United States History

• Bay of Pigs Invasion: Topic

  1961, an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, supported by the U.S. government.
• Cuban Missile Crisis: Topic

  Confrontation in international relations in October 1962 when Soviet rockets were installed in Cuba and US president John F Kennedy compelled Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, by military threats and negotiation, to remove them.
• My Lai Incident: Topic

  In the Vietnam War, a massacre of Vietnamese civilians by U.S. soldiers. On Mar. 16, 1968, a unit of the U.S. army Americal division, led by Lt. William L. Calley, invaded the South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai (more correctly, Son My), an alleged Viet Cong stronghold.
• Red Scare: Topic

  Campaign against communists (called ‘reds’) in the USA during the 20th century, and associated atmosphere of suspicion and fear.
• Vietnam War: Topic

  War from 1954 to 1975 between communist North Vietnam and US-backed South Vietnam, in which North Vietnam aimed to conquer South Vietnam and unite the country as a communist state; North Vietnam was supported by communist rebels from South Vietnam, the Vietcong.

Source: Credo Reference

• Nikita Khruschev (1894-1971): Topic

  Soviet Communist leader, premier of the USSR (1958-64), and first secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (1953-64).
• Fidel Castro (1927-2016): Topic

  Cuban communist politician, prime minister 1959–76 and president 1976–2008. He led the revolution that overthrew the right-wing regime of the dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Source: Credo Reference

• Communism: Topic

  Fundamentally, a system of social organization in which property (especially real property and the means of production) is held in common.
• Espionage: Topic

  The act of obtaining information clandestinely; The term applies particularly to the act of collecting military, industrial, and political data about one nation for the benefit of another.
• Karl Marx (1818-1883): Topic

  German founder of modern communism, in England from 1849; With Engels, he wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848). He developed his theories of the class struggle and the economics of capitalism in Das Kapital (1867; 1885; 1895). He was one of the founders of the International Workingmen's Association (First International) (1864).
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): Topic

  Military association of major Western European and North American states set up under the North Atlantic Treaty of 4 April 1949.
• Propaganda: Topic

  Systematic manipulation of public opinion, generally by the use of symbols such as flags, monuments, oratory, and publications.
• Socialism: Topic

  General term for the political and economic theory that advocates a system of collective or government ownership and management of the means of production and distribution of goods.
• Vietnam War protest movements: Topic

  
  
  Demonstrations, marches, and acts of civil disobedience in protest to US involvement in the Vietnam War (1954–75), beginning around 1965. Anti-war sentiment arose from the question of the morality of participation in what many regarded as a civil war; the growing human and environmental costs; and doubts that the US war effort would succeed.
• Warsaw Pact: Topic

  Military defensive alliance 1955-91 between the USSR and East European communist states, originally established as a response to the admission of West Germany into NATO. Its military structures and agreements were dismantled early in 1991; a political organization remained until the alliance was officially dissolved in July 1991.

Source: Credo Reference