II pt 3 Flashcards
Jackie Robinson
first African American to play in Major League Baseball
Desegregation of Armed Forces (1947)
banned racial discrimination in federal practices; To Secure
These Rights called for desegregation, anti-lynching, end of poll taxes
Dixiecrats, 1948
fought for old Southern way of life (states’ rights), attempted to gain higher standing within Democratic party; aimed to deny Truman enough electoral votes to avoid his reelection by nominating Strom Thurmond (SC governor)
Fair Deal
preservation of New Deal, attempt at additions; raised minimum wage, public housing, old-age insurance extension, agricultural price supports (lowering of farm price)
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. Notified Truman of Soviet plans
Containment
American 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. greece, turkey, israel
Marshall Plan
Introduced by Secretary of State George G. Marshall in 1947, he proposed massive and systematic American economic aid to Europe to revitalize the European economies after WWII and help prevent the spread of Communism. western europe. eastern europe prohibited from receiving help
Berlin Airlift
Joint effort by the US and Britian to fly food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet blocked off all ground routes into the city
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Created in 1949, an organization whose members include the United States, Canada, most Western European nations, and Turkey, all of whom agreed to combine military forces and to treat a war against one as a war against all., In 1949, the United States, Canada, and ten European nations formed this military mutual-defense pact. In 1955, the Soviet Union countered NATO with the formation of the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance among those nations within its own sphere of influence.
soviet atomic bomb
In 1949, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, ending the American monopoly of the weapon.
china turns communist
Mao Zedong (communist) defeated nationalist forces of Kai-Shek (supported by US); seen as defeat for US, not officially fully recognized until 1973
Korean War
Soviet-aided North Korea attack on South Korea;MacArthur named general on behalf of UN (excluded Russia), USsupplied majority of troops; recapture of South Korea andsuppression of North forces to northern border; introduction of Chinese, MacArthur fired for suggestion to use nuclear weapons onChina; nuclear incentives for peace negotiations
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican, popular hero of WWII; “dynamic conservatism” as a middle ground btw. Rep. and Dem.; Interstate Highway System (ulterior motive of weapons transportation); St. Lawrence Seaway opened Great Lakes to Atlantic Ocean via locks; Depts. Of Health, Education, and Welfare to oversee New Deal programs
Conformity in the 1950s
strong patriotism and need to conform to try to avoid blame during red scare, non-churchgoers, unmarried, and critics suspected as communists
Suburbia
middle class; white flight from urban areas due to black migration; government supported insurance for homeowners and builders
Baby Boom
An unprecedented population explosion occurring as soldiers returned from WWII.
Cult of Domesticity returns
women believed to belong in the home, scientific “evidence”; widespread in magazines, TV, etc. (1950s)
GI Bill of Rights
government ensured readjustment rights to GIs after WWI unrest, loans to veterans for higher education and mortgages (contributed to economic prosperity)
Consumerism
Americans could now spend what they had been told to save during the war (disposable income); increased purchasing of luxury items
Affluent Society
economic prosperity of American society following WWII; doubling of national income, jobs to women, defense industry’s support of economy
Non-conformity
Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Beatniks - rebelled against conservative conformity of the rest of the country (esp. targeted youth)
Rock ‘n’ Roll
Influence of African-American blues, music of the younger generation (gap between them and their parents)
David Riesman
(The Lonely Crowd) “outer directed” Americans conforming to peer pressure on moral and social issues, rather than independently thinking on morals