Unit 5: WWII and beginning of the Cold War Flashcards
Why did America declare war on the Axis powers
the attack on Pearl Harbor
what effect did the war have on women and African Americans
African Americans and women benefited from the new war jobs
Winston Churchill
prime minister of Great Britain
Midway
America inflicted major damage on the Japanese navy
Atlantic Charter
offered a vision that eschewed territorial expansion and called for 4 freedoms: speech, religion, and freedom from want and fear
% of women working outside the home
40% by 1960s, women in the workforce jumped by more than a third
double v campaign
it was victory against racism abroad and at home–a campaign that set the stage for the civil rights movement that followed in the 1950s
US diplomacy before WWII
isolationist
Japanese American internment
Direct casualties of WWII allies
the Japanese-Americans that lived in the US for generations, put into internment camps on trumped-up charges of potential disloyalty and also out of hatred toward Japan
Bataan Death March
Japanese captors marched 75,000 Philippine and American prisoners of war through the sweltering Philippine countryside, murdering, starving, and torturing the captives along the way.
Tehran Conference
Frustrated at the slow pace of the long-promised second front to relieve such slaughter, Stalin pressed hard for it at the Allied wartime conferences at Tehran
battle of Normandy
Eisenhower and his men at last carried out the cross-channel invasion of Normandy
How did the war end?
the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
why did the US drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
to end the war
Yalta Conference (1945)
Allies opened the Yalta Conference in February 1945 to discuss the postwar order
Harry S. Truman
FDR’s successor
Potsdam conference
Here Truman learned of the first successful atomic bomb test
emperor Hirohito
intervened to orchestrate a surrender on the 10th, insisting only that the imperial system remain
casualties in WWII compared to WWI
60 million dead (by contrast, 16 million lives were lost in World War I
what is the meaning of the third world
formed from the dismembered empires of Britain, France, Belgium and Netherlands
”Free world”
Henry Wallace
the United States and its allies
what is the meaning of the word containment
to prevent the spread of communism
Iron Curtain
dividing the non-communist world from the communist
George F. Kennan
wrote the “Long Telegram” from Moscow that world communism is malignant
Truman doctrine
the principle that the US should give support to countries (Greece and Turkey) threatened by the communist or Soviet forces
Marshall plan
would bring $22 billion in aid to Europe over the next 4 years
Berlin wall and airlift
Soviets blockaded access to Berlin but the US coordinated a successful airllift
Berlin wall and airlift
Soviets blockaded access to Berlin but the US coordinated a successful airlift
Mao Zedong
China’s communist leader
people’s republic of China
new communist state aligned with the Soviet union
Korean War
North Korea invaded South Korea with the support of communist China and Soviet Union
General Douglas MacArthur
wanted to resort to atomic weapons in North Korea, Truman fired him for insubordination
non-aligned movement
small nations would rather be non aligned than join either side of the cold war
Cuban Missile Crisis
the closest the USSR and the US came to nuclear war, they agreed on terms such as the Soviets taking the missiles out of Cuba and US leaving Cuba alone
who were the participants in the Vietnam war
South Vietnam, North, and US
who did the US support in the Vietnam war
South Vietnam
president Ngo Dinh Diem
non communist, South Vietnam
National Liberation front
called the Vietcong, was growing in the southern countryside
assassination of Diem
Kennedy administration raised the possibility of Diem’s removal, 3 months later he and his brother was assasinated
assassination of Diem
Kennedy administration raised the possibility of Diem’s removal, 3 months later he and his brother was assassinated
Lyndon B. Johnson
JFK’s successor, at first did not want to go to war
Gulf of Tonkin
reports of attacks on American destroyers in the Vietnamese Gulf of Tonkin
why did was there escalation of American involvement in the Vietnam war
Johnson used sketchy reports of attacks on American destroyers in the Vietnamese Gulf of Tonkin as evidence for airstrikes gaining unanimous resolution from congress
Tet Offensive
a massive strike intended to spur a general rebellion of the South Vietnamese
Nixon’s secret plan to end the war
“secret plan” amounted mostly to try lessening of tensions with the Soviets, in hopes they would bring their client in Hanoi in Vietnam to heel
Mutually assured destruction
The superpowers had weapons sufficient to destroy each other many times over by then but this prevented the outbreak of war
Watergate
political scandal; a break in at the democratic national committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex to try and re elect Nixon, the administration attempted to cover it up
triangular diplomacy
US decided to exploit the rivalry of the USSR and China to win advantages for the United States
