HIST202H-exam 3

court packing

court packing

In November 1936, Roosevelt was re-elected. In the months following, he tried to pass legislation to reorganize the federal judiciary by adding a new justice each time a justice reached age 70 and failed to retire.

code talkers

Many Native Americans, especially Navajos, played a role in the military by being able to encode and decipher messages using Indian languages unknown to the Germans and Japanese.

Joseph McCarthy

A Republican senator, Joseph R. McCarthy, surfaced as the most ruthless manipulator of anti-Communist anxieties. He led “McCarthyism,” except he never uncovered a single Communist agent within the federal government.

fair deal

Truman’s attempt to reinvent the elements of the New Deal that appealed to working-class voters. His proposals included providing federal aid for education and expanding unemployment benefits.

agricultural adjustment act

FDR tried to help farmers avoid bankruptcy by creating the Agricultural Adjustment Act, It created the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), which sought to raise prices for crops and herds by paying farmers to cut production.

GI bill of rights

Provided unemployment, education, and financial benefits for WW2 veterans to ease their transition back to the civilian world.

tuskegee airmen

US Army Air Corps unit of African American pilots whose combat success spurred military and civilian leaders to desegregate the armed forces after the war.

containment

US Cold War strategy sought to prevent the spread of communism through the use of political, economic, and military strategies.

battle of midway

A battle in 1942 that proved to be a turning point in the Pacific front during WW2. It was the Japanese navy’s first major defeat in 350 years.

Eleanor Roosevelt

She was referred to as her husband’s moral compass, engaged in public life, and widely beloved. She supported equal access for women in the workforce and labor unions, convinced her husband to reverse Woodrow Wilson’s policy of segregation of federal government agencies and offices, and played a role in the formation of FERA.

Richard Wright

One of the most talented novelists to emerge in the 1930s, and most of his novels had themes regarding race and social struggles during the time of the Great Depression.

berlin airlift

Effort by the US and Great Britain to deliver massive amounts of food and supplies flown to West Berlin in response to the Soviet Blockade of the city. It was the first major “victory” for the West in the cold war.

suburbia

The great migration of middle-class whites away from cities and into the suburbs post WW2. By 1970, more people lived in suburbs than in cities.

operation barbarossa

In 1941, Hitler launched “Operation Barbarossa,” a shocking invasion of the Soviet Union. His objective was to destroy communism, enslave the vast population of the Soviet Union, open up new lands for German settlement, and exploit Russia’s considerable natural resources.

tennessee valley authority

The Tennesse Valley Authority (TVA) brought electrical power, flood control efforts, and jobs to the desperately poor mountainous region of the Appalachia.

war production board

FDR transformed the nation’s war economy into the world’s most efficient military machine by transforming America’s industrial output into war production. By the end of 1942, U.S. war production exceeded the combined output of Germany, Japan, and Italy.

national security act

Reorganized the military and created the CIA and the air force.

pearl harbor

The surprise Japanese attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, which destroyed the American isolationist movement and prompted the immediate American entry into the war.

dust bowl

Vast area of the Midwest where windstorms blew away millions of tons of top-soil from parched farmland after a long drought in the 1930s, causing a great social distress and a massive migration of farm families.

war relocation camps

During WW2, President Roosevelt initiated the incarceration of Japanese Americans, 70 percent of whom were already U.S. citizens. The motive for the mass removal of Japanese Americans was to quell fears among the general public after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

lend lease act

Legislation that allowed Roosevelt to lend or lease military equipment to any country whose defense was important to the defense of the United States. Isolationists were against this act because they feared it would bring America into WW2.

social security act

FDR proposed his legislation to provide federal assistance and help the older Americans and retired workers who suffered from the Great Depression. It was the “cornerstone” of the New Deal.

bracero program

Many rural farmers moved west, and many states in the south experienced a labor shortage. The Mexican government would consent to provide the laborers if the United States promised to ensure decent working and living conditions. Thus, the bracero program allowed Mexican farm workers to work in the US under year-long contracts.

truman doctrine

Truman predicted a “domino effect” of countries falling to communism. In response, he made a program to contain communism from spreading in Eastern Europe and provide economic and military assistance to any nations at risk of a communist takeover.

huey long

Long opposed FDR and his New Deal ideas, and ran as his opponent. To launch his presidential candidacy, Long devised a simplistic plan that he called the Share-the-Wealth Society. He was Louisiana’s governor, then its powerful U.S. senator.

domino theory

Eisenhower had used what he called the “falling-domino” theory to explain why the United States needed to fight communism in Vietnam: if South Vietnam were to fall to communism, then the neighboring countries would follow suit.

wagner act

Also the National Labor Relations Act, it was a major element of the second New Deal legislation that guaranteed workers the right to organize unions and gave them direct bargaining power.

marshall plan

Secretary of State George C. Marshall’s post WW2 program which provided economic assistance to West European countries to influence them with American values. The Marshall Plan was intended to reconstruct the European economy, neutralize Communist insurgencies, and build up foreign markets for U.S. products.

NSC-68

Top secret policy paper approved by President Truman that outlined a militaristic approach to combating the spread of global communism- it became the guidebook for future American policy.

manhattan project

In June 1940, Roosevelt established the National Defense Research Committee to coordinate a top-secret effort—the Manhattan Project—to develop an atomic bomb before the Germans did. Almost 200,000 people worked on the Manhattan Project, including Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer.