US HISTORY: 1929-PRESENT Flashcards
responses of Hoover’s administration to the Great Depression
- hands off approach
- businesses
- the wealthy and taxes
- burning of the bonus army camp
a. at first followed a hands-off approach - he feared providing direct aid to people in need would cause them to work less
b. convinced business workers to keep running business as usual, to not cut wages and end strikes and unions
- believed sound business practices would solve the depression, BUT he was wrong - wage cuts came and unemployment rose
c. encouraged the wealthy to donate and tried to increase public works and lower taxes
d. burning the Bonus Army camp to the ground further ruined Hoover’s presidency
- he became the symbol of the gov.’s failure to deal w/ the depression
FDR’s New Deal:
- the three r’s
- the first and second new deal
- programs (WPA, CCC, SSA TVA, and FDIC)
☆ series of programs and projects that aimed to restore prosperity to Americans
a. goals of FDR: the three R’s
- relief: provide relief for the poor and unemployed
- recover: recover the economy to its normal levels
- reform: reform the financial systems so that an economic depression wouldn’t happen again
b. split into 2 parts: The First New Deal and the Second New Deal
- First New Deal (1933-34): concerned w/ reconstructing the economy and offering relief to the banking industry
- Second New Deal (1935-38): sought to improve the use of the nation’s resources, provided relief for farmers, and created various gov. work programs
c. programs:
- the Works Progress Admin (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Crops: put unemployed people to work
- Social Security Act: gave financial relief to elderly
- Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): gave electricity to rural areas in the South
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): an agency created to guarantee the safety of $$ in banks
rise of the Democratic Party from the Great Depression
- FDR’s presidency
- who the party appealed to
- what they favored
a. FDR’s presidency and the New Deal reshaped the party system, moving the Democrats from minority to majority status at national lvl.
b. the party appealed to blue-collar workers, low-income individuals, and immigrant groups
c. they favored federal gov. activity to combat the Depression and proposed programs to benefit the disadvantaged
social and cultural effects of the Depression
- migrations
- crime rates
- higher education and families
a. mass migrations within the nation took place, as citizens went to look for work elsewhere
- especially in the Great Plains, where the Dust Bowl was ruining everything
b. crime rate increased as many unemployed workers resorted to petty theft
- suicide rates, prostitution, and alcoholism also increased
c. less people were seeking higher education and having babies
American isolationism and neutrality in regards to WW2
- define isolationism
- the neutrality acts (1935-39)
a. WW1 and the Depression caused many citizens toward isolationism: isolationists advocated non-involvement in EU and Asian conflicts and non-entanglement in international politics
b. as tensions rose in EU over the Nazi party, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts
- series of acts passed between 1935-39 intended to prevent the US from becoming involved in foreign affairs
war mobilization for WW2
a. thousands of citizens enlisted voluntarily
b. American industry was dedicated to building tanks, planes, and armaments for the Allies
c. the labor market witnessed millions of workers entering industrial centers
- students, retirees, housewives, and unemployed moved into the active labor force
d. by 1945 the US had become the world’s top industrial power
internment of Japanese Americans:
- internment camps
- the order
a. Japanese internment camps were established by FDR though his Executive Order of 9066 (1942-1945)
b. Executive Order of 9066: signed shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor - intended to prevent espionage on American shores
- military zones were created in CA, WA, and OR - forcibly removed Americans of Japanese ancestry
- anyone who was at least 1/16th Japanese was evacuated
US military and diplomatic strategy:
- first major decision
- closing the ring
- island hopping
a. first major decision was to concentrate on Germany first
- the American Pacific Fleet would do its best to contain Japanese expansion
b. strategy: the army would attack Hitler’s troops at their weakest points first and slowly advance toward German soil - known as “Closing the ring”
- attack German holdings in North Africa first
c. Island hopping (1941-44): skipping over heavily fortified islands to seize lightly defended locations that could support the next advance
