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Adams-Onis Treaty (1819)


 * In the Treaty of Paris 1783, Britain ceded Florida back to the Spanish. Spain motivated settlers with land grants, even letting the native Seminole Indians establish farms as a buffer between Florida and Georgia.
 * This Spanish colony offered refuge to runaway slaves; this attracted American slaveowners to petition the government to pursue their lost property.
 * Native Americans and runaway slaves had been trading weapons with the British in Spanish Florida throughout the early 1800s and aided the British in the War of 1812.
 * In 1817, the US invaded Florida; the series of battles between the US and the Seminole Indians resulted in the First Seminole War.
 * Andrew Jackson led an army of 3,000 against the Seminole and runaway slaves; he ended up also attacking Spanish settlements and eventually seized two Spanish forts in St. Marks and Pensacola.
 * Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and Spanish Foreign Minister Luis de Onís y Gonzalez-Vara signed the Adams-Onis (or the Florida) Treaty in Washington on February 22, 1819 and it took effect two years later. Besides ceding all of Spanish Florida and the surrounding islands to the US, it establishing a new boundary between the US and Spain’s American empire along the Sabine, Red, and Arkansas rivers, up to the 42nd parallel. The US sacrificed territorial claims west of the Sabine river and paid $5,000,000 for residents to remain on their settlements in now - Spanish territory. This was an early use of military strength by the US and also established a clear Southern border. Florida today accounts for over 5% of total US GDP

Thomas Jefferson


 * Thomas Jefferson served as a representative in the VA House of Burgesses, the Second Continental Congress, and the Congress of the Confederation; he penned the Declaration of Independence, served as Minister of France, Secretary of State, Vice President to Adams, and President for two terms. His ideas and ideals contributed hugely to colonial independence, determined US relations with France for decades, and laid down some of the most persistent ideas of limited government and military power that still guide much of American policy.
 * Bon in 1743, Thomas Jefferson inherited high standing, 5,000 acres of land, and scores of slaves from his father. He served as a lawyer for the Virginia elite, and later a representative of his county in the House of Burgesses, introducing him to the political arena. He developed radical ideas about colonial self-government in the House.
 * He represented Virginia in the Second Continental Congress - plagued by public speaking problems, he served as the 'silent member' of Congress, conveying most of his ideas through writing. This included him penning the Declaration of Independence, one of the most famous documents in US and world history, which legally proclaimed American independence.
 * Served as Minister of France and Secretary of State while supporting the French Revolution, even through the Reign of Terror.
 * Served as Vice President to John Adams.
 * Elected first Democratic-Republican president in 1800: major policies included
 * abolition of Whiskey Tax
 * Reduced spending, including army spending (opposed standing army), but maintained a strong navy
 * the Louisiana Purchase (size of US x2)
 * Embargo Act (cut off exports to demonstrate American importance, did quite the opposite)
 * Ranks an average 4th on presidential ranking studies (usually consist of historians and political scientists)

War of 1812 (1812-1815)


 * Impressment: the British navy was seizing US ships and soldiers, searching American merchant ships because the US backed Napoleonic France and the Brits forbade neutral trade with France.
 * The US, since the Revolutionary War, had been eyeing Canada, a British territory.
 * American politicos wanted a settlement of "the Indian question" (the Indian presence, their support for Britain and all its implications) and hawks portrayed another War with Britain as a sort of second Revolutionary War to secure American independence and get rid of British influence in the continent.
 * The threat against Britain of another American war made Britain revoke the authorization for these seizures, thereby ending them, but this supposed cause really had so little influence it wound up going unmentioned in the final peace treaty.
 * Spain and Britain were allied against France. A war with Britain offered the opportunity to annex Spanish Florida and complete the American eastern seaboard.
 * The Chesapeke Incident: a British frigate, the Leopard, stops the US Chesapeke, and began to fire on it when the Chesapeke refused to let them board; the Chesapeke surrenders. This stirs up pro-war sentiment in the states.
 * Jefferson passed the Embargo Act as economic coercion against the British but it fails.
 * Madison got a formal declaration of declaration of war on June 1, 1812. The British blockade the US coast. The US tried to invade Canada, led by General Hull, but the British push him back to Detroit. During the Chesapeke Campaign of blockades and attacks, the British marched on Washington, burning the White House and the Capitol. They did the same to Baltimore. Most fighting took place in the Northeast, especially the divided Maine. The Treaty of Ghent ended the war and restored most territorial claims back to their pre - war conditions ('status quo antebellum'), and it returned to the US all slaves that had escaped to Canada. After the Treaty passed but before it reached General Andrew Jackson in the South, he led a defeat of the invading British army at The Battle of New Orleans, also where the Star-Spangled Banner was penned. Ultimately, the War of 1812 led to intense patriotism with the belief that the war was a victory, an economic boom with the resultant peace in the Atlantic, and the war stimulated the manufacturing industry in the North as the war increased demand.

John Adams


 * John Adams graduated Harvard to become a prominent Boston lawyer. He joined the outcry against the Writs of Assistance and also resisted the Stamp Act. He was first elected to the Massachusetts Assembly and then represented Massachusetts at the First Continental Congress. At the Second Continental Congress he worked with over 90 committees and chaired 25.
 * Fervent backer of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, himself having offered a similar resolution to the Congress.
 * Ambassador to France.
 * Helped frame the Massachusetts State Constitution
 * Helped developed the Treaty of 1783.
 * Elected Vice President in 1789 and President in 1793 (set precedent of VP becoming President). Major policies:
 * Alien and Sedition Acts
 * Judiciary Act of 1801: created federal court system, stuffed with Federalist judges ('Midnight Judges').
 * Quasi-War with France where US mercenaries fought French privateers

"After Turner murdered the entire family of his master, he moved on to surrounding farms with the intent of killing every white person... that was found on the premises, including women and children." ([]) Cause Importance How did it help shape the United States
 * Nat Turner's Rebellion (1831)**
 * Nat Turner thought visions he saw (an eclipse of the sun) were indications that he needed to lead a slave revolt
 * Turner was a very well-educated slave (reading and writing at young age) and thorouhgly religious
 * Restrictive slave codes in Virginia
 * Victorious Haitain Revolution established the first "negro republic" in the Caribbean
 * Liberia was founded in 1821 by the American Colonization Society
 * Turner, leading a band of about 70 colleagues, went from farm to farm, killing almost anyone found there, all in all about 60 people, including children. He commanded his band to "kill all the white people" as they went as a form of terror to demonstrate their power. The rebellion was put down by a white militia backed by artillery. Rumors that insurrectionary armies of former slaves had massacred all of Wilmington and were planning to march on the state capitol led to brutal attacks on black people throughout the state; one retaliatory attack in North Carolina left 40 slaves dead and their bodies looted.
 * Expanded antislavery movement in Virginia, which tried to colonize all blacks out of the state to prevent a rebellion
 * More restrictive slave codes in most slave states (ex. anti-reading laws in Virginia and Alabama; blacks could no longer hold religious meetings in Virginia without a white minister)
 * At the end of the Civil War most freed slaves were illiterate, which, along with black codes, depressed the economic condition of blacks in the South. This would lead to a revived movement for black education and literacy throughout the early 20th century.
 * Symbolized a bane for slaveholders and an inspiration for slaves; may have inspired other future slave revolts like the 1842 Cherokee Nation revolt.

"He is as ugly as sin, long-nosed, queer-mouthed, and with uncouth and rustic manners." -Nathaniel Hawthorne //Importance// //Significace//
 * Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)**
 * Transcendentalist and abolitionist philosopher
 * Early American advocate of civil disobedience and tax resistance (in his case, to the Mexican-American War)
 * Wrote //Walden, or Life in the Woods// and //Resistance to Civil Government// - ignored in his time, biological and scientific works were impactful during his life.
 * Fervently defended John Brown after Harper's Ferry - stood alone in his time, but he would inspire reverence of Brown during the Civil War.
 * Advocated a return to nature and individualism, finding morality within oneself outside a social context.
 * Thoreau's works on civil disobedience directly inspired MLK Jr, John F Kennedy, and Justice William O. Douglas
 * Inspired much of the nonviolent civil disobedience of the Civil Rights Movement - Civil Disobedience introduced MLK Jr to nonviolent resistance.
 * Huge voice in libertarian, anarchist, antiwar, and primitivist circles for his opposition to government and industrial society.

//Cause// //Importance// //How did it help shape the United States?//
 * Mexican-American War (1846-1848)**
 * Stephen Austin established a colony in the Mexican territory of Texas
 * Battle of the Alamo - all US soldiers killed at the Alamo Mission by the Mexican Army
 * General Houston defeats Santa Anna and earns independence for Texas
 * Doctrine of Manifest Destiny justifies US expansion
 * General Zachary Taylor instigates shootout on Nueces River (northern border of disputed territory)
 * United most country in opposition to Mexico (fought mostly by volunteers)
 * Republicans opposed because they perceived the Mexican Cession as an attempt by Polk to expand slavery
 * Democrats viewed it as evidence of the States' Manifest Destiny to expand, may have fueled imperialist aims later
 * US reached the Pacific Ocean with the Mexican Cession and got bits of the Southwest with the Gadsden Purchase
 * Manifest Destiny and early nationalist sentiments fulfilled
 * Established the Southern border of the US at the Rio Grande

//Importance// Significance
 * Jefferson Davis (1808-1889)**
 * President of CSA throughout its existence - unanimously elected by a constitutional convention
 * Secretary of War under Pierce
 * Incapable of securing recognition from any foreign country for the CSA
 * Tried to defend the entire South with approx. equal force, which spread the small army too thin
 * Selected Robert E. Lee to lead the Confederate Army - tactical success that helped CSA survive as long as it did.
 * Failure to govern the CSA successfully contributed significantly to the South's defeat in the Civil War
 * Electing Robert E. Lee probably sustained the South for longer than it would have with less adequate generals

//What caused it?// //What is its significance?// //How did it help shape the United States?//
 * Coal Strike of 1902**
 * Growth of the United Mine Workers of America
 * Bituminous Coal Strike of 1897
 * 1899 Nanticoke Coal Strike
 * Mark Hanna and JP Morgan pressed coal industry to cede wage increases to strikers in 1900
 * 1900 founding of the National Civic Federation
 * Theodore Roosevelt established a federal commission to help mediate the dispute
 * The Anthracite Coal Strike Commission ultimately split the demands of both sides right down the middle
 * Union did not get recognition, did get a board of arbitrators from both sides
 * One of the more peaceful strikes of the era, as opposed to, say, the Haymarket Affair or the Great Railroad Strike of 1877
 * Strikers earned a nine-hour instead of a ten-hour workday, a step towards the eight-hour workday ultimately strived for
 * Union membership skyrocketed across industries
 * Fundamental progressive reform and implementation of Roosevelt's Square Deal policy

//What caused it?// //What is its significance?// //How did it help shape the United States?//
 * Completion of the Panama Canal**
 * Beginning of the Panama Canal
 * Alexander von Humboldt proposes a canal connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the early 1800s
 * California Gold Rush (increased international trade)
 * Sinking of the //Maine// off Havana (demanding US control of trade in the region)
 * Handover of the French project to US administration
 * Declaration of independence of Panama from Colombia
 * Made trade crossing the Americas far quicker, more efficient, and safer (no longer have to pass through the Strait of Magellan)
 * Allowed Caribbean countries to export goods for effectively
 * Established Panama as a US protectorate, enhanced US control of trade in the region
 * Aided US influence in Central America until Panamanians rejected US control and Carter ceded the Canal to Panama in 1977
 * Gave justification for Taft's Dollar Diplomacy and 1900-1940s US involvement in Central America (protecting the neutrality of the Canal)

//Why is he important?// //Why is he significant to US history?//
 * Samuel Gompers (1850-1924)**
 * Helped found and was president of the American Federation of Labour until his deat
 * President of Cigarmakers International Union
 * Member of the Anti-Imperialist League
 * Supported the Chinese Exclusion Act (anti-immigration unified workers)
 * The AFL has proved the largest and longest lasting union in US history
 * Helped the formation of smaller trade unions and unify chasms in the movement
 * Membership took off under the NLRA and the New Deal, huge organizing drive secured legislative victories for labour

//Why is he important?// //Why is he significant to US history?//
 * JP Morgan (1873-1913)**
 * Financier that arranged the creation of General Electric, US Steel Corporation, and AT&T
 * Financed scores of railroads, including some of the largest in the country
 * Helped end the Panic of 1907 and establish the Federal Reserve System afterwards
 * Dominant role in the US economy, invested in most of the largest businesses of the era
 * Divided conservatives and leftists of the day - "captains of industry" vs "robber barons"
 * Huge philanthropist, helped establish Metropolitan Museum of Art and donated much of his art and gemstone collection to it
 * Dominated US finance during the Progressive Era
 * His investments led to the growth of some of the huge companies and technological advancements during the Second Industrial Revolution
 * Probably the most famous and significant banker in US history
 * Leading role in the creation of the Federal Reserve System, changed the functioning of the US economy entirely

//What caused it?// //What is its significance?// //How did it help shape the United States?//
 * Prohibition (1919-1933)**
 * The Temperance Movement
 * The Women's Christian Temperance Union
 * Sale of Beer Act 1854
 * The Maine Law
 * Almost unilateral support from Progressives, women, Southerners, rural Americans, and blacks
 * Banned manufacture, sale, and transport (not consumption) of alcohol throughout the United States
 * Demand for alcohol led to development of powerful criminal underground
 * Alcohol smuggled from distilleries in Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean European colonies; people also brewed it themselves
 * Led to the development of powerful underground gangs
 * Strengthened criminals and their gangs meeting the demand for alcohol, especially Al Capone in Chicago, who controlled every speakeasy and virtually all bootlegging in the US by 1940 (beating out the competition from rival gangster Bugs Moran)
 * Allowed the inception and growth of the Italian Mafia
 * Wildly expanded crime in the US - 1000% increase of federal justice spending

//What caused it?// //What is its significance?// //How did it help shape the United States?//
 * Dust Bowl**
 * Louisiana Purchase
 * Homestead Act
 * Unsustainable farming practices i.e. deep plowing neglecting crop rotation
 * Severe drought and dust storms
 * WW1 increased crop prices, so farmers tried to take advantage of the price by increasing production
 * Affected 100,000,000 acres of land in the American midwest
 * A single dust storm on November 11, 1933 deposited 12 million pounds of dust around Chicago
 * 2.5 million people moved out of the Plains States (largest migration in US history)
 * FDR responded with the Great Plains Shelterbelt, a CCC program of planting over 200,000,000 trees across the Plains States to break the wind and hold the soil
 * Ran an educational campaign to inform farmers of sustainable practices
 * Established the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation to manage surplus goods and the Drought Relief Service to buy cattle at a high price from farmers
 * Largest migration in US history led to huge labor surplus in the rest of the country, especially California
 * Sustainable agricultural practices were instituted throughout the midwest but low access to credit and education prevented full recovery
 * Decline in land value throughout the midwest, 75% of topsoil gone
 * Government response saw the establishment of many Department of Agriculture agencies and agricultural regulation services

//Why is he important?// //Why is he significant to US history?//
 * Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1934)**
 * Russian communist organizer, revolutionary, political scientist, and Bolshevik politician
 * Founder of Leninism (advocated vanguard party to organize workers and lead revolution)
 * Led the October Revolution and the bloodless coup against the Russian provisional government - leader of the Bolshevik (majority) party
 * Leader of the Russian Communist Party, Chairman of the early Soviet legislature, and Premier of the Soviet Union
 * Lenin pulled Russia out of World War 1, meaning the Central Powers only had to fight on the Western front
 * Established the Soviet Union, the rival superpower to the US for a decade
 * Established the first expressly Communist country in world history, laying the frame for the future ideological war between capitalism and communism

//Why is he important?// //Why is he significant to US history?//
 * John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)**
 * Established Keynesian economics: aggregate demand is the prime factor in economic activity, and governments can improve the economic condition of their countries by increasing deficit spending
 * Ideological debate with Austrian economist FA Hayek
 * Ideas were adopted by nearly all Western governments in the 1940s, and is still the economic policy of almost all Western governments today, along with many more developed African and Asian countries
 * Keynesianism was adopted by the US government more and more throughout the 1940s and was the driving economic policy through the 60s, crystallized by RIchard Nixon abolishing the last remains of the gold standard
 * Receded during the conservative resurgance of the 80s which saw more market-oriented policy, then came back into the fold through the 90s and 00s (bailouts, stimulus, nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)

//What caused it?// //What is its significance?// //How did it help shape the United States?//
 * Korean War (1950-1953)**
 * Korean peninsula ruled by Imperial Japan prior to World War 2
 * Korea divided into North and South along the 38th parallel after World War 2
 * Reunification negotiations and pro-unification sentiment from the North
 * North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950
 * Security Council (all Capitalist countries, USSR protesting) voted to intervene in the Korean conflict
 * Prime example of Containment policy
 * US were primary nation enforcing UN resolution, invaded South Korea, pressed Koreans back to Chinese border while China began to fight back
 * Soviet Union fought as a proxy, support Kim Il Sung's Northern army
 * One of the first instances of the US employing force to contain Communism (NSC 68)
 * More friction between the US and the Sino-Soviet alliance
 * Legitimized United Nations enforcement power
 * Beginning of racial integration in the US military
 * Anti-American sentiment and propaganda still central to North Korean society

//What caused it?// //What is its signifiance?// //How did it help shape the United States?//
 * Bay of Pigs Invasion (April 17 1961)**
 * Monroe Doctrine and Roosevelt Corollary effectively establish US as the dominant power in the Americas
 * Platt Amendment established Cuba as a US protectorate
 * CIA overthrows leftist Jacobo Arbenz government in Guatemala, setting the stage for CIA involvement in Latin American governments
 * Fidel Castro leads 26th of July Movement to overthrow the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in Cuba, declares a Socialist government after taking power
 * Eisenhower approves plan to invade Cuba "in a manner to avoid the appearance of a US intervention," allocates funding
 * Huge US defeat as Cuba fought back the CIA mercenary force and took several thousand exiles prisoner (many were executed or imprisoned for treason until a prisoners-for-money deal was negotiated for the remainder awaiting trial).
 * Made Kennedy appear weak against even a small Latin American military, which may have strengthened the Soviet Union's resolve and confidence
 * Gave Castro nationalist support and fomented anti-American sentiment in Cuba ever since
 * One of very few US military losses in history
 * Cuban fear of invasion and Soviet overconfidence would lead to the Cuban Missile Crisis
 * US citizenry lost confidence in the government's ability to fight Communism, Soviet Union saw an opportunity to strengthen itself internationally
 * Tenuous US relationship with Cuba for years

//Why is he important?// //Why is he significant to US history?//
 * John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)**
 * Increased Eisenhower's meager involvement in Vietnam by several orders of magnitude, increasing US military advisers and special forces to 16,000 (from a fraction of this) and instituting Operation Ranch Hand (deforestation) and the Strategic Hamlet Program (relocation).
 * Invested heavily in the Apollo Space Program, promising a man on the moon (which came to fruition in 1969, after his death).
 * While quite moderate on civil rights issues - for example, fighting the Black Panther Party in California - Kennedy supported civil rights legislation on a moral level and took some federal action to protect protesters (University of Alabama incident, for example). His brother RFK is seen as a civil rights leader; he served as Attorney General and their plan was to enforce extant Civil Rights legislation more thoroughly through judicial decisions.
 * Led the Bay of Pigs invasion and Operation Mongoose to try and overthrow Fidel Castro.
 * Brought the US peacefully through the Cuban Missile Crisis
 * Worked out Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union.
 * Initiated actual US involvement in Vietnam, longest war in US history at that time
 * Secured for the US a victory in some aspects of the Space Race by investing heavily in a mission to the moon
 * Likely prevented global thermonuclear war by not pursuing the use of force during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
 * Contributed to nuclear nonproliferation by signing the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
 * Secured some civil rights victories with his brother, putting pressure of civil service programs to employ more African-Americans and using the Department of Justice to enforce anti-discrimination and voting rights laws.

//Why is he important?// //Why is he significant to US history?//
 * Nikitia Khrushchev (1894-1971)**
 * First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Premier of the Soviet Union in the 50s and 60s
 * Initiated many early Soviet victories in the Space Race, including the launch of Sputnik, one of few instances where Soviet technology surpassed American technology
 * Changed the Soviet Union's power structure to be somewhat less repressive and less centralized (political arrests reduced to the 100s); freed millions from Stalin's gulags; instituted private housing in the USSR; openess in entertainment and arts.
 * Negotiated a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with JFK
 * Led the Soviet Union through the Cuban Missile Crisis without the use of force
 * Worked with Kennedy to see a peaceful end to the Cuban Missile Crisis (the "Caribbean Crisis" in the Soviet Union)
 * Liberalization of the Soviet Union would lead to Gorbachev's second round of reform, which would lead finally to the end of the Soviet empire and the tenuous Cold War
 * Initially expanded the Arms race with the US but finally signed a ban on above-ground nuclear tests with the US to mediate the arms race

//Why is he important?// //Why is he significant to US history?//
 * Henry Kissinger (born May 27, 1923)**
 * Noble Prize recipient
 * Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under Nixon and Ford, political advisor to numerous presidents before and after
 * Political theorist, promoted theory of "realpolitik" (political operations not based on ethical or moral ideals, but realistic, practical understandings of power relations)
 * Designed or was heavily involved in many major US policies during the Cold War era, including:
 * Detente, reduced tensions with the USSR (SALT 1), and closer relations with China
 * Vietnamization
 * Bombing of Laos and Cambodia
 * Support for overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile
 * Closer relations with Egypt precipitated Egyptian support for Israel under Hosni Mubarak
 * His policies and political ideas persist through US foreign policy and he was a major consultant on some important national security decisions like the invasion of Iraq and support for Suharto in Indonesia
 * He basically designed Richard Nixon's Cold War ideas, which saw a reduction of tensions and undermining the Sino-Soviet alliance
 * He remains one of the foremost national security intellectuals in US politics

//Why is he important?// //Why is he significant to US history?//
 * Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973)**
 * President of the United States from 1963-1969
 * Had two major policy points: **the Great Society** and **the Vietnam War**
 * Great Society encompassed numerous liberal social programs as part of Johnson's "War on Poverty," such as the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the Social Security Act of 1965, Medicare and Medicaid
 * Also credited with crystallizing most of Kennedy's unfulfilled civil rights goals by eliminating literacy tests for voters
 * The Vietnam War was the longest conflict in US history until the occupation of Afghanistan; because of its huge expenses, many of Johnson's Great Society programs went underfunded; many Americans eventually felt the war was either morally reprehensible or not worth fighting
 * Basically destroyed his political career; public resentment was so high that he bitterly declined to run for reelection in 1968
 * Launched one of the longest, most expensive wars in US history that resulted in huge American distrust of the government and a thriving antiwar protest movement
 * Legacy of large-scale social programs, especially Medicare and Medicaid
 * First manifestation of modern liberalism (besides possibly FDR)

//What caused it?// //What is its significance?// //How did it help shape the United States?//
 * Vietnam War (technically 1955-1975)**
 * French colonization in Indochina
 * All the major world powers - USSR, China, US, UK, and Japan - struggle to protect French domination of Vietnam
 * Ho Chi Minh leads Viet Minh resistance movement for independence from France
 * Vietnam partitioned into North and South at the 17th parallel
 * Geneva Accords of 1954 called for unification and national elections in Vietnam
 * Began in 1955 with American support by Eisenhower for the South Vietnamese military in fighting the Viet Minh - military aid and advisers to Ngo Diem's government
 * Viet Minh started fighting back in 1959, US organized deforestation and strategic hamlet programs to resist the new evolution of the Viet Minh, called the National Liberation Front
 * In the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, patrolling American destroyers were allegedly fired on by North Vietnamese gunboats
 * Johnson used this as a justification from Congress to hugely expand the American military presence in Vietnam and start the bombing campaign, Operation Rolling Thunder
 * Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive against US bases and civilian centers in South Vietnam on the Vietnamese New Year "Tet" - the Americans rapidly regained all lost ground, and in fact the Offensive is widely regarded as an American victory, but it demonstrated to national security planners that the costs of the war were too high to maintain the presence
 * Huge antiwar protests across the United States
 * Nixon withdrew American forces through Vietnamization but launched a secret bombing campaign of Cambodia and Laos
 * Cost the US about $600 billion overall and about 60,000 soldiers dead or missing
 * "Vietnam syndrome" - Americans were resistant to any foreign military intervention by their government (ex: Ronald Reagan in El Salvador) for a long period
 * "Credibility gap" between the citizenry and the government
 * First televised war; media heavily involved in the war effort
 * Change in tactics - large scale cluster bombs no longer a popular military tactic

//What caused it?// //What is its significance?// //How did it help shape the United States?//
 * Invasion of Grenada (1983)**
 * British colonization in Latin America
 * Grenadian independence from the UK in 1974
 * Grenada begins construction of Port Salines International Airport; US accuses it of being a plot to aid Cuba and the USSR
 * Leftist New Jewel Movement took power in Caribbean island of Grenada in 1979
 * Political opponents led a bloody coup against PM Maurice Bishop in 1983
 * US commenced an invasion of Grenada on October 25 1983
 * Pretense of defending American medical students at a Grenada university
 * About 7000 US troops involved; Cuba contributed 700 to the 1500 Grenadian defending soldiers
 * Seized two airports and captured numerous Cuban and Soviet diplomats
 * First major post-Vietnam military operation by the US
 * Prime example of containment
 * Illuminated problems with the US government's information apparatus (many false reports and statistics passed around)
 * Exacerbated US-Soviet tensions