Download Key Terms and Definitions for American History: World War II and the Cold War and more Exams Law in PDF only on Docsity!
Four Freedoms Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear, as described by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his January 6, 1941, State of the Union Address. Neutrality Acts Series of laws passed between 1935 and 1939 to keep the United States from becoming involved in war by prohibiIng American trade and travel to warring naIons. Cash and Carry Policy
- Law passed by Congress which allowed a naIon at war to purchase goods and arms in US as long as they paid cash and carried merchandise on their own ships. Lend-Lease Act 1941 law that permiMed the United States to lend or lease arms and other supplies to the Allies, signifying increasing likelihood of American involvement in World War II. Allied Powers Alliance of Great Britain, Soviet Union, United States, and France during World War II. Axis Powers Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II.
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D-Day June 6, 1944, when an Allied amphibious assault landed on the Normandy coast and established a foothold in Europe, leading to the liberaIon of France from German occupaIon. Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japanese ciIes on which the United States detonated two nuclear weapons on August 6 and 9, 1945. The bombs killed over 225,000 people. Six days later, Japan surrendered, ending the war in the Pacific. Holocaust SystemaIc racist aMempt by the Nazis to exterminate the Jews of Europe, resulIng in the murder of over 6 million Jews and more than a million other 'undesirables.' GI Bill of Rights The 1944 legislaIon that provided money for educaIon and other benefits to military personnel returning from World War II. Japanese-American internment Policy adopted by the Roosevelt administraIon in 1942 under which 110, persons of Japanese descent, most of them American ciIzens, were removed from the West Coast and forced to spend most of World War II in internment camps; it was the largest violaIon of American civil liberIes in the twenIeth century. Korematsu v. United States A 1944 Supreme Court decision that upheld as consItuIonal the internment of more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent in encampments during World War II. Double-V Campaign
Containment General U.S. strategy in the Cold War that called for containing Soviet expansion; originally devised by U.S. diplomat George F. Kennan. Long Telegram A telegram by American diplomat George Kennan in 1946 outlining his views of the Soviet Union that eventually inspired the policy of containment. Iron curtain Term coined by Winston Churchill to describe the Cold War divide between western Europe and the Soviet Union's eastern European satellites. Truman Doctrine President Harry S. Truman's foreign policy of the United States assistance to any country whose stability was threatened by communism. Marshall Plan U.S. program for the reconstrucIon of post - World War II Europe through massive aid to former enemy naIons as well as allies; proposed by General George C. Marshall in 1947. North AtlanIc Treaty OrganizaIon (NATO) Alliance founded in 1949 by ten western European naIons, the United States, and Canada to deter Soviet expansion in Europe. Korean War Conflict touched off in 1950 when Communist North Korea invaded South Korea; fighIng, largely by U.S. forces, conInued unIl 1953. DecolonizaIon The collapse of colonial empires. Between 1947 and 1962, pracIcally all former colonies in Asia and Africa gained independence. Totalitarianism
A poliIcal system in which the government has total control over the lives of individual ciIzens and in which the ruler is an absolute dictator. Fair Deal An economic extension of the New Deal proposed by Harry Truman that called for higher minimum wage, housing and full employment. Tac-Hartley Act (1947) AnI-union law passed by increasingly conservaIve Congress over Truman's veto. Prohibited the closed shop (union only), permiMed states to ban union- shop agreements (to become anI-union "right to work" states), forbade union contribuIons to candidates in federal elecIons, forced union leaders to swear in affidavits that they were not communists, and mandated an 80-day cooling off period before carrying out strikes. This enraged labor, who called it a "slave labor" law. Helped contribute to massive decline in unions. Dixiecrats Deep South delegates who walked out of the 1948 DemocraIc NaIonal ConvenIon in protest of the party's support for civil rights legislaIon and later formed the States' Rights DemocraIc (Dixiecrat) Party, which nominated Strom Thurmond of South Carolina for president. Mccarthyism Post - World War II Red Scare focused on the fear of Communists in U.S. government posiIons; peaked during the Korean War; most closely associated with Joseph mccarthy, a major insIgator of the hysteria. Army-mccarthy Hearings (1954) Congressional hearings called by Senator Joseph mccarthy's to accuse members of the Army of communist Ies. In this widely televised spectacle, mccarthy finally went too far for public approval. The hearings exposed the Senator's extremism and led to his eventual disgrace.
Sparked by Rosa Parks's arrest on December 1, 1955, for refusing to surrender her seat to a white passenger, a successful year-long boycoM protesIng segregaIon on city buses; led by the Reverend MarIn Luther King Jr. Southern ChrisIan Leadership Conference (SCLC) Civil rights organizaIon founded in 1957 by the Reverend MarIn Luther King Jr. And other civil rights leaders. Southern Manifesto A document wriMen in 1956 that repudiated the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of EducaIon and supported the campaign against racial integraIon in public places. Military-industrial complex The concept of 'an immense military establishment' combined with a 'permanent arms industry,' which President Eisenhower warned against in his 1961 Farewell Address. Sit-ins TacIc adopted by young civil rights acIvists, beginning in 1960, of demanding service at lunch counters or public accommodaIons and refusing to leave if denied access; marked the beginning of the most militant phase of the civil rights struggle. Student Nonviolent CoordinaIng CommiMee (SNCC) OrganizaIon founded in 1960 to coordinate civil rights sit-ins and other forms of grassroots protest. Freedom Rides Bus journeys challenging racial segregaIon in the South in 1961. March on Washington
Civil rights demonstraIon on August 28, 1963, where the Reverend MarIn Luther King Jr. Gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Bay of Pigs Invasion Failed invasion of Cuba in 1961 when a force of 1,200 Cuban exiles, backed by the United States, landed at the Bay of Pigs. Cuban missile crisis Tense confrontaIon caused when the United States discovered Soviet offensive missile sites in Cuba in October 1962; the U.S.-Soviet confrontaIon was the Cold War's closest brush with nuclear war. Civil Rights Act (1964) Law that outlawed discriminaIon in public accommodaIons and employment. VoIng Rights Act (1965) Law passed in the wake of MarIn Luther King Jr.'s Selma-to-Montgomery March in 1965; it authorized federal protecIon of the right to vote and permiMed federal enforcement of minority voIng rights in individual counIes, mostly in the South. Great Society Term coined by President Lyndon B. Johnson in his 1965 State of the Union address, in which he proposed legislaIon to address problems of voIng rights, poverty, diseases, educaIon, immigraIon, and the environment. War on Poverty Plan announced by President Lyndon B. Johnson in his 1964 State of the Union address; under the Economic Opportunity Bill signed later that year, Head Start, VISTA, and the Jobs Corps were created, and programs were created for students, farmers, and businesses in efforts to eliminate poverty. Black Power
A coaliIon that fought for Indian rights guaranteed by treaIes (broken by the U.S. government many, many Imes over) and beMer condiIons and opportuniIes for American Indians. Griswold v. ConnecIcut (1965) Supreme Court decision legalizing birth control in which the Court ruled that the ConsItuIon implicitly guarantees ciIzens' right to privacy. Roe v. Wade (1973) The court legalized aborIon by ruling that state laws could not restrict it during the first three months of pregnancy. Based on the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, which protects against state acIon the (implied) right to privacy in the Bill of Rights (9th amendment). Tet offensive Surprise aMack by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese during the Vietnamese New Year of 1968; turned American public opinion strongly against the war in Vietnam. AffirmaIve acIon Policy efforts to promote greater employment opportuniIes for minoriIes. Reverse discriminaIon Belief that affirmaIve acIon programs discriminate against white people. Title IX Part of the EducaIonal Amendments Act of 1972 that banned gender discriminaIon in higher educaIon. Strategic Arms LimitaIon Talks 1972 talks between President Nixon and Secretary Brezhnev that resulted in the Strategic Arms LimitaIon Treaty (or SALT), which limited the quanIty of nuclear warheads each naIon could possess, and prohibited the development of missile defense systems.
Détente Period of improving relaIons between the United States and Communist naIons, parIcularly China and the Soviet Union, during the Nixon administraIon. My Lai Massacre Military assault in a small Vietnamese village on March 16, 1968, in which American soldiers murdered hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children. The atrocity produced outrage and reduced support for the war in America and around the world when details of the massacre and an aMempted cover-up were revealed. Pentagon Papers A 7,000-page top-secret United States government report on the history of the internal planning and policy-making process within the government itself concerning the Vietnam War. The documents showed the public had been lied to about the status of the war in Vietnam. Watergate Washington office and apartment complex that lent its name to the 1972 - 1974 scandal of the Nixon administraIon; when his knowledge of the break-in at the Watergate and subsequent cover-up were revealed, Nixon resigned the presidency under threat of impeachment. Oil embargo ProhibiIon on trade in oil declared by the OrganizaIon of Petroleum ExporIng Countries, dominated by Middle Eastern producers, in October 1973 in response to U.S. and western European support for Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The rise in gas prices and fuel shortages resulted in a global economic recession and profoundly affected the American economy. StagflaIon
were held for 444 days and released the day of President Reagan's inauguraIon. NeoconservaIves The leaders of the conservaIve insurgency of the early 1980s. Their brand of conservaIsm was personified in Ronald Reagan, who believed in less government, supply-side economics, and 'family values.' Reagan RevoluIon The rightward turn of American poliIcs following the 1980 elecIon of Ronald Reagan. The Reagan RevoluIon made individual 'freedom' a rallying cry for the right. Moral Majority A poliIcal acIon organizaIon established by Jerry Falwell in 1979 in response to cultural transformaIons (e.g., the women's liberaIon movement, the sexual revoluIon, etc.) That he believed threatened the tradiIonal values of the United States. Its goal was to advance conservaIve social values by opposing things like aborIon and pornography while supporIng issues like prayer in public schools. Reaganomics Popular name for President Ronald Reagan's philosophy of 'supply side' economics, which combined tax cuts with an unregulated marketplace. Iran-Contra Affair Scandal of the second Reagan administraIon involving sales of arms to Iran in parIal exchange for release of hostages in Lebanon and use of the arms money to aid the Contras in Nicaragua, which had been expressly forbidden by Congress.
