WWII Flashcards
A government in which most of the country’s power is held by one person who rules by force.
Fascism
An economic ideology that advocates for a classless society in which all property and wealth are owned by the public, instead of by individuals.
Communism
A form of government that has total control over the lives of its citizens and does not permit individual freedom.
Totalitarianism
FDR’s speech that gave a vision for a world in which all people had freedom of speech and of religion, and freedom from want and fear.
Quarantine Speech & Four Freedoms Speech
August 14, 1941 statement that defined the Allied goals for after WWII, including self-determination for nations and economic and social cooperation among nations.
Atlantic Charter
1941 act that allowed the US to lend or lease (not sell) war supplies to any nation “vital to the defense of the US.” Allowed the US to remain neutral.
Lend-Lease Act
WWII American naval base in the Pacific and home to the US Pacific Fleet attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941; prompted the US to enter WWII.
Pearl Harbor
British Prime Minister during WWII famous for his inspiring speeches, and for his refusal to give in, even when things were going badly.
Winston Churchill
WWII 5-Star Army General who served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Leader of Germany’s Nazi Party who took absolute power in Germany beginning in 1933.
Adolf Hitler
American general who commanded the Southwest Pacific in WWII, oversaw Allied occupation of post-WWII Japan, and led United Nations forces in Korean War.
Douglas MacArthur
Army General who devised Operation Overlord in 1944, the successful Allied invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during WWII.
George C. Marshall
Italian political leader who became the fascist dictator of Italy from during WWII
Benito Mussolini
32nd American President from 1933 to 1945; Known for New Deal and WWII
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)
Socialist Dictator of Soviet Union during WWII
Joseph Stalin
Japanese Prime Minister during WWII
Hideki Tojo
33rd president. Ended WWII by dropping the atomic bomb on Japan.
Harry S. Truman
The United States Navy defended a Japanese attack against the Midway Atoll; Marked a turning point in WWII.
Battle of Midway
US invasions on Japanese cities that resulted in some of WWII’s fiercest fighting and largest casualties.
Iwo Jima & Okinawa
Combined naval, air, and land Allied invasion of Normandy in German-occupied France forces as part of Operation Overlord in WWII.
D-Day
The first Black military pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps (AAC), a precursor of the U.S. Air Force.
Tuskegee Airmen
American infantry division who played a large role in D-Day by parachuting in to enemy territory.
101st Airborne
Navajo men who joined the U.S. Marines and developed an unbreakable code that would be used across the Pacific during WWII.
Navajo Code Talkers
Legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, on December 18, 1944, upheld the conviction of Fred Korematsu for having violated an exclusion order requiring him to submit to forced relocation during WWII.
Korematsu v. United States
Code name for the American-led effort to develop a functional atomic weapon during WWII.
Manhattan Project
The Yalta and Potsdam Conferences were called to help the Allied Forces decide what should happen to Germany – and the rest of Europe – once Hitler was defeated and WWII over.
Yalta & Potsdam Conferences
An international governing body formed after WWII to increase political and economic cooperation among its member countries.
United Nations
American politician from Tennessee and the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of State; Worked for FDR during WWII.
Cordell Hull
Foreign policy under Truman where the US would provide political, military, and economic assistance to democratic nations to prevent the spread of communism.
Truman Doctrine
American initiative in which the United States gave economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of WWII in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism.
Marshall Plan
327-day operation in which the U.S. and British planes flew food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviets blockaded the city in 1948.
Berlin Airlift
CAUSES - increased spread of communism in Europe and China, Soviet Russia becoming a superpower, and fears of Russian spies in the United States.
EFFECTS - creation of House Committee on Un-American Activities in Congress to search for communists in America, rise of McCarthyism.
Causes and Effects of Second Red Scare
Cold War policy that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states, each falling like a perfectly aligned row of dominos.
Domino theory
Popular name given to latitude 38° N that in East Asia roughly separates Communist North Korea and Democratic South Korea.
38th Parallel
Failed CIA-backed attempt to overthrow the communist government of Fidel Castro.
Bay of Pigs
13-day political and military standoff between the US and the Soviet Union in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba
Cuban Missile Crisis
Agreement where the French agreed to withdraw their troops from northern Vietnam. as long as Vietnam held elections within two years to choose a president and reunite the country.
Geneva Accords
a surprise series of attacks against the South Vietnamese launched during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year festival, by the North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong
Tet Offensive
Vietnamese revolutionary and communist leader who became president of North Vietnam from 1945 to 1969
Ho Chi Minh
