Atomic Age, Cold War Tensions, and Containment of Communism

Europe and North America
Chapter 29 1945-Present

The Atomic Age
Living in the 1950’s with the threat of
a Nuclear War

YALTA (in the USSR)
Date: Feb 1945
Present: Churchill,
Roosevelt and Stalin

POTSDAM (Germany)
Date: July 1945
Present: Churchill,
Truman and Stalin

Iron Curtain –
A term used by
Winston Churchill
to describe the
separating of
Those communist
lands of East
Europe from the
West.

Improve your knowledge
• The Russians took very high casualties to
capture Berlin in May 1945. They spent the
early occupation trying to take over all
zones of the city but were stopped by
German democrats such as Willy Brandt
and Konrad Adenauer. Reluctantly the
Russians had to admit the Americans,
French and British to their respective
zones.

Political foreign relations
after World War II were
aggravated by a
difference in how
Germany should be
controlled in the post-war
world. The United States
believed that Germany
and the rest of Europe
should be helped
economically to rebuild
from the devastation
caused by war. Stalin saw
this as an attempt by the
United States to take over
Europe. The Cold War
had begun.

When President Truman announced to the American
people that Russia had an atomic bomb, a program of
nuclear preparedness began.

Many cities formulated defense plans. The
illustration below is a warning plan from
the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

School kids were a focus of the campaign, drills, and other
activities designed to raise awareness of the possibilities of
nuclear war. One activity was duck-and-cover.

Student awareness
groups were very
popular. Many held
Civil Defense fairs to
pass out flyers on
nuclear preparedness.
Student clubs were
quite popular!!

The next two slides are of a flyer on Civil Defense from 1955

Nuclear war drills became a part of
the school day.

FCDA held Family Fallout Shelter
exhibitions in towns across the USA.

Anti-Communist hysteria swept the country!!!

Home owners installed bomb
shelters in the backyards of suburbia.

Cities prepared evacuation plans in the event of a
nuclear attack. The plan below is from Detroit.

Improve your knowledge
• The nuclear bomb gave America a lead
which was expected to last at least 5
years. The rapid Russian development of
nuclear technology, helped by the work of
the “atom spies” was a shock.
Significantly, Russia hurriedly declared
war against Japan at the beginning of
August 1945 and rushed to advance into
Asia to stake out a position for the post-
war settlement. This helped make both the
Korean and Vietnamese conflicts more
likely.

Atomic Age Frayer Model
Atomic Age
Reason for it to occur Schools
CD Interventions Home

Atomic Age Quiz
1. What were the two meetings of the Big Three that
were concluding WWII?
2. What was the competitiveness between the two
superpowers over nuclear weapons?
3. What government agency developed fall out plans
and awareness about nuclear attacks?
4. What was one of the activities that school children
practiced as part of the school day?
5. What were families investing in to give
themselves an added measure of protection
against nuclear attacks?

How did the USA try to contain
communism?

Cold War
The term cold war refers to the strategic and political struggle that developed after
World War II between the United States and its Western European allies, on one hand,
and the USSR and Communist countries, on the other. The expression was coined by
the American journalist Herbert Bayard Swope in a 1947 speech he wrote for financier
Bernard Baruch.
The cold war initially centered on the use of USSR military forces to install Communist
government in Eastern Europe. These Soviet actions ran counter to the U.S.
government’s insistence upon the right of self-determination for the peoples of Eastern
Europe and raised fears that the USSR, after gaining control of Eastern Europe, would
try to communize Western Europe. The USSR had suffered enormous losses in the war
against Nazi Germany and looked upon Eastern Europe as a bulwark against another
invasion from the West. The Soviet leaders considered U.S. objections to Soviet actions
in Poland, Hungary, and Romania a betrayal of wartime understandings about spheres
of influence in Europe. Thus they placed Eastern Europe behind a military and political
barrier known in the West as the Iron Curtain—coined by Winston Churchill.

The Truman Doctrine
Truman, who has been chosen as vice president for domestic political reasons, was poorly
prepared to assume the presidency. He had no experience in foreign affairs, knew little about
Roosevelt’s intentions, and was intimidated by the giant shoes he now had to fill. His first
decisions were dictated by events or plans already laid. In July, two months after the German
forces surrendered, he met at Potsdam, Ger., with Stalin and Churchill (who was succeeded at the
conference by Clement Attlee) to discuss future operations against Japan and a peace settlement
for Europe. Little was accomplished, and there would not be another meeting between Soviet
and American heads of state for 10 years.
Hopes that good relations between the superpowers would ensure world peace soon faded as a
result of the Stalinization of eastern Europe and Soviet support of communist insurgencies in
various parts of the globe. Events came to a head in 1947 when Britain, weakened by a failing
economy, decided to pull out of the eastern Mediterranean. This would leave both Greece, where
a communist-inspired civil war was raging, and Turkey to the mercies of the Soviet Union.
Truman now came into his own as a national leader, asking Congress to appropriate aid to
Greece and Turkey and asserting, in effect, that henceforth the United States must help free
peoples in general to resist communist aggression. This policy, known as the Truman Doctrine,
has been criticized for committing the United States to the support of unworthy regimes and for
taking on greater burdens than it was safe to assume. At first, however, the Truman Doctrine
was narrowly applied. Congress appropriated $400,000,000 for Greece and Turkey, saving both
from falling into

The Truman Doctrine (cont’d)
unfriendly hands, and thereafter the United States relied mainly on economic assistance to
support its foreign policy.
The keystone of this policy, and its greatest success, was the European Recovery Program,
usually called the Marshall Plan. Thus, in June 1947 Secretary of State George C. Marshall
proposed the greatest foreign-aid program in world history in order to bring Europe back to
economic health. In 1948, Congress created the Economic Cooperation Administration and over
the next five years poured some $13,000,000,000 worth of aid into western Europe. (Assistance
was offered to Eastern-bloc countries also, but they were forced by Stalin to decline.)
U.S. policy for limiting Soviet expansion had developed with remarkable speed. Soon after the
collapse of hopes for world peace in 1945 and 1946, the Truman administration had accepted the
danger posed by Soviet aggression and resolved to shore up noncommunist defenses at their
most critical points. This policy, known as containment, a term suggested by its principal
framer, George Kennan, resulted in the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, as well as in the
decision to make the western zones of Germany (later West Germany) a pillar of strength. When
the Soviet Union countered this development in June 1948 by blocking all surface routes into the
western-occupied zones of Berlin (Berlin Blockade), Britain, and the United States supplied the
sectors by air for almost a year until the Soviet Union called off the blockade. A logical
culmination of U.S. policy was the creation in 1949 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO), a military alliance among 12 (later 16) nations to resist Soviet aggression.

Berlin Airlift
Monument in Berlin-
Tempelhof, displaying
the names of the 39
British and 31
American airmen who
lost their lives during
the operation. Similar
monuments can be
found at the military
airfield of
Wietzenbruch near the
former RAF Celle and
at Rhein-Main Air
Base.

Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine in March 1947
promised that the USA “would
support free peoples who are
resisting” communism.
This led to containment – policy of
containing communism where it is and
not letting it spread.

Domino Theory
Communism spreads like a disease

Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, formally known as the European Recovery Program, was a program of
U.S. economic and technical assistance to 16 European countries after World War II. Its
objectives were to restore the war-ravaged West European economy and to stimulate
economic growth and trade among the major non-Communist countries.
In early 1947 as the cold war between the United States and the USSR began to take shape,
U.S. policymakers concluded that Western Europe would require substantial economic aid
in order to attain political stability. This program, announced by Secretary of State George
C. Marshall in an address to Harvard University on 5 Jun 1947, proposed that the European
countries draw up a unified plan for economic reconstruction to be funded by the United
States. The USSR and other countries of Eastern Europe were invited to join, but they
declined. The Economic Cooperation administration was established by the United States
to administer the plan, with Paul G. Hoffman as head. The 16 West European countries
then formed the Organization for European Economic Cooperation to coordinate the
program.
From 1948 to 1952, the 16 participating countries received $13.15 billion in U.S. aid. The
program succeeded in reviving the West European economy and setting it on the path of
long-term growth.

Marshall Plan – helped countries
economically so they wouldn’t go
red.
See a pattern?
USSR
China
North Korea
Vietnam
Poland
Albania

Vietnam War- Helped anti-
communist troops

Embargoes
• Refusing to
trade or aid
countries in
order to
punish them
Cuba

Cuba embargo
• Still today, the USA
has an economic
embargo on
communist Cuba.
• Their only cars are
from before the
embargo!

Marshall Plan
USA’s plan to send food, blankets,
and fuel to Europe to help them
AND to keep them from turning
communist.

Two sides of the Cold War
• NATO – North
Atlantic Treaty
Organization
• USA, France, Great
Britain, West
Germany
• CAPITALISM
• Warsaw Pact –
Soviets strong-
armed the countries
to join, and all
countries controlled
by the USSR.
• COMMUNISM

Cold War
• The Cold War was a period after
WWII when the USA and the Soviet
Union were the super powers rivaling
for their spheres of world influence.