major battles of WW2 involving the US and the decision to drop the atomic bomb
a. Battles:
- of Okinawa (1945)
- of Iwo Jima (1945)
- of the Bulge (1945)
b. decision to drop the bomb: Truman’s decision was purely military
- prolonging the war was not an option for Truman
impact of WW2 on the economy and society
a. 17 million new civilian jobs were created, industrial productivity increased by 96%, and corporate profits after taxes doubled
b. the war brought full employment and fairer distribution of income
c. Blacks and women entered the workforce for the first time
d. wages and savings increased
e. housing conditions got increasingly better
containment and the Truman policy and the domino theory
- the Truman doctrine
- foreign aid to Greece and Turkey
- the domino theory
a. the Truman Doctrine (policy of containment): Truman’s foreign policy that the US would provide political, military, and economic aid to democratic countries under the threat of communist influences in order to prevent the expansion of communism
- signed in 1947
b. he urged Congress to grant financial aid to Greece and Turkey as Great Britain couldn’t assist them in their fight against communism
- Congress provided $400 million in aid to support them
c. the domino theory: suggested a communist gov. in one nation would likely lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states, each falling like a row of dominos
atomic diplomacy
- def // monopoly of nuclear weapons
- ex of hiroshima and nagasaki
a. refers to a nation’s use of the threat of nuclear warfare to achieve its diplomatic and foreign policy
- after the first successful test of an atomic bomb in 1945, the US federal gov. sought to use its nuclear monopoly as a non-military diplomatic tool
- the US lost its monopoly over nuclear weapons by 1949 after the Soviets successfully tested its first atomic bomb
b. the US hoped the examples of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would scare the Union to not spread communism, but the threat of nuclear weapons made them more protective of its own borders
US intervention in the Korean and Vietnamese War and in Latin America:
- Korean and Vietnamese War
- overthrow of Fidel Castro
a. US provided aid to South Korea and South Vietnam to prevent the spread of communism from their North counterparts
- the Vietnam war: the US backed out due to lack of American popular support → Vietnam unified under communist rule in 1975
b. Latin America: centered around Fidel Castro’s communist gov. in Cuba - the CIA’s failed attempt to overthrow Castro caused increasing tensions w/ the Soviet Union that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis
- the Cuban Missile Crisis: (1962) the Soviet Union was secretly moving nuclear weapons into Cuba - the US found out and began moving missiles to Turkey
the policy of detente:
- period of the cold war
- the Nuclear nonproliferation treaty of 1968, the treaty on the limitation on ICBMs
- the helsinki final act
a. the Cold War was highlighted by a period known as detente: a welcome easing of tensions between the US and Soviet Union
b. treaties of detente:
- the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968: signed by major nuclear and non-nuclear power nations pledging cooperation in slowing the spread of nuclear technology
- Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems: capped the # of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) each could have
- the Helsinki Final Act
the Camp David Accords
- president Carter’s meeting
- what the documents established
- the signing of the treaty
a. 1978: pres. Jimmy Carter invited the pres. of Egypt and Israel’s Prime Minister to his retreat in Camp David, Maryland
- he worked w/ both leaders to draft 2 dual accord documents
b. the documents declared Israel give the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt, and Egypt would give Israel permission to use the Suez Canal for trade and recognize Israel as a country
c. 1979: the pres. of Egypt and Prime minister of Israel signed a permanent peace treaty off the Camp David Accords
the Iran Hostage Crisis
- why it happened
- Carter’s response
- Raegan
a. 1979: a group of Iranian students stormed the embassy and held more than 60 Americans hostage in response to Carter’s decision to allow Shah to receive treatment in the US
b. Carter launched a military rescue known as Operation Eagle Claw, which was unfortunately aborted due to a bad sandstorm
- Carter’s inability to resolve the program ruined his rep and led to his loss in the 1980 election
c. Ronald Raegan took presidency in 1980 - few hours after his inauguration address, the remaining hostages were released - the hostages were held captive for 444 days
