UNIT 4 KEY TERMS

Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act

This act reversed traditional high-protective-tariff policies by allowing the president to negotiate lower tariffs with trade partners, without Senate approval. Its chief architect was Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who believed that tariff barriers choked off foreign trade.

Rome-Berlin Axis

1936; close cooperation between Italy and Germany, and soon Japan joined; resulted from Hitler; who had supported Ethiopia and Italy, he overcame Mussolini's lingering doubts about the Nazis.

Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937

Short-sighted acts passed in 1935, 1936, and 1937 in order to prevent American participation in a European War. Among other restrictions, they prevented Americans from selling munitions to foreign belligerents.

Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Idealistic American volunteers who served in the Spanish Civil War, defending Spanish republican forces from the fascist General Francisco Franco's nationalist coup. Some 3,000 Americans served alongside volunteers from other countries.

Quarantine Speech

The speech was an act of condemnation of Japan's invasion of China in 1937 and called for Japan to be quarantined. FDR backed off the aggressive stance after criticism, but it showed that he was moving the country slowly out of isolationism.

Appeasement

A policy of making concessions to an aggressor in the hopes of avoiding war. Associated with Neville Chamberlain's policy of making concessions to Adolf Hitler.

Hitler-Stalin Pact

Treaty signed on August 23, 1939 in which Germany and the Soviet Union agreed not to fight each other. The fateful agreement paved the way for German aggression against Poland and the Western democracies.

Neutrality Act of 1939 ( Cash-Carry)

Legislation initiates "cash and carry" method of making American weapons available on the world market if allies pay cash and ship arms themselves (evades former Neutrality Acts)

London Economic Conference

A sixty-nation economic conference organized to stabilize international currency rates. By Roosevelt revoking U.S. participation, there was a deeper world economic crisis.

Good Neighbor Policy

FDR's foreign policy of promoting better relations w/Latin America by using economic influence rater than military force in the region

War Refugee Board

Federal agency created in 1944 to try to help people threatened with murder by the Nazis

Lend-Lease Bill

lending/leasing American arms to reeling democracies provided that they be returned later; