Transcript TEKS Review - Humble ISD

TEKS Review
Period 8 – 1945 to 1980
Early Space Race
• The Soviets beat the U.S. in the space race in the fall of 1957 by launching two
satellites that encircled the globe in space called __________________.
– Sputnik I and II
• Eisenhower established the _______________________________________ to
compete with the Soviets in the space race.
– National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) - provided ______________ for
the improvement of teaching the _______________________ and languages.
– Grants; sciences
• By _________________ the U.S. catapulted ahead of the Soviets when they
landed on the moon.
– July, 1969
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
• During the ________ War the U.S. built: arsenal of _______________ weapons, air and
____________ fleets to deliver the nuclear weapons, a ______-ocean Navy, and a large
army through conscription.
– Cold; nuclear; missile; two
• The Cold War was because the USSR and USA distrusted one another. But, why?
– 1) ________________ government philosophies,
– 2) U.S. refused to ___________________ the USSR for 16 years,
– 3) USSR believed the U.S. and Britain delayed in opening a second _____________ during the
war while Soviet soldiers died by the millions,
– 4) The U.S. and Britain excluded the USSR from the plans to make the _____________________,
– 5) The U.S. abruptly terminated the lend-lease aid to the USSR in 1945, and spurned Moscow’s
request for a ___________, while giving a loan to Britain,
– 6) Stalin was determined to have nations __________________ to the USSR as a barrier
between Western Europe and the U.S. so it didn’t get attacked again, while the U.S. wanted all
nations to have free and untangling elections to _____________________________government
system.
• Opposite; recognize; front; atomic bomb; loan; faithful; determine their own
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
• Each side engaged in “missionary” diplomacy after WWII.
– Which means: Each power tried to teach the rest of the world how to be like
them in regards to their _______________ philosophy gained through their
respective ___________________.
• Political; revolutions
• Three things did the Cold War did in the post WWII world was:
– 1) Shaped _______________________ relations,
– 2) over-shadowed the entire post-war _______________________ order in
every corner of the globe,
– 3) molded _______________________________________and the lives of
individual people all over the planet.
• Soviet/America; international; societies and economies
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
• The United Nations Conference opened on April 25, 1945, and created the UN
Charter, which said:
– It had a Security Council dominated by the ________________that had ___________
power – USA, USSR, Britain, France, and China.
– Had an Assembly which could be controlled by ________________ countries.
• Big five; veto; smaller
• What did Winston Churchill say had ascended across the European continent due
to Soviet influence in Eastern Europe?
• “Iron curtain”
• What did the Soviets do in Berlin in 1948 to try to run the western powers out of
it; and, how did the west respond?
– Choked off all rail and highway access to ________________. The Allies responded with
a large and successful _______________ delivering tons of supplies to western Berlin for
about a _____________ until the Soviets lifted their blockade in May, 1949.
• Berlin; airlift; year
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
• Where did the Soviet’s try to keep troops in 1946 to get good oil
concessions; and, how did the U.S. respond?
• Iran (northern); Truman sent a stinging message to the Soviets to get out
and the Soviets got out.
• The Containment Doctrine of 1947 said: The Soviets were
__________________ and their aggression could be stemmed by “firm
and vigilant _____________________”.
• Expansionists; containment
• The Truman Doctrine was: Truman, after helping Greece and Turkey
stated, “It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples
who are resisting attempted ___________________ by armed minorities
or by _______________ pressures”.
• Subjugation; outside
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
• In 1947, George C. ________________ invited western Europeans, in
terrible distress from the war, to get together and work out a
_____________ plan for __________________ recovery. This led to the
_______________ Community (_____).
• Marshall; joint; economic; European; EU
• The Marshall Plan was: A plan calling for $_______ billion over four years
in sixteen cooperating countries of aid to help them jump-start the
___________________________. The __________ rejected it.
• 12.5; European economy; USSR
• How did the Marshall plan work?
• It was an enormous success as in two years most countries were exceeding
their pre-war outputs; and in France & Italy the Communists Parties lost
ground.
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
• What was crucial to the continued European recovery program?
– Oil from the Middle East
• National Security Act of 1947:
– Created the Department of _______________, a new Pentagon building, a
new Cabinet member – the Secretary of Defense, the Joint _____________
of Staff - the secretaries of Navy, Army, and Air Force, the National
__________________ Council (NSC) to advise the President on security
matters, and the Central __________________ Agency (CIA) to coordinate
the government’s _______________ fact finding.
