Unit 6 Test Flashcards
George Marshall
Army Chief of Staff General, founder of WAAC
WAAC
Women volunteers would serve in noncombat positions
Manhattan Project
The US program to develop an atomic bomb for use in WW2
OPA
Fought inflation by freezing prices on most goods and rationed food
WPB
Rationed fuel and materials vital to the war effort
rationing
Establishing fixed allotments of goods deemed essential for the military
Dwight Eisenhower
American general who commanded Operation Torch, an invasion on Axis controlled North Africa
D-Day
June 6, 1944, the first day of the invasion. Shortly after midnight, three divisions parachuted down behind German lines. They were followed in the early morning hours by thousands upon thousands of seaborne soldiers.
George Patton
General of the Third Army, liberated France from Germany
Battle of the Bulge
A month long battle of WWII, in which the Allies succeeded in turning back the last major German offensive of the war
V-E Day
May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day
Harry Truman
Vice President of Roosevelt, became president on April 12, 1945
Douglas MacArthur
General who commanded the Allied forces on the Philippines islands
Chester Nimitz
The commander of American naval forces in the Pacific
Battle of Midway
WWII battle that took place in early June 1942. The Allies decimated the Japanese fleet at Midway, an island lying northwest of Hawaii. The Allies then took the offensive in the Pacific and began to move closer to Japan.
kamikaze
suicide plane
J. Robert Oppenheimer
American scientist who was part of the development of the atomic bomb
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
They were two Japanese places where the Americans dropped an atomic bomb, leading to Japan’s surrender.
Nuremberg Trials
The court proceedings held in Nuremberg, Germany, after WWII, in which Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes.
GI Bill of Rights
Bill that provided education and training for veterans, paid for by the federal government
CORE
An interracial organization, founded by James Farmer, that was created to confront urban segregation in the North.
internment
confinement of 1,444 Japanese Americans
JACL
It pushed the government to compensate those sent to the camps for their lost property.
Joseph Stalin
Last name means “man of steel,” took control of soviet union in 1924, made agricultural and industrial growth prime goals of soviet union
totalitarian
characteristic of a political system in which the government exercises complete control over its citizens’ lives
Benibo Mussolini
established totalitarian regime on Italy; unemployment and inflation produced strikes; middle and upper class demanded stronger leadership
Adolf Hitler
Became leader of the Nazi party, believed Aryans were the master race, and all other races should bow before them
nazism
the political philosophy based on extreme nationalism, racism, and militaristic expansion that Hilter put into effect in Germany from 1922 to 1945
Neutrality Acts
a series of laws preventing the sale of US arms to nations at war
appeasement
the granting of concessions to a hostile power in order to keep the peace
nonaggression pact
an agreement in which two nations promise not to go to war with each other
blitzkrieg
German word “lightning war;” a sudden, massive attack with combined air and ground forces, intended to achieve a quick victory
Holocaust
The massive extermination of Jews and other groups in Europe that were “against” Hilter
Kristallnacht
“Night of broken glass;” a name given to the night on Nov 9, 1938, when a gang of Nazis storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues in Germany
genocide
the deliberate murder of an entire population
concentration camp
where Hilter put all of the Jews, and either put them to work or gassed them
Axis powers
Germany, Italy, and Japan
Lend-Lease Act
Allowed US to send arms to nations at war without immediate payment
Atlantic Charter
a 1942 declaration of principles in which the US and Great Britain set forth their goals in opposing the Axis powers
Allies
Britain, Soviet Union, and the US; anyone against the Axis powers
Hideki Tojo
the chief of staff of Japan’s Kwantung Army; launched an invasion into China in 1937. Britain was too busy fighting Hitler to block the invasion
