Unit 9: Important Figures Flashcards
Harry S Truman
The 33rd U.S. president.
succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt upon Roosevelt’s death in April 1945.
led the country through the last few months of World War II,
best known for making the controversial decision to use two atomic bombs against Japan in August 1945. After war, Truman was crucial in the implementation of the Marshall Plan, (greatly accelerated Western Europe’s economic recovery)
George F Kennan
an american diplomat in moscow, best known as “the father of containment” and as a key figure in the emergence of the cold war
George Marshall
George Marshall United States general, who as Secretary of State organized the European Recovery Program
J Strom Thurmond
south carolina governor. ran for president against truman in 1948 on the dixiecrat ticket., dixiecrat from SC election of 1948, longest filibuster, state’s right initiative
Richard Nixon
committee member of the House of Representatives and Committee on Un-American Activities (to investigate “subversion”). He tried to catch Alger Hiss who was accused of being a communist agent in the 1930’s. This brought him to the attention of the American public. In 1956 he was Eisenhower’s Vice-President.
Rosa Parks
United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery (Alabama) and so triggered the national civil rights movement (born in 1913)
Imma stay in ma seat bro, you move..
James Meredith
First black student admitted to the University of Mississippi, shot during a civil rights march in 1966
Nikita Khrushchev
Stalin’s successor, wanted peaceful coexistence with the U.S. Eisenhower agreed to a summit conference with him, France and Great Britain in Geneva, Switzerland in July, 1955 to discuss how peaceful coexistence could be achieved.
Ho Chi Minh
leader of the Nationalist group in Vietnam that eventually defeated the French and became the leader of the Republic of Vietnam
Robert F. Kennedy
american politician; attorney general during brothers presidency and was assassinated during his bid for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination
Julius & Ethel Rosenburg
American communists who were executed in 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage. The charges related to passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.
Benjamin Spock
was an American pediatrician whose book” Baby and Child Care”, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time. Its revolutionary message to mothers was that “you know more than you think you do.”
Alger Hiss
A former State Department official who was accused of being a Communist spy (giving classified documents to the Soviets) and was convicted of perjury. The case was prosecuted by Richard Nixon.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
was a General of the Army (five star general) in the United States Army and U.S. politician,
thirty-fourth President of the United States (1953-1961).
oversaw the cease-fire of the Korean War, kept up the pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, made nuclear weapons a higher defense priority, launched the Space Race, enlarged the Social Security program, and began the Interstate Highway System.
Earl Warren
He was a California district attorney of Alameda County, the 20th Attorney General of California, the 30th Governor of California, and the 14th Chief Justice of the United States (from 1953 to 1969). As Chief Justice, his term of office was marked by numerous rulings affecting, among other things, the legal status of racial segregation, civil rights, separation of church and state, and police arrest procedure in the United States.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Non-violent black leader whose advocacy of peaceful change came under attack from militants after 1965
Ngo Diem Diem
a conservative anti-communist who overthrew Bao Dai, the emperor of southern Vietnam, when it seemed likely that a communist leader would …
Chiang Kai-Shek
General and leader of Nationalist China after 1925. Although he succeeded Sun Yat-sen as head of the Guomindang, he became a military dictator whose major goal was to crush the communist movement led by Mao Zedong.
John F. Kennedy
New York senator whose anti-war campaign for the presidency was ended by an assassin’s bullet in June 1968
Lyndon B. Johnson
Brilliant legislative operator whose domestic achievements in social welfare and civil rights fell under the shadow of his Vietnam disaster
Adlai Stevenson
The Democratic candidate who ran against Eisenhower in 1952. His intellectual speeches earned him and his supporters the term “eggheads”. Lost to Eisenhower.
Douglas MacArthur
An American General who fought in three major wars (World War I, World War II, Korean War) and was one of only five men ever to rise to the rank of General of the Army.
Joseph McCarthy
United States politician who unscrupulously accused many citizens of being Communists
“Bull” Conner
He was the chief of police of Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement. His use of excessive force against the peaceful marchers on television brought attention to the issue, and helped gain support for civil right legislation.
Fidel Castro
Cuban socialist leader who overthrew a dictator in 1959 and established a Marxist socialist state in Cuba.
Mao Tse-tung
led the Communists in China. Because of the failure to form a coalition government between Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communists, civil war broke out in China after WWII. The Communists won in 1949, but the new government was not recognized by much of the world, including the U.S.
Lee Harvey Oswald
Assassinated President John F. Kennedy. (not really sure about that though since this one guy shot him before they could do trial. Erryone was all “poor jackie, we gone kill the killer so she don’t have to feel the pain. Because not knowing who really killed her husband doesn’t hurt at all.”
