Unit 8/9 Vocab Flashcards
GI Bill
bill providing benefits for returning WW2 soldiers
Baby boom
The explosion of marriages and births after the end of WWII that resulted in 50 million babies entering the U.S population between 1946 and 1964 due to younger marriages and larger families.
Suburban Growth
The desperate need for housing after WWII resulted in a construction boom developers such as William J. Levitt build mass-produced low-priced family homes outside of the city which became coveted wants of families, and assisted by the construction of highways.
Sunbelt
States in the South from Florida to California that became attractive places for families to move after WWII because of the warmer climate, lower taxes, and economic opportunities that developed when tax dollars shifted to the region for industry during the Cold War. It shifted the industry, people, and ultimately political power from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West.
22nd Amendment
Ratified in 1951, this amendment placed a limit of a person to two presidential terms, or no more than ten years of office (If a vice-president served as president for less than half the president’s term, he could be elected two more times.)
Taft-Hartley Act (1947)
A pro-business Act that Congress passed over Truman’s veto that was to check the growing power of unions. The provisions of this law included: outlawing the closed shop (requiring workers to join union before they were hired), and permitting states to pass “right to work” laws outlawing the union ship.
Dixiecrats
The conservative faction of the Democratic Party that split and abandoned support for Truman during his run for reelection due to his support for civil rights, led by J. Strom Thurmond.
Cold War
The state of political tension that existed between Free World Countries and Communist countries that lasted from the end of WWII to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It centered around the rival superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.
Joseph Stalin
Soviet dictator from 1924-1953
World Bank
Also known was the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, this was created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The U.S offered the Soviet Union membership, but the Soviets declined because they viewed the bank as an instrument of capitalism. The bank was supposed to fund the rebuilding of a war-torn world. This was an example of how the ideologies of democracy and communism were generally incompatible.
Satellite countries
Eastern European countries that came under the control of the Soviet Union after WWII as Communist dictators came into power of the territories once controlled by the Nazis. Soviet Russia said it needed control of these territories as a buffer to protect Russia from invasion. The Soviet takeover of the countries alarmed Great Britain and the United States.
Iron Curtain
The term coined by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a March 1946 speech in Fulton, Missouri where Churchill proclaimed that the Soviet Union was establishing an Iron Curtain between the free countries of Western Europe and the communist-controlled countries of Eastern Europe. This metaphor was used throughout the Cold War to refer to the Soviet Union’s satellite states. It also implied the partnership of Western democracies to halt the expansion of communism.
George Kennan
An expert on Soviet affairs who is credited for coming up with the “containment policy” the United States applied to the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. He wrote an article explaining that stopping communism from expanding would eventually cause the Soviet Union to collapse or back off their Communist ideology of world denomination.
Containment policy
The policy that the U.S applied to the Soviet Union and the spread of communism during the Cold War that was formulated by George Kennan, Dean Acheson, and General George MacArthur. The United States needed to implement long-term military, economic, and diplomatic strategies in order to stop the spread of communism. According to Kennan, the Soviet Union would collapse under its own weight to have to become content to give up its ideology of world denomination.
Truman Doctrine
When there was a Communist-led uprising against the government in Greece and the Soviet Union wanted some control of Turkey’s Dardanelles, Truman asked Congress to give $400 million to assist the “free people” in the countries against the “totalitarian” regimes. His actions became known as the Truman Doctrine, in which the US would support any democratic nation that resisted communism.
Marshall Plan
Outlined by George Marshall in June 1947, this extensive program of U.S economic aid would help nations of Europe revive their economies and strengthen democratic governments. In December, Truman submitted the $17 billion dollar plan, also known as the European Recovery Program. $12 billion in aid was approved for distribution to countries in Western Europe over a four-year period. With this plan, the countries’ economies greatly recovered, ending the chance of communist takeover.
Berlin Airlift
In June 1948, the Soviets cut off all access by land to West Berlin. Truman ordered U.S planes to fly in supplies to the people within the blockade. The supplies was flown in until the blockade ended. Seeing that their blockade was useless, the Soviets opened the highways to Berlin in May 1949 as not to escalate the situation into war.
Partition of Germany
After the Berlin Airlift lasting from 1948-1949, the French, English, and American zones of occupation were joined together into the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) while the German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany. This division lasted for the remainder of the Cold War until the Berlin Wall was broken down.
NATO
1949, Truman proposed that the United States join a military alliance to protect Western Europe. The Senate agreed, and ten European nations along with the U.S and Canada created NATO, a military alliance for defending all members from outside attack.
NSC-68
In 1950, the National Security Council produced this secret report that said to fight the Cold War, the U.S needed: (1) quadruple U.S government defense spending to 20 percent of GNP (2) form alliances with non-Communist countries around the world, (3) convince the American public that a costly arms buildup was imperative for the nation’s defense.
Firing of MacArthur
The U.S General who led the U.N forces during the Korean War. After he managed to stabilize the fighting near the 38th parallel, he called for an expanded war, including bombing and invasion of mainland China. Truman warned him not to speak out badly against official U.S policy, but he spoke out anyways. In April 1951, Truman with the support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recalled MacArthur for insubordination. He returned a hero as most Americans as Truman’s “limited war” was viewed by many was a weak act of appeasement.
Chinese Civil War
This civil war from the 1930s was renewed after the end of WWII between Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists and Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong. The U.S had supported the Nationalists in WWII, but they were losing popularity because of runaway inflation and widespread corruption while the Communists appealed to poor landless peasants. Truman sent George Marshall to negotiate an end to the civil war, but it fell apart. The U.S gave the Nationalist government $400 million, but most of it ended up with the Communists do to corruption. Thus, mainland China fell to the Communists in 1949 and the Nationalists resided on an island (Taiwan).
Korean War
The war began with an unexpected invasion of South Korea on June 25, 1950. Truman called a special session of the U.N Security Council, where it was voted that a U.N force would defend South Korea. U.S troops made up most of the U.N forces and were led by General Douglas MacArthur. War was never officially declared. At first, the North Koreans were able to push its opponents to the tip of the peninsula, but MacArthur reversed the war by leading a amphibious assault at Inchon. However, in November 1950, Chinese troops crossed into Korea and drove troops out of North Korea. Peace talks began at Panmunjom in July 1951 and an armistice as signed in 1953 where it was decided to divide into North and South Korea along the 38th parallel.
HUAAC
Originally established in 1939 to seek out Nazis but was reactivated during WWII to find Communists. It investigated government officials as well as looked for Communist influence in such organizations as the Boy Scouts and in the Hollywood film industry. Actors, directors, and writers were called before the committee to testify, and those who refused to testify were tried for contempt of Congress and other were blacklisted from the industry.
Alger Hiss Pumpkin Papers
A prominent official in the state department who had assisted Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference who in 1950 was convicted of perjury and sent to prison due to accusations that he was Communist and had given secret documents to Chambers. He claimed that he was innocent. The trial was carried out by the HUAC and the testimony of Whittaker Chambers, a confessed Communist, and the investigative work of Richard M. Nixon, led to his incrimination.
Rosenburg Case
The trial in 1951 that accused Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of spying for the Soviet Union to get nuclear weapons secrets. The FBI had found them at the center of a Soviet Spy ring. They were found guilty of treason and were executed in 1953. Civil rights groups raised questions about whether anti-Communist hysteria had played a role in their conviction and punishment.
Joseph McCarthy / McCarthyism
A Republican senator from Wisconsin who used the growing concern over communism in his reelection campaign. He announced in a speech in 1950 that 205 Communists were still working in the State Department. This sensational accusation was publicized in the American press, and he became one of the most powerful men in America. People feared the damage he could do if his accusing finger pointed their way. He lost credibility in 1954 when a Senate committee held televised hearing on Communist infiltration in the Army, and McCarthy was seen as a bully.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
an American politician and Army general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961.
Richard Nixon
President of the United States from 1969-1974, he rose to national prominence as a “communist hutner” and member of HUAC in the 1950s. He was vice president under Eisenhower from 1953-1961 and defended American capitalism in the 1959 Kitchen Debate with Khrushchev. He ran unsuccessfully for president against JFK in 1960 but was elected in 1968, resigning amid the Watergate scandal in 1974
Federal Highway Act of 1956
federal legislation signed by Eisenhower to construct thousands of miles of modern highways in the name of national defense. Offically called the National Interstate and Defense of Highways Act, this bill dramatically increased the move to the suburbs, as white middle-class people could more easily commute to urban jobs.
John Foster Dulles
served as U.S. Secretary of State under Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against Communism throughout the world.
Brinkmanship
the art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping. Especially associated with Dulles and using the threat of nuclear weapons.
CIA covert operations
a covert operation (also as CoveOps or covert ops) is “an operation that is so planned and executed as to conceal the identity of or permit plausible denial by the sponsor.”
Korean Armistice
the armistice which ended the Korean War. It was signed by U.S. Army Lieutenant General William Harrison, Jr. representing the United Nations Command (UNC), North Korean General Nam Il representing the Korean People’s Army, and the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, and effectively split Korea into a northern communist country, and a southern free country.
Ho Chi Minh
Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
State of Israel
Founded in 1948 when the UN split Palestine between Arabs and Jews, which created fighting that still persists. It is a Jewish state based on the beliefs of Zionism.
Arab Nationalism
a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world, particularly as it pertains to the plight of the Palestinians.
Suez Canal Crisis
International crisis launched when Egyptian President Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, which had been owned mostly by French and British stockholders, and denied Israel access to the Suez Canal. It also named the Tripartite Aggression and the Kadesh Operation or Sinai War, was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel with the assistance of Britain and France.
