Unit 6 Chapter 35 Flashcards
Cold War (1946-1991)
-45 year long diplomatic tension between the US and the Soviet Union that divided much of the world into polarized camps, capitalist against communist
Bretton woods conference (1944)
- meeting of western allies to establish a postwar international economic order to avoid crises like the one that spawned in WWII
- led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the world bank, designed to regulate currency levels and provide aid to underdeveloped countries
- established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to encourage world trade by regulating Currency exchange rates
United Nations (formed in 1945)
-international body formed to bring nation’s intelligence Na dialogue in hopes of preventing further world wars
Nuremberg war crimes trial (1945-1946)
- highly publicized proceedings against former Nazi leaders for war crimes against humanity in postwar Germany
- led to several executions and long prison sentences
Berlin airlift (1948-1949)
-year long mission of flying food and supplies to blockaded west Berliners, whom the Soviet Union cut off access to the west in the first major crisis of the Cold War
Yalta conference (1945)
- meeting of FDR, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin at an old tsarist resort on the Black Sea
- 3 big leaders laid the foundations for the postwar division of power in Europe
Containment doctrine
- america’s strategy against the Soviet Union based on ideas of George Kennan
- declared that the Soviet Union and communism were inherently expansionist and had to be stopped from spreading through both military and political pressure
- guided American foreign policy throughout most of the Cold War
Truman doctrine (1947)
-president truman’s universal pledge of support for any people fighting in any communist or communist-inspired threat
Marshall plan(1949)
- massive transfer of aid money to help rebuild postwar Western Europe
- intended to bolster capitalist and democratic governments and prevent domestic communist groups from riding poverty and misery to power
North Atlantic treaty organization (NATO) (established in 1949)
- military alliance of Western European powers and the us and Canada
- established to defend against the common threat from the Soviet Union, marking a giant stride forward for European unity and American internationalism
National security council memorandum number 68(NSC-68) (1950)
- national security council recommendation to quadruple defense spending and rapidly expand peacetime armed forces to address Cold War tensions
- reflected a new militarization of American foreign policy
- Key documents of the Cold War
Korean War(1950-1953)
- first “hot war” of the Cold War
- began when the Soviet-backed North Koreans invaded South Korea and UN forces launched a counteroffensive
- The “forgotten war”
House Un-American activities committee(HUAC)
- investigatory body established in 1938 to root out “subversion”
- sought to expose communist influence in American government and society
McCarthyism
- brand of vitriolic, fear mongering anti-communism associated with the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy
- named after Joseph McCarthy refers to the dangerous forces of unfairness and fear wrought by anti-Communist paranoia
Army McCarthy hearings(1954)
- congressional hearings called by Senator Joseph McCarthy for two accuse members of the army of communist ties
- hearings lead to Senator McCarthy’s extremism and led to his eventual disgrace
Executive order 998(1948)
- order issued by President Truman to desegregates the Armed Forces
- resulted from a combination of pressure from civil rights advocates, election-year political calculations, and the new geopolitical context of the Cold War
Taft-Hartley act (1947)
-republican promoted, antiunion legislation passed over President Truman’s vigorous veto that weekend many of labor’s New deal gains by banning the closed shop and other strategies that helped unions organize
Operation Dixie
-failed effort by the C I O after World War II to unionize southern workers especially in textile factories
Employment act of 1946
- legislation declaring that the government’s economic policy should aim to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power as well as to keep inflation low
- created the Council of economic advisers to provide the president with data and recommendations to make economic policy
GI Bill (1944)
- known officially as the serviceman’s readjustment act and more informally as the G.I. Bill of rights
- helped returning World War II soldiers reintegrate into civilian life by securing loans to buy homes and farms and set up small businesses
Fair deal
- President Truman’s extensive social program introduced in his 1949 message to Congress
- only major successes was increasing minimum-wage, providing for public housing, and extending old age insurance to many more beneficiaries
Sunbelt
-15 State Crescent through the American South and Southwest that experienced terrific population and productivity expansion during World War II and particularly in the decades after the war eclipsing the old industrial Northeast
Levittown
- suburban communities with mass produced tract houses built in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas in the 1950s by William Levitt and sons
- typically inhabited by white middle-class people who fled the cities in search of homes to buy for their growing families
- One of the most famous suburbs in the US
baby boom (1946-1964)
-demographic explosion from births to returning soldiers and others who had put off starting families during the war
North Korea’s leader during the Cold War
-Kim II-sung (communist)
South Korea’s leader during the Cold War
-Syngman Rhee (democratic)
38th parallel
-boundary between North and South Korea
Harry S Truman
- The “accidental president”
- made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Atlantic charter
-proclaimed for all nations the right to self-determination and free access to trade while committing to a post war international system designed to ensure the human rights to “freedom from fear and want” for all individuals
General agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT)
-created to reduce trade barriers among member nations and help to form the basis for the transformative spread of economic globalization in the later half of the century
League of Nations vs United Nations
- League of Nations
- -adopted rules denying the veto power to any party to a dispute
- -presumed great power conflict
- United Nations
- -no member of the security council could have action taken against it without its consent
- -presumed great power cooperation
Containment doctrine
- created by George F Kennan
- held that Russia was relentlessly expansionary
National security act
-created the department of defense, The national Security Council (NSC), and the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA)