NATO vs. Warsaw Pact
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established in 1949 by representatives
from 12 nations (later 16 nations): Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Greece and Turkey joined in 1952, the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955, and Spain in 1982.
The North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 Apr 1949, provided for
mutual defense and collective security, primarily against the threat of aggression by the Soviet
Union. It was the first peacetime alliance joined by the United States.
The Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO), often called the Warsaw Pact, was a military alliance
(1955-91) between the USSR and its Eastern European satellites. The WTO was established in
Warsaw on 14 May 1955, as an Eastern counterpart to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO). The original Warsaw Pact nations were the USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,
the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The WTO
had a unified high command with headquarters in Moscow. Key posts in satellite forces were
held by Soviet-trained or Soviet-born officers. In 1956, Hungary withdrew from the WTO but
was pulled back into the alliance when Soviet troops crushed the Hungarian Revolution. In
1968, Czechoslovakia also attempted to withdraw but was forced back in by an invasion of
Warsaw Pact forces led by the Soviet Union. Albania was allowed to resign in 1958. With the
end of the cold war and the fall of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the WTO lost its
reason for existence.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization) vs. Warsaw Pact

Communist Containment Concept
Map
Communist
Containment
Policy
Definition
Examples
Forms of Policies
(pro or con)
Cold War Definition

Communist Containment Quiz
1. What were the two “super powers” that emerged
from WWII?
2. When the Soviet Union took control of Eastern
Europe, what did Winston Churchill say divided
Europe?
3. Name one of the policies of communist
containment (for or against).
4. Give an example of conflicts during the beginning
of communist containment.
5. What two organizations were developed as a
result of the Cold War?

Berlin blockade led to Berlin
Airlift

The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer), was a barrier that surrounded West Berlin and
prevented access to it from East Berlin and adjacent areas of East Germany during the
period from 1961 to 1989. In the years between 1949 and 1961, about 2.5 million East
Germans had fled from East to West Germany, including steadily rising numbers of skilled
workers, professionals, and intellectuals. Their loss threatened to destroy the economic
viability of the East German state. In response, East Germany built a barrier to close off
East Germans’ access to West Berlin (and hence West Germany). This barrier, the Berlin
Wall, was first erected on the night of 12-13 Aug 1961, as the result of a decree passed on
12 Aug by the East German Volkskammer (“People’s Chamber”). The original wall, built
of barbed wire and cinder blocks, was subsequently replaced by a series of concrete walls
(up to 15 ft. high) that were topped with barbed wire and guarded with watchtowers, gun
emplacement, and mines. By the 1980’s, this system of walls, electrified fences, and
fortifications extended 28 miles through Berlin, dividing the two parts of the city, and
extended a further 75 miles around West Berlin, separating it from the rest of East
Germany.

Berlin Wall-a concrete wall topped with barbed wire that severed
the city in two (communism/democracy). **Berlin Airlift

Berlin Wall
• Berlin is Germany’s capital
city.
• The Soviets built the wall to
keep defectors from escaping to
the American sector.

Alger Hiss was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and
convicted of perjury in connection Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

Blacklist-A blacklist is a list or register of persons (communists or
union leaders/strikers) who, for one reason or another, are being
denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition.
To blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field.

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg- were American communists who were
executed after having been found guilty of conspiracy to commit
espionage. The charges were in relation to the passing of information
about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

• H-Bomb- 1952 Weapon of mass destruction that was 25-50
times more powerful than the original bomb that destroyed
Hiroshima. After a test of its power by the US, its byproduct
traveled around the world and had devastating environmental
effects. It was estimated that the explosion of 100 H-bombs
could have made life in this very world unsustainable.

Brinkmanship-is the practice of pushing a dangerous situation to
the verge of disaster in order to achieve the most advantageous
outcome. It occurs in international politics, foreign policy, labor
relations and for our interest in military strategies during the cold
war involving the threatened use of nuclear weapons.

Chiang Kai-Shek- Nationalist leader in China before their Communist
Revolution. His regime was corrupt and the US supported him and wanted to see
his policies prevail because he was friendly to the U.S. Unfortunately his political
rival Mao Tse-tung, far more corrupt, was able to win over the people and gain
more political power “through the barrel of a gun” by becoming the largest mass
murdering megalomaniac in history.

CIA-Central Intelligence Agency (formerly The Office of Strategic
Services OSS)-a U.S. agency created to gather secret information
about foreign governments. Our intelligence on the USSR was not
complete.

Korea and Vietnam
• USA tried to contain
communism. In both wars,
communist troops fought
armies trained and funded by
the USA.

The Korean War
It was a conflict that began in June 1950 between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
(North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea), which resulted in an estimated
4,000,000 casualties, including civilians. The United Nations, with the United States as the
principal participant, joined the war on the side of the South Koreans, and the People’s Republic
of China eventually came to North Korea’s aid. After exceptional vicissitudes, the war ended
inconclusively in July 1953; it established a precedent for United States intervention to contain
communist expansion.
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 the Soviet auspices in the north and a pro-Western state was
set up in the south.
On 25 Jun 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. On 27 Jun, U.S. President Harry Truman, without asking
Congress to declare war, ordered United States forces to come to

The Korean War (cont’d)
the assistance of South Korea as part of the UN “police action.”
Meanwhile, GEN Douglas MacArthur was demanding the authority to blockade China’s
coastline and bomb its Manchurian bases. Truman refused, feeling that such a course
would bring the Soviet Union into the war and thus lead to a global conflict. In response,
MacArthur appealed over Truman’s head directly to the American public in an effort to
enlist support for his war aims. On 11 Apr 1951, President Truman relieved MacArthur as
UN commander and as commander of U.S. forces in the Far East and replaced him with
GEN Matthew B. Ridgeway. On 10 Jul 1951, truce talks began while the North Koreans
and Chinese vainly strove for further success on the battlefield. The negotiations dragged
on for months, but in the fall of 1952 and the victory of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had
criticized the unpopular war and announced his intention to visit Korea if elected.
Eisenhower secretly informed the North Koreans and Chinese that he was prepared to use
nuclear weapons and would also carry the war to China if a peace agreement was not
reached. After a brief renewal of hostilities in June 1953, an armistice was concluded on 27
Jul, and the front line was accepted as the de facto boundary between North and South
Korea. The exchange and repatriation of prisoners soon followed.

Communists
invaded from the
north. China sent
a million troops
to help reds.

President Harry S. Truman and GEN Douglas MacArthur

MacArthur addressing an audience of 50,000 at Soldier Field, Chicago, April 25, 1951

President Harry S. Truman's draft order terminating
MacArthur as Supreme Commander, Allied Powers,
Commander in Chief, Far East; and Commanding
General, U.S. Army, Far East.
Senator Robert Taft in the Chicago Tribune called for
immediate impeachment proceedings against Truman:
President Truman must be impeached and convicted. His
hasty and vindictive removal of Gen. MacArthur is the
culmination of series of acts which have shown that he is
unfit, morally and mentally, for his high office. The
American nation has never been in greater danger. It is led
by a fool who is surrounded by knaves.
On April 18, 1951, MacArthur received a ticker-tape
parade in San Francisco, attended by hundreds of
thousands of people. MacArthur received another ticker-
tape parade in New York City, on April 22, 1951. At the
time, the New York City parade was the largest ticker-tape
parade in history.
The Diet (Japanese parliament) passed a resolution of
gratitude for MacArthur, and Emperor Hirohito visited
him at the embassy in person, the first time a Japanese
Emperor had ever visited a foreigner with no standing.
The Mainichi newspaper said:
"MacArthur's dismissal is the greatest shock since the end
of the war. He dealt with the Japanese people not as a
conqueror but a great reformer. He was a noble political
missionary. What he gave us was not material aid and
democratic reform alone, but a new way of life, the
freedom and dignity of the individual. We shall continue
to love and trust him as one of the Americans who best
understood Japan's position.”
MacArthur left Japan on April 16, 1951. That morning,
250,000 Japanese lined the street to say goodbye to their
respected General "Makassar." Signs read:"We Love You,
MacArthur," "With Deep Regret," "Sayonara," and "We
are Grateful to the General.

Korean War
After the failure of the promise of Korean
independence by the Allied nations, on June
25, 1950, communist North Korean troops
invaded South Korea. Poorly armed, the South
Koreans were no match for the North. The
United Nations ordered North Korea to
withdraw its troops. General MacArthur was
appointed to command all UN troops in
Korea. After three years of fighting a
stalemate, more than 54,000 American troops
perished.

Korean War-The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict
between North Korean and South Korean regimes, with major
hostilities lasting from June 25, 1950 until the armistice signed on
July 27, 1953.

Mao Tse-tung (Zedong)--Communist leader of China who was once
quoted as saying to the U.S. “your nuclear weapons are like a paper
tiger”, he almost brought the US into another nuclear war. He also said,
“Power comes from the end of the barrel of a gun.”

HUAC- House Un-American Activities is best known for investigating
communism in America and specifically within the film industry and on college
campuses.

Joseph McCarthy & McCarthyism-A senator from Wisconsin who made accusations that
numerous people in the government were communists. The Venona Project which was still highly
classified could not back up his accusations without divulging its sources and existence.
Eventually, the communist-liberal left accused him of wild accusations and he was ousted from his
government position as senator. He became an alcoholic because of the media’s attacks on him
and accused him of conducting a witch hunt.

VENONA Project
The Venona project was a long-running secret collaboration of the United States and
United Kingdom intelligence agencies involving crypto-analysis of messages sent by
intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union, the majority during World War II. There were at
least 13 codewords for this project that were used by the US and British intelligence
agencies (including the NSA); "Venona" was the last that was used. That code word has no
known meaning. (In the decrypted documents issued from the National Security Agency,
"VENONA" is written in capitals, but lowercasing is common in modern journalism.) The
project was started on February 1, 1941 during World War II but was not regularly
depended on until the Cold War.
During the initial years of the Cold War, the Venona project was a source of information on
Soviet intelligence-gathering activity that was directed at the Western military powers.
Although unknown to the public, and even to Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S.
Truman, these programs were of importance concerning crucial events of the early Cold
War. These included the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg spying case and the defections of
Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess to the Soviet Union.

