WW2 Terms

London Economic Conference

Sixty-six nations met to launch a frontal attack on the global depression. It was particularly eager to stabilize national currencies and thus revive international trade.

Joseph Stalin

Leader of the Soviet Union during WWII

"Quarantine Speech"

Delivered by Roosevelt in the autumn of 1937. He called for "positive endeavors" to "quarantine" the aggressors, who were Italy and Japan, by economic embargoes.

Miracle of Dunkirk

British managed to evacuate to England the bulk of their shattered and disarmed army.

Battle of Britain

Raged in air over the British Isles. The Royal Air Force's tenacious defense led Hitler to postpone his planned invasion indefinitely.

Atlantic Charter

Promised that there would be no territorial changes contrary to the wishes of the inhabitants.

Office of Price

Administration-brought ascending prices under control with extensive regulations.

Bracero program

Mexican workers came to America to harvest the wartime crops

Douglas MacArthur

eloquent, egotistical commander in the Pacific. His company was forced to retreat to the Philippines where many were killed at Baton

Midway

the turning point in the battle on the Pacific front. America came out on top over Japan.

Leapfrogging

Defense strategy that America used to defeat Japan. You go from island to island destroying each before you go on.

Stalingrad

where the Russians halted the German steamroller

D-Day

June 6, 1944 enormous operation that involved forty-six hundred vessels.

V-E Day

Victory in Europe Day on May 8 a day after German government surrendered

"Kamikazes"

Japanese suicide pilots

Rome-Berlin Axis

The Nazi Hitler and the Fascist Mussolini allied themselves in the Rome-Berlin Axis.

Appeasement

"Appeasement" of the dictators, symbolized by the ugly word Munich, turned out to be merely surrender on the installment plan

Winston Churchill

British Prime Minister during WWII. He was involved in a conference with Roosevelt and formed the eight-point Atlantic Charter

Axis Powers

Germany, Japan, and Italy formed an alliance.

War Labor Board

imposed ceilings on wage increases.

Code talkers

Comanche in Europe and Navajo's in the Pacific transmitted radio messages in in their native
Languages, which were incomprehensible to the Germans and the Japanese.

Bataan death march

a viscous 85-mile death march in the Philippines.

"Desert Fox"

Marshall Rommel; led Germans across North Africa into Egypt, near the Suez Canal.

"Second front"

The Soviet pleaded the British and the Americans for a second front in the west because of staggering losses in 1942.

Thomas E. Dewey

The Republican nominee for the President in 1944.

Iwo Jima

tiny island in the Pacific needed as a place for damaged bombers returning from Japan; it was captured in March of 1945

V-J Day

The day Japan was defeated.

Totalitarianism

the individual was nothing the state was everything

Francisco Franco

headed the Spanish rebels, took over Spain and made it a fascist state.

Hitler Stalin Pact (Nazi-soviet Pact)

let the Nazi German leader make war on Poland and Western democracies without fearing a stab in the back from the Soviet Union

Conscription law

American's first peacetime draft-provision was made for training each year 1.2 million troops and 800,000 reserves.

Red Army

Another name for the Soviet Army

War Production Board

orchestrated American factories that poured forth an avalanche of weaponry

"Arsenal of democracy"

What FDR said the US would become under lend-lease.

"Baby boomers"

The huge leap in the birthrate in the decade and a half after 1945

Coral Sea

The Battle of the Coral Sea and Midway were pivotal to victory in the Pacific.

Guadalcanal

In August 1942 American ground forces gained a toehold on Guadalcanal Island, in the Solomons, in an effort in protect the lifeline from America to Australia through the Southwest Pacific

General Montgomery

British commander in Northern Africa

Battle of the Bulge

A ten day penetration of Axis forces that was finally halted after the 101st Airborne Division stood firm at the vital battle of Bastogne.

Okinawa

a well-defended Japanese island, was next on the list: it was needed for closer bases from which to blast and burn enemy cities and industries

"White Flight"

to the green suburbs left the inner cities black, brown, and broke.

NATO

In April 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was signed by the United State, Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Iceland, and Canada. The signatories pledged that an attack against one would be considered an attack against all.

Yalta Conference

In February 1945, "The Big Three," Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin called for a conference on world organization to meet in April 1945 in the Unites States.

Cold War

When the hated Hitler fell, suspicion and rivalry between communistic, despotic Russia and capitalistic, democratic America were all but inevitable. In a fateful progression of events, marked often by misperceptions as well as by genuine conflicts of interest, the two powers provoked each other into a tense standoff known as the Cold War.

Loyalty Review Board

In response to criticism, particularly from the House Committee on Un-American Activities, that his administration was "soft on communism," Truman established this board in 1947 to review government employees.

Thomas E. Dewey

The Republicans nominated Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York in the 1948 election.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

two American citizens who had committed espionage after relaying secrets about atomic data, to Russia, enabling the Soviet Union to build an atomic bomb. They were convicted in 1951 and went to the electric chair in 1953.

Fair Deal

Truman outlined this program in his 1949 message to Congress. It called for housing, full employment, higher minimum wage, better farm supports, new TVA's and an extension of Social Security.

Police action

this was action taken by the United Nations in response to the outbreak in Korea. The countries were supporting Korea and sending reinforcements and supplies, greatly aided by the Unites States, of the UN

Satellite states

These were countries that were under the control of the Soviet Union. They were not connected to the mother country. They also had their own form of government (was limited by the Soviet Union).

Iron Curtain

This term referred to the countries possessed by the Soviets. It was used to keep the outside world from knowing what was happening within the Soviet Union. The iron curtain stretched from the Baltic to the Adriatic and separated the east from the west.

Containment

Washington foreign policy of stopping communist aggressors.

Suburbs

Suburban housing developments criticized for their monetary and cultural barrenness. They provided inexpensive and spacious housing for growing families seeking to escape the crowded confines of the cities.

Baby boom

The huge leap in the birthrate in the decade and a half after 1945.

Big Three

Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt

NSC-68

also known as the National Security Council, it was established under the National Security Act. Truman's National Security Council had recommended in this famous document of 1950 that the United States should quadruple its defense spending. The NCS-68 was resurrected by the Korean crisis.

Dean Acheson

was Secretary of State to President Truman. He and Truman were blamed by Republicans for the loss of China. In 1950 he declared in a speech that Korea was outside the essential U. S. defense perimeter in the Pacific.