Contemporary America (Unit V) Exam Study Guide (Define and explain the significance)

Study Guide Due Tuesday 6/7 and Exam Thursday 6/9

Détente: Relaxation of Cold War tensions under President Nixon. (SALT I, opening up trade relations with China and USSR)

Reaganomics/Supply Side Economics (explain policies on taxes, spending, and regulation)

Taxes: Cut taxes to create more wealth for businesses to invest and hire new employees, new income taxes will recoup loss from tax cuts

Spending: Cut gov. spending and gov. programs by reducing amount of social welfare funding through providing block grants to the states to divvy out money themselves. Also, increase military defense spending to create jobs and put money into the money supply while strengthening America

Regulation: cut governmental regulation over industry to allow them to become more efficient and cheaper. This often meant cutting environmental standards

De-regulation/Reducing the Size of the Government: Reaganomics philosophy that led to the size of gov. shrinking and the government de-regulating businesses and lowering environmental standards to make companies more efficient

U.S – Soviet Relations in the 1980s (Reagan/Gorbachev, Nuclear Arms Reduction etc.): Relations improved. Gorbachev was a moderate who was willing to work with Reagan and the U.S. Gorbachev implemented policies of perestroika (restructuring) which opened up small scale capitalism as well as glasnost (openness) which allowed more freedom of speech in the USSR.

USSR worked with Reagan to pass the INF Missile Treaty which banned and destroyed any missiles with a range of 300-3,000 miles

Fall of Berlin Wall: Reagan’s speech in 1987 at the wall, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” in 1989 the people of East and West Berlin rejoiced as the wall came down and the two sides unified for the first time in nearly 50 years. This symbol of the Cold War falling symbolized the end of the Cold War

Tiananmen Square: Students in Beijing protested at Tiananmen Square for democracy. The Chinese gov. sent in troops and tanks to put down the protests and killed many civilians

Iran-Contra Affair: Contras: freedom fighters in Nicaragua fighting the communist Sandinistas. During the Lebanese War, Iran had taken 3 US prisoners. The U.S. sold Iran weapons in order to free these prisoners. The money from the weapons sales was funneled to the Contras in Nicaragua. This was illegal as Congress had banned the U.S. from providing further aid to the Contras. Oliver North was tried for illegally funding the money to the Contras. President Reagan was never directly linked to the money supply but the scandal definitely was a black-eye for the administration.

Explain the goals of the Conservative Movement (the New Right) and why it was a reaction to the influence of the counter culture in 1960s and 1970s.

–  New Right: consisted of Evangelical Christians aka born again Christians. Concerned with declining moral and religious values in American society

–  Moral Majority: pro-life, pro-family, pro-moral, pro-America in contrast to the influence of the pro-choice, drug using, free loving society of the counter culture

Contrast the beliefs of Democrats/Liberals and Republicans/Conservatives

Liberals: Big government that gets directly involved in peoples lives to promote social welfare and equality. Higher taxes for wealthy

Democrats: Larger gov. that gets involved in peoples lives to promote social welfare and equality. Higher taxes for wealthy but more willing to compromise with Republicans and swoop up independent voters

Conservatives: small gov. that delegates responsibility of getting involved in peoples lives to the states. Low taxes and focus on social morality

Republicans: more compassionate than conservatives in regards to social policies. Still focus on smaller role of gov. with lower taxes.

1980 Election (results and significance) - Reagan won in a landslide ushering in a new era of conservativism in America

New Economy/Age of Technology (explain how the economy was/is changing): Dot-com boom led to huge bump in stock market. The economy has and continues to change into industries including technology and services.

Major trends in America in the 20th Century: America became more focused on building up its military and economic strength to become a world superpower.

OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies. Responsible for sales of foreign oil from the Middle East. Responsible for oil embargo of 1973

Persian Gulf War (causes, details and results): Iraq invaded Kuwait and took control of their oil supplies. Fearing Iraqi domination of their oil supply and the possible invasion of other oil producing countries, the U.S. and UN led a coalition force against Iraq. After 6 weeks of bombing Iraq, Saddam Hussein still did not surrender. The coalition forces launched a ground war lasting 4 days and Saddam surrendered. Saddam remained in power but would not try to invade again.

Al Qaeda: International terrorist organization which sought to rid Muslim world of Western influences

–  Wanted fundamentalist Islamic states across Middle East

–  HQ was in Afghanistan but had cells all over the world

–  Rejected American troops stationed in Saudi Arabia and America’s support of Israel

September 11, 2001 (details and results): 4 Planes hijacked by al Qaeda terrorists hit the NY Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the 4th crashed in a field in PA. Planned by Osama bin Laden, the attack showed America’s vulnerability to attack for the first time since Pearl Harbor. America unified like never before to help the clean up in NY and help each other. Security measures (Dept. of Defense) and heightened monitoring of communications (Patriot Act) followed to help protect America.

Historical Parallels to the Shock of 9/11 (compare to Pearl Harbor, JFK Assassination etc.)

America unified as a result. America also began to judge people of Middle Eastern descent just like we did with the Japanese following Pearl Harbor.

Response to 9/11 Attacks

·  USA Patriot Act: Allowed gov. to monitor communications and search suspects very easily following 9/11 to help prevent another attack. The gov. could tap into phones and computers with one warrant based on suspicion. Defense agencies could also search suspects houses, computers, etc. without the suspect being present if they had a warrant. Possibly a violation of the 4th Amendment and very controversial.

·  Department of Homeland Security: new department formed to communicate and coordinate between the other defense agencies to monitor possible threats and increase the national threat level accordingly.

·  Invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq: Afghanistan gov. backed by Taliban supported and housed al Qaeda. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban. In Iraq, America was concerned that Saddam Hussein had funded and possibly sold WMD’s to terrorist organizations. The U.S. fought against insurgent groups to rid the country of terrorist organizations. Saddam Hussein was captured and put to death. Both countries implemented new democracies based on Islam but both continue to struggle with stability and terrorism.

Bush-Gore Election in 2000 (explain the controversy and results): Gore had .5% more pop. vote but Bush won the electoral vote after a controversially close election in Florida. Gore demanded a recount which showed Bush’s Florida lead to be only by over 300 votes. Gore wanted another recount but was blocked by a lawsuit by Bush. The lawsuit was upheld and the recount was not allowed by the Supreme Court. The SC effectively elected Bush as president.

America’s Global Role in the 21st Century

·  Is America an isolationist country in the world today?