chapter 35 // BOLDED

Question 1

Yalta conference (1945)

Answer 1

Meeting of Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin in February 1945 at an old tsarist resort on the Black Sea, where the Big Three leaders laid the foundations for the postwar division of power in Europe, including a divided Germany and territorial concessions to the Soviet Union.

Question 2

Bretton Woods Conference (1944)

Answer 2

Meeting of Western allies to establish a postwar international economic order to avoid crises like the one that spawned World War II. Led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, designed to regulate currency levels and provide aid to underdeveloped countries.

Question 3

Berlin airlift (1948-1949)

Answer 3

Year-long mission of flying food and supplies to blockaded West Berliners, whom the Soviet Union cut off from access to the West in the first major crisis of the Cold War.

Question 4

United Nations (U.N.)

Answer 4

International body formed in 1945 to bring nations into dialogue in hopes of preventing further world wars. Much like the former League of Nations in ambition, the U.N. was more realistic in recognizing the authority of the Big Five powers in keeping peace in the world. Thus, it guaranteed veto power to all permanent members of its Security Council - Britain, China, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States.

Question 5

Nuremberg war crimes trial (1945-1946)

Answer 5

Highly publicized proceedings against former Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity in postwar Germany. The trials led to several executions and long sentences.

Question 6

Truman Doctrine (1947)

Answer 6

President Truman’s universal pledge of support for any people fighting against any communist of communist-inspired threat. Truman presented the doctrine to Congress in 1947 in support of his request for $400 million to defend Greece and Turkey against Soviet-backed insurgences.

Question 7

Marshall Plan (1948)

Answer 7

Massive transfer of aid money to help rebuild postwar Western Europe, intended to bolster capitalist and democratic governments and prevent domestic communist groups from riding poverty and misery to power. The plan was first announced by Secretary of State George Marshall at Harvard’s commencement in June 1947.

Question 8

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Answer 8

Military alliance of Western European powers and the United States and Canada established in 1949 to defend against the common threat from the Soviet Union, marking a giant stride forward for European unity and American internationalism.

Question 9

National Security Council Memorandum Number 68 (NSC-68) (1950)

Answer 9

National Security Council recommendation to quadruple defense spending and rapidly expand peacetime armed forces to address Cold War tensions. It reflected a new militarization of American foreign policy, but the huge costs of rearmament were not expected to interfere with what seemed like the limitless possibilities of postwar prosperity.

Question 10

Korean War (1950-1953)

Answer 10

First “hot war” of the Cold War. It began when the Soviet-backed North Koreans invaded South Korea and U.N. forces, dominated by the United States, launched a counteroffensive. The war ended in stalemate in 1953.

Question 11

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

Answer 11

Investigatory body established in 1938 to root out “subversion.” Sought to expose communist influence in American government and society, in particular through the trial of Alger Hiss.

Question 12

McCarthyism

Answer 12

A brand of vitrolic, fear-mongering anti-communism associated with the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy. In the early 1950s, Senator McCarthy used his position in Congress to baselessly accuse high-ranking government officials and other Americans of conspiracy with communism. The term named after him refers to the dangerous forces of unfairness and fear wrought by anticommunist paranoia.

Question 13

Army-McCarthy hearings (1954)

Answer 13

Congressional hearings called by Senator Joseph McCarthy to accuse members of the army of communist ties. In this widely televised spectacle, McCarthy finally went to far for public approval. The hearings exposed the senator’s extremism and led to his eventual disgrace.

Question 14

Executive Order 9981 (1948)

Answer 14

Order issued by President Truman to desegregate the armed forces. The president’s action resulted from a combination of pressure from civil rights advocates, election-year political calculations, and the new geopolitical context of the Cold War.

Question 15

Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

Answer 15

Republican-promoted, anti-union legislation passed over President Truman’s vigorous veto that weakened many of labor’s New Deal gains by banning the closed shop and other strategies that helped unions organize. It also required union leaders to take a noncommunist oath, which purged the union movement of many of its most committed and active organizers.

Question 16

Operation Dixie (1948)

Answer 16

Failed effort by the CIO after World War II to unionize southern workers, especially in textile factories.

Question 17

Employment Act of 1946

Answer 17

Legislation declaring that the government’s economic policy should aim to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power, as well as to keep inflation low. This general commitment was much shorter of specific targets and rules than its liberal creators had wished. The act created the Council of Economic Advisers to provide the president with data and recommendations to make economic policy.

Question 18

GI Bill (1944)

Answer 18

Known officially as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act and more informally as the GI Bill of Rights, this law helped returning World War II soldiers reintegrate into civilian life by securing loans to buy homes and farms and set up small businesses. It also made tuition and stipends available for them to attend college, as well as job training programs. The act was intended to cushion the blow of 15 million returning servicemen on the employment market and to nurture the postwar economy.

Question 19

Fair Deal

Answer 19

President Truman’s extensive social program introduced in his 1949 message to Congress. Republicans and southern Democrats kept much of his vision from being enacted, except for raising minimum wage, providing for more public housing, and extending old-age insurance to many more beneficiaries under the Social Security Act.

Question 20

Sunbelt

Answer 20

The fifteen-state crescent through the American South and Southwest that experience terrific population and productivity expansion during World War II and particularly in the decades after the war, eclipsing the old industrial Northeast (the “Frostbelt”).

Question 21

Levittown

Answer 21

Suburban communities with mass-produced tract houses built in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas in the 1950s by William Levitt and Sons. Typically inhabited by white middle-class people who fled the cities in search of homes to buy for their growing families.

Question 22

baby boom (1946-1964)

Answer 22

Demographic explosion from births to returning soldiers and others who had put off starting families during the war. This large generation of new Americans forced the expansion of many institutions such as schools and universities.