Alcatraz Island Rock island, formerly a federal prison, in San Francisco Bay that was occupied in 1969 by Native American activists who demanded that it be made available to them as a cultural center

American Indian Movement militant Indian movement willing to use confrontation to obtain social justice and Indian treaty rights; organized the seizure of Wounded Knee






Cesar Chavez labor organizer who founded the National Farm Workers Association; he believed in nonviolence and used marches, boycotts, and fasts to bring moral and economic pressure to bear on growers

Chicano/Chicana terms that many Mexican Americans adopted during the late 1960s to signify their ethnic identity; it was associated with the promotion of Mexican-American heritage and rights

COINTELPRO FBI counter intelligence program begun in 1956 and continued until 1971 that sought to expose, disrupt, and discredit groups considered radical power organizations; it targeted various antiwar groups during the Vietnam War

Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) Nixon’s 1972 campaign committee, which enlisted G. Gordon Liddy and others to spy on the Democrats and break into the offices of the Democratic National Committee






détente relaxing of tensions between the superpowers in the early 1970s, which led to increased diplomatic, commercial, and cultural contact






Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created in 1970 to consolidate all major government programs controlling pollution and other programs to protect the environment

Eugene McCarthy senator who opposed the Vietnam War and made an unsuccessful bid for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination






George McGovern South Dakota senator who opposed the Vietnam War and was the unsuccessful 1972 Democratic presidential candidate

George Wallace conservative Alabama governor who opposed desegregation in the 1960s and ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1968 and 1972

Gerald R. Ford Michigan congressman whom Nixon appointed vice president when Spiro Agnew resigned and who became president in 1974 when Nixon resigned

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 1964 decree authorizing the president to take any measures necessary to repel attacks against US forces in Vietnam






Henry Kissinger German-born American diplomat who was Nixon’s national security adviser and secretary of state; helped negotiate the cease-fire in Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh Trail main infiltration route for North Vietnamese soldiers and supplies into South Vietnam; it ran through Laos and Cambodia

Hubert H. Humphrey LBJ’s vice president; won the 1968 Democratic nomination but lost to Nixon






Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act 1974 law giving Indian tribes control over federal programs carried out on their reservation and increasing their authority in reservation schools

intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) missiles that can travel from one continent to another






John Mitchell Nixon’s attorney general; served 4 years in prison for his part in Watergate






Leonid Brezhnev Soviet leader (1964-1982); worked to foster détente with the US during the Nixon era






Mann Doctrine US policy outlaws by Thomas Mann during the Johnson administration that called for stability in Latin America rather than economic and political reform

My Lai massacre of 350 South Vietnamese villagers by US infantrymen in 1968, an event that added to the antiwar sentiment






National Farm Workers Association migrant workers’ union organized in 1962 by Cesar Chavez, originally named United Farm Workers Association; changed its name again in 1972, becoming the United Farm Workers of America

Nixon Doctrine required countries threatened by communism to shoulder most of the military burden, with the US offering mainly political and economic support






Operation Chaos CIA operation (1965-1973) that collected information on and disrupted anti-Vietnam War elements in the US; though it is illegal for the CIA to operate within the US, it collected files on over 7,000 Americans






Pentagon US military establishment, so named because its central offices are located in a five-sided building in Arlington, Virginia

pragmatic willingness to adopt policies that could be either liberal or conservative, depending on the need






Robert Kennedy attorney general during his brother’s presidency; elected to the Senate in 1964, his campaign for the presidency was gathering momentum when he was assassinated in 1968

Russell Means Indian activist who helped organize the seizures of Alcatraz in 1969 and Wounded Knee in 1973






Salvador Allende Chilean president who was considered the first democratically elected Marxist to head the government; killed in a 1973 coup

Saturday Night Massacre events on 20 October 1973 when Nixon ordered the firing of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox; 2 Justice Department officials resigned rather than carry out his order

Silent Majority name given to the majority of Americans who supported the government and did not protest or riot; a typical member of the Silent Majority was believed to be white, middle class, average in income and education, and moderately conservative in values and attitudes

southern strategy plan to entice southerners into the Republican party by appointing white southerners to the Supreme Court and resisting the policy of busying to achieve integration

Spiro Agnew Nixon’s vice president; resigned in 1973 amid charges of illegal financial dealings while he was Maryland governor

stagflation persistent inflation combined with stagnant consumer demand and relatively high unemployment

Strategic Arms Limitation Agreement (SALT I) 1972 treaty between the US and the USSR to limit offensive nuclear weapons and defensive antiballistic missile systems

Sunbelt region of the US that extends from Washington DC to Florida and from Texas to California and the Pacific coast; during the 1960s, its population grew dramatically because of its climate and economic opportunities

superpower term applied to US, China, and the USSR during the Cold War because all 3 were powerful and heavily armed and dominated their allies in international politics






Tet Viet Cong-North Vietnamese attack on South Vietnamese cities during the lunar new year (Tet) in January 1968 was a military defeat for North Vietnam, but it seriously undermined US support for the war






Vietnamization US policy of scaling back American involvement in Vietnam and helping Vietnamese forces fight their own war






War Powers Act 1973 law to prevent the president from involving the US in war without authorization by Congress

Warren Court term applied to the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren; during this period the Court was especially active in expanding individual rights, often at the expense of state and local governments

Watergate apartment-office complex in Washington, DC, that housed the Democratic National Committee headquarters; its name became synonymous with the scandal over the Nixon administration’s involvement in a break-in there and the president’s part in the cover-up that followed

William Westmoreland commander of all American troops in Vietnam (1964-68)

write-in campaign an attempt to elect a candidate in which voters are urged to write the name of an unregistered candidate directly on the ballot