Unit 8 Study Guide

Katie Dennison May 25, 2009 Unit 8 Study Guide 1) The Yalta Conference was a wartime peace-time meeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin in February 1945. The purpose of the conference was to deal with post-war Germany. They discussed the placement of new governments and territorial boundaries. During these

political negotiations, a rift between the big three had opened because of their differing wants and needs. Stalin wanted to establish a government of procommunists while FDR and Churchill wanted a pro-western form of

government. Further disagreements between the soviets and England/US were inevitable as a result of this conference. Due to this, the Yalta Conference is seen as the onset of the Cold War.

2) Joseph McCarthy was a Republican Senator from Wisconsin who helped in the rid of communists within the U.S.A. He would bring suspected communists before the United States Congress to be interrogated. McCarthy also believed that Soviets had penetrated the U.S. government. Because of this, McCarthy’s actions were justified. At the time, communism was a big threat in the U.S. It is our government’s job to protect our country. If that means interrogating potential communists, then I am all for it. After doing some more research on Joseph McCarthy, I came to learn that his accusations of Soviet penetration in the government were correct. According to the KGB archives, the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs or public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union) had 221 agents in the Roosevelt administration in April 1941. 3) The time frame of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency marks the beginning of two important social movements in the United States. These movements were civil rights and the counter-culture. The civil rights movement refers to the reform movement in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans. It consisted of African American’s

using civil disobedience to earn their rights. Although, “Dixiecrats”, or southern democrats, fought against this movement. President Eisenhower’s stance was that the federal government should not have to do something about it, that it was a state issue. The next movement was the counterculture. This consisted of hippies, the beat movement and rock n roll. Hippies were people who created their own communities, listened to psychedelic rock music, embraced the sexual revolution, and used drugs such as marijuana and LSD to explore alternative states of mind. The beat generation, also known as the beat movement, was a group of American writers who emerged in the 1950’s. It started out as a small group of close friends first who would read poetry about the rejection of mainstream American values, experimentation with drugs and alternate forms of sexuality. Rock N Roll started out in the early 1950’s. Its roots lay in rhythm in blues. An influential Rock N Roller of the 1960’s was Bob Dylan. 4) In 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president of the U.S. and was put to the task of dealing with the Cold War. There were three main conflicts that Kennedy faced. Two years prior to Kennedy’s election as president, communist leader Fidel Castro took over Cuba. By the end of 1960, all newspapers opposing the government of Cuba had been closed down. Also, all radio and television stations were in state control. Teachers and professors were purged. Groups of homosexuals were taken to internment camps for medical-political “re-education”. Cuba became allies with the Soviet Union and built the second largest armed forces in Latin America. By 1961, hundreds of thousands of Cubans had left for the United States. During that time, Kennedy directed the CIA to conduct the Bay of Pigs invasion. The Bay of Pigs invasion was an attempt to overthrow Castro by U.S. trained Cuban exiles. Although, the operation failed. This event was then followed by Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The Kennedy administration demanded the immediate withdrawal of missiles placed in Cuba by the U.S.S.R., The U.S.S.R. did this because the U.S. had nuclear missiles in Turkey and the Middle East. An agreement was made with Kennedy in which all U.S.S.R. missiles were to be withdrawn from Cuba and the US would remove its missiles from Turkey the Middle East. The last Cold War conflict that Kennedy faced was the Berlin

Wall. The Berlin was built to separate East and West Germany. Kennedy did nothing about the wall. 5) The 1954 United States Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education is among the most significant judicial turning points in the development of our country. It dismantled the legal basis for racial segregation in schools and other public facilities. Although, not everyone accepted the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In Virginia, a senator organized a massive resistance movement that included closing schools rather than desegregating them. Also, in 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus tried to stop black students from entering Little Rock High School. However, President Dwight Eisenhower responded to this by deploying National Guard troop’s to Little Rock, Arkansas. 6) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other activists of the 1960s adopted civil disobedience techniques to protest civil rights for African-American’s. Civil disobedience is refusing to obey laws by using a non-violence manner. Activists in the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) would participate in sit-ins. Most sit-ins were done at public places, such as restaurants’. These students would go into public places, sit down peacefully and await service. Although, they were never given any. These sit-ins would never end peacefully. Police would come and beat protesters for not obeying the law. Another example of civil disobedience would be the Rosa Parks incident. Rosa Park’s would not give up her seat to a white man on the bus. So, the police came and took her to jail. The point of civil disobedience was for the public to feel sympathetic towards activists. 7) During the twentieth century, African American’s faced a huge amount of discrimination and it was found to be very difficult to achieve civil rights. In order for African American’s to achieve civil rights they needed a leader. Two of the most powerful and influential leaders had to be Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. These two leaders had different approaches to achieving civil rights. The civil rights movement began with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His method to achieving rights for African American’s was through non-violence and civil disobedience. Although,

through civil disobedience many African American’s were hurt and even killed. Many people began to follow Malcolm X’s practices to achieve civil rights. He felt that since the non-violent way was not working that African American’s would have to resort to violence. His slogan for this was “Ballots or Bullets.”

8) Prior to World War II, Vietnam was a colony controlled by the French government. Although when the war began, the French had to fight against German occupation on the borders of its homeland. Needing as many troops as it possibly could, France pulled out of the territory. This left the land open for take over by the Empire of Japan. After the war and the defeat of the Axis powers, the Treaty of Versailles made Japan give back all of territories that it had taken over. This gave the Viet Minh, led by communist Ho Chi Minh, the opportunity to grasp power across Vietnam. Although, the French wanted Vietnam back. With the help of allied powers, a French resistance began in 1946 and ended with their quick defeat at The Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. At the Geneva convention in 1956, a long term plan was made for Vietnam. It was to be temporarily split into North and South Vietnam for two years. North Vietnam would be controlled by a communist government led by Ho Chi Minh. South Vietnam would be run by a democratic form of government, led by Ngo Dinh Diem. After the two years elections would be held. The winner and their form of government would control all of Vietnam. Although, in 1958 Ngo Dinh Diem canceled elections. Diem was a catholic who outlawed certain Buddhist practices because of his accusations of Buddhists harboring communists. Many Buddhists protested against Diem. Monks would light themselves on fire in public places in protest. Also, South Vietnamese that supported communism (also referred to as the Vietcong) would attack the South Vietnam government. They also assassinated hundreds of government officials. This eventually led to U.S. involvement and the Vietnam War. 9) The Vietnam War protests, also referred to as the Anti-war movement, were started by college students and were influential in questioning the policies surrounding America's involvement in Vietnamese affairs. Once the draft was introduced, young people on college and university campuses all around the

country began to organize protests against the war. Teach-ins and student organizations held rallies and marches. The first march happened in Washington, DC in 1965. Over the next few years the anti-war movement began to grow. Activists, celebrities and musicians like Abbie Hoffmann, Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater and countless others took up the anti-war cause. Their speeches and their music reflected the anger and hopelessness that Americans felt over the Vietnam War. 10)After U.S. troops were finally pulled out of South Vietnam, Communist North Vietnam successfully re-united with its southern half, creating one Vietnam country. For America, the outcome was terrible. The troops who returned home to the U.S. had no warm welcome. People referred to them as “baby killers” or “murderers” after hearing of the My Lai Massacre. Also, the population of the U.S. read the Pentagon Papers that were leaked to the press. These papers consisted of the pre-war strategy for Vietnam. Although, there was no exit strategy. There was also rampant drug use by soldiers. They had witnessed terrible things while in South Vietnam. The war was a particularly brutal one for troops because American’s were so far out of the realm of training they had received in the U.S.