Truman Flashcards
Why did Truman drop “the Bomb”?
It was the shorter, safer, in the long run less destructive option.
Why didn’t Truman have to drop “the Bomb”?
The Japanese were possibly close to surrender, The Soviets were entering the war causing Japan to consider surrender.
Who was William Levitt?
The man behind cookie-cutter housing districts.
What is a “Levittown”?
A town of Identical Houses.
What years were the “Baby Boomers”?
1946-1964
What two international crises caused the Truman Doctrine?
The crises in Greece and Turkey.
What was the Truman Doctrine?
To contain communism and put pressure on it through American Strength.
What is the policy of “containment”?
To stop the spread of communism to places that it was not yet established in.
What three things came out of the policy of containment?
The Truman Doctrine, The NATO, The Marshall Plan.
What is NATO (Give the meaning of the acronym and a description?
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
What was the Marshall Plan?
An aid program for war-torn European Nations.
Why was the Marshall Plan criticized?
Because it rebuilt capitalism in Europe and helped America’s own economic interests in the end.
What was the cost for Jackie Robinson in his breaking the color barrier?
Death Threats and insults through his career.
What caused the Berlin airlift?
The Soviet blocking of infrastructure to west Berlin.
What were “Loyalty Boards”?
Investigation boards investigating if one was loyal to the US or to the Soviets.
Who was Whittaker Chambers?
a repentant, “reformed” Communist Party member and later a senior editor at Time magazine
Who was Algier Hiss?
A Roosevelt New Dealer, Hiss (1904-96) was born and bred to the eastern establishment, with impeccable credentials as a progressive and a long, distinguished career in public service, beginning as a law clerk under Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.
What two events or institutions were viewed as Communist schemes to weaken America and set up Communist domination?
Yalta, UN.
What were the “Pumpkin Papers”?
microfilm copies of stolen State Department documents, stolen by Hiss for the Soviets.
Who was Klaus Fuchs?
a respected German-born physicist who had worked on the Manhattan Project developing the atomic bomb at Columbia University and later at Los Alamos during the war
Who were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg?
close relatives of a Los Alamos worker who had passed Atomic secrets to them to pass on to the Russians
Were the Rosenbergs guilty of espionage and how do we know?
Yes. Soviet Documents have since proven that They were spies.
Why were the Rosenbergs executed?
They refused to testify in court.
Who was Joseph McCarthy? (Name his office, the State he was from, and his reason of notability)
He was the freshman senator from Wisconsin, elected to the Senate in 1946 by lying about his wartime service record and smearing his primary and general election opponents.
What does McCarthyism mean now and what did it mean in the 50’s?
Now: a groundless smear campaign.
Then: A brave, Patriotic stand against Communism.
What was “blacklisting”?
becoming a known “commie sympathiser” it would ruin one’s career.
How many casualties (dead and wounded) did we have in the Korean War?
100,000 American casualties
What were the two sources of information that American’s relied on during the Korean War?
radio, newsreels.
What six elements did the Korean War and the Vietnam War have in common?
an American-supported right-wing government was under attack by Communist insurgents supported by the Soviet Union and China. Both wars were fought to “contain” Asian Communism in nations split by postwar agreements with the Soviets. the rebels in both places were fighting a civil war for reunification under their control. As with Vietnam, the war in Korea helped end the presidency of a Democratic President—Harry S Truman, in this case—and opened the way for a Republican—Dwight D. Eisenhower.
How did the United Nations Security Council adopt a cease-fire resolution and commit troops to support the South Korean government?
Unanimously.
Which U.S. President first involved us in Vietnam?
Truman.
What is the only reason that North Korean troops did not overwhelm South Korean and American troops?
American air power.
What is considered General MacArthur’s greatest military move?
The attack at Inchon.
How did MacArthur reverse the North Korean advance and push them back to the 38th Parallel?
By trapping the NK’s into retreating.
Why weren’t the Americans able to defeat the North Koreans?
The Chinese came into the war.
What American general wanted to drop atomic bombs on the communist Chinese?
McArthur
Why did Truman remove MacArthur from command in Korea?
He wouldn’t respect the authority of the president.
Why was Truman so unpopular as President in 1951?
He had just removed McArthur.
When was an armistice signed in the Korean War?
July 27, 1953
How many Americans died in the Korean War?
54,000
What major effect did the Korean War have on the United States?
the war produced a massive call for militarization and a buildup of American conventional and nuclear forces—strengthening what President Eisenhower himself would later label “the military-industrial complex.”
What is the final result of the Korean War? Why did it have that result?
Everything back as it was, at the 38th parallel. It was the Chinese’ fault.
Why did Nixon need to make his “Checkers” speech?
To convince people that he was no rich guy, just a down to earth kind of person.
What American corporation was the first to gross 1 billion dollars?
GM
