Unit 3: Transformations–America from 1945 to the Present (Lessons 1-3)
S
tudy Guide (Prompt Sheet to Help You)

The Objective Exam consists primarily of multiple choice questions drawn from the terms below. The time is 30 minutes. The total value is 100 points. There are 25 questions each at 4 points. Reminder: Unit 3 consists of Lessons 1-3. The word Lessons refers to Blackboard learning modules. Blackboard learning modules have a Table of Contents on the left that let you see all of the resources available so you can click on the one you want. All Lessons have links from your instructor and sometimes additional resources such as maps and Learning Quizzes. Note:

·        8 of the 25 questions come from these Learning Quizzes (and those concepts in the Learning Quizzes help you understand the other content in the Unit)

·        17 of them come from below. Questions are written so you do not have to prove that you know everything, but that you know something
(Tip: This Study Guide is also a 2-page prompt sheet to be used with the chronologies in the Lessons including the age cohorts provided with those Lessons. For example, in each decade from the 1950s on, what’s different about where and whom we are fighting or about how most people make a living or about whether women or African Americans can get a professional job? Also ask questions in the Learning Discussion.

 

The 5 Ws rule is a good guide to understanding the items below: you should know Who, What, When, Where, and Why—and sometimes How.  You can look up these individual items in the textbook index at the back of the book or find them covered next to an item listed below. The link at the top of each Lesson provides visuals, usually in tables, that let you compare information so you can quickly see similarities and differences.

 

Abbreviations used in this Study Guide:

·        Nations: US (United States), USSR (Soviet Union-now split), Fr (France), Br (Great Britain)

·        Regions where US/USSR proxy wars occurred:  LA (Latin America), FE (Far East), ME (Middle East)

·        Political parties: Dem (Democrat), Rep (Republican), Dix (Dixiecrat) and Am Ind (American Independent)—both segregationist

 

1.       Post war realities: US occupation of Japan; Germany partitioned by Fr, Br, US (later West Germany), USSR (later East Germany)
Europe and its colonies: devastated; some colonies nationalistic

Communist: USSR, China; partition of Korea

Atomic bomb: Japan bombed; US only had the technology

2.       Presidency: F.D. Roosevelt dead; Harry S Truman (Missouri machine/boss politics, vice-president but not informed)

3.       ME: war; Israel declares itself a nation; US recognizes Note: Six Day War (1967), Yom Kippur War (1973)

4.       Europe: Marshall Plan

5.       US Gov. changes: CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), NSC (National Security Council), Department of Defense (no longer called War Department)

6.       Beginning of 2nd Red Scare: Rise of Republicans Richard Nixon (House UAC) and Senator Joe McCarthy. Targets: Alger Hiss/Whittaker Chambers, Hollywood. Techniques: analogy of Salem Witchcraft trial (Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible)

7.       1947+ labor: Taft-Hartley Act, “right to work” states & industries move to low-wage states

8.       1947+ race: Cold War issue by Communists; Jackie Robinson/ Dodgers; executive order to desegregate the US military

9.       1948 Election: Thomas E. Dewey (Rep) vs. Harry S Truman (Dem) vs. J. Strom Thurmond (Dix)  His Program: Fair Deal

10.    Late 1940s-1950s Domestic: consumerism (pent-up demand), GI Bill/housing/education, draft, white suburbs, large families, women expected to leave jobs; television–ABC, NBC, CBS (radio)

11.    1952 Election: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Rep) vs. Adlai Stevenson (Dem) – Eisenhower’s VP is Richard Nixon (corruption scandals)

12.    1956 Election (a repeat): Dwight D. Eisenhower (Rep) vs. Adlai Stevenson (Dem) – Eisenhower’s VP is still Richard Nixon (unpolished; some foreign policy experience for Eisenhower.)

13.    1950s Domestic: spending above + on military, on airports& on Federal Highway Act of 1956 (interstate highways-as defense issue) Note: car culture/Holiday Inn/McDonalds. Joe McCarthy stopped by many people standing up to stop him.

