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| Question | Answer |
| Affirmative action | A deliberate decision taken to encourage positive discrimination in favour of under-represented groups |
| Amendment | The process of changing the US Constitution. This has to receive a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Congress and then be accepted by three-quarters of all states |
| American Dream | The idea that any American, despite their background, can achieve anything they want, through their own hard work |
| ARVN | Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam's army) |
| Attorney General | The chief legal officer of the United States |
| Baby Boomers | The generation that were born immediately after WW2 and who came of age in the 1960s |
| Bible belt | Refers to an area of Southern states (and some of the Midwest) which has socially conservative attitudes and is strongly Protestant |
| Big government | A critical term often used by right-wing politicians to describe a government that they feel is too large or too inefficient or spends excessively |
| Bill of Rights | The first 10 amendments of the US constitution, laying out the rights of American citizens |
| Bipartisanship | Both major parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, working together on a particular issue |
| Black Power | A term popularised by Stokely Carmichael to describe a sense of proactive solidarity among African-Americans (although the term meant different things to different groups) |
| Black Panthers | The Black Panther Party for self defence founded in 1966 and led by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. It put forward a socialist political platform and advocated armed self-defence for the Black community |
| Brinkmanship | The strategy of pushing your opponent to the edge in the hope that they would back down |
| Brezhnev Doctrine | The policy of the USSR developed after the Prague Spring which said they would help any communist government under threat |
| Busing | The practice of using school buses to move students around to ensure that schools were racially mixed, even when the surrounding area was dominated by one ethnic group |
| CIA | The Central Intelligence Agency - this is the American spy agency |
| The Cold War | The period of tension and conflict between the USA and the USSR that lasted from 1945 to 1990. The USA assumed the leadership of the free, democratic, capitalist world |
| Containment | The policy followed by all US Presidents that stated that the spread of communism would be resisted by the USA |
| CORE | Congress of Racial Equality (1942). The group organised the Freedom Rides |
| Convention | A national meeting of a political party to choose their candidate for the Presidency |
| Counterculture | An anti-establishment movement of the 1960s that rejected many aspects of the American way of life |
| De facto segregation | Segregation that occurred because of everyday life. This was often caused by 'white flight' from the inner city areas |
| De jure segregation | Segregation that occurred due to laws that had been passed - the Jim Crow Laws |
| Deep South | This is the core area in which southern culture can be found in the USA. It consists primarily of the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina |
| Deficit | A deficit is the amount by which a country overspends by each year |
| Dixiecrat | The term given to a Southern Democrat who did not accept the need for civil rights legislation - Strom Thurmond of South Carolina is a good example |
| NAACP | National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. At the forefront of the civil rights campaign using the tactic of legal challenges to win rights for Black Americans |
| Nation of Islam | A Muslim group that was active in inner city areas, providing an alternative viewpoint to Christian groups. It was led by Elijah Muhammad but Malcolm X was the best known figure |
| SNCC | Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. It began as a peaceful group involved in sit-ins at lunch counters but was later radicalised and effectively merged with the Black Panthers |
| SCLC | Southern Christian Leadership Conference. A group set up by King after the Montgomery Bus Boycott to coordinate his campaigns |
| House Un-American Activities Committee | Congressional committee used by Joseph McCarthy to launch a hunt for suspected communists in the late 1940s and early 1950s |
| The Domino Theory | The idea that once one country fell to communism surrounding countries would inevitably fall like dominos |
| The Draft | The Selective Service and Training Act of 1940 provided for the army to draft men to fill vacancies if there were insufficient volunteers. This caused controversy during the Vietnam War |
| Draft dodgers | People who avoided serving in the military during the Vietnam War |
| Doves and Hawks | During the 1960s it became common to refer to those that wanted peace as 'doves' and those who wanted a more aggressive policy as 'hawks' |
| Executive order | Issued by the President - they have the full force of the law even though they are not passed by Congress |
| Executive privilege | The President and other members of the executive are exempt from some of the normal democratic standards of openness and transparency because they needed to keep secrets to do their job. Nixon believed this |
| Filibuster | A tactic used in the Senate to delay votes by making lengthy speeches |
| Food stamps | A system for subsidising food purchases for the poor provided by the government |
| GDP | Gross Domestic Product The total value of goods and services produced within a country |