VENONA Project (cont’d)
There were many new scientists who worked on decrypting the Soviet messages but the
ones who made the biggest difference were Richard Hallock, Cecil Phillips, Robert
Lamphere, and Meredith Gardener.
Most decipherable messages were transmitted and intercepted between 1942 and 1945.
Sometime in 1945, the existence of the Venona program was revealed to the Soviet Union
by the NKVD agent and United States Army SIGINT analyst and cryptologist Bill
Weisband. These messages were slowly and gradually decrypted beginning in 1946 and
continuing (many times at a low-level of effort in the latter years) through 1980, when the
Venona program was terminated, and the remaining amount of effort that was being spent
on it was moved to more important projects.
To what extent the various individuals were involved with Soviet intelligence is a topic of
dispute. While a number of academic people and historians assert that most of the
individuals mentioned in the Venona decrypts were most likely either clandestine assets
and/or contacts of Soviet intelligence agents, others argue that many of those people
probably had no malicious intentions and committed no crimes.

Venona (cont’d)
The parts of the messages deciphered by Gardner and Lamphere held information about
whom and where KGB spies were. These messages contained information about KGB in
Latin America, the presidential campaigns during the 1944 elections, and the names of a few
scientists that worked on the Manhattan Project (creation of the atomic bomb). One note
even said that the Soviets had a man inside the War Department that was giving them U.S.
secrets, but this is unconfirmed. The most important information found by Gardner was the
cover names of the spies that were running missions in the United States, they also found out
who or what some of the cover names stood for. Some of the cover names looked simple
enough to figure out, President Roosevelt’s cover name was Kapitan, but some less
important people had names such as God. Arlington Hall was able to decrypt these names:
Liberal – Julius Rosenberg, Babylon – San Francisco, The Bank – U.S. Dept. of State,
Arsenal – U.S. War Dept., and Anton – Leonid Kvasnikov (the leader of the KGB atomic
bomb espionage). The Soviets were very careful to pick cover names and only made a few
mistakes such as Boris Moros’s name, Frost which means “moroz” in Russian. The
decryptions show that many of Stalin’s top agents were in many top governmental agencies.

Venona (cont’d)
Meredith Gardner (far left); most of the other code breakers were young women.

Nikita Khrushchev-Political leader of USSR who succeeded
Stalin, who brought the world very close to WW III/Nuclear War.
He made the statement to the U.S.—”We will bury you!”

1957 Sputnik – first satellite
Score 1 for Soviets!

First man in space- Yuri Gagarin
Score:
• USA – 0
• Soviets - 2

Francis Gary Powers- Pilot who was flying the U-2 spy plane that was shot
down over USSR. He was initially sentenced to prison, but was later released.
U-2 Incident- The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on 1 May
1960 (during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower) when an American U-S
spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. At first, the United States
government denied the plane's purpose and mission, but was forced to admit its
role as a covert surveillance aircraft when the Soviet government produced its
remains (largely intact) and surviving pilot, Gary Powers.

Postwar America
Peace brought with it new fears. Demobilizing the armed forces might result in massive
unemployment and another depression. Or, conversely, the huge savings accumulated
during the war could promote runaway inflation. The first anxiety proved to be as not as
great a fear even though there were successive recessions, but the government did little to
ease the transition to a peacetime economy. War contracts were canceled, war agencies
diminished or dissolved, and government-owned war plants sold to private parties. But,
after laying off defense workers, manufacturers rapidly tooled up and began producing
consumer goods in volume. The housing industry grew too, despite shortages of every kind,
thanks to mass construction techniques pioneered by the firm of Levitt and Sons, Inc., and
other developers. All this activity created millions of new jobs. The Serviceman’s
Readjustment Act of 1944, known as the G.I. Bill of Rights, also helped ease military
personnel back into civilian life. It provided veterans with loans, educational subsidies, and
other benefits.
Truman’s difficulties with Congress had begun in Sep 1945 when he submitted a 21-point
domestic program, including proposals for an expansion of social security and public
housing and for the establishment of a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act banning
discrimination. These and subsequent liberal initiatives, later known as the Fair Deal, were
rejected by Congress, which passed only the Employment Act of 1946. This clearly stated
the government’s responsibility for maintaining full employment and established a Council
of Economic Advisers to advise the president.

Postwar America (cont’d)
Truman’s relations with Congress worsened after the 1946 elections. Voters, who were
angered by the price-control debacle, a wave of strikes, and Truman’s seeming inability to
lead or govern, gave control of both houses of Congress to Republicans for the first time
since 1928. The president and the extremely conservative 80th Congress battled from
beginning to end, not over foreign policy, where bipartisanship prevailed, but over domestic
matters. Congress passed two tax reductions over Truman’s vetoes and in 1947, again over
Truman’s veto, passed the Taft-Hartley Act, which restricted unions while extending the
right of management. Congress also rejected various liberal measures submitted by Truman,
who did not expect the proposals to pass but wanted Congress on record as having opposed
important social legislation.
A family poses in front
of their 1948 Cape Cod

Cold War Intervention Concept
Map
What are some people involved?
Cold War Intervention
What are some examples?What are some agencies involved?

Cold War Intervention Quiz
1. What did the Warsaw Pact build to stem the flow of Germans fleeing East
Berlin?
2. What two groups of people were convicted of espionage and imprisoned
and/or executed?
3. Who were the two leaders that the civil war in China were between that
resulted in the Communist Revolution.
4. Give two agencies that were involved in Cold War intervention?
5. What two Soviet events scared the USA that they were falling behind in
technology?
6. What was the housing contractor that started a revolution in the housing
market?
7. What was the government act that helped U.S. servicemen readjust to
American society?

I Like Ike
Urged by figures in both parties to run for president in 1952, Eisenhower was more
receptive to the Republicans, who appealed to his basic conservatism. He allowed the
internationalist wing of the party to adopt him as an alternative to the more isolationist
candidate, Sen, Robert Taft. Returning to the United States to campaign in the spring of
1952, Eisenhower narrowly won the Republican nomination. In the November election,
with Sen. Richard M. Nixon of California as his running mate, he defeated the Democratic
candidate, Illinois Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson, in a landslide; facing Stevenson again in 1956,
he would win by an even larger margin. However, the Republicans won Congress by only
a few votes in 1952 and were ousted from control in 1954. For three-quarters of his
administration, Eisenhower faced a Democratic Congress. Thus his political situation as
well as his personal preferences ensured that he would not depart drastically from the
policies of his Democratic predecessors.
Eisenhower liked to describe himself as a middle-of-the-roader, and his administration was
a relatively faithful expression of the moderately conservative outlook of the U.S. business
community. He hoped to balance the budget, hold down inflation, and give the nation
efficient, economical government. He opposed any major expansion in the functions of
the federal government, but he made no significant effort to repeal established programs in
such policy areas as labor, agriculture, and social welfare.

The Eisenhower Years
There were no major arms-control agreements until the 1960s, by which time the world’s
two emergent superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, had each developed
large arsenals of nuclear weapons. The possibility of both nations’ mutually assured
destruction (M.A.D.) in an intercontinental exchange of nuclear-armed missiles prompted
them to undertake increasingly serious efforts to limit first the testing, then the deployment,
and finally the possession of these weapons.
Sputnik restored Soviet prestige after the 1956 embarrassment in Hungary, shook European
confidence in the U.S. nuclear deterrent, magnified the militancy of Maoist China, and
provoked an orgy of self-doubt in the United States itself. The two Sputnik satellites of
1957 were themselves of little military significance, and the test missile that launched them
was too primitive for deployment, but Khrushchev claimed that long-range missiles were
rolling off the assembly line “like sausages,” a bluff that allowed President Eisenhower’s
opponents—and nervous Europeans—to perceive a “missile gap.” This prompted
Eisenhower to launch “the Space Race.”

The Eisenhower Years (cont’d)
In 1960, a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that began with
the shooting down of a U.S. U-2 reconnaissance plane over the Soviet Union and that
caused the collapse of a summit conference in Paris between the United States, the Soviet
Union, Great Britain, and France. On 5 May, the premier Nikita S. Khrushchev told the
Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. that an American spy plane had been shot down on 1 May
over Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), referring to the flight as an “aggressive act” by the
United States. On 7 May, he revealed that the pilot of the plane, Francis Gary Powers, had
parachuted to safety, was alive and well in Moscow and admitted working for the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency.

Dwight D. Eisenhower-As President, he oversaw the Korean War and the cease-
fire of the Korean War, kept up the pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold
War, made nuclear weapons a higher defense priority, launched the Space Race,
enlarged the Social Security program, and began the Interstate Highway System.

What is the United Nations?
(In my opinion, a useless organization)

United Nations
• International
organization
where countries
try to find
peaceful
solutions
(At the expense of the U.S. in
finance and blood)

United Nations
• It has no army
but uses troops
from other
countries, mainly
the U.S. who
also foots the
majority of the
U.N. financial
bill.