14.    1950s race: Montgomery, Alabama, boycott (Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King), Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka; Little Rock HS (1957) Eisenhower sends in paratroopers to stop mob

15.    1950s Cohort: Elvis Presley (and TV)

16.    1950s Foreign Policy: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (brinkmanship/massive retaliation) and his brother Allen, head of the CIA). Covert (secret from whom?) operations.
Examples of Covert Operations: Iran (1953 ) and how that blew up (1979), Guatemala (1954), and in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs (1961, January, planning as last actions of Eisenhower)

17.    1950s Foreign Policy FE: End of the Korean War at the same partition line. Funding of Fr war vs North Vietnam (Viet Cong)

18.    1960 Election: Richard Nixon (Rep) vs. John F. Kennedy (Dem, Senator, wealthy family, polished) –1st televised debate. His Program: New Frontier

19.    1960s Foreign Policy in LA: Cuban Bay of Pigs (1961, April, p. 1011- implementing as first actions of Kennedy. Admits “colossal mistake.” USSR/Cuba missile crisis, spy planes (1962, Fall, p. 1011-1012) – “quarantine.” Cuba missiles/Turkey missiles; wheat deal; “hotline”

20.    1960s Foreign Policy in FE: Vietnam “advisors,” 16,000 by 1963; more discord, more troops; college as way to avoid draft

21.    1960s+ Foreign General:  Green Berets. “flexible response” for guerrilla war.

22.    1960s Foreign Policy in Europe: USSR wall around East Berlin

23.    1960s Domestic: Growing white anger (“silent majority”); Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique; birth control by FDA; hippies

24.    1960s race segregation by law and custom, but African Americans and whites beginning to challenge it: nonviolent sit-ins (Greensboro, NC); Freedom Riders on buses as interstate commerce (KKK, firebomb of bus, beatings) + media; Martin Luther King, Birmingham Jail, “nonviolent civil disobedience” vs. “Bull” Conner; Gov. George Wallace/ University of Alabama + media

25.    Presidency: Kennedy assassinated; Lyndon B. Johnson (Texas politics, vice-president, experienced Senate Majority Leader, a New Dealer, unpolished)

26.    1964 Election: Barry Goldwater (Rep, opposed to Civil Rights Act, atomic bomb advocate), vs. L.B. Johnson (Dem)
Note: Johnson realized with the Civil Rights Act that the Democrats would not win re-elections.

27.    1964 pre/post His Program: Great Society – a few examples:
 - Civil Rights Act of 1964 (public accommodations, not schools);
- Medicare (for over 65), Medicaid (for poor); War on Poverty;
- 1965 Immigration law (undoes 1924 law on quotas)

28.    1963+ Foreign Policy in FE: 1st US bombing of Vietnam; 2nd Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Tet offensive to Saigon; then withdraws (1968)

29.    1968 Pre-election: Assassination of M.L. King, race riots; assassination of Robert Kennedy

30.    1968 Election: Richard M. Nixon (Rep, appeals to “silent majority”) vs. Hubert Humphrey (Dem, MN) vs. George Wallace (Am. Ind.)

31.    1968+ Domestic:  Inflation - Nixon does wage and price controls
 -
Title IX = no discrimination in ed. funding based on sex (1972).
-  Supreme Court decides Roe v. Wade (1973).
- 
Nixon tries to slow down busing/desegregation.
- Public opinion move from the New Deal to conservatism.

Continues on the next page

Begins on the prior page

32.    1968+ Foreign: -Nixon announces “Vietnamization” a way to get the US out of the Vietnam War.
- US bombs Cambodia (1969). US says we will bomb it (1970).
-
Daniel Ellsberg, a Pentagon employee, leaks the Pentagon Papers (history of US involvement in Vietnam to 1965) (1971).