| Free Speech Movement | Started at the University of California, FSM was a student protest movement |
| Ghettos | Run down urban areas, often inhabited by ethnic minorities. They were characterised by poor housing, poor education and limited employment opportunities |
| G.I Bill | Passed in 1944, it provided returning soldiers low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business and funded university tuition |
| Great Migration | The movement of over 6 million African-Americans from the rural South to the urban areas of the North, Mid-West and West coast |
| Impeach | To charge the holder of a public office, such as the President, with misconduct |
| Iron Curtain | Churchill's description of the divide between Soviet controlled Eastern Europe and Western Europe |
| Inflation | The rise in the price of goods or services from one year to the next |
| Jim Crow Laws | Laws enacted at state or local level that made it illegal for Black people to use the same services as White people |
| Inauguration | A ceremony held to celebrate the election of the President. They will make a key speech setting out their priorities |
| Ku Klux Klan | A secret society based in the South that used terror tactics to assert white racial superiority |
| Lynching | An execution carried out by a mob. Suspected Black criminals were often hung from a tree |
| Marshall Plan | American financial support to countries of Europe to help them rebuild in the aftermath of WW2 |
| McCarthyism | A campaign against alleged communists during the late 1940s and early 1950s led by Senator Joseph McCarthy |
| Missile Gap | The perception in the US that the USSR had taken the lead in the arms race after the launch of Sputnik in 1957. Kennedy used this to his advantage in the 1960 election |
| Medicaid | A Great Society policy that provides free health care for low-income individuals and families |
| Medicare | A Great Society policy that provided free medical insurance for the elderly |
| Mid-term elections | These are congressional elections held when there wasn't a Presidential election (For example, in 1950 and 1954) |
| NASA | National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This was set up by Eisenhower to coordinate American efforts to get into space |
| National Security Council | The NSC was set up by Truman to coordinate the work of the various departments and agencies that were responsible for American foreign policy |
| National Guard | Reserve soldiers of the army who can be brought in by a State's Governor to deal with an emergency situation or federalised by the President to act on his orders |
| NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. A collective defence agreement signed in 1949 that pledged that an attack on one of its members constituted an attack on them all |
| NVA | North Vietnamese Army |
| New Frontier | Kennedy's political vision. He argued that achieving equality of opportunity for all was similar to the expansion of America in the West during the 19th century |
| Negative income tax | The idea that when an individual's earnings fell below a certain level, they would be taken out of the tax system and receive a supplementary income from the government |
| OPEC Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries | Founded in 1960, this was an attempt to offset the power of the big oil companies that were owned by the USA, the UK and France |
| The Oil Shock 1973 | The rise of the oil price by OPEC in response to American support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War |
| Primaries | Elections held by the Democrats and the Republicans to decide who would be their Presidential candidate |
| Pro-life | Those that opposed the legalisation of abortion. They became a growing force in US politics after the 1973 Roe v Wade case |
| Rollback | The policy adopted by America during the Korean War when they tried to liberate the North from communist rule |
| Silent majority | A large, unspecified group that supported the Vietnam war but did not vocalise their opinions |
| SEATO | South East Asian Treaty Organisation. This was created in 1954 to provide defence and security in Asia |
| Sit-in | A form of direct, non-violent protest where protestors occupy an area and refuse to move |
| Small government | The belief that the government should be as small as possible and have a limited involvement in people's lives and this would lead to lower taxation |
| Social mobility | People's ability to move between classes in society to go from poor to being wealthier |
| State of the Union Address | Annual speech by the President in January to a joint session of Congress. It outlines the challenges that face America and the legislation at the President would like to introduce |
| Truman Doctrine | Declared by Truman in 1947 - it was a commitment by the US to defend any country in danger of a communist takeover |
| U2 | A high altitude spy plane that the US believed could not be shot down |
| Veto | The President has a veto over any legislation that is passed by Congress. This veto can be overturned by a two-thirds majority in both houses |
| Vietcong | A communist guerrilla group which operated in South Vietnam |
| Vietnamization | Nixon's policy of pulling out of Vietnam but providing financial support to the South Vietnamese Army |
| Warsaw Pact | A 1955 defence agreement between the countries of Eastern Europe. It stated that an attack on one country would be considered an attack on all of them |
| White Flight | The ongoing move of middle-class White Americans away from the city and into the suburbs |
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