• Defense, Chiefs, Security, Intelligence; foreign
• What did the Voice of America do when it began in 1948?
• Beaming American radio broadcasts behind the Iron Curtain.
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
• What did the U.S. join in ___________ (Europeans created in 1948) to
help defend Europe, and who else was a member?
– North Atlantic Treaty organization (_________) with ___________,
____________, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
• 1949; NATO; Britain; France
• How did pundits sum up the NATO threefold purpose?
• Keep the Soviets out, the Germans down, and the Americans in.
• What did MacArthur go ahead and do in Japan even though the Soviets
were disapproving?
• Democratized Japan
• What did the U.S. do in the South Pacific in 1952?
• Exploded the first H-Bomb (Hydrogen bomb)
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
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How did each side try to outdo the other during this time?
Build the most destructive weapons.
What brought a shaky stability to the superpower standoff?
Peace through mutual terror – “mutually assured destruction”
What was the highlight of Truman’s “Point Four” Program?
Lend U.S. money and technical aid to underdeveloped nations to keep them from
becoming communists.
What was Truman’s first action in response to the North Korean invasion of South
Korea?
Massive build up to a 3.5 million man army costing $50 billion per year
What did NCS-68 say America should do; and, what did it assume about the
American economy?
Quadruple our military expenditures; assumed the enormous American economy
could bear it without strain
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
• What two things did Truman do regarding Korea without Congress approval?
• Ordered American naval and air units to support South Korea and General MacArthur’s
troops into S. Korean
• What were the results of the Korean War?
• Fighting three years, 54,000 American deaths, over a million Chinese, N. & S. Korean
deaths, tens of billions of American dollars spent, no boundary changes to Korea, and
the Cold War was as intense as ever.
• How did Richard M. Nixon distinguish himself; and, what did it mean?
• Relentless “red-hunter” = exposed and prosecuted American citizens who were antiAmerican and pro-Communists
• What was McCarthy’s spectacular charges in 1950?
• Scores of known Communists worked in the State Department and Sec. of State Acheson
knowingly employed about 205 Communist party members.
• What was Strategic Air Command (SAC)?
• Strategy to push back communist aggression in the world using an air fleet of superbombers equipped with nuclear bombs.
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
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What did Ike threaten in 1955 when islands near Taiwan were bombed?
To use nuclear weapons on China if they didn’t back off Taiwan.
What happened in Hungary in 1956?
Hungarians revolted against communism. Soviets put down the rebellion
with force. The USA did nothing.
In 1954 how much of the French/Vietnamese War did the U.S. finance?
About 80% of the war at $1 Billion.
What did the CIA engineer in Iran in 1953, and why?
Coup to overtake Iran so the west could keep getting oil from Iran by
installing the Shah of Iran who would keep the Soviets out.
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
• What was the Eisenhower Doctrine in 1957?
• U.S. pledged military and economic aid to any Middle East country threatened by
communism
• Why did the U.S. send troops to Lebanon in July 1958, and what was the result?
• Egyptians and communists were threatening to take over the western leaning
Lebanon, so the U.S. intervened to settle the dispute without one life lost.
• What happened over the USSR in May 1960?
• The Soviets shot down a U.S. U2 spy plane over the USSR.
• What did the CIA do in Guatemala in 1954?
• Directed a coup to oust the leftist government
• What multibillion dollar project did Kennedy promote?
• Land a man on the moon
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
• Kennedy’s “flexible response” - An array of military options that could
be precisely matched to the gravity of the crisis at hand, such as using
covert ops units like the Green Berets.
• By his death in 1963 Kennedy had sent 15,000 troops to S. Vietnam?
• In 1961 Kennedy, through anti-Castroites, launched an invasion on Cuba
to get the people to rise up and take Cuba from Castro, but the assault
failed. This was known as the “Bay of Pigs” affair.
• Kennedy also tried to assassinate Castro, covertly.
• American spy planes discovered in Cuba in October, 1962 nuclear tipped
missiles set up by the Soviet Union.
U.S. Responses to Soviet Aggression
• Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: Kennedy quarantined Cuba and told the
Soviets to remove the missiles, and if the U.S. is attacked we would
launch nuclear weapons on the Soviet heartland.
• After a tense stand-off and worries of WWIII, in this October, 1962 the
Soviets backed off and removed the weapons from Cuba. The U.S. said it
would remove some missiles from Turkey.
