Chapter 41 APUSH PHS
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| 4340602358 | weapons of mass destruction (WMD) | Refers to weapons—nuclear, biological, and chemical—that can kill large numbers of people and do great damage to the built and natural environment. The term was used to refer to nuclear weapons during the Cold War. The Bush administration's claim that Saddam Hussein had developed it provided the rationale for the United States's invasion of Iraq in 2003. These weapons were never found after the invasion. | 0 | |
| 4340602359 | Democratic leadership council | Non-profit organization of centrist Democrats founded in the mid-1980s. The group attempted to push the Democratic party toward progrowth, strong defense, and anticrime policies. Among its most influential early members was Bill Clinton, whom it held up as an example of "third way" politics. | 1 | |
| 4340602360 | don't ask, don't tell | From 1993 to 2010, the policy affecting homosexuals in the military. It emerged as a compromise between the standing prohibition against homosexuals in the armed forces and President Clinton's push to allow all citizens to serve regardless of sexual orientation. Military authorities were forbidden to ask about a service member's orientation, and gay service personnel could be discharged if they publicly revealed their homosexuality. At President Obama's urging, Congress repealed DADT in 2010, permitting gays to serve openly in uniform. | 2 | |
| 4340602361 | oklahoma city bombing | Truck-bomb explosion that killed 168 people in a federal office building on April 19, 1995. The attack was perpetrated by right-wing and anti-government militant Timothy McVeigh, later executed by the U.S. government for the crime. | 3 | |
| 4340602362 | contract with america | Multi-point program offered by Republican candidates and sitting politicians in the 1994 midterm election. The platform proposed smaller government, Congressional ethics reform, term limits, great emphasis on personal responsibility, and a general repudiation of the Democratic party. This articulation of dissent was a significant blow to the Clinton Administration and led to the Republican party's takeover of both houses of Congress for the first time in half a century. | 4 | |
| 4340602363 | welfare reform bill | Legislation that made deep cuts in welfare grants and required able-bodied welfare recipients to find employment. Part of Bill Clinton's campaign platform in 1992, the reforms were widely seen by liberals as an abandonment of key New Deal/Great Society provisions to care for the impoverished. | 5 | |
| 4340602364 | north american free trade agreement (NAFTA) | Free trade zone encompassing Mexico, Canada, and the United States. A symbol of the increased reality of a globalized market place, the treaty passed despite opposition from protectionists and labor leaders. | 6 | |
| 4340602365 | world trade organization (WTO) | An international body to promote and supervise liberal trade among nations. The successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, it marked a key world trade policy achievement of the Clinton Administration. | 7 | |
| 4340602366 | whitewater | A series of scandals during the Clinton Administration that stemmed from a failed real estate investment from which the Clintons were alleged to have illicitly profited. The accusations prompted the appointment of a special federal prosecutor, though no indictments. | 8 | |
| 4340602367 | lewinsky affair | Political sex scandal that resulted in Bill Clinton's impeachment and trial by Congress. In 1998, Clinton gave sworn testimony in a sexual harassment case that he had never engaged in sexual activity with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. When prosecutors discovered evidence that the President had lied under oath about the affair, to which Clinton admitted, Republicans in Congress began impeachment proceedings. Although Clinton was ultimately not convicted by the Senate, the scandal put a lasting blemish on his presidential legacy. | 9 | |
| 4340602368 | kyoto treaty | International treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions. It was negotiated and opened for signatories in 1997, and took effect in 2005. Although signed by 169 (of 192) countries, the Bush Administration rejected the plan as too costly in 2001. | 10 | |
| 4340602369 | 9/11 | Common shorthand for the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, in which nineteen militant Islamist men hijacked and crashed four commercial aircraft. Two planes hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing them to collapse. One plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the fourth, overtaken by passengers, crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the worst case of domestic terrorism in American history. | 11 | |
| 4340602370 | al quaeda | Arabic for "The Base," an international alliance of anti-Western Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organizations founded in the late 1980s. Founded by veterans of the Afghan struggle against the Soviet Union, the group was headed by Osama Bin Laden and has taken responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks, especially after the late 1990s. It organized the attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States, from its headquarters in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Since the U.S-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the launch of the "Global War on Terror," the group has been weakened, but still poses significant threats around the world | 12 | |
| 4340602371 | USA Patriot act | Legislation passed shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that granted broad surveillance and detention authority to the government. | 13 | |
| 4340602372 | department of homeland security | Cabinet-level agency created in 2003 to unify and coordinate public safety and anti-terrorism operations within the federal government | 14 | |
| 4340602373 | guantanamo detention camp | Controversial prison facility constructed after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Located on territory occupied by the U.S. military, but not technically part of the United States, the facility serves as an extra-legal holding area for suspected terrorists. | 15 | |
| 4340602374 | abu ghraib prison | A detention facility near Baghdad, Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein, the prison was the site of infamous torturing and execution of political dissidents. In 2004, during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the prison became the focal point of a prisoner-abuse and torture scandal after photographs surfaced of American soldiers mistreating, torturing, and degrading Iraqi war prisoners and suspected terrorists. The scandal was one of several dark spots on the public image of the Iraq War and led to increased criticism of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. | 16 | |
| 4340602375 | no child left behind act | An education bill created and signed by the George W. Bush administration. Designed to increase accountability standards for primary and secondary schools, the law authorized several federal programs to monitor those standards and increased choices for parents in selecting schools for their children. The program was highly controversial, in large part because it linked results on standardized to federal funding for schools and school districts. | 17 | |
| 4340602376 | hurricane katrina | The costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States, killing nearly 2000 Americans. The storm ravaged the Gulf Coast, especially the city of New Orleans, in late August of 2005. In New Orleans, high winds and rain caused the city's levees to break, leading to catastrophic flooding, particularly centered on the city's most impoverished wards. A tardy and feeble response by local and federal authorities exacerbated the damage and led to widespread criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). | 18 | |
| 4340602377 | deleveraging | The inverse of "leveraging," whereby businesses increase their financial power by borrowing money (debt) in addition to their own assets (equity). In times of uncertainty or credit tightening, the same businesses seek to improve their debt-to-equity ratios by shedding debt through the sale of assets purchased with borrowed money. | 19 | |
| 4340602378 | american relief and recovery act | Among the earliest initiatives of the Obama Administration to combat the Great Recession. It was based on the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes that called for increased government spending to offset decreased private spending in times of economic downturn. The Act was controversial from the outset, passing with no Republican votes in the House, and only three in the Senate, and helping to foster the "Tea Party" movement to curb government deficits, even while critics on the Left argued that the Act's $787 billion appropriation was not enough to turn the economy around. (985) | 20 | |
| 4340602379 | patient protection and afforadable care act | Also known, somewhat derisively, as "Obamacare," the Act extended health care insurance to some 30 million Americans, marking a major step toward achieving the century-old goal of universal health care coverage for all citizens. | 21 | |
| 4340602380 | wall street reform and consumer protection act | Also known as the Dodd-Frank Act, after its Democratic sponsors, Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd and Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank. In an effort to avoid another financial crisis like the Great Recession, the Act updated many federal regulations affecting the financial and banking systems, and created some new agencies such as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. | 22 |
