Final - WWII Flashcards
Benito Mussollini
italian dictator, leader of fascism, allied with Hitler during WW II
Wanted to reestablish the Roman Empire
Fascist
authoritarian nationalism with a dictator in control of commerce and industry
Adolf Hitler
Nazi party leader, dictator of germany, Aryan Supremacy…
Josef Stalin
- revolutionary, political theorist, and politician
- Governed the Soviet Union from mid-1920’s until his death.
- Ruled by terror, caused worst man made famine in history, millions of his citizens died under his leadership
Communists
-political, social, economic and philosophical ideology and movement
-goal is establishment of communist society
Absences of Social classes, wealth, and State
Soviet Union
- socialist state that lasted from early 1920’s to early 1990’s.
- Communist Country
Winston Churchill
-British Politician who served as Prime Minister of United Kingdom
-Led Britain through WWII, extremely influential
he helped lead a successful Allied strategy with the U.S.
Iron curtain
Munich Confernce
- Conference held in September 1938, during which leaders of England, France and Italy agreed to allow Germany certain areas of Europe to annex
Pearl Harbor
-surprise military strike by Japanese against United States Naval Base in Hawaii.
Wansee Conference
- a meeting of senior government officials of Nazi Germany and Schutzstaffel leaders,
- held in the Berlin on 20 January 1942
- It was here that the “Final Solution” (exterminating all the Jews, ergo, mass genocide.) was decided upon.
Auschwitz
German concentration and extermination camp
- Auschwitz II-Birkenau: major site Nazi Final Solution to the Jewish Question
The Holocaust
- also referred to as the Shoah,
- was a genocide in which some six million European Jews were killed by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany
The Manhattan Project
- research and development undertaking during WWII
- secret development of first nuclear weapons
Tuskegee Airmen
group of African-American military pilots who fought in World War II.
Karematsu vs United States
Supreme Court case which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps
Hiroshima
first atomic bomb dropped in Japan in August 1945
- hundreds of thousands of lives lost
Cold War
50 year rivalry between U.S. and Soviet Union, never reached
Harry Truman
American president at the end of WWII, authorized dropping of nuclear bombs and was president during Cold War.
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, major alliance of western democracies during the Cold War.
Joseph McCarthy
Republican senator from Wisconsin, got attention by promoting an “anti-communist movement “that was supported on his charge that communist were infiltrating American government
Polio Vaccine
a virus that most people afflicted would recover from completely, but those who didn’t got various degrees of paralysis. Vaccination came along in 1950’s,
Jonas Stalk
one of the developers of the Polio Vaccine.
DDT
Insecticide, was banned. Also relates to a book, which discussed its damage. (Silent Spring)
Sputnik
First artificial space satellite.
NASA
American Space Agency, was extremely vital during Cold War (due to “Space Race”
Yuri Gagarin
First man in space.
Neil Armstrong
First man on the moon.
Levittown
Housing development post-WWII, provided people who had grown up in NYC tenements to move to suburbs and actually own a home (something most lower-middle class, poor people had thought unattainable)
GI Bill
Helps raise standard of living in America, along with construction of suburbia housing post WWII.
The Big Bang
Theory of creation. Time and space developed with the star explosion billions of years ago.
Rock N Roll
Hybrid of country and blues. Very shocking in its introduction.
Elvis Presley
Influential/Iconic figure of Rock n Roll.
Brown v. Board of Education
1954 School Segregation case, helped begin Civil Rights Movement.
Civil Rights Movement
African American Rights Movement.
Rosa Parks
Civil Rights activists, famous for refusing to give up a front seat for a white rider in segregated buses, action propelled the Civil Rights Alabama Bus Boycott.
Jackie Robinson
Integrated National League of Baseball.
Selma
Historic Civil Rights March, voting rights demonstration in Selma, Georgia, and when voters/protesters tried to march across a bridge, authorities horrifically beat them to the horror of onlookers on national T.V
U-2 Crisis
-The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on 1 May 1960,
United States U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet airspace.
Francis Kelsey
Canadian physician and pharmacologist
- As a reviewer for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, she refused to authorize thalidomide for market because she had concerns about the drug’s safety
Bay of Pigs
military disaster under Kennedy administration.
Failed CIA operation in Cuba.
Cuban Missile Crisis
-confronttation between Soviets and United States over Soviet construction of missles on the island of Cuba (which was only 90 miles away from American shores.
Iron Curtain
phrase of Winston Churchills, metaphorical division in Europe (NATO on Wester Side, Warsaw Pact on Eastern. Part of Cold War.)
Berlin Wall
Physical wall dividing city of Berlin
Ralph Nader
Charged number of corporations and government agencies as being insufficiently dedicated to public safety, health etc.
Martin Luther King
Leader of Civil Rights Movement
Malcolm X
African American Muslim and was formally a leader and member of the Nation of Islam. He was assassinated by them after resigning from them.
Vietnam
Cold War conflict in southwest Asia.
Woodstock
Music festival in 1969. Symbolic of Youth Revolution during this time.
Stonewall Riot
- were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay (LGBT) community against a police raids at Stonewall bar.
- happened in NYC
Roe v Wade
landmark Supreme Court Decision
- decided that the right to privacy extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion.
- women have right to abortion until a certain point in pregnancy.
- abortions can be performed until 23-24 weeks into pregnancy
Silent Spring
book that discussed the environmental damaged brought about DDT.
Rachel Carson is the author
Rachel Carson
Author of Silent Spring
Henry Kissinger
Began initial work of reconnecting U.S. with China.
Warren Court
Earl Warren, was the chief justice through the 1950’s-1960’s, chief justice for the Brown decision, a large number of court cases concerning rights of accused and Civil Rights controversies.
Watergate
(Democratic Convention headquarters) was the site where President Nixon sent spies to steal Democratic campaign secrets
-Nixon kept it a secret until press started to investigate, and when confronted with the question of his involvement, he lied.
Iranian Revolution
- 1978-1979, discontent with Shah’s rule, along with social injustice, religious motives, and distrust of Western Imperialism
- demonstrations, strikes, civil resistance, all led to overthrow of Shah and monarchy(which was supported by U.S.)
- Iran hostage crisis resulted, establishment of Islamic Republic of Iran
Supply Side Economics
-macroeconomic theory-argues that economic growth can be most effectively created by investing in capital and by lowering barriers on the production of goods and services
Mikhail Gorbachev
- 8th and final leader of Soviet union
- efforts to democratize Russia political system and decentralize its economy led to downfall of communism and breakup of Soviet Union in 1991