Eisenhower Years Quiz
1. What former U.S. Army general won the 1952
presidential elections?
2. What highway system did President Eisenhower initiate?
3. Name one of the international or domestic policies or
incidents that occurred under Eisenhower?
4. What did Eisenhower launch after being embarrassed by
the Soviets with Sputnik?
5. Who was the pilot of the downed U-2 CIA spy plane?

The New Frontier and the Great
Society
1961-1968

1960 Election
The arrival of this age was indicated in 1960 by the comparative youth of the presidential
candidates chosen by the two major parties. The Democratic nominee, Senator John F.
Kennedy of Massachusetts, was 43; the Republican, Vice President Richard M. Nixon, was
47. They both were ardent cold warriors and political moderates. Kennedy’s relative
inexperience and his religion (he was the first Roman Catholic presidential nominee since
Al Smith) placed him at an initial disadvantage. But the favorable impression he created
during a series of televised debates with Nixon and the support he received from blacks after
he helped the imprisoned black leader Martin Luther King, Jr., enabled him to defeat Nixon
in the most closely contested election of the century of only 119,000 votes.
During the campaign Kennedy had stated America was “on the edge of a New Frontier”; in
his inaugural speech he spoke of “a new generation of Americans”; and posed the challenge,
“And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can
do for your country.” During his presidency he seemed to be taking government in a new
direction, away from the easygoing Eisenhower style. His administration was headed by
strong, dedicated personalities. The Kennedy staff was also predominantly young. Its
energy and commitment revitalized the nation, but its competence was soon called into
question.

This election was the first fully televised campaign. Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon during the first
televised U.S. presidential debate in 1960. The first debate was held on September 26, 1960. Those that watched the televised debate
saw a youthful Kennedy with vibrancy and a tired Nixon with a 5 o’clock shadow. Those that listened to the radio thought that
Nixon had the better answers and won the debate. The television audience thought Kennedy won because of his youthful good looks
and appearance.

1957 Sputnik – first satellite
The Russian Federal Space Agency (Russian: Федеральное
космическое агентство России Federal'noye kosmicheskoye
agentstvo Rossii), commonly called Roscosmos (Роскосмос
Roskosmos) and abbreviated as FKA (ФКА) and RKA (РКА),
is the government agency responsible for the Russian space

First man in space- Cosmonaut Yuri
Gagarin
Score:
• USA – 0
• Soviets - 2

National Aeronautics and Space
Administration
NASA was created largely in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik in 1957. It was
organized around the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which had
been created by Congress in 1915. NASA’s organization was well underway by the early
years of President John F. Kennedy’s administration, when Kennedy proposed that the
United States put a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960’s. To that end the Apollo
program was designed, and in 1969 the U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, became the first
man on the Moon. Later unmanned programs—such as Viking, Mariner, Voyager, and
Galileo—explored other bodies of the solar system.
NASA was also responsible for the development and launching of a number of satellites
with Earth applications, such as Landsat, a series of satellites designed to collect
information on natural resources and other Earth features; communications satellites; and
weather satellites. It also planned and developed other programs that could not be
conducted with conventional spacecraft.

Apollo program
• USA spent
the 60’s
trying to
catch up to
the Soviets.

“Going Where No One Has Gone
Before”
Launched 16 Jul 1969, Apollo 11 made the first manned lunar landing on 20 July. As LTC
Michael Collins orbited the Moon in the mother ship Columbia, Neil Armstrong and COL
Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., touched down on the basaltic regolith of Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of
Tranquility) in the Lunar Module Eagle at 4:17:42pm EDT, with the historic report:
“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Armstrong was the first out: he
stepped on the surface at 10:56pm that day. Dropping the last meter from the ladder, he said:
“That’s one small step for {a} man, one giant leap for mankind” (NASA later reported that
the word “a” had been lost in transmission).
On the Moon, Armstrong and Aldrin erected the American flag and set up scientific
instruments, including a laser beam reflector, a seismometer that later transmitted evidence of
a moonquake, and a sheet of aluminum foil to trap solar wind particles. The astronauts took
soil and rock photographs and collected 53.61 lbs. of rock and dirt samples. Armstrong, the
first out and the last back into the Lunar Module, spent 2 hours and 13 minutes outside.
After Armstrong and Aldrin returned to Columbia in the ascent stage of the Eagle, Collins
fired the Apollo main engine and at 12:56am EDT on 22 July lifted the vessel out of lunar
orbit for the return to Earth. The ascent stage of the Eagle was left in lunar orbit. The crew
landed in the Pacific Ocean on 24 July 1969.

Soviet vs. U.S. Space Program
Venn Diagram
Soviet Space Program U.S. Space Program

Soviet vs. U.S. Space Program
Quiz
1. What prompted the USA to launch the space program—NASA?
2. Who was the first man in space?
3. What was President Kennedy’s goal?
4. What NASA program was designed to go to the moon?
5. What two astronauts were the first two men on the moon and what was the date?

• Fidel Castro-revolutionary/communist leader who took over
diplomatic power in Cuba.

• Bay of Pigs Invasion–April 17th, 1961 1500 Cuban exiles
whose objective to overthrow the Cuban government, failed
miserably as they faced 25,000 Cuban troops that were backed
up by Soviet tanks.

Bay of Pigs
• The CIA trained and funded an
invasion of communist Cuba.
The invasion failed because
President Kennedy failed to
commit needed U.S. support,
and Castro had some powerful
friends! Due to this lack of
commitment on Kennedy’s
part, the Soviets saw Kennedy
as weak and proceeded with
the implementation of Russian
missiles on Cuba—90 miles
from the tip of Florida.

Soviet response.
• Don’t worry comrade
Castro. We got your
back!

• Cuban Missile Crisis-October 14th-October 28th, 1962 where
the U.S. and Soviet Union/Cuba came very close to a nuclear
war.

A U2 spy plane found these missile silos in Cuba,
1962. These planes are controlled by the CIA and fly
at 80,000 feet to escape Russian missile shootdowns.
This altitude is the edge of our atmosphere. Normal
intercontinental airliners fly between 30-34,000 feet.

Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in October 1962, after U.S. intelligence reconnaissance
flights verified reports that the USSR was constructing launching sites for medium-range and
intermediate-range nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba. The USSR apparently hoped to
achieve a more favorable balance of power, to protect the Cuban Communist government of
Fidel Castro (which the United States had attempted to overthrow in the abortive Bay of Pigs
invasion of 1961), to gain greater diplomatic leverage vis-à-vis the United States, to damage
U.S. credibility, and to achieve greater influence in Latin America. The failure of the Bay of
Pigs invasion was seen as a weakness of the Kennedy administration which gave the USSR
boldness to act thinking that the U.S. would relent again.
President John F. Kennedy rejected military advice for a full-scale surprise attack on Cuba
and instead delivered a public ultimatum to the USSR on 22 Oct. He declared a “quarantine,”
or naval blockade, of Cuba and demanded withdrawal of all offensive missiles. After nearly
two weeks of unprecedented tension, the Soviet government of Nikita Khrushchev yielded.
Kennedy, in return, agreed to refrain from attempting an overthrow of Castro’s government.
Despite this concession, all sides regarded the outcome as a substantial victory for the United
States, and Kennedy won a reputation as a formidable international statesman. The USSR
began a long-term effort to strengthen its military capability, but in the immediate future both
nations sought to relax hostilities.

World War III Averted
In April 1961, Kennedy authorized a plan that had been initiated under Eisenhower for a
covert invasion of Cuba to overthrow the newly installed, Soviet-supported Communist
regime of Fidel Castro. The invasion was repulsed at the Bay of Pigs, embarrassing the
administration and worsening relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
These deteriorated further at a private meeting between Kennedy and Khrushchev in June
1961 when the Soviet leader was perceived as attempting to bully his young American
counterpart. Relations hit bottom in October 1962 when the Soviets secretly began to
install long-range offensive missiles in Cuba, which threatened to tip the balance of
nuclear power. Kennedy forced the removal of the missiles, gaining back the status he
had lost at the Bay of Pigs and in his meeting with Khrushchev. Kennedy then began to
work toward improving international relations, and in July 1963 he concluded a treaty
with Britain and the Soviet Union banning atomic tests in the atmosphere and underwater.
His program of aid to Latin America, the Alliance for Progress, raised inter-American
relations to their highest level since the days of Franklin Roosevelt.

People built more bomb shelters.

End to a crisis!
• The Soviets
removed the
missiles in Cuba.
• In exchange, USA
pledged to not
invade Cuba again.
And to remove
missiles in Turkey
(right).

Afterward
• A direct phone
line was set up
between their
offices to bypass
other channels—
commonly called
the “Hotline or
Red Phone”.

Cuban Missile Crisis/Bay of Pigs
Timeline Sequence
Bay of Pigs Intelligence Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis/Bay of Pigs
Quiz
1. What event was the prelude to showing President Kennedy’s weakness to the
Cuban Missile Crisis?
2. What type of reconnaissance plane by the CIA found the Russian missiles in
Cuba?
3. What military strategy did President Kennedy use against the Russians?
4. What was the results of the Cuban Missile Crisis?
5. What was installed in both leaders offices to stave off any further crises?

Kennedy Assassination
Cutting through Conspiracies

November 22, 1963
• JFK was in
Dallas trying to
get support for
next year’s
election.
• Dallas had an
unfriendly
reputation
towards
politicians.

Lee Harvey Oswald
• Shown here in Oak
Cliff, Texas.
• He defected to the
Soviet Union in 1959,
got bored, got married,
and had a child. He
did live in the USSR
with his wife and child
until Jun 1962 when
he applied for
repatriation.

