for his pro-segregation attitudes, which he later recanted, during the American desegregation period. At his innauguration for govenor he can be quoted saying “Segregation Now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!”

MLK Jr. – Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American civil rights leader. The most famous leader of the American civil rights movement, and a Baptist minister. He was a peacemaker throughout the world he was always promoting nonviolence and equality of the races. He was assassinated in 1968.

ICBM –An intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, is a very long-range missile that is typically designed for the delivery of nuclear weapons. They have great range and can be deployed from a variety of places.


Bay of Pigs - The Bay of Pigs is an U.S. invasion on Cuba that failed under Kennedy. It was a US backed invasion of Cuban exiles who wanted to overthrow Fidel Castro. The Kennedy Administration had hoped that the Cuban people would help with the cause. When help never came from the Cuban people the mission was declared a failure.
The Berlin Wall was an iconic symbol of the Cold War, It was constructed starting in 1961 and it was later torn down in 1989. The wall kept people from leaving or entering the divided Germany.
Nikita Kruschev – was the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin. He was removed from power by his party colleagues in 1964 and replaced Brezhnev. He spent the last seven years of his life under close supervision of the KGB.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States regarding the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The crisis began on October 16, 1962 when U.S. reconnaissance data revealed that Soviet nuclear missile installations on the island were showing up. Kruschev later agreed that the missile installations would be dismantled. This was the closest that we ever had gotten to a full nuclear war.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was US legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The law was originally intended to protect black people but was later adopted to all peoples including women. The Act transformed the south overnight, and had a long-term impact on the nation as a whole. It prohibited discrimination in public places as well and done away with the Jim Crow laws that were in the south.


1965 Voting Rights Act – The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it to where there was no longer a Poll Tax and that the minorities and the poor could vote as well. The act also made it where there was help to register to vote. This opened it up to all men were now eligible to vote including blacks.
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs set into action by Lyndon B. Johnson and the two main goals of the Great Society were to eliminate poverty and to rid society of racial inequality. There were major programs to help with education, healthcare, and transportation. The Great Society resembled the New Deal domestic policies of FDR, but differed sharply in types of programs.
The Viet Cong – were created by the Hanoi regime and were part of the Peoples Liberation Armed Force merging the Vietminh of the South and the other anti-diem military group.

Warren Court – Earl Warren Chief Justice of the United States (from 1953 to 1969). As Chief Justice, his term of office was marked by numerous rulings affecting, among other things, the legal status of racial segregation, civil rights, separation of church and state, and police arrest procedure in the United States. Conservatives who favored judicial restraint denounced the activist Warren Court for making laws and not abiding by them.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which explicitly outlawed racial segregation of public education facilities, ruling on the grounds that the doctrine of "separate but equal" public education could never truly provide black Americans with facilities of the same standards available to white Americans.
The Tet Offensive (January 30, 1968 - June 8, 1969) was a series of operational offensives during the Vietnam War, coordinated between battalion strength elements of the viet cong and divisional strength elements of the North Vietnam's People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), against South Vietnam's Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), and United States military and other allied forces. The offensive began spectacularly during celebrations of the Lunar New Year, and sporadic operations associated with the offensive continued into 1969. The Tet Offensive can be considered a military defeat for the Communist forces, as neither the Viet Cong nor the North Vietnamese army achieved their tactical goals.
“Plumbers” – The so called plumbers were a group of former CIA and FBI agents that were hired by CREEP’s John Mitchell to break into the Watergate hotel.

“Smoking Gun” – The smoking gun during the Watergate scandal was the 29 minutes of the presidents tapes that were missing. The tape included information about the break in at the Watergate hotel and with the release of the tapes later ending in the president resignation.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a US agency responsible for protecting our health and with safeguarding the environment such as: air, water, and land. The EPA began in December of 1970 and it was established by President Richard Nixon.

Panama Canal Treaty – was a treaty in which guaranteed that the US would give control of the Panama Canal in 1999 if the US could build the canal and operate it until then.
The Camp David Accords were signed by the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on September 17, 1978, They are called the Camp David accords because for 12 days they had a secret meeting at Camp David negotiating them. This helped settle a peace between Israel and Egypt during Carter’s administration.
3 mile Island – On March 28, 1979, the nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island suffered a partial core meltdown. This was the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power generating history. Approximately 25,000 people lived within 5 miles of the island at the time of the accident. Radioactive water leaked into the river. This accident strengthened the anti-nuclear campaign.
1954 Geneva Accord – was a conference between many countries that agreed to end hostilities and restore peace in French Indochina and Korea. It produced a set of treaties known as the Geneva Accords, signed on behalf of France and North Vietnam.

The Letter from Birmingham Jail – While King in jail he wrote a request for a non violent end to racism. It was smuggled out of jail and is now known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

CREEP – Committee to re-elect the president was Nixon’s fund raising organization and they are the ones that decided to break into the Watergate Hotel to get information on what the democrats had on the president.

“Saturday Night Massacre” – This is where Nixon ordered Richardson to fire Cox but he refused so Nixon dismissed the attorney general and ordered the attorney general’s deputy Ruckelhaus to fire Cox but he too refused so Nixon ordered Robert Bork to fire Cox and he did.


Fidel Castro – a bearded young cigar smoking insurgent, that had led a successful revolt against the corrupt Cuban Strong man Fulgencio Balista. He became an enemy of America after he overthrew the American supported Batista in 1959 and confiscated American owned land in Cuba.