Eisenhower Doctrine
U.S. foreign-policy pronouncement by President Dwight D. Eisenhower promising military or economic aid to any Middle Eastern country needing help in resisting communist aggression.
OPEC
(The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) a group consisting of 12 of the world’s major oil-exporting nations, founded in 1960 to coordinate the petroleum policies of its members, and to provide member states with technical and economic aid.
Nikita Khrushchev
Premier of the Soviet Union from 1958-1964, he was a communist party offical who emerge from the power struggle after Stalin’s death in 1953 to lead the USSR. He crushed a pro-Western uprising of Hngary in 1956, and, in 1958, issued an ultimatum for Western evacuation of Berline. Defended Soviet-style economic planning in the Kitchen Debate with Richard Nixon in 1959 and attempted to send missiles to Cuba in 1962 but backed down when comfronted by JFK.
Hungarian Revolt
The Hungarian Uprising of 1956 was a nationwide revolt against the government of the Hungarian People’s Republic and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956. Crushed by the Soviet Army.
Warsaw Pact
formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance and sometimes, informally, WarPac. was a collective defense treaty among the Soviet Union and seven other Soviet satellites.
Sputnik (1957)
a series of Soviet artificial satellites, the first of which (launched on October 4, 1957) was the first satellite to be placed in orbit. This caused a panic amongst Americans that the Soviets were pulling ahead in technology.
NDEA/NASA
National Defense Education Act was a science initiative to make American schools more geared towards math and science, while the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was formed to advance the US in its space program. Both were a reaction to Sputnik.
U-2 Incident
when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet airspace. The aircraft, flown by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) pilot Francis Gary Powers, was performing photographic aerial reconnaissance when it was hit by a surface-to-air missile.
Fidel Castro
Cuban revolutionary who overthrew Batista dictatorship in 1958 and assumed control of the island country. His connections with the Soviet Union led to a cessation of diplomatic relations with the United States in such internationl affairs as the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Oversaw his country through the end of the Cold War and through nearly a half-century of trade embargo with the US.
Military Industrial Complex
The military–industrial complex is an informal alliance between a nation’s military and the arms industry which supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy.
Jackie Robinson
an American professional baseball second baseman who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era.
Thurgood Marshall
a lawyer who was best known for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education. President Johnson nominated him to the United States Supreme Court in 1967 and he was approved by the Senate, becoming the first black Supreme Court Justice.
Brown v. The Board of Education Topeka
landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and abolished racial segregation in public schools. This decision was the first major step toward the legal end of racial discrimination and a major accomplishment for the Civil Rights Movement.
Earl Warren
Liberal Californian politician appointed Chief Justice the Supreme Court by Eisenhowerin 1953, he was principally known for moving the Court to the left in defense of civil and individual rights in such cases as Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966).
Little Rock Crisis
when a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They attended after President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened with the Army.
Rosa Parks
NAACP leader in Montgomery, Alabama, who inaugurate the city’s famous bus boycott in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger. She became a leading symbol of the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement and the cause of racial equality throughout her long life.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
a protest sparked by Rosa Park’s defiant refusal to move to the back of the bus of black Alabamians against segregated seating on city buses. It lasted from December 1, 1955 until December 26, 1956, and became one of the foundational moments of the Civil Rights Movements. It led to the rise of Martin Luther King Jr., and ultimately to a Supreme Court decision opposing segregated busing.
Martin Luther King Junior
civil rights leader and Baptist preacher who rose to prominence with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. He was an outspoken advocate for black rights throughout the 1960s, most famously during the 1963 March on Washington where he delivered the “I Have a Dream Speech.” He was assasinated in Memphis in 1968 while supporting a sanitation workers’ strike
SCLC
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC, which is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr, had a large role in the American Civil Rights Movement
Nonviolent protest
the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, or other methods, without using violence. Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience is often cited as starting the doctrine, and it was successfully implemented by first Mahatma Ghandi, and then MLK.
Sit-in movement
Students from across the country came together to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and organize sit-ins at segregated counters throughout the South.
SNCC
youth organization founded by southern black students in 1960 to promote civil rights. drawing on its members’ youthful energies, it helped coordinate demonstrations, sit-ins, and voter registration drives
Consumer culture
a form of capitalism in which the economy is focused on the selling of consumer goods and the spending of consumer money; especially noticeable in the culture of the United States.
Beatniks
a young person in the 1950s and early 1960s belonging to a subculture associated with the beat generation that tended to be more anti-materialism. They stressed artistic self-expression and the rejection of the mores of conventional society; broadly : a usually young and artistic person who rejects the mores of conventional society.
John F. Kennedy
43 year old senator from MA who became president after appearing more vigorous and comfortable on the first televised debates than his republican counterpart. His wife, Jacqueline Kennedy- brought style, glamor and appreciation of the arts to the White House.
New Frontier
domestic policy advocated by JFK in 1960 election; promised to revitalize the stagnant economy & enact reform legislation in education, health care, and civil rights.