--Nixon upset; set up “plumbers” to find the “leak.”
- Nixon goes to
China (1972) – the only one who could.
-
Watergate begins. Those who stand up are 2 Washington Post reporters, a judge hearing about the burglary of the Democratic headquarters, the special prosecutor, the members of the committee of Congress investigating the evidence, the people.
-  The key to proving this is that Nixon secretly recorded the White House offices on tapes. His own words convicted him.

33.    1972 Election: Richard M. Nixon (Rep) vs. George S. McGovern (Dem

34.    Presidency: Nixon resigns after impeachment articles (1974), Gerald Ford (prior speaker of house, vice president after prior vice president Agnew resigns for corruption).

35.    1974-1976 President Ford pardons Nixon—this was perhaps the best for the country, but not for him to be elected in 1976. During President Ford’s administration,
- Congress also passes the War Powers Act.
-  Saigon falls; Vietnam is in the hands of the Viet Cong (1975).

36.    1976 Election: Gerald R. Ford (Rep) vs. Jimmy Carter (Dem, Georgia governor, very religious, honorable man

37.    1976-1980 – Domestic: Inflation + slow economy + job losses (stagflation)

38.    1976-1980 – Foreign:
- Camp David Accords, Egypt and Israel negotiate
    - Israel gives the Sinai back to Egypt
    - Egypt recognizes Israel’s right to exist
 - Iran Revolution, American hostages (1979). Failed rescue; not released until the next President’s inaugural.
Note: USSR gets bogged down in its Vietnam—a revolution by Afghanistan and Muslims—for the next 9 years.

39.    1980 Election: Ronald W. Reagan (Rep, actor, California politician)) vs. Jimmy Carter (Dem)

40.    1980-1988 – Domestic:
- starts “supply side economics” with prediction of reducing the national debt but the result is a huge climb in our debt (see the chart with the Concepts for Unit 3)

-  individuals also spend more than they make (TV as watching the rich)
- appoints first woman to Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Conner
 - era of rise of computers, Microsoft, Bill Gates
- era of AIDS, something the administration did not act on

41.    1980-1988 – Foreign:
-
plan to beat the USSR – “Star Wars” (Strategic Defense Initiative) and spending themselves (and ourselves) to death
- Iran-Contra. The NSC sold arms to Iran to get money to give to government death squads in Nicaragua called Contras. Contrary to Congressional law

42.    1988 Election: George H. Bush (Rep, Vice President for Reagan, father of the president in 2000-2008) vs. Michael Dukakis (Dem)

43.    1988-1992– Domestic: major challenge was the national debt from the Reagan years and need for new taxes when Bush had promised not to.
- Deregulation of the savings and loan industry in Reagan’s term also resulted in a collapse of those accounts in H. Bush’s term

44.    1988-1992– Foreign:
-
USSR disintegrating, Berlin Wall pulled down by citizens (the first sign of the end), USSR exits Afghanistan (1989) – It is an end to a Cold War since 1945 but the lack of stability in their regions could be dangerous to all.
- Iraq invades Kuwait for the oil (1990). Bush Sr. does not want to get caught in a ground war in that region. They do it with multinational force (Desert Storm) and do not want to “put boots on the ground.”

45.    1992 Election: George H. Bush (Rep) vs. William Clinton (Dem, governor of Arkansas, seems himself as a New Democrat with some conservative/pro-business traits) vs. Ross Perot (Independent, tech person, rich, upset about free trade agreements which he called “a giant sucking sound” of jobs going away).

46.    1992-2000– Domestic:

- NAFTA – North American Free Trade Agreement – Canada, US, Mexico
- bipartisan reduction in the national debt to $25B, the lowest since 1968, after the Reagan administration had gotten the debt up to $297B
- Lack of success with the high costs of medical care in the US

47.    2000 Election: George W. Bush (Rep, governor of Texas, son of H. Bush)vs. Albert Gore (Dem, vice president for President Clinton)  vs. Ralph Nader (Green, a consumer advocate)

48.    2000 Election dispute: popular vote to Gore, electoral college vote to W. Bush because of “hanging chads” in Florida.