• In 1963 a pact with the Soviets was signed that would prohibit trial
nuclear explosions in the atmosphere
• In August, 1963 a “hot-line” between Moscow and Washington was
installed allowing the two sides immediate teletype communication in
case of crisis.
Vietnam War
• Gulf of Tonkin incident - U.S. Navy vessels were fired upon in the
Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - gave LBJ a wide range of military
responses to respond to the attack on the U.S. Navy vessel. It
severely escaladed our involvement in Vietnam.
• Haiti in April, 1965 - LBJ sent troops there to stop a Communists
coup.
• Vietnam escalation in 1965 - Vietcong attacked a U.S. airbase, so by
the end of ‘65 there were 184,000 troops in S. Vietnam.
• Vietnam escalation by 1968 - 500,000 troops/$30 million
Vietnam War
• Tet Offensive - The N. Vietnamese launched a vicious surprise
attack on Tet (the Vietnamese New Year), Jan. 1968. The N.
Vietnamese were beaten back but it caused Americans at home to
protest more.
• After the Tet Offensive U.S. Military leaders called for 200,000 more
troops to fight in Vietnam
• LBJ’s indiscretions - he asked the CIA in 1967 to illegally spy on
anti-war demonstrators; and, the FBI to turn their Cointelpro’s
counterintelligence program against the peace movement.
• Vietnamization – Nixon slowly withdraws U.S. troops beginning in
1969 from 540,00 to 27,000 by 1972.
Vietnam War
• Nixon Doctrine – We’ll honor current defense commitments, but in the
future Asians and others would fight their own wars without U.S.
troops.
• Attacking Cambodia – to pursue Vietcong who was using it as a safe
haven, and launching attacks on our troops from the country.
• Spring ‘72 when the N. Vietnamese launched a new and successful
offensive and the U.S. could not hold them back was the beginning of
the end for the S. Vietnamese government in the war.
• Cease Fire of 1973 – U.S. would withdraw remaining 27,000 troops
while N. Vietnamese retained 145,000 inside S. Vietnam. U.S. would get
560 POW’s. S. Vietnam would continue to receive support from the U.S.
An election would determine the future government of S. Vietnam.
Vietnam War
• War Powers Act of 1973 – President had to inform Congress within
48 hours after committing troops to a region or expanding troops
in a region. The authorization would last no longer than 60 days.
• In 1973 two things ended that pleased the “doves”: the draft and
the bombing of Cambodia
• In 1975 the Vietnam war ended as the N. Vietnamese conquered
the S. Vietnamese chasing out 140,000 S. Vietnamese and the
remaining U.S. supporters.
• Results of the Vietnamese War: 58,000 American deaths, 300,000
wounded, numerous MIA’s and POW’s not accounted for, 118
billion dollars spent, division at home, loss of respect towards
American around the world, bad inflation in the American
economy.
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
• Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives
• Investigated allegations of communists activity in the U.S. during the
early years of the Cold War
• Established in 1938
• Called citizens to testify in high-profile hearings before Congress
• Produced revelations about Communists infiltration of American
institutions and subversive actions by well-known citizens
• HUAC’s controversial tactics contributed to the fear, distrust and
repression that existed during the anticommunist hysteria of the 1950s
• By the late 1950s and early 1960s, HUAC’s influence was in decline
• In 1969 it was renamed the Committee on Internal Security. Its
operations continued until 1975.
Venona Project
• Counter-intelligence program
• Initiated by the United States Army Signal Intelligence Service (a forerunner of
the National Security Agency)
• Ran from 1943 to 1980
• Attempted to decrypt messages sent by Soviet Union intelligence agencies,
including its foreign intelligence service and military intelligence services.
• Approximately 3,000 messages were at least partially decrypted and translated
• Produced some of the most important breakthroughs for western counterintelligence, including the discovery of the Cambridge spy ring and the exposure
of Soviet espionage targeting the Manhattan Project
• One of the most sensitive secrets of United States intelligence
• Remained secret for over a decade after it ended and was not officially
declassified until 1995
Civil & Equal Rights Leaders
• Betty Friedan - She was a feminist and wrote, The Feminine Mystique,
which was a classic of feminist protest literature and launched the
modern feminist movement. The mainly criticized housewifery and the
postwar “cult of domesticity”.
• Hector P. Garcia (1914 – 1996)
– Mexican-American physician, civil rights advocate, and founder of the American
G.I. Forum.
