Printed Page 802-728-708(cont.)

America’s History: Printed Page 802

America: A Concise History: Printed Page 728

America’s History: Value Edition: Printed Page 708

The Modern State and the Age of Liberalism

1945–1980

Question

Thematic Understanding This timeline arranges some of the important events of this period into themes. Consider the entries under “America in the World” and “Politics and Power” across all four decades. What connections were there between international developments and domestic politics in this era of the Cold War?
AMERICA IN THE WORLD POLITICS AND POWER IDENTITY ENVIRONMENT AND GEOGRPAHY WORK, EXCHANGE, AND TECHNOLOGY
1940

  • Truman Doctrine

  • Israel created (1947)

  • Marshall Plan (1948)

  • Containment strategy emerges

  • NATO created; West Germany created (1949)

  • GI Bill (1944)

  • Loyalty-Security Program

  • Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

  • Truman reelected (1948)

  • Truman’s Fair Deal (1949)

  • To Secure These Rights (1947)

  • Desegregation of armed services (1948)

  • Shelley v. Kraemer (1948)

  • Continued South-North migration of African Americans

  • First Levittown opens (1947)

  • FHA and VA subsidize suburbanization

  • Bretton Woods system established: World Bank, International Monetary Fund

  • Baby boom establishes new consumer generation
1950

  • Permanent mobilization as a result of NSC-68

  • Korean War (1950–1953)

  • Geneva Accords regarding Vietnam (1954)

  • Cold War liberalism

  • McCarthyism and Red Scare

  • Eisenhower’s presidency (1953–1961)

  • Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

  • Little Rock — Central High School desegregation battle

  • Southern Christian Leadership Conference founded (1957)

  • Disneyland opens (1955)

  • National Highway Act (1956)

  • Growth of suburbia and Sunbelt

  • Atomic bomb testing in Nevada and Pacific Ocean

  • Treaty of Detroit (1950)

  • Military-industrial complex begins to rise

  • National Defense Education Act (1958) spurs development of technology
1960

  • Cuban missile crisis (1962)

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)

  • Johnson sends ground troops to Vietnam; war escalates (1965)

  • Tet offensive (1968); peace talks begin

  • John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier

  • John F. Kennedy assassinated (1963)

  • Lyndon B. Johnson’s landslide victory (1964)

  • War on Poverty; Great Society

  • Riots at Democratic National Convention (1968)

  • Greensboro sit-ins

  • The Feminine Mystique (1963)

  • Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts (1964–1965)

  • National Organization for Women founded (1966)

  • Alcatraz occupation (1969)

  • Black Power

  • Student and antiwar activism

  • Great Society environmental initiatives

  • Urban riots (1964–1968)

  • Kerner Commission Report (1968)

  • Economic boom

  • Government spending on Vietnam and Great Society

  • Medicare and Medicaid created (1965)
1970

  • Nixon invades Cambodia (1971)

  • Paris Accords end Vietnam War (1973)

  • Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel (1978)

  • Iranian Revolution (1979) and hostage crisis (1979–1981)

  • Richard Nixon’s landslide victory (1972)

  • Watergate scandal; Nixon resigns (1974)

  • Jimmy Carter elected president (1976)

  • Moral Majority founded (1979)

  • Equal Rights Amendment (1972)

  • Roe v. Wade (1973)

  • Bakke v. University of California (1978)

  • Harvey Milk assassinated (1978)

  • First Earth Day (1970)

  • Environmental Protection Agency established (1970)

  • Endangered Species Act (1973)

  • Three Mile Island accident (1979)

  • Energy crisis (1973)

  • Inflation surges, while economy stagnates (stagflation)

  • Deindustrialization

  • Tax revolt in California (1978)