49.    2000-2008–Foreign: 9/11/2001 World Trade Centers (Twin Towers); war in Iraq and Afghanistan, budget deficits  of the “war on terror”

50.    2000-2008– Domestic:
-  Rising number of immigrants and the Republican party becoming a minority
- Lowered interest rates by Federal Reserve
-
Lowered taxes
- Lowered standards for lending (“subprime” lending)
-
Housing bubble burst with losses of trillions of dollars(2007)
- Collapse results in a bank bailout fund called the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)- W. Bush signed October 2008
- Clinton low debt of $25B gone; 9 million unemployed; Great Recession
- Disaster with Katrina and FEMA

51.    2008 Election: John McCain (Rep, Senator from Arizona, POW, old) vs. Barack Obama (Dem, Senator, new). Obama inherits:
a) war in Iraq and in Afghanistan b) The Great Recession (and how to keep it from continuing) and c) banking in trouble in “the world’s economic stumble in eighty years”

52.    2008-2016– Domestic: an attempt to prevent another financial collapse with the Dodd-Frank bill

 

 

Reminder Provided in Every Study Guide: Self-Tests and Full-Tests

Self-Tests and Full-Tests are used with two kinds of tests:

·        Learning Quizzes with history content in the Lesson Units, a link on the left menu (AKA Course Menu) for Units 1, 2, and 3

·        Evidence Quiz with the basics of how to use evidence with history in Evidence Requirements, a link on the left menu (AKA Course Menu) (Evidence Requirements is also available at the bottom of Lesson Units)

 

 

When you see a Self-Test, you do these things.

1.      In the Self-Test, use the password selftest (no spaces, no capital letters, and no punctuation).
Tip: Self-Tests do not count against you. They are a tiny (.01) extra credit.

2.      Without any preparation (or fear), carefully answer the questions quickly so you know what your brain thinks is true.

3.      Click on the results. Notice carefully where your brain differs from the history content and from the history will grade your evidence.
Tip 1: With history content, do not just memorize the answer so you get the points on the quiz. Figure it out. If you cannot figure it out, do step 5 below.

Tip 2: With evidence rules, do not just memorize the answer. Figure it out. If you do not change your brain on this, the odds are you will make a low grade on the writing because you failed to use evidence correctly. If you cannot figure it out, do step 5 below.

Tip 3: And in either case, if you need more help, ask your instructor. (I am glad to help you.)

 

If a current quiz is locked with a 0 and you cannot proceed, email me the exact name of the quiz and I will delete the test so you can proceed

 

4.      When you submit a Self-Test, Blackboard automatically displays below the self-test:

·        If needed, content to help you

·        The Full-Test
For the Full-Test, there is no password. You may take it as many times as you wish with highest score counting.
Tip: What makes it a “full” test, you can earn full points by taking it over as many times as you want.

5.      Do not just click. Make sure you understand. If the answer does not make sense to you, post your question in the Unit’s Learning Discussion.

 

Lessons Containing Learning Quizzes and the Recommended Date to Complete Each One

Tip: You earn a 1 point extra credit if you attempt the Full-Test for the first time any time before the recommended date listed. You can always make more points on it after that date.

 

With US History II, quizzes are opportunities to learn things if you have not learned them before or to strengthen your memory if you have forgotten a bit.

 

When you click on Unit 3, you see the folder Unit 3’s Learning Quizzes. You can always do the quizzes before the incentive date.

·        Help for All Lessons: General Terms over Time and in Sets for Unit 3 -- Incentive before 12/03 11:59 PM

·        Map of Asia and Middle East for Unit 3 - Incentive before 11/26 11:59 PM

·        European Map for Unit 2 - Incentive before 11/29 11:59 PM

·        North American map for Unit 3 -- Incentive before 12/03 11:59 PM