– Vicente T. Ximenes to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1966,
– Named alternate ambassador to the United Nations in 1967,
– Appointed to the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1968,
– 1984, Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
– 1998, posthumously awarded the Aguila Azteca, Mexico's highest award for
foreigners
Civil & Equal Rights Leaders
• Cesar Estrada Chavez (1927 - 1993)
– Mexican-American labor leader who used non-violent methods to fight for
the rights of migrant farm workers.
– Acting to increase wages and improve the working conditions and safety
of farm workers.
– Organized strikes and nation-wide boycotts of agricultural products.
– Went on many hunger strikes, refusing to eat until violence against
strikers ended and until legislators voted to make laws improving the lives
of farm workers.
– Was also jailed many times during his fight against terrible migrant worker
conditions.
Civil Rights Court Cases
• Mendez, et al v. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al, 1947,
challenged racial segregation in California schools. Ruled that the segregation of
Mexican and Mexican American students into separate "Mexican schools" was
unconstitutional.
• Hernandez v. Texas, (1954), decided that Mexican Americans and all other racial
groups in the United States had equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Pete
Hernandez was convicted for the murder. Hernandez's legal team set out to
demonstrate that the jury could not be impartial unless members of non-Caucasian
races were allowed on the jury-selecting committees. The Supreme Court
unanimously ruled in favor of Hernandez, and required he be retried with a jury
composed without regard to ethnicity.
• Delgado v. Bastrop ISD - 1948, The suit charged segregation of Mexican children
from other white races. In addition the suit accused these districts of depriving such
children of equal facilities, services, and education instruction. The United States
District Court, agreed and ordered the cessation of this separation by September
1949.
Black Equal Rights
• Martin Luther King – peaceful leader of the 1950’s and 1960’s civil
rights for African Americans who made the “I Have a Dream” speech in
Washington D.C. In 1957 he set up the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) to mobilize the power of black churches on behalf of
black rights.
• Rosa Parks - In Montgomery, Alabama in December, 1955 she boarded a
bus, sat in the “white’s only” section and refused to move. She was
arrested sparking a yearlong boycott of Montgomery’s transit system
by the area blacks in protest of the Jim Crow laws.
• How were Malcom X and Martin Luther King different?
– King - peaceful protests, inclusion, and forgiveness, equal rights
– Malcom X (and the Black Panthers) - separation, violence, and revenge,
“economic rights”
• Supreme Court, 1944 ruled the “white primary” unconstitutional
Black Equal Rights
• Truman’s contributions: ended segregation in the federal civil service and
ordered “equality of treatment and opportunity” in the armed forces.
The Korean War had the first integrated military units without the
predicted loss of effectiveness.
• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 1954 - segregation in
public schools was “inherently unequal” and thus unconstitutional;
reversing Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896.
• Sweatt v. Painter, 1950 - separate professional school for blacks failed to
meet the test of equality
• Arkansas in September, 1957 - Governor of Arkansas prevented nine
black students from enrolling into Little Rock’s Central HS. Ike sent
federal troops in to ensure their ability to enroll in the school, and to
keep them safe
Black Equal Rights
• First Civil Rights bill since reconstruction (1957): set up the Civil
Rights Commission to investigate civil rights violations and protect
voting rights.
• Kennedy’s civil rights groups project registered the South’s blacks to
vote.
• Incident at Ole Miss in October, 1962: James Meredith, a black man,
tried to register at Ole Miss in June, 1962, but was violently
opposed starting a huge violent event. Kennedy sent in Federal
Marshalls and troops allowing Meredith to get in school and
eventually graduating from Ole Miss.
Black Equal Rights
• Civil Rights Bill of 1964 - banned racial discrimination in most private facilities
open to the public, strengthened federal government’s power to end
segregation, created the Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to end
discrimination in hiring.
• Johnson’s Executive Order in 1965 - Required federal contractors to take
“affirmative action” against discrimination.
• 24th Amendment - Abolished poll taxes in federal elections
• Voting Rights Act of 1965 - Outlawed literacy tests in order to vote
• Milliken v. Bradley – cannot force students across district lines to integrate
• Affirmative Action – acceptance for enrollment or jobs is based more on
minority status than achievement. Whites claimed reverse discrimination
over this.
Civil Rights Notable Personalities
 George C. Wallace, Governor of Alabama - Ran on third party ticket in 1968. He
said, “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!”. He
called for, behind a bulletproof glass, ‘Prodding blacks back into “their place’.