School Book Depository
• Lee Harvey Oswald got a job in this
building. He would eventually shoot JFK
from the sixth floor.

Sixth Floor of the School Book
Depository

Sniper’s perch
• This is Lee
Harvey Oswald’s
view from the 6th
floor of the
School Book
Depository

Zapruder’s 8mm film was the most famous
evidence

3rd shot
2nd shot
Sniper
perch

This plaque sits next to where he
was fatally shot.

Kennedy was rushed to Parkland

Oswald fled the scene
• He checked into
his boarding
house on 1026
Beckley.
• Officer J. Tippit
stops on the
street to talk to
Oswald.
• Oswald shoots
him 4 times to

Lee Harvey Oswald walked 8 blocks to
Texas Theater on Jefferson Blvd.
Oswald being led from the Texas Theatre after his
arrest inside

Arrested
• The Cops beat
him up after
Oswald
resisted arrest
at the theater.

Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson
(LBJ) was sworn in at Love Field

Lee Harvey Oswald was being
escorted to another jail.

Oswald transferred to another jail.
• Jack Ruby, a
Dallas nightclub
owner, shoots
Oswald on live
TV.
• Lee Harvey
Oswald will
never go on
record why he
did what he did.
He is now dead.

Lee Harvey Oswald killed by night
club owner and mob affiliate Jack
Ruby.
• “You killed
the President,
you rat!”

Case Closed?
The Warren Commission
• Oswald fired 3 shots (missed the first one)
• The assassination was filmed (Zapruder)
• The government investigated the murder for
years and concluded that Oswald acted
alone.
• Virtually no witness at that time gave
indication that more than 3 shots were fired
at Kennedy.
• However. . . .

80% of people today
believe JFK was killed
by someone else!!!!

Composite Conspiracy Story
• JFK was killed by a conspiracy of high
government officials with LBJ working with
the CIA, the mafia, and anti-Castro
Americans who all want revenge for
Kennedy’s lack of support in the failed Bay
of Pigs invasion of Cuba. At the same time
(in contradiction), Castro killed JFK with
Russia’s help. Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey
Oswald so he wouldn’t talk. Ruby died with a
deep, dark secret!

To make matters worse. . .
• Oliver Stone made a
movie called JFK in
1992.
• The movie is full of
errors, lies and bad
science.

Stone’s JFK helped advance these
falsehoods about the assassination:
• Oswald could not have shot JFK from the
sixth floor in less than 6 seconds.
• Kennedy was shot from the front by
gunmen on the grassy knoll.
• Jack Ruby killed Oswald on orders from the
mafia to keep Oswald quiet about
everything.

Could Oswald have made those shots?
• Yes! Oswald was a
sharpshooter trained
by the US Marines.
• He scored a 212 out of
250 on a 200 yard
shooting range.
• JFK’s car was only 50
yards away from the
sniper’s nest and
moved 10mph

Jack Ruby
• Conspiracists believe
Jack Ruby was a
mobster who killed
Oswald to silence him.
• Ruby died in jail a
couple of years later,
supposedly with some
deep dark secret.

However. . .
• Jack Ruby knew
gangsters but was not
one. (He knew lots of
cops too!)
• He was a night club
owner.
• Those that knew him
said he couldn’t keep a
secret for 2 minutes!

Ruby
• Ruby’s assassination
was not planned.
• Ruby left his dog and
his girlfriend in the car
when he left to shoot
Oswald.
• No conspiracy here
from Jack Ruby!

Was Kennedy shot from the front?
2nd assassin?
Zapruder

Back and to the left?
• Many assume
based on JFK’s
bodily motion
and blood spray
that he was shot
from the front.

No witnesses reported gunshots that
day!
2nd assassin?
Zapruder
wall

All witnesses that day described
shots from where Oswald was
Witness described people
but no shots behind fence
Oswald

View from behind fence (x marks the spot)
3rd shot

Picket fence shooter theory
• There were plenty of witnesses in that area.
None reported hearing shots. A few
attention seekers claimed they did years
later.
• The witness behind the fence died in a
single car crash 2 years later, festering
conspirators' ideas.
• Many witnesses have been accused of being
a part of the conspiracy, including Zapruder
(born in Russia).

Autopsy
• Kennedy was hit in the back of the neck,
not the front.
• He was hit in the back of the head, not the
front.
• A shooter could not have hit JFK from the
fence without hitting Jackie or her area.

Magic Bullet?
• Oliver Stone argued that a single bullet
could not have hit JFK and Governor
Connally the way reported.

Magic Bullet?
• Using the bullet wounds, Stone used this
diagram to convince people that one bullet
could not hit JFK and the governor the way
reported.
• Notice both
heads are
level with
each other.

JFK sat elevated above Connally
wrong

Single Bullet Theory
• Once their seats are properly aligned, the
single bullet theory appears to be valid!

Umbrella Man?
• Some say there was a mysterious man
fanning an umbrella right as Kennedy was
shot. Oliver Stone said he was signaling to
shoot JFK.
here

Umbrella Man
• Not much mystery
here. The man was
questioned and
identified.
• He was trying to
heckle JFK with his
umbrella in a way that
he himself did not
quite understand. here

Badge Man?
• Was there a
mysterious man
wearing a badge near
the fence?
• Again, no shots were
fired from this area.
• JFK’s entry wounds
were in the back of his
neck and head.

Motives?
• Everybody seemed to
have a reason to kill
JFK if one thinks
about it hard enough.

Lyndon B. Johnson
• Supposedly, JFK
wanted to
withdraw from
Vietnam.
• LBJ had him killed
so he could
continue the war
(supposedly).

LBJ
• Kennedy gave no
clear evidence of
exiting Vietnam.
• LBJ showed no
desire for
escalating this
“bitch of a war.”
(LBJ’s words).

The Mob?
• The mob supposedly wanted to murder
Kennedy.

Sam Giancana connections
• Supposedly upset
about JFK’s lack of
support for killing
Fidel Castro.

Mob continued
• The mob was upset
about Robert
Kennedy’s pursuit of
organized crime.
• RFK was the Attorney
General (top cop)

The mafia did not kill JFK
• The FBI had the Chicago mafia’s phone
tapped and their offices tapped for years
before 1963. No evidence was heard.
• The mafia had no real interest in JFK.
Maybe his brother Robert, but not the
President.

Did Mob control Oswald and Ruby?
• Oswald was a lone
actor, just as he acted
alone in an attempted
murder of a General
Walker.
• Ruby knew mobsters,
but he was not trusted
by them.

Did Castro Kill JFK?
• Motive: The CIA
tried several times
to kill Fidel Castro.
Operation
Mongoose
considered
poisoned cigars,
poisoned diving
suits, mafia rub out.

Did Castro kill JFK?
• Castro did not have
the means to do so.
• Castro wanted the US
to leave Cuba alone.
An assassination
would have led to an
invasion. (Castro said
this.)
• Oswald was refused
entry into Cuba.

Did the Russians kill JFK?
• Motive: The USA
was a serious rival
in the Cold War.
Killing JFK would
provide instability
in the military and
government.

Russians killed JFK?
• Why would the
Russians risk nuclear
war? Having LBJ as
President would not
have benefited the
Soviets.

November 22, 1963
• LBJ took the
Presidency
• JFK was shot
in Dallas

Warren Commission-Commission put together to investigate
the death of JFK and ruled that Lee Harvey Oswald acted
alone in his assassination of JFK.

JFK Assassination Concept Map
What are the Warren Commission findings?
JFK Assassination
What are its conspiracies?
Actual Events

JFK Assassination Quiz
1. Why was President Kennedy in Dallas?
2. To what country did Lee Harvey Oswald defect?
3. Give one of the Warren Commission’s findings.
4. Give one of the conspiracy theory parties to the JFK assassination and their reason.
5. What does the autopsy say about the two shots that hit President Kennedy?

The New Frontier Closes
Kennedy’s domestic policies were designed to stimulate international trade, reduce
unemployment, provide medical care for the aged, reduce federal income taxes, and
protect the civil rights of blacks. The latter issue, which had aroused national concern in
1962 when federal troops were employed to assure the admission of a Negro at the
University of Mississippi, caused further concern in 1963, when similar action was taken
at the University of Alabama and mass demonstrations were held in support of
desegregation. Although the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, the
administration’s proposals usually encountered strong opposition from Southern
Democrats called “Dixiecrats”. With Congress’ support, Kennedy was able to increase
military spending substantially. This led to greater readiness but also to a significant rise in
the number of long-range U.S. missiles, which prompted a similar Soviet response.
On 22 Nov 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX, most probably by
lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, though conspiracy theories abounded. Vice President
Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office immediately.

