Essay Topics Final Exam Study Guide Blood Justice and how it ties into Civil Rights Movement 50 s 80 s compare and contrast anything from this time period dealing with domestic policy Cumulative essay o Gov economic relationship o Protest movements and their backlashes I Beginnings of the Cold War A What does the Cold War mean What does containment mean The Cold War means that no shots were fired It was just a war of threats and arguments between the US and the Soviet Union The reason it was a Cold War was because of all of the nuclear weapons that both the US and USSR owned This lead to regulations placed on the amount of nuclear weapons that a country was allowed to own seen in SALT strategic arms limitation treaty Containment was the US goal to stop the spread of communism designed to contain or block soviet expansion lead to the Vietnam War which lost majority of support after the Tet Offensive the Viet Cong suddenly launched a series of attacks on 27 key south Vietnamese cities including the capital The tet offensive undermined president Johnsons credibility and as a result the public support for the war decreased and antiwar sentiment increased This was the name given to the foundation of US foreign policy during the Cold War George F Kennan argued that Soviet Communism was impervious to the logic of reason inherently expansionist and only controllable through long term patient but firm and vigilant containment Became the foundation of US foreign policy for the next four decades B How and why does this war start The US and Russia were allies during WWII but then started to distrust each other causing tension between them nuclear weapons played a major role The Truman Doctrine the US said that they would provide aid to Turkey Greece and any other countries who were trying to dodge Communism Turkey and Greece were important because of the seaward passage through the Mediterranean would have given Russia a lot of economic power president Truman was determined to block the expansion of Soviet Influence into Greece and Turkey asked congress for 400 million in economic aid for both Greece and Turkey He justified this aid by declaring that the US would support free peoples whoa re resisting attempted subjugations by armed minorities or by outside pressures This is what became known as the Truman Doctrine C What steps did the US take to ensure the stability of Western Europe in the late 1940s What was the Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan the US wanted to help rebuild Europe so they gave them aid to help The plan was named after George Marshall The point of the plan was to help stop the spread of communism put most of European economies back on their feet such as Japan which is why Vietnam Korea USSR were not able to easily spread communism WWII left western Europe devastated and vulnerable to Soviet influence The Marshall Plan was an integral part of Trumans policy of containment against hunger poverty desperation and chaos purpose is to revive the working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist any govt that is willing to assist in the task of recovery will find full cooperation on the US govt D What was the Red Scare What were HUAC and the Hollywood 10 The Red Scare also known as the Bolshevik Revolution was when the US thought that communism had spread to the US and spies for the Soviet Union were in the US Everybody even the most American of lawyers as seen with Alger Hiss were getting accused of being a commy or being related ins ome way to the commies Fear of communism led to restrictions of individuals rights and persecution of diverse groups House on Un american Activities Committee HUAC was a committee appointed to investigate people who were accused of being communist and spies in the US Went completely overboard on accusations The Hollywood 10 Hollywood stars that were accused of being spies and communist for the USSR which was a shock to the public because they were idols getting accused Showed that anyone was capable of being accused of being a communist E What is McCarthyism and how did it affect society Who was Alger Hiss Who were the Rosenbergs and why are they significant McCarthy was not on HUAC and was not related to HUAC in any way Named after McCarthy for his paranoia and wild accusations of so many people being communists His tactics caused panic throughout the US and the term was seen as a negative title Went as far as attacking the Democratic party for 20 years of treason McCarthy was crazy and had too much power for how crazy he was He made public accusations without sufficient evidence His accusations helped create a climate of paranoia as Americans became preoccupied with the perceived threat posed by the spread of Communism As a result of his anti communism witch hunt millions of Americans were forced to take loyalty oaths and undergo investigations Hollywood executives instituted a blacklist of 500 entertainment professionals who were denied employment because of their real or imagined political beliefs or associations This ruined many careers and even the army was accused of being infiltrated by Communist sympathizers McCarthysm represented a sinister turn in government efforts to control communism within the US McCarthy s rise raised serious questions about the ability of the government to reconcile Cold War imperatives with American democratic traditions Alger Hiss was an American lawyer who was on scene at the Yalta conference accused of being a communist but denied it until it was later proven and he was sent to jail for 10 years Rosenberg s Mr and Mrs Rosenberg were sentenced to death after it was proven that Mr Rosenberg was a spy for the Soviet Union His wife was killed for covering for him and not reporting his actions Reported actions and info about the Manhattan Project to USSR Executed for secretly giving info to the Soviet Union about the US atomic bomb project Manhattan Project F How and why do we get involved in the Korean War The US and Soviet Union divided Korea into two parts North and South North Korea tried to invade south and spread communism The US provided aid and soldiers to help South Korea from being forced to turn communist Containment of Communism within Korea Truman specifically wanted McArthur to push the North Koreans Soviets back to about halfway up the Peninsula so we did not agitate China McArthur thought Truman was weak and pushed the
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