 Lester Maddox - Georgia governor in the 1960’s. He backed prison reform, an
issue popular with African Americans. Appointed more African Americans to
government positions than all Georgia governors combined, including the first
black officer in the Georgia State Patrol and the first black official to the state
Board of Corrections. Controversially, in 1968 at Martin Luther King’s funeral
procession, Maddox greatly overreacted with a heavy-handed police presence,
and he refused to order flags to be lowered to half-mast. Maddox fought against
the civil rights aims of the democratic party in 1968.
 Orval Faubus (1910 – 1994) Governor of Arkansas, serving from 1955 to 1967.
He is best known for his 1957 stand against the desegregation of the Little Rock
School District during the Little Rock Crisis, in which he defied the U.S. Supreme
Court by ordering the Arkansas National Guard to stop black students from
attending Little Rock Central High School.
Civil Rights
• The Community Reinvestment Act - U.S. federal law designed to encourage
commercial banks and savings associations to help meet the needs of
borrowers in all segments of their communities, including low- and
moderate-income neighborhoods. Congress passed the Act in 1977 to reduce
discriminatory credit practices against low-income neighborhoods, a practice
known as redlining.
• AFDC – aid to families with dependent children, especially single moms
• Nixon’s Philadelphia Plan of 1969 – required employers to meet minority
hiring quotas or to establish “set asides” for minority subcontractors.
• Griggs v. Power Company (1971) – prohibited tests or other devices in hiring,
and organizations had to hire minority workers in proportion to their
presence in the population.
Civil Rights
• Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 – prohibited sex
discrimination in federally assisted educational programs or
activity.
• Reed v. Reed and Frontier v. Richardson – challenged sex
discrimination in legislation and employment.
• ERA – Equal Rights Amendment for women opposed by Catholic
Church and religious right. Went down to defeat lacking three
states.
• U.S. v. Wheeler – Indian tribes possess a “unique and limited”
sovereignty subject to the will of Congress, but not to the
individual states.
Nixon and China & the Soviet Union
• China and the USSR were fighting over their individual brand of
Communism, so Nixon would play one against the other.
• Nixon paved the way to better relations with China beginning the
era of détente’ (relaxed tensions)
• Great Grain Deal of ’72 - three year deal where the U.S. sold grain to
the Soviet Union
• ABM Treaty - Limited each nation to two clusters of defensive
missiles
• SALT I Treaty – froze numbers of long range missiles for five years
• MIRV - Multiple Independent Targeted Re-entry Vehicles designed
to overcome any defense by saturating it with large numbers of
warheads, several to a rocket
Environmental Protection Agency & Endangered Species Act
EPA - U.S. federal government agency created to protect human health
and the environment.
• Writes and enforces regulations based on laws passed by Congress.
• By President Richard Nixon and began on December 2, 1970, after Nixon
signed an executive order and ratified by the Senate and the House.
• Conducts environmental assessment, research, and education.
• Enforcement powers include fines, sanctions, and other measures.
• Voluntary pollution prevention programs and energy conservation efforts.
ESA - one of the few dozens of United States environmental laws
passed in the 1970s.
• By President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973,
• Protect critically imperiled species from extinction
• The U.S. Supreme Court declared that the intent was to halt and reverse the
trend toward species extinction, whatever the cost."
Period 8 (1945-1980) Economy
• Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944 - better known as the GI Bill
and it gave former soldiers education grants, gave them cheap
loans to buy homes, farms, and small businesses. Heled to build a
progressive and effective postwar economy.
• American income facts from 1950 to 1973: incomes doubled in the
50’s, incomes doubled again in the 60’s, incomes hit the trillion
mark in 1973, and Americans, at 6% of the world’s population,
owned 40% of the world’s wealth.
• Women gained the most ground in postwar jobs as rising service
industry jobs dominated the new job market.
• In 1945 the American workforce was 25% females, and by 1995 it
was 50%.
Period 8 (1945-1980) Economy
• Things that propelled the post-war economic boom: 1) colossal military
budgets to defend against Soviet aggression and fight two Asian wars, 2)
cheap Middle East energy, and 3) increased worker productivity.
• Five changes in the agricultural business after WWII: 1) achieved
productivity gains virtually unmatched in any other economic sector, 2)
the family farm was replaced by giant agribusinesses, 3) production
went from one farmer producing food for 15 people in 1945 to one
producing enough food for 50 people by 2000 due to mechanization,
rich fertilizers, government subsidies, and price supports, 4) equipment
radically changed from very hard to operate with little productivity to
very comfortable and lots of productivity, 5) agricultural labor force
went from 15% to 2% of Americas workers, yet Americas farmer still fed
much of the world.
