Contemporary American History Vocabulary Practice 1

Name:

1. The _______________________ of President Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, was a shocking event that changed modern American history.

2. Americans moved to the ___________________ in large numbers after the war. These were new communities outside the cities.

3. To alleviate the problems left by racism, the US government under Lyndon Johnson began a policy of ______________________ action, which gave preference to minorities, especially black people, in jobs and education.

4. The policy of the United States towards the Soviet Union was called _________________________ because it tried to keep Soviet power and Communism from spreading.

5. McCarthyism was a _______________________ in which many people were falsely accused of being traitors.

6. Anti-war students, like black Americans in the Civil Rights Movement, used _____________________ to make protests. They would go and stay in a place until the police came to arrest them.

7. Russian and Eastern Europe were described by Winston Churchill as being behind an __________________________, a symbol of being in a prison.

8. The American economy in the 1950s was very prosperous due to new kinds of businesses begun by ___________________ .

9. In the Civil Rights Movement, many young white students joined young black students in the south to ride buses together and challenge segregation in the ____________________ .

10. American culture is marked by a sense of _______________________ , unreasonable fear, from its experience in the Cold War.

11. American business and government successfully created a _______________________ society, in which people's main duty was to buy goods.

12. After Kennedy's death, instead of leaving Vietnam, Johnson _______________________ it by sending in combat troops. The war just got bigger and bigger.

13. At the Democratic _______________________ in Atlanta in 1964 the Freedom Democratic Delegation, which was intergrated, was refused seating because John didn't want to lose Southern white support. .

14. Young white people were taught to obey_______________________, that is, anyone with power over them, such as parents or teachers, and not question anything.

15. The parents of the baby boomer generation had gone through war and _______________________, so they worried about their children's future..

16. During the Cold War the United States built up a _______________________ complex, a huge armed industry, that employes thousands of people but which is also dangerous for its democracy.

17. A _______________________ consumer is one whose main duty is buying, as opposed to a "citizen consumer," whose main duty is to make sure products are safe and prices are reasonable.

18. The Supreme Court in 1954 ordered the _______________________ of schools, that blacks and whites should go to the same schools together.

19. The US helped to carry out _______________________ in Iran and Guatamala in order to install more friendly governments.

20. The war in Vietnam was especially frustrating to American soldiers because it was a _______________________ war, in which the enemy was usually hiding and made surprise attacks.