Civil Rights in the 60’s

Kennedy was the first president of the 60’s and he was the president that had to handle all of the problems that were caused by the fighting for and against civil rights. The 1960’s were definitely a volatile time for uprisings against prejudices that were alive and well in our country at that time. This was a period in which old laws were challenged and new laws were fought for.
May of 1961, C.O.R.E. or the Congress for Racial Equality decided to fight to do away with the Jim Crow laws that were down in the south. Jim Crow laws prohibited Blacks from sitting anywhere but in the back of the bus, separated drinking fountains and rest rooms as well as where to eat or go to school. Ten workers both black and white decided to take a Greyhound bus to New Orleans from Washington and they did not concern themselves with the Jim Crow laws, they used the white bathrooms, drinking fountains and broke all the Jim Crow laws. These people were called the “Freedom Riders”.
Kennedy promised to put an end to segregation in 61’ but it was not until 1962 that he signed it into law. This was due to the violence that the “Freedom Riders” encountered during their journey in 1961. This was because the Freedom Riders were getting beat up and the police would not intervene to stop this horrendous action. Even the governor of Alabama, after he had agreed to protect the Freedom Riders at the presidents request, he reneged
At the First Baptist Church in Montgomery Alabama the Freedom Riders took refuge and there the now famous rev. Martin Luther King met them. The federal marshals had to protect them at the church.
In 1962 Martin Luther King formed the SCLC or Southern Christian Leadership Conference and hoped to desegregate the theaters and libraries as well as get the right to vote for African Americans. The SCLC was more effective in Birmingham, a town totally effected by the Jim Crow laws than a place that was not.
People in the 60’s would have sit-ins and lunch counter sit ins. The trend started at the Woolworths and went all across the country to help win the fight for desegregation. There were city hall protests and from the sit-ins and protests hundreds maybe even thousands were arrested. On April 10th King was even arrested because the city ordered a stop to the protests and King still led protests. While he was in jail he wrote a request for a non violent end to racism. It was smuggled out of jail and is now known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
From the time that King got out of jail he resumed his protests and marched 6000 African American Children to downtown. During their march downtown the police ordered them to be hosed down with high power fire hoses and then the police unleashed dogs to attack them.
These events made the national headline news and most Americans were dismayed. This even got the presidents attention and he said that the events “made him sick”.
Later that summer the civil rights movement continued and two students were admitted into the University of Alabama and they had to be protected by the national guard.
Martin Luther King and many black supporters marched on Washington, this was the “Jobs and Freedom” march and this is where his famous “I have a dream” speech was said. There were over a quarter of a million people who joined the march and was a highpoint of the civil rights movement of the 60’s.






















Watergate


Richard Nixon was the center of the Watergate scandal and it all began with the election of 1972. Well actually four months before the election when the Committee to Reelect the President authorized an illegal break in at the democratic headquarters in the Watergate hotel. The burglars were trying to find out if the democrats had anything against the republicans that they could use in a s smear campaign. The five men that broke into the Watergate hotel Democratic office were arrested and in possession of high tech equipment for spying on people. They tried to keep their identity separated from the government office that sent them to do the spying. Their story got broken by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward and published in the Washington Post. The story was leaked by Martha Mitchell the wife to one of the main men at CREEP.
John Mitchell the head of CREEP hired former CIA agents and FBI agents to break into the Watergate Hotel and retrieve any information that they could concerning what the Democrats knew about the Republicans. This was a failed attempt because they were caught and arrested.
The White House tried to distance themselves far from the break in and the burglary attempt was even referred to as a “third rate burglary attempt”. Nixon announced at a press conference that John Dean conducted an investigation and cleared all associated with the White House of such a heinous crime. He said that “no one on the White House staff, no one in this administration presently employed, was involved in this very bizarre incident.” So this contained the problem during the presidency.
Watergate would consume the presidency and the country after the re election of Nixon. Even though Nixon did not directly have any thing to do with the break in at Watergate his downfall came when he denied that he knew nothing of it and that no one in the White House knew anything of it. Nixon had directed his aide Haldeman to tell the CIA to inform the FBI that they need to back off of the investigation. That if they perused the Watergate case that they may interfere or jeopardize confidential or sensitive intelligence operations.
The case got even more fouled up when the men that were arrested were fearing the worst and spilled all that they knew. Nixon now agreed that he would launch further investigations and fired Dean and Haldeman and Ehrlichman resigned.
The senate got involved and established a seven man team to further investigate Watergate. They had televised public hearings and found out further information that the break in started with Mitchell and CREEP. Dean told the committee that the president was offering clemency to the burglars who did not talk. They called for the Whitehouse taping system that records presidential conversations and found that the tapes were intack except for a couple of missing segments that President Nixon said that releasing those tapes would be an issue of National Security. The judge ordered Nixon to comply but Nixon wanted to compromise by submitting a written statement as to what was on the tape. The transcripts were later released the next year and the president came across as a mean spirited kind of guy.
The tapes were had still not been released and on July 27, 1974 there is a televised debate and the Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon on the grounds of: impeding and investigation, attempting to protect those responsible, and trying to conceal the existence of covert activities. By this time Nixon had lost most all of his support. After the tapes were released, they proved to be the “smoking gun” that they were looking for. The tapes contained a conversation between Nixon and Haldeman concerning about how to stop the FBI investigation.
The day after the Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon; Nixon resigned. Nixon’s Vice President took office in 1974 after Nixon’s resignation and now Gerald Ford was the president of the United States.