History Standard 4/5 Vocabulary Flashcards
Adolf Hitler
The founder and leader of the Nazi Party and the most influential voice in the organization, implementation, and execution of the Holocaust
Appeasement
Policy of granting concessions in order to keep the peace
Joseph Stalin
Dictator of the Soviet Union who transformed the country from a peasant society into an industrial and military superpower; he ruled by terror and millions of his own citizens died during his brutal reign
Benito Mussolini
Fascist dictator of Italy, ruling the country as prime minister from 1922 until his ousting in 1943
Hideki Tojo
Army general and prime minister who led Japan through much of WWII and was later executed as a war criminal
Axis powers
Group of countries led by Germany, Italy, and Japan that fought the Allies in WWII
Neutrality Act
Act that allowed nations at war to buy goods and arms in the United States if they paid cash and carried the merchandise on their own ships
Lend-Lease Act
Act passed in 1941 that allowed president Roosevelt to sell or lend war supplies to any country whose defense he considered vital to the safety of the United States
D-day
June 6, 1944, the day Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy, France
Big Three
The three great Allied powers- Great Britain (Churchill), the United States (Roosevelt), and the Soviet Union (Stalin)
Yalta Conference
1945 strategy meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin
Manhattan Project
Code name of the project that developed the atomic bomb
Harry S. Truman
33rd president of the United States who led the country through the final stages of WWII and through the early years of the Cold War, vigorously opposing Soviet expansionism in Europe
Selective Service Act
Act passed by congress in 1917 authorizing a draft of men for military service
War Production Board
An agency of the U.S. government that was established to coordinate the development, expansion, and use of raw materials
Rationing
Government-controlled limits on the amount of certain goods that civilians could buy during wartime
WAC
U.S. Army unit created during WWII to enable women to serve in noncombat positions
Tuskegee Airmen
African American squadron that escorted bombers in the air war over Europe during WWII
Code Talkers
Name given to Native Americans who used their tribal language to send secret communications on the battlefield
Internment Camps
Established during WWII by Roosevelt; it was the policy that people of Japanese descent would be incarcerated in isolated camps
Concentration Camps
Camps used by the Nazis to imprison “undesirable” members of society
Holocaust
Name now used to describe the systematic murder by the Nazis of Jews and others
Nuremberg Trials
Trials in which Nazi leaders were charged with war crimes
Iron curtain
Term coined by Winston Churchill to describe the border between Soviet satellite states and Western Europe
Containment
Policy of keeping communism contained within its existing borders
Truman Doctrine
President Trumans promise to help nations struggling against communist movements
Marshall Plan
Foreign policy that offered economic aid to Western European countries after WWII
Berlin Airlift
Program in which U.S. and British pilots flew supplies to West Berlin during a Soviet blockade
Cold War
Worldwide rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union
Dwight D. Eisenhower
34th president of the United States who was previously a general in the U.S. Army during WWII, serving as supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe
Eisenhower Doctrine
Policy of president Eisenhower that stated that the United States would use force to help any nation threatened by communism
Nikita Khrushchev
Led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War who initiated a process of “de-Stalinization” that made the Soviet society less repressive
Fidel Castro
Cuban revolutionary leader who overthrew the corrupt regime of the dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and soon after established a communist state
John F. Kennedy
35th president of the United States who fought to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all Americans, challenged the nation to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade, and was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas
Berlin Wall
Dividing wall built by East Germany in 1961 to isolate West Berlin from communist-controlled East Berlin
Cuban Missile Crisis
1962 conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union resulting from the Soviet installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba
United Nations (UN)
Organization founded in 1945 to promote peace
NATO
Military alliance formed to counter Soviet expansion
Warsaw Pact
Military alliance of the Soviet Union and its satellite states
SEATO
Organization established to prevent communism from gaining ground in Southeast Asia
GI Bill
Eased the return of WWII veterans by providing education and employment aid
Suburbanization
The movement of many people away from the cities and into newly formed communities just outside the cities
Baby Boom
Increase in births between 1945 and 1964
Consumer Society
Society organized around consumption of goods and leisure, rather than the production of materials and services
Red Scare
Fear that communists were working to destroy the American way of life
HUAC
Congressional committee that investigated possible subversive activities within the United States
Joseph McCarthy
U.S. Senator from Wisconsin who was best known for his badgering charges of communist activities that he levied first against federal workers and then expanded his charges to others