The Great Society
The Great Society was a political slogan used by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson (served
1963-69) to identify his legislative program of national reform. In his first State of the
Union message (4 Jan 1965) after election in his own right, the president proclaimed his
vision of a “Great Society” and declared a “war on poverty.” He called for an enormous
program of social welfare legislation including federal support for education, medical care
for the aged through an expanded Social Security Program, and federal legal protection for
citizens deprived of the franchise by certain state registration laws. After a landslide victory
for the Democratic Party (JFK assassination) in the elections of November 1964, a
sympathetic Congress passed almost all the president’s bills.
With this clear mandate, Johnson submitted the most sweeping legislative program to
Congress since the New Deal. He outlined his plan for achieving a “Great Society” in his
1965 state-of-the-Union address, and over the next two years he persuaded Congress to
approve most of his proposals. The Appalachian Regional Development Act provided aid
for that economically depressed area. The Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965
established a Cabinet-level department to coordinate federal housing programs. Johnson’s
Medicare bill fulfilled President Truman’s dream of providing health care for the aged. The
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 provided federal funding for public and
private education below the college level. The Higher Education Act of 1965 provided
scholarships for more than 140,000 needy students and authorized a National Teachers
Corps. The Immigration Act of 1965 abolished the discriminatory national-origins quota

The Great Society (cont’d)
system. The minimum wage was raised and its coverage extended in 1966. In 1967, Social
Security pensions were raised and coverage extended. The Demonstration Cities and
Metropolitan Area Redevelopment Act of 1966 provided aid to cities rebuilding blighted
areas. Other measures dealt with mass transit, truth in packaging and lending,
beautification, conservation, water and air quality, safety, and support for the arts.

Results of the Great Society
The following statistics are provided by Star Parker's Coalition of Urban Renewal, (CURE).
*60 percent of black children grow up in fatherless homes. *800,000 black men are in
jail or prison. *70 percent of black babies are born to unwed mothers. *Over 300,000
black babies are aborted annually. *50 percent of new AIDS cases are in the black
community. *Almost half of young black men in America's cities are neither working nor
in school. What we have here is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

Results of the Great Society
What was the message of the social programs that came out of LBJ's Great Society? One of
the most devastating to the family was that if an unwed woman became pregnant, moved out
of the home of her parents, did not name or know who the father was, then Big Daddy in
Washington would provide for all her essential needs. Ergo she no longer needed a husband
or the support of her family. In fact, the more children she had out of wedlock, the more
money she would receive from the government. This program was the death knell for many
families, especially in the black community. Unfortunately many black men saw this as the
best of all possible worlds. They could father as many children as they wanted, from multiple
women, without ever having to accept the responsibility of fatherhood. Many women
rejected marriage in favor of a boyfriend who could slip in the back door and not jeopardize
her government check. In this dysfunctional culture why would education be important?
Why seek an education only to have to compete for a good job in the market place when they
could just hang around the neighborhood and have all of life's amenities? In fact studying
and getting good grades, for many blacks, became a social stigma. They were called "Uncle
Toms" and accused of trying to act "white". Many blacks who had the potential to succeed
gave in to this pressure and opted for failure. After all they had the perfect excuse. Did not
the NAACP and race hustlers like Jesse Jackson tell them that it was not their fault? That
they were just innocent "victims" of white racism?

Great Society Concept Map
What are some goals?
Great Society
What are its results?
Definition

Great Society Quiz
1. Give one of the goals of President Johnson’s Great Society.
2. What was the fulfillment of President Truman’s dream of providing health care for
the aged?
3. Was the Great Society legislation difficult to pass in congress?
4. Give a 1950s status quo statistic for the black American family.
5. Give one of the results of the Great Society for the black American family.

The Vietnam War
Chapter 19
1954-1975

What is a just war?
A just war is that:-
- A good intention should be behind it
- It should be a last resort after diplomatic means failed
- There must be a chance of success
How should a just war be fought:-
- Innocent people should not be harmed
- Appropriate force should be used to bring the war to a
swift conclusion according to the military commanders
recommendations
- Internationally agreed conventions regulating war must
be obeyed

Introduction
The Vietnam war occurred in Southeast Asia. Laos
and Cambodia became involved during 1959 to 30 Apr
1975. The war started when communist North Vietnam
tried to take over the republic of South Vietnam. It was
the longest war America had ever fought in and it
lasted 15 years.
North Vietnam wanted to take
over South Vietnam. If they
succeeded then it’ll be likely
that Laos and Cambodia will
turn Communist.
Laos and Cambodia might’ve
turned Communist because
they were so vulnerable.

The Domino Theory was that if North Vietnam won
the war then Laos, Cambodia and the rest of Asia
would turn communist. America and South
Vietnam did not want to be communist and let it
spread throughout Asia.

Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (French: Bataille de Diên Biên Phu; Vietnamese: Chiến dịch
Điện Biên Phủ) was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the
French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist
revolutionaries. The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a
comprehensive French defeat that influenced negotiations over the future of Indochina at
Geneva. Military historian Martin Windrow wrote that Điện Biên Phủ was "the first time
that a non-European colonial independence movement had evolved through all the stages
from guerrilla bands to a conventionally organized and equipped army able to defeat a
modern Western occupier in pitched battle.”
As a result of blunders in the French decision-making process, the French began an
operation to support the soldiers at Điện Biên Phủ, deep in the hills of northwestern
Vietnam. Its purpose was to cut off Viet Minh supply lines into the neighboring Kingdom
of Laos, a French ally, and tactically draw the Viet Minh into a major confrontation that
would cripple them. Instead, the Viet Minh, under Senior General Võ Nguyên Giáp,
surrounded and besieged the French, who were unaware of the Viet Minh's possession of
heavy artillery (including anti-aircraft guns) and, more importantly, their ability to move
such weapons through extremely difficult terrain to the mountain crests overlooking the
French encampment. The Viet Minh occupied the highlands around Điện Biên Phủ and
were able to accurately bombard French positions at will. Tenacious fighting on the
ground

Dien Bien Phu (cont’d)
ensued, reminiscent of the trench warfare
of World War I. The French repeatedly
repulsed Viet Minh assaults on their
positions. Supplies and reinforcements
were delivered by air, though as the French
positions were overrun and the anti-aircraft
fire took its toll, fewer and fewer of those
supplies reached them. After a two-month
siege, the garrison was overrun and most
French forces surrendered, only a few
successfully escaping to Laos.
Shortly after the battle, the war ended with
the 1954 Geneva Accords, under which
France agreed to withdraw from its former
Indochinese colonies. The accords
partitioned Vietnam in two; fighting later
broke out between opposing Vietnamese
factions in 1959, resulting in the Vietnam
(Second Indochina) War.
The French disposition at Dien Bien Phu, as of March 1954.
The French took up positions on a series of fortified hills.
The southernmost, Isabelle, was dangerously isolated. The
Viet Minh positioned their 5 divisions (the 304th, 308th,
312th, 316th, and 351st) in the surrounding areas to the north
and east. From these areas, the Viet Minh had a clear line of
sight on the French fortifications and were able to accurately
rain down artillery on the French positions.

Vietnam War 1954-1975
• During the Eisenhower years, the U.S.
assumed the conflict from the French
who were trying to regain their SE Asian
colonial empire after World War II.
• Through the Kennedy years, US troops
trained S. Vietnamese troops to fight the
Reds.
• After the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,
under Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ), US
troops started to fight more.

U.S. Involvement Time
Sequence
Reasons Impetus ResultsDien Bien Phu

U.S. Involvement Quiz
1. What was the battle defeat by the French that eventually
involved the United States?
2. What was the political theory that communism spread from one
country to another?
3. What were the results of the 1954 Geneva Accords?
4. Which President involved us in the Vietnam War?
5. Which President escalated the war?

Vietnam Heats Up
Armed resistance to President Ngo Dinh Diem was organized by former Viet Minh who
became known as Viet Cong (Vietnamese Communists). Supplemented by cadres that had
moved north after 1954 and returned a few years later, the Viet Cong organized in 1969 as
the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF). Communist-led and directed by
Hanoi, it included all groups opposed to the Diem regime and its U.S. ally.
The NLF adopted the “people’s war” strategy favored by Chinese Communist leader Mao
Tse-tung: guerillas using the civilian population as cover engaged in protracted warfare,
avoiding conflict except in advantageous circumstances. Men and supplies infiltrated
through Laos and Cambodia along a network of trails named for Ho Chi Minh (the Ho Chi
Minh Trail). The Viet Cong used assassinations, terrorist activity, and military action
against government-controlled villages. Diem moved peasants into “strategic hamlets” to
separate them from the guerillas. Peasant resentment at this policy aided Viet Cong
recruitment, as did replacement of elected village officials with Diem appointees.
U.S. intervention was based on belief in the “domino theory”—which held that if one
Southeast Asian country were allowed to fall under Communist control, others would
follow like a row of dominoes—and by an increasing concern for the credibility of U.S.
opposition to communism after the Castro government came to power in Cuba (1959).
Responding to Diem’s request for help, U.S. President John F. Kennedy gradually
increased the number of U.S. advisors to more than 16,000.
President Ngo Dinh Diem

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
In Washington, Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, moved rapidly to oppose the
insurgents. He authorized the CIA, using mercenaries and U.S. Army Special Forces, to
conduct covert diversionary raids on the northern coast, while the U.S. Navy, in a related
operation, ran electronic intelligence missions in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson appointed
GEN William Westmoreland to head the Military Assistance Command- Vietnam (MACV),
increased the number of advisors to 23,000, and expanded economic assistance. Warning
Hanoi that continued support for the revolution would prompt heavy reprisals, the
administration began planning bombing raids on the North.
An incident in the Gulf of Tonkin served to justify escalation of the U.S. effort. On 2 Aug
1964, an American destroyer (USS Maddox DD-731) in international waters involved in
electronic espionage was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Unharmed, it was
joined by a second destroyer and on 4 Aug the ships claimed that both had been attacked.
Evidence of the second attack was weak at best (and was later found to be erroneous), but
Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes and went before Congress to urge support for the
Tonkin Gulf Resolution, a virtual blank check to the executive to conduct retaliatory military
operations. There were only two dissenting votes.
After a Viet Cong attack (Feb 1965) on U.S. Army barracks in Pleiku, the United States
commenced Operation Rolling Thunder, a restricted but massive bombing campaign against
North Vietnam. Protection of air bases then provided the rationale for introduction of 50,000
U.S. ground combat forces, which were soon increased. The American public, however, was

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
(cont’d)
not told when their mission and tactics changed from static defense to search-and-destroy,
nor was it asked to bear the war’s cost through higher taxes. Desiring both “guns and butter”
Johnson dissimulated, ultimately producing a backlash that full public and congressional
debate at this point might have avoided. The public never fully supported a war whose
purposes were deliberately obscure.

