Unit 3: Hope, Tragedy, and Conflict, 1946-1960

Unit Overview:

This unit covers the immediate post -WWII era through the beginning of the Civil Rights movement and the beginning of the Vietnam War, with special focus on the early Cold War. Important themes covered in this unit:

The Truman Doctrine and the Cold War

The 2nd Red Scare and McCarthyism

The 1950's and the rise of Suburban America

The Civil Rights movement and de-segregation

The Korean War

America's involvement in the Vietnam Conflict

Unit Essay: Hope, Tragedy, and Conflict

Key Terms:

For this project you must define the terms listed below and explain each term's significance to the unit/era being studied. Your definition should be 2-3 sentences long and may be copied and pasted from a source like Wikipedia, but the significance of the term must be in your own words and based on your own understanding. To fill out a term's significance, ask yourself, "Why is this item included in my study of this unit? Why is this term in a history book?" The answer to this question is your term's significance.

Unit 1 Key Terms:

Nuclear Proliferation

Federal Aid Highway Act

New Frontier

affirmative action

Hungarian Revolution

McCarthyism/HUAC

Bay of Pigs Invasion

Ngo Dinh Diem

Suez Crisis

Brown v Board of Education

Civil Rights Movement

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

Geneva Accords of 1954

Little Rock Nine

Cuban Missile Crisis

Operation Rolling Thunder

Gary Powers

Sputnik

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Credibility Gap

Below is an example of a key term done with the proper format:

William the Conqueror: William I (c. 1028[2] – 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II. Before his conquest of England, he was known as William the Bastard because of the illegitimacy of his birth.To press his claim to the English crown, William invaded England in 1066, leading an army of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, and Frenchmen (from Paris andÎle-de-France) to victory over the English forces of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest.[3] (I copied and pasted this definition from Wikipedia)

Significance: William the Conqueror is significant because his conquest of England created the first nation state in Europe. His rearrangement of English feudal territories to give himself dramatically more power than the the barons and nobles around him caused him to be the most powerful monarch in Europe and eventually led to the rise of other nation states over the next few centuries. (These are my words based on my knowledge of English and European history.)

FRQ: Compare and contrast the Cold War foreign policies of TWO of the following Presidents: Harry Truman (1945–1953); Dwight Eisenhower (1953–1961); Richard Nixon (1969–1974)(2012)

FRQ: Analyze the extent to which the 1920’s and the 1950’s were similar in TWO of the following areas: Impact of technology; Intolerant attitudes; Literary developments. (2008)

DBQ: Analyze developments from 1941 to 1949 that increased suspicion and tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. Use documents and your knowledge of the period 1941-1949 to construct your response. (2006)

Click here for Question Docs: 2006B Questions

FRQ: While the United States appeared to be dominated by consensus and conformity in the 1950’s, some Americans reacted against the status quo. Analyze the critiques of the United States society made by TWO of the following: Youth; Civil Rights Activists; Intellectuals. (2006)

FRQ: Analyze the ways in which TWO of the following contributed to the changes in women’s lives in the United States in the mid-twentieth century: Wars; Literature and/or popular culture; Medical and/or technological advances. (2005)

Unit Documentaries:

The Century Part 8, The Best Years (45:02)

Cold War Episode 2: The Iron Curtain

Cold War Episode 5: The Korean War

Cold War Episode 6: Reds

Vietnam, a Televised History 1: Roots of a War

Vietnam, a Televised History 2: America's Mandarin

Unit Lectures:

Unit 3 Overview Classes

2006B DBQ Essay Class

Primary Sources:

Winston S. Churchill, "The Sinews of Peace", 1946