Period 8 (1945-1980) Economy
• Americans moved to the Sunbelt in large numbers at this time for:
jobs, better climate, and lower taxes
• Southerners are dedicated to unregulated economic growth ?
• Unregulated means: W/O government over-regulating and
overtaxing businesses
• “White flight” occurred at this time meaning: whites moved en mass
to the suburbs, leaving the inner cities with less affluent (poor)
African Americans and Hispanics
• With “white flight” the taxpaying businesses fled from downtown
areas to the suburban areas in order to stay in business.
• America experienced a birthrate explosion from 1945 to 1960, called
the “baby boom era” when more than 50 million babies were born.
Period 8 (1945-1980) Economy
• Truman’s “Fair Deal” - Improved housing (Housing Act of 1949), full
employment, a higher minimum wage, better farm price supports,
new TVA’s, and an extension of the Social Security (Social Security
Act of 1950).
• Ike said he wanted to be: liberal (or human) with things that deal
with people and conservative with things that deal with money and
government.
• In 1960, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran, along with Venezuela
joined together and formed the Organization of Petroleum Countries
(OPEC) which controlled oil flow from those nations putting an
economic stranglehold on the west for at least two decades.
Period 8 (1945-1980) Economy
• Our nation of renters become a nation of landowners
(homeowners) after WWII.
• In 1956 the American workforce changed as white-collar workers for
the first time outnumbered blue-collar workers which signaled
passing from an industrial to a postindustrial (or service industry)
era.
• A consumer culture exemplified by the new Diner’s Club credit card,
the first McDonald’s hamburger joint, and the opening of
Disneyland was blossoming in the 1950’s.
• In the 1940’s TV’s were only had by the rich, but by 1960 virtually
every American home had a TV in the home.
Period 8 (1945-1980) Economy
• Kennedy’s New Frontier spent federal funds for medical assistance
for the aged and increased aid to education.
• Kennedy cut taxes pleasing the believers in free enterprise?
• Kennedy’s multibillion dollar project was to land a man on the
moon.
• Trade Expansion Act of 1962 – tariffs were cut by 50% to enhance
trade with Europe.
• The U.S. alone funded the U.N?
• LBJ rammed through Congress right after Kennedy’s death,
Kennedy’s tax bill with a billion dollar “war on poverty”
expenditure.
Period 8 (1945-1980) Economy
• The Other America by Michael Harrington helped LBJ convince America
to go with his programs revealing that in affluent America 20% live in
poverty with 40% of blacks in poverty
• Johnson’s Great Society’s economic programs:
– Office of Economic Opportunity – increased appropriations to $2 billion and
targeted Appalachia
– The expensive legislative achievements – aid to education and medical care for
the elderly and indigent
– Medicare & Medicaid – entitlement programs passed in 1965 to help the poor
and elderly
– “entitlements” – conferred rights on certain categories of Americans in
perpetuity w/o Congressional approval usually costing a large portion of the
budget
Period 8 (1945-1980) Economy
• Average standard of living doubled in America in the 25 years
following WWII?
• Productivity gains and average median incomes grinded to a halt
in the 1970’s.
• Only economic salvation for families was the 2nd income from the
wife.
• Causes of economic stagnation in the ‘70’s: Vietnam war costs,
rising oil prices, and government welfare programs.
• Cost of living from 1968 to 1980 more than tripled!
• 26th amendment – lowered voting age to 18
Period 8 (1945-1980) Economy
• Poverty rate in 1973 was at 11% which was the lowest in the
nation’s history.
• Nixon forced a nationwide price and wage freeze in 1971 to try to
stem the tide of inflation.
• Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard in 1971.
• For helping Israel in the 1973 war OPEC embargoed oil to the U.S.
for five month causing long gas lines and rationing in the U.S.
• Once OPEC lifted the oil embargo they raised the price of oil sold
to the U.S. by 400% adding to the inflation woes.
• This when we reduced speed limits to 55 MPH, built the Alaska
pipeline, and began creating nuclear power plants
Period 8 (1945-1980) Economy
• Jimmy Carter became President in 1976 and had to deal with
rising inflation, interest rates, and budget deficit.
• Carter embargoed grain and high tech machinery to the
Soviet when they invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
• When the Shah was ousted in Iran in 1979 the U.S. suffered
greater oil shortages and gas increases.
• When the Iranians overtook our embassy and held our citizens
hostage for 444 days in Tehran, Iran Carter issued economic
sanctions on Iran.