The Cold War Era 1945-1991 Online Test

The Beatniks were a literary and cultural movement in the 1950s that rejected mainstream American values and conformity through their writing and lifestyle.

SALT stands for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, which were negotiations between the US and the Soviet Union to limit the number of nuclear weapons and delivery systems.

McCarthyism refers to the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason, particularly regarding communist influence, without proper evidence, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that provides health coverage to low-income individuals and families, whereas Medicare is for the elderly.

The Tet Offensive was a massive, coordinated surprise attack launched by the North Vietnamese army and the Vietcong against South Vietnamese and American forces during the lunar new year holiday.

The Little Rock Nine incident in 1957, where President Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce the integration of Central High School, is widely recognized as a pivotal moment for school desegregation.

Blacklisting was the practice of denying employment to individuals suspected of having communist sympathies during the Red Scare era.

Betty Friedan's 'The Feminine Mystique' (1963) is credited with sparking the second-wave feminist movement by challenging the idea that women were fulfilled solely by domestic life.

During the Vietnam War, United States forces frequently utilized Search and Destroy missions as a primary tactical strategy. This involved locating enemy forces, destroying their supplies, and withdrawing, contrasting with the guerrilla tactics used by the Viet Cong.

The Eisenhower Doctrine stated that a country could request American economic assistance and/or aid from US military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression from another state, specifically focusing on combating communist influence in the Middle East.

The Fair Deal was Harry Truman's set of proposals for domestic reform, which included goals like full employment and national health insurance.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an intergovernmental military alliance established in 1949 to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.

Birmingham, Alabama was the center of the civil rights struggle in 1963, where Martin Luther King Jr. led protests and was jailed, writing his 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.' While other cities were important (Selma for voting rights, Washington DC for the march, Memphis for King's assassination), Birmingham was the epicenter of the main struggle.

Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. These laws mandated separate facilities for white and black Americans in schools, transportation, and public places. The 13th, 15th, and 24th amendments were constitutional amendments that expanded rights rather than enforcing segregation.

The Iron Curtain was the political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependent eastern and central European allies from open contact with the West.

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) was instrumental in organizing the Freedom Rides of 1961 to challenge segregated interstate bus travel.

The National Liberation Front (NLF), also known as the Vietcong, was formed to oppose the government of South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem.

The 25th Amendment deals with presidential succession and disability, not civil rights. It was ratified in 1967 to clarify what happens if a president dies, resigns, or is incapacitated. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and 24th Amendment (banning poll taxes) were key civil rights achievements of the era.

The Peace Corps was established by John F. Kennedy to send American volunteers to underdeveloped countries to provide technical assistance and promote mutual understanding.

The Domino Theory was a Cold War policy that suggested if one country in a region fell to communism, the surrounding countries would inevitably follow. This theory was a primary justification for U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act in 1958, which officially established NASA to oversee the U.S. space program.

The Peace Corps was a signature initiative of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier program, established in 1961 to promote world peace and friendship. Medicare and Medicaid were later established under Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society.

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives created to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens and public employees suspected of having communist ties.

The 1954 Geneva Accords ended the First Indochina War and resulted in the temporary division of Vietnam at the 17th parallel into North and South Vietnam.

The Truman Doctrine established that the United States would provide political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces, specifically aimed at containing communism.

Thurgood Marshall was the lead attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund who successfully argued the Brown v. Board of Education case before the Supreme Court.