Helicopters
Rocket launcher
Napalm
Agent Orange
B-52 bombers
Fighter jets

The War Escalates Time Sequence Organizer
Causes Kennedy Administration Johnson Administration

The War Escalates Quiz
1.What were the two armed resistance groups that
were in opposition to South Vietnamese President
Ngo Dinh Diem?
2. What incident escalated the troop levels in
Vietnam?
3. What was the supply route that ran though Laos
and Cambodia?
4. What did President Johnson authorize in the Gulf
of Tonkin and the maximum amount of troops?
5. Name two new weapons introduced into the
Vietnam War.

FOR:-
It’ll help South Vietnam
Justice may be brought
There won’t be any
communism
The Domino Theory was that
if South Vietnam became
communist then all the other
Asian countries would fall.
The Americans had more
weapons, machine guns,
rockets, launchers, tanks and
helicopters.
The war established peace
and stability
AGAINST:-
Vietnam could fight for
themselves
The U.S used napalm which
killed 400, 000 innocent
civilians
1LT William Callie was
responsible for the killing of
unarmed civilians. He was
imprisoned for life.
25% of South Vietnam didn't
support the U.S.
Many young Americans(18-27
years old) staged anti-war
protest through communist
sympathy and support.

The Opposing Sides
The movement against the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War
began in the U.S. with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years.
The U.S. became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in
Vietnam, and those who wanted peace.
Many in the peace movement were students, mothers, or anti-establishment hippies,
but there was also involvement from many other groups, including educators,
clergy, academics, journalists, lawyers, physicians (such as Benjamin Spock and
Justin Newlan), military veterans, and ordinary Americans. Expressions of
opposition events ranged from peaceful nonviolent demonstrations to radical
displays of violence.
Violent groups included the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Black
Panthers, and the Weather Underground Organization (WUO). All three of these
organizations had communist ties and backing and were kept under strict
surveillance by the FBI. The SDS began as a movement to involve the largest
possible number of American students in the democratic processes had become by
1969, as a contemporaneous FBI memo summarizes, "an organization totally
dedicated to the destruction of American society...In the span of seven years, the
SDS had evolved into a hard line Marxist-Leninist-Maoist organization dedicated to
the destruction of Western democratic traditions and ideals.” The Black Panther
Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a black American
revolutionary socialist organization active in the United States from 1966 until
1982.

The Opposing Sides
The Black Panther Party achieved national and international notoriety through its
involvement in the Black Power movement, illegal activities, police gun battles, social
programs, and U.S. politics of the 1960s and 1970s. The WUO conducted a campaign of
bombings through the mid-1970s, including aiding the jailbreak and escape of Timothy
Leary. The "Days of Rage", their first public demonstration on October 8, 1969, was a riot in
Chicago timed to coincide with the trial of the Chicago Seven. In 1970 the group issued a
"Declaration of a State of War" against the United States government.

Jeff Jones (above) of the Apollo Alliance
authored President Obama’s 2009 $787 billion
stimulus bill and the Obamacare healthcare bill.
It was in Bill Ayers’ (left) living room in Chicago
(a neighbor down the street) that President
Obama launched his political career.
Weathermen

During the hippie movement
started in the 1960’s, 250,000
anti-war protestors gathered in
Washington D.C. It was the
largest protest to occur during
the Vietnam war. Many
Americans were against the
war in Vietnam mainly
because 48,700 American
soldiers died including 4
Students. They did not like the
idea that America got involved
in the Vietnam War.

The Radical Left Turns Vietnam Sour
Opposition to the war grew with increased U.S. involvement. Leftist college students,
members of traditional pacifist religious groups, long-time peace activists, and citizens of all
ages opposed the conflict. Some were motivated by fear of being drafted, others out of
commitment, some just joined the crowd, and a small minority became revolutionaries who
favored a victory by Ho Chi Minh and a radical restructuring of U.S. society. College
campuses became focal points for rallies and “teach-ins”—lengthy series of speeches
attacking the war. Marches on Washington began in 1971. Suspecting that the peace
movement was infiltrated by Communists, President Johnson ordered the FBI to investigate
and the CIA to conduct an illegal domestic infiltration, but they proved only that the
radicalism was homegrown. Although the antiwar movement was frequently associated
with the young, support for the war was actually highest in the age group 20-29. The
effectiveness of the movement is still debated. It clearly boosted North Vietnamese morale;
Hanoi watched it closely and believed that ultimately America’s spirit would fall victim to
attrition, but the Communists were prepared to resist indefinitely anyway. The movement
probably played a role in convincing Lyndon Johnson not to run for reelection in 1968, and
an even larger role in the subsequent victory of Richard Nixon over the Democrat Hubert
Humphrey. It may ultimately have helped set the parameters for the conflict and prevented
an even wider war. Certainly its presence was an indication of the increasingly divisive
effects of war on U.S. society.

U.S. actress Jane Fonda,
aka Hanoi Jane, tours
North Vietnam, during
which she is photographed
sitting on a North
Vietnamese anti-aircraft
gun.

Returning Vietnam Soldiers
Disrespected
The Left has tried to erase the memories that were shown to our returning soldiers
from Vietnam with reports and books written ten to twenty years after the
Vietnam War so as to revise their image and write revisionist history. The book
The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam is a 1998 book
by sociologist Jerry Lembcke that is referenced most by liberals saying that it did
not happen.
However, through my personal recollections and military policy during the time,
incidents happened and the military took measures up until the early 1990s to
minimize these incidents by not allowing soldiers to wear their uniforms off of
the military reservation. I talked to Vietnam veterans in units that I served with
in the 1970s and 80s and my father-in-law and the treatment that was received
was 180 degrees the opposite from what is received today.
Soldiers were spit on, cursed, called baby killer, (reference to the Americal 23rd
IN Division 1LT William Calley massacre at My Lai where 22 women, children,
and elderly were murdered, the division was deactivated and has not been
reactivated since.) physically and verbally abused, and had property destroyed.
On the other side, veterans of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and the
American Legion would deride the Vietnam Veterans for losing the war and not
fighting hard enough.

Radical Left Turns Vietnam Sour Graphic Organizer
Anti-War Goals
Violent Movement Organizations Peaceful Movement Organizations
ExamplesExamples

Radical Left Turns Vietnam Sour Quiz
1. Give one of the goals for those against the Vietnam
War.
2. Give three examples of the peaceful protesters.
3. Give two examples of the violent protesters.
4. What did all of the protests do for the North
Vietnamese and who was also known as (aka)
Hanoi Jane that aided the enemy?
5. What were two forms of abuse returning Vietnam
veterans endured from those that opposed the war?

The Tet Offensive
By late 1967, the war was stalemated. Johnson urged Westmoreland to help convince a
public growing more restive that the United States was winning. Although he promised
“light at the end of the tunnel,” increasing casualties as well as growing disbelief in public
pronouncements—the “credibility gap”—fostered increasing skepticism. U.S. strategy was
clearly not producing victory, and Johnson began a limited reassessment.
Meanwhile, Hanoi began planning a new offensive that involved a series of actions: first,
intensified activity in the border areas including a massive attack against the base at Khe
Sanh to attract ARVN and U.S. forces, followed by attacks on most provincial capitals and
Saigon itself. If these were successful, regular forces poised on the outskirts of the cities
would move to support a general uprising. The initial actions did draw forces away from
the cities, and U.S. attention became riveted on the siege of Khe Sanh.
Attacks on cities began on Tet, the lunar holiday, 30 Jan 1968. Hitting most provincial and
district capitals and major cities, the Viet Cong also carried out a bold attack on the U.S.
embassy in Saigon. The attack failed, but the attempt shocked U.S. public opinion. The
Tet offensive continued for three weeks. Although they failed in their military objectives,
the revolutionaries won a spectacular propaganda victory. While captured documents had
indicated that the Viet Cong were planning a major offensive, its size, length, and scope
were misjudged, and the Tet Offensive, as it was publicized in the U.S. media, seemed to
confirm fears that the war was unwinnable. The public oppose the war in direct proportion

The Tet Offensive (cont’d)
to U.S. casualties, and these had topped a thousand dead a month. Tet appeared as a defeat,
despite official pronouncements to the contrary. The media’s negative assessment proved
more convincing than Washington’s statements of victory because it confirmed the sense of
frustration that most Americans shared over the conflict.

FOR:-
 American troops in Vietnam
had vastly superior weapons
than the Vietcong.
 American soldiers had fully
automatic weapons and were
supported by tanks and
helicopters.
 They had napalm which was
a type of flammable petroleum
jelly which adheres and burns
the skin, even in water. The
Americans used this to burn
down all of the jungles along
with the defoliate Agent
Orange to clear fields of fire
around fire bases.
Against:-
 America couldn't find the
guerrillas because they used no
uniforms and hid among the
civilian populace.
 The people in South Vietnam
would not tell the American troops
where the guerrillas were hiding.
They feared being retaliated
against by the Vietcong and being
tortured, massacred, and their
village burned down. Civilians
were caught in the middle
because there was no clear battle
line.
 Politicians interfered with the
military commanders decisions
and turned the war into a political
war rather than allowing the war to
come to a swift conclusion.

