APUSH Period 8 Review (1945-1980)

Period 8:  The Cold War (1945-1980)

PERIOD 8 DATES TO KNOW

PERIOD 8 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1. How did America foreign policy change and stay the same throughout the Cold War?
2. What were the goals and achievements of liberal movements during the 1960s?
3. How did post-WWII demographic shifts affect the United States?

Past Essay Questions from Period 8

PERIOD 8 KEY CONCEPTS - COURSE OUTLINE

8.1. The Cold War

1. US policymakers sought to contain the expansion of communism and create a free-market.
   1. After WWII, the alliance between the US and USSR dissolved and the US developed foreign policy that would protect non-Communist nations.
   2. The US engaged in military action abroad to contain Communism (Korea & Vietnam).
   3. The Cold War included direct and indirect action, then periods of coexistence.
   4. Decolonized nations were caught in between the US & USSR, with many nonaligned.
   5. Competition extended to Latin America where the US supported non-Communists.
2. The Cold War sparked debate about means of pursuing goals while protecting liberties.
1. Some policies were designed to expose Communists within the US.
1. ☭ Study Guide: The Red Scare
2. The Vietnam War inspired huge antiwar protests, unlike previous military actions.
3. Debates over nuclear weapons, military-industrial complex, and the power of the President in pursuing military action dominated this era.
4. US involvement in the Middle East increased.

8.2. Civil Rights & Liberal Movements

1. Activists and leaders achieved slow progress toward equality.
   1. Civil rights leaders used the courts, direct action, and nonviolent protest tactics.
   2. All branches of government used measures including desegregating the armed forces through executive action, desegregating schools through the courts, and the legislative passage of the Civil Rights Act.
   3. Racial equality progressed slowly, which questioned the efficacy of nonviolence.
2. The Civil Rights Movement inspired other liberal movements.
   1. Feminist and gay rights activists mobilized to achieve equality.
   2. Latino, American Indian, and Asian American movements demanded equality.
   3. Poverty became highlighted as a national problem.
   4. Environmental activists pushed for more regulations to protect natural resources.
3. Liberalism influenced politics and court decisions, but was also attacked by the left & right.
   1. Liberalism as an anti-communist & pro-democratic policy reached high in the 1960s.
   2. Liberal ideas were expressed through LBJ’s Great Society and Supreme Court cases.
   3. Conservatives in the 1960s challenged liberal laws to limit the role of government.
   4. Some activists on the left rejected liberal policies as not transformative enough.
   5. Confidence and trust in government reached a low in the 1970s with scandals and crises dominating political conversations.
   6. Conservatives and liberals continued to clash over the power of government and movements for greater individual rights.

8.3. Economic & Demographic Shifts After WWII

1. Economic and social changes after WWII created optimism in the postwar era.
   1. Economic growth after WWII spurred by technology, spending, and the baby boom.
   1. 💲 Study Guide: The Economy After 1945
   2. Social mobility because of higher education opportunities encouraged the migration of the middle class to the suburbs.
   3. New immigration laws led to new waves of migrants seeking opportunities.
2. New demographics and Cold War anxieties led to divisive political and moral debates.
   1. ♀️ Study Guide: Culture After 1945 and Youth Culture in the 1960s
   2. Artists and intellectuals challenged conformity in the 1950s and 1960s.
   3. Feminists and the young counterculture rejected social and sexual norms.
   4. The evangelical Christian right grew substantially and became politically involved.

LIST OF CONCEPTS & VOCABULARY FROM PERIOD 8

• American Indian Movement (AIM)
• baby boom
• Bakke v. U of CA
• Bay of Pigs
• beats
• Berkeley Free Speech Movement
• Black Panthers
• Black Power
• brinkmanship
• Brown v. Board of Education
• Camp David Accords 1979
• Cesar Chavez
• Chicago convention
• CIA
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Clean Air Act
• Cold War
• containment
• CORE
• counterculture
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• decolonization
• desegregation
• detente
• Dixiecrats
• domino theory
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• ESEA
• EPA
• Equal Rights Amendment
• Fair Deal
• Feminine Mystique
• freedom rides
• gay liberation movement
• Gerald Ford
• GI Bill of Rights
• Gideon v. Wainwright
• Great Society
• Griswold v. Connecticut
• Highway Act
• HUAC
• Iranian hostage crisis
• Iron Curtain
• Jimmy Carter
• John F. Kennedy
• Julius & Ethel Rosenberg
• Kent State
• Korean War
• Little Rock Nine
• Lyndon B. Johnson
• Malcolm X
• Mapp v. Ohio
• March on Washington
• Marshall Plan
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• McCarthyism
• medicaid & medicare
• military-industrial complex
• Miranda vs. Arizona
• moon landing
• mutually assured destruction
• NATO
• New Frontier
• NOW
• OPEC
• Pentagon Papers
• Richard Nixon
• Robert Kennedy
• Roe v. Wade
• Rosa Parks
• SALT I & SALT II
• SCLC
• SDS
• sexual revolution
• silent majority
• Silent Spring
• SNCC
• Southern Strategy
• space race
• Sputnik
• stagflation
• Stokely Carmichael
• Stonewall Riot
• Sun Belt
• Tet Offensive
• Thurgood Marshall
• Title IX
• Tonkin Gulf Resolution
• Truman Doctrine
• United Nations
• Vietcong
• Vietnam Conflict
• Vietnamization
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• War on Poverty
• War Powers Act
• Watergate
• Watts riot