Period 8 Part I (Chapters 1-7) Flashcards
Iron Curtain
A metaphor used to refer to the division between the U.S. allies in Western Europe and Soviet allies of Eastern Europe.
Truman Doctrine
President Truman asked Congress in March of 1947 for $400 million in economic and military aid to assist the “free people” of Greece and Turkey against “totalitarian” regimes.
Marshall Plan
In June of 1947, George Marshall outlined an extensive program of U.S. economic aid to help European nations revive their economies and strengthen democratic governments. In December, Truman submitted to Congress a $17 billion European Recovery Program, better known as the Marshall Plan. in 1948, $12 billion in aid was approved for distribution to the countries of Western Europe over a four-year period.
Berlin Airlift
In June 1948, the Soviets cut off all access by land to the German city. Truman dismissed any plans to withdraw from Berlin, but he also rejected using force to open up the roads through the Soviet-controlled eastern zone. Instead, he ordered U.S. planes to fly in supplies to the people of West Berlin. Day after day, week after week, the massive airlift continued. At the same time, Truman sent 60 bombers capable of carrying atomic bombs to bases in England. The world waited nervously for the outbreak of war, but Stalin decided not to challenge the airlift.
NATO
A military alliance of ten European nations, the United States, and Canada established for the purpose of defending all members from outside attack.
Warsaw Pact
A military alliance for the defense of the Communist states of Eastern Europe created by the Soviet Union in response to the creation of NATO.
NSC-68
A secret report recommended by the National Security Council, claiming that the following measures were necessary to fight the Cold War:
1. Quadruple U.S. government defense spending to 20% of GNP
2. Convince the American public that a costly arms buildup was imperative for the nation’s defense
3. Form alliances with non-Communist countries around the world
Massive Retaliation
A policy promoted by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles that advocated for relying more on nuclear weapons and air power and spending less on conventional military forces.
Sputnik
In 1957, the Soviet Union shocked the United States by launching the first satellites, Sputnik I and Sputnik II, into orbit around the earth. Suddenly, the technological leadership of the United States was open to question. To add to American embarrassment, U.S. rockets designed to duplicate the Soviet achievement failed repeatedly.
Military-Industrial Complex
In his farewell address as president, Eisenhower spoke out against the negative impact of the Cold War on U.S. society. He warned the nation to “guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence . . . by the military-industrial complex.”
Berlin Wall
In August, the East Germans, with Soviet backing, built a wall around West Berlin. Its purpose was to stop East Germans from fleeing to West Germany. This wall stood as a gloomy symbol of the Cold War until it was torn down by rebellious East Germans in 1989.
Cuban Missile Crisis
In response to the Bay of Pigs invasion, Castro invited the Soviets to build underground missile sites that could launch defensive missiles capable of reaching the United States in minutes. The Soviets agreed. U.S. reconnaissance planes soon discovered evidence of construction. Kennedy responded by announcing to the world that he was setting up a naval blockade of Cuba until the weapons were removed. If Soviet ships challenged the U.S. naval blockade, a full-scale nuclear war between the superpowers might result. After 13 days of tension, Khrushchev finally agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba in exchange for Kennedy’s pledge not to invade the island nation and to later remove some U.S. missiles from Turkey.
Détente
A deliberate reduction of Cold War tensions.
SALT
Nixon used his new relationship with China to pressure the Soviets to agree to a treaty limiting antiballistic missiles (ABMs), a new technology that would have expanded the arms race. After the first round of Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT I), U.S. diplomats secured Soviet consent to a freeze on the number of ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads. While this agreement did not end the arms race, it was a significant step toward reducing Cold War tensions and bringing about détente.
The SALT II treaty provided for limiting the size of each superpower’s nuclear delivery system. The Senate never ratified the treaty, however, as result of a renewal of Cold War tensions over Afghanistan.
Smith Act
Made it illegal to advocate or teach the overthrow of the government by force or to belong to an organization with this objective.
HUAC
In the House of Representatives, the House Un-American Activities Committee, originally established in 1939 to seek out Nazis, was reactivated in the postwar years to find Communists. The committee not only investigated government officials but also looked for Communist influence in such organizations as the Boy Scouts and in the Hollywood film industry.
McCarthysim
Joseph McCarthy, a Republican senator from Wisconsin, used the growing concern over communism to advance his political career. In a speech in 1950, he claimed to have a list of 205 Communists who were working for the State Department. He continued to falsely accuse mainly Democrats in government until a series of Army-McCarthy hearings that exposed his cruelty, and he lost support.
GI Bill
Also known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act or the GI Bill of Rights, this provided powerful support during the transition of 15 million veterans to a peacetime economy. It helped more than 2 million GIs attend college and more than 5 million more receive other training, creating a postwar boom in post-high school education. The veterans also received more than $16 billion in low-interest, government-backed loans to buy home sand farms and to start businesses.
Baby Boom
One sign of the confidence among young people was an explosion in marriages and births. Earlier marriages adn larger families resulted in 50 million babies entering the U.S. population between 1945 and 1960. As the baby boom generation gradually passed from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, it profoundly affected the nation’s social institutions and economic life in the last half of the 20th century. Initially, the baby boom tended to focus women’s attention on raising children and homemaking. Nevertheless, the trend of more women in the workplace continued, and by 1960, 1/3 of all married women worked outside the home.
Levittown
William J. Levitt led in the development of postwar suburbia with his building and promotion of Levittown, a project of 17,000 mass-produced, low-priced family homes on Long Island, New York. It was only for White families, however.
Sun Belt
A warmer climate, lower taxes, and economic opportunities in defense-related industries attracted many GIs and their families to the Sun Belt states from Florida to California.
Fair Deal
An ambitious reform program in which Truman urged Congress to enact national health insurance, federal aid to education, civil rights legislation, funds for public housing, and a new farm program. Conservatives in Congress blocked most of the proposed reforms, except for an increase in the minimum wage (from 40 to 75 cents an hour) and the inclusion of more workers under Social Security.
Highway Act
Authorized the construction of 42,000 miles of interstate highways linking all the nation’s major cities.
New Frontier
In his inaugural address, John F. Kennedy spoke of “the torch being passed to a new generation” and promised to lead the nation into a “New Frontier.” Kennedy called for aid to education federal support of health care, urban renewal, and civil rights, but his domestic programs languished in Congress. While few of Kennedy’s proposals became law during his thousand-day administration, most were passed later under President Johnson.
Stagflation
The unusual combination of economic slowdown and high inflation.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
A team of NAACP lawyers led by Thurgood Marshall argued that segregation of Black children in public schools was unconstitutional because it violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of “equal protection of the laws”. In May 1954, the Supreme Court agreed with Marshall and overturned the Plessy decision. Writing for a unanimous Court, Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled that:
1. “Separate facilities are inherently unequal” and hence unconstitutional
2. School segregation should end with “all deliberate speed”
Desegregation
The process of ending the enforced separation of different racial or ethnic groups in public spaces, schools, and other institutions, essentially dismantling the system of racial segregation and promoting equality through the Civil Rights Movement.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
In 1955, as a Montgomery, Alabama, bus took on more White passengers, the driver ordered a middle-aged Black woman named Rosa Parks to give up her seat to one of them. She, an active member of the local chapter of the NAACP, refused. The police were called and arrested her for violating the segregation law. This arrest sparked a massive African American protest in the form of a boycott of the city buses.
SCLC
In 1957, Martin Luther King, Jr. formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which organized ministers and churches in the South to get behind the civil rights struggle.
Sit-In Movement
In February of 1960, college students in Greensboro, North Carolina started the sit-in movement after being refused service at a Whites-only Woolworth’s lunch counter. To call attention to the injustice of segregated facilities, students would deliberately invite arrest by sitting in restricted areas.
SNCC
Young activists organized the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to promote voting rights and to end segregation.
Decolonization
The collapse of colonial empires, which was among the most important developments of the era following WWII.
Eisenhower Doctrine
A policy pronouncement in which the United States pledged military and economic aid to any Middle Eastern country threatened by communism.
Camp David Accords
In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat took the first courageous step toward Middle East peace by visiting Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in Jerusalem. President Carter followed this bold initiative by inviting Sadat and Begin to meet again at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland. With Carter acting as an intermediary, the two leaders negotiated the Camp David Accords, which provided a framework for a peace settlement between their countries.
Iran Hostage Crisis
When the United States allowed the overthrown, dictatorial shah into Iran for medical treatment, Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Teheran and held more than 50 American staff members as prisoners and hostages. The hostage crisis dragged out through the remainder of Carter’s presidency. In April of 1980, Carter approved a rescue mission, but the breakdown of the helicopters over the Iranian desert forced the U.S. to abort the mission. For many Americans, Carter’s unsuccessful attempts to free the hostages symbolized a failed presidency. The hostages were not freed until January 27th, 1981, spending 14 months in captivity.
Peace Corps
An organization that recruited young American volunteers to give technical aid to developing countries.