Following Ho Chi Minh: Memoirs of a North
Vietnamese Colonel (Crawford House, New South
Wales, 202 pages, $24.95)
In a recent interview published in The Wall Street Journal, former colonel Bui Tin who
served on the general staff of the North Vietnamese Army and received the unconditional
surrender of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975; confirmed the American Tet 1968 military
victory: "Our loses were staggering and a complete surprise. Senior General Võ Nguyên
Giáp later told me that Tet had been a military defeat, though we had gained the planned
political advantages when Johnson agreed to negotiate and did not run for reelection. The
second and third waves in May and September were, in retrospect, mistakes. Our forces in
the South were nearly wiped out by all the fighting in 1968. It took us until 1971 to
reestablish our presence but we had to use North Vietnamese troops as local guerrillas. If
the American forces had not begun to withdraw under Nixon in 1969, they could have
punished us severely. We suffered badly in 1969 and 1970 as it was." And on strategy:
"If Johnson had granted Westmoreland's requests to enter Laos and block the Ho Chi
Minh trail, Hanoi could not have won the war.... it was the only way to bring sufficient
military power to bear on the fighting in the South. Building and maintaining the trail was
a huge effort involving tens of thousands of soldiers, drivers, repair teams, medical
stations, communication units .... our operations were never compromised by attacks on
the trail.
Visits to Hanoi by Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers
gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were
elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that
she was ashamed of American actions in the war and would struggle along with us ....
those people represented the conscience of America .... part of it's war- making capability,
and we turning that power in our favor."

Seeing this on TV led to a
loss of support at home

The Vietnam War caused
the breakdown of many
families and also a
breakdown of the
Vietnamese culture.
Thousands upon thousands
of children were orphaned
during the war and ended up
either in orphanages or on
the streets without a home.
Agent Orange was used and
it caused a mass amount of
damage to the plants and
the jungle itself as well as
U.S. soldiers. Napalm also
caused damage to the skin
and it burned many innocent
people during the war.

Deaths During the War
Deaths During
Vietnam War
American
S.Veitnam
N.Vietnam

29 Mar 1973
Vietnam War Officially Ends
The Vietnam War is officially over for the United States. The last
U.S. combat soldier leaves Vietnam, but military advisors and some
Marines remain. Over 3 million Americans had served in the war,
nearly 60,000 are dead, some 150,000 are wounded, and at least
1,000 are missing in action. The military advisors left south
Vietnam in 1975 after training the south Vietnamese to defend
themselves and agreeing to a cease fire.
President Gerald Ford, who replaced President Nixon, was shown
a video in which South Vietnam soldiers mobbed a plane intended
to evacuate children.
He said: 'That's it. We're pulling the plug on Vietnam’.
The North Vietnamese rolled into South Vietnam and purged many
thousands of civilians through executions. Next door, Cambodia
erected the ‘Killing Fields’ through the efforts of the Khmer Rouge.

Alternate Ending?
Chance of Success?
• General Giap was a brilliant, highly respected leader of the North
Vietnam military. The following quote is from his memoirs currently
found in the Vietnam war memorial in Hanoi:
• "What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the
bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little
harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was
the same at the battles of TET. You defeated us! We knew it, and we
thought you knew it. But we were elated to notice your media was
definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than
we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had
won!"
• General Giap has published his memoirs and confirmed what most
Americans knew. The Vietnam war was not lost in Vietnam -- it was lost
at home. The exact same slippery slope, sponsored by the US media, is
currently well underway. It exposes the enormous power of a biased
media to cut out the heart and will of the American public.
• A truism worthy of note: Do not fear the enemy, for they can take only
your life. Fear the media far more, for they will destroy your honor.

Vietnam Ends Frayer Model
Vietnam War Ends
Tet Offensive Possibility of Success
Effects The End

Vietnam Ends Quiz
1.What North Vietnamese operation, that was a failure
but the left-wing media turn into a victory, turned
the American public against the war as unwinnable?
2. What was the growing disbelief by the American
public about the Vietnam War?
3. What was the name of the North Vietnamese
commander of the army that said the U.S. would
have won?
4. Name one of the effects of the Vietnam War.
5. What President “pulled the plug” on Vietnam?

US Civil Rights Movement
Beginnings through the 60s

Abolitionists
• Frederick Douglas was the editor of an
abolitionist newspaper, The North Star.

Harriet Tubman
• Helped slaves escape via the Underground
Railroad.

John Brown
• He and his sons
brutally murdered 5
slave masters in
Kansas. (1858)
• Tried to incite a slave
revolt at Harper’s
Ferry, but failed.
The slaves did not
rise up.

Reconstruction 1865-77
• After the War Between the States 1861-
1865, the federal government made
strides toward equality.
• Blacks voted, held many political
offices.
• The Freedmen’s Bureau was a
government program to help Blacks find
land, it established schools and colleges.

Reconstruction
• The Fourteenth Amendment
guaranteed all citizens with equal
protection under the law.
• The Fifteenth Amendment said
the right to vote shall not be
denied on the basis of race.

However. . .
• The Supreme Court decided in
Plessy vs. Ferguson that separate
institutions are okay if they are
equal.
• Jim Crow laws required that
Blacks have separate facilities.

National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP)
• Started by four white
Progressives
(socialists)
• Joined in 1909 by
W.E.B. Dubois
• Fought for equality as
a Progressive socialist,
later communist and
finally left the U.S. as
a social pariah

4
The Great
Migration- The
movement of 1.75
million black
Americans out of
the Southern U.S. to
the North and
Midwest and West
from the early
1900’s -1930.

Early Civil Rights Concept Map
Time Period
Reconstruction to
the Great
Migration
People and Leaders
Gov’t Policies/Acts
Early Civil Rights
Actions/ Agencies

Early Civil Rights Quiz
1. Name an early civil rights leader and their contribution.
2. Name the two amendments pertaining to freed blacks and what they
concern.
3. What were the laws that allowed segregation?
4. What organization started fighting for civil rights?
5. What was the movement of southern blacks to the north and west?

School Desegregation
Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, KS was the case in which, on 17 May 1954,
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools
violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which says that no state may
deny equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction. The 1954 decision
declared that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal. Based on a series of
Supreme Court cases argued between 1938 and 1950, Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka completed the reversal of an earlier Supreme Court ruling (Plessy v. Ferguson,
1896) that permitted “separate but equal” public facilities. The 1954 decision was limited
to the public schools, but it was believed to imply that segregation was not permissible in
other public facilities.
In 1957, Little Rock, AR became the focus of world attention over the right of nine black
students to attend Central High School under a gradual desegregation plan adopted by the
city school board in accordance with the 1954 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court
holding racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The result was a test of
power between the federal and state governments. Governor Orval E. Faubus ordered
state militia to prevent blacks from entering the school, but the state was enjoined from
interfering by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who sent federal troops to the city to
maintain order. Within the next decade, desegregation was accomplished in all public
schools.

NAACP fought in the courts
• Thurgood Marshall was hired by
the NAACP to argue in the
Supreme Court against school
segregation. He won.
• He was later the 1st Black
Supreme Court Justice.

Brown vs. Board of Education
1954

Civil Rights
Rights have been expanded through legislation. Since 1957, federal Civil Rights Acts and
a Voting Rights Acts have been passed in an effort to guarantee voting rights, access to
housing, and equal opportunity in employment. These have been accompanied by much
state and local civil rights legislation.
Throughout recent history, people have organized to struggle for rights to which they felt
entitled either by law or by a sense of justice. In the United states, black militancy spread
in the 1950’s and ‘60’s through the activities of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE),
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) headed by Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). These groups achieved
major successes in arousing national opinion against segregation in the South and in
stimulating the civil rights legislation of the 1960’s. They failed, however, to eliminate
some of the deep-rooted segregation patterns in urban areas of the country in the North
primarily.

The Fight
• Many black Americans and whites
risked their lives and lost their lives
to remedy this situation.
• Rosa Parks was not the first, but she
was the beginning of something
special.

Civil Disobedience
Civil disobedience is the act of disobeying a law on the grounds of moral or political
principle. It is an attempt to force society to accept a dissenting point of view. Although it
adopts tactics of nonviolence, it is more than mere passive resistance since it often takes
active forms such as illegal street demonstrations or peaceful occupation of premises. It is
distinguished from other forms of rebellion because the civil disobeyer invites arrest and
accepts punishment.
The most ambitious and perhaps most successful examples of mass civil disobedience
were those of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Gandhi called civil
disobedience—satyagraha, a term meaning “truth-force,” and taught it as an austere
practice requiring great self-discipline and moral purity. With a versatile use of
disobedience, Gandhi led the campaign for Indian independence. In the 1940’s, American
blacks and their white sympathizers began to use forms of civil disobedience to challenge
discrimination in public transportation and restaurants, but the major movement began in
1955 with illegal sit-ins in support of boycotts of segregated establishments. King was the
chief advocate of nonviolent civil disobedience in the civil rights movement of the 1960’s.

Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955
• Rosa Parks was arrested for violating the
segregation laws of Montgomery, Alabama.

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