APUSHch26 Flashcards
Employment act of 1946
law that assigned to the federal government the responsibility for promoting full employment and price stability
Committee of Civil Rights
Truman was the first modern president to use the powers of his office to challenge racial discrimination; used his executive powers to establish it in 1946
Taft-Hartley Act
- outlawed “closed shops and required union leaders to sign loyalty oath 2. required 80 day cooling off period before strike
Dixiecrat
Southern democrats who left the party in 1948 in opposition to President Truman’s civil rights platform.
Strom Thurmond
Democratic governor of South Carolina who headed the State’s Rights Party (Dixiecrats); he ran for president in 1948 against Truman and his mild civil rights proposals and eventually joined the Republican Party.
Thomas Dewey
was the Republican candidate in the 1948 presidential election. He was an opponent of Truman during the election. Thought to be the favorite but lost.
Fair Deal
Truman’s extension of the New Deal that increased min wage, expanded Social Security, and constructed low-income housing
Iron Curtain
a political barrier that isolated the peoples of Eatern Europe after WWII, restricting their ability to travel outside the region
George Kennan
He was an American diplomat and ambassador best known as “the father of containment” and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War.
Dean Acheson
United States statesman who promoted the Marshall Plan and helped establish NATO
containment
American foriegn policy of resisting further expansion of communism around the world
Truman Doctrine
President Truman’s policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology
Marshall Plan
a plan for aiding the European nations in economic recovery after World War II in order to stabilize and rebuild their countries and prevent the spread of communism.
Berlin Airlift
Airlift in 1948 that supplied food and fuel to citizens of West Berlin when the Russians closed off land access to Berlin.
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization; an alliance made to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country; US, England, France, Canada, Western European countries
National Security Act
Passed in 1947 in response to perceived threats from the Soviet Union after WWII. It established the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Council.
NCS-68
Proposed increasing national defense spending significantly during the Truman administration as a way to combat the spread of Communism.
Chiang Kai-shek
General and leader of Nationalist China after 1925. Although he succeeded Sun Yat-sen as head of the Guomindang, he became a military dictator whose major goal was to crush the communist movement led by Mao Zedong.
Mao Zendong
The communist leader who took over China after World War II
38th Parallel
latitudinal line that divided North and South Korea at approximatly the midpoint of the peninsula
Dennis et al. v US
1951- Court upholds Smith Act of 1940, which made it a crime to advocate the overthrow of the government by force.
McCarran Internal Security Act
1950-This act required that all communist organizations register with the government and publish their records. Congress easily overrode Truman’s veto of the bill.
HUAC
House Un-American Activities Committee- accused people of being communists and “blacklisted” them.
Alger Hiss
state department offical. was accused of giving secret government documents to the Soviets
Whittaker Chambers
magizine edior who volunteered to testify before HUAC. admitted he spied for Soviet Union and claimed members of Trumans Cabinet were spies also such as Alger Hiss
Rosenbergs
Couple executed for giving military secrets to the Soviets in the 1950’s
Joseph McCarthy
US senator who went on a witch hunt to find communist and accused many people of being communist
