Period 8 (1945-1980)
After World War II, the United States grappled with prosperity and unfamiliar
international responsibilities while struggling to live up to its ideals.
Key Concepts
8.1: The United States responded to an uncertain and unstable postwar world by asserting and
attempting to defend a position of global leadership, with far-reaching domestic and international
consequences.
8.2: Liberalism, based on anticommunism abroad and a firm belief in the efficacy of governmental and
especially federal power to achieve social goals at home, reached its apex in the mid- 1960s and generated
a variety of political and cultural responses.
8.3: Postwar economic, demographic, and technological changes had a far-reaching impact on American
society, politics, and the environment.
The American Pageant Chapters:
 38
 37
Things to Know – Post-War American and 1950s Cold War
Eisenhower Doctrine
“In God We Trust”
Cuba and Castro situation
Red Scare of the 50s
McCarthyism
Beat Generation & Movement
HUAC
Rock and Roll
GI Bill (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act)* Venona Papers
The Affluent Society
Sun Belt
Rosenbergs
Desegregation of Armed Forces
Massive retaliation
Fannie Lou Hamer
Growth of Agribusiness
Development of H-bomb
John Lewis
GATT
Truman's Fair Deal
Space Race and Sputnik (1957)
Thurgood Marshall
Yalta Conference
NASA
Sweatt v. Painter
Cold War
Science education in the 1950s
Brown v. Board of Education
German Division
Little Rock Crisis
Arms Race
Containment
Korean War
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Truman Doctrine
Domino Theory
Betty Friedan
Suez Canal Crisis
The Feminine Mystique
Marshall Plan
OPEC
Gloria Steinem
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
Brinkmanship
19th Amendment and women’s rights
NATO
Warsaw Pact
Korean War
Postwar Economy
Baby Boom
Vaccines (polio)
22nd Amendment
The American Pageant Chapters:

 39
1960s Political Stuff
John F. Kennedy
New Frontier
Peace Corps
Berlin Wall
Bay of Pigs Invasion
JFK and Cuban Missile Crisis
US lands on the moon - 1969
Flexible Response
Alliance for Progress
Lyndon B. Johnson
Great Society
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Economic Opportunity Act
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Affirmative Action
Medicare/Medicaid
Voting Rights Act of 1965
24th Amendment
Election of 1968
Vietnam War
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Hawks and Doves
Tet Offensive
Escalation
Roy Benavidez (Medal of Honor)
Vietnamization
Fall of Saigon
Draft
26th Amendment
Role of media in Vietnam War
Credibility gap
Silent Majority
Anti-War Movement
Cambodia and Laos
Pentagon Papers
War Powers Act
40
Things to Know – 1960s and 1970s:
Civil Rights Movement (CRM)
th
13 , 14th, 15th Amendments
19th Amd. & women’s rights
CRM: African Americans
CRM: Chicano (Hispanic)
Chicano Mural Movement
Dolores Huerta
CRM: Women
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
Phyllis Schlafly
Title IX
CRM: American Indian
Students for a Democratic Society
Free Speech Movement
Sexual revolution
Warren Court
Miranda v. Arizona
Tinker v. Des Moines
Griswold v. Connecticut
Escobedo v. Illinois
Gideon v. Wainwright
Engel v. Vitale
Reynolds v. Sims
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rosa Parks
Cesar Chavez
Hector P. Garcia
Black Panthers
Black Power
Stokely Carmichael
Malcolm X
“I Have a Dream Speech”
“Letter from Birmingham Jail”
MLK assassination – 1968
George Wallace
Orval Faubus
Lester Maddox
Congressional Bloc of Southern Democrats*
Mendez v. Westminster
Edgewood I.S.D. v. Kirby
Delgado v. Bastrop I.S.D.
Hernandez v. Texas
White v. Regester
Wisconsin v. Yoder
Bakke v. University of California
1970s Political Stuff
Richard M. Nixon
Détente
SALT I and ABM Treaties
Stagflation
OPEC Oil Embargo
Environmental Protection Agency
OSHA
“southern strategy”
Rachel Carson
Clean Air Act
Endangered Species Act
Watergate Scandal
Gerald Ford
Helsinki Accords
Jimmy Carter
Camp David Accords
Iran Hostage Crisis
Malaise speech
Community Reinvestment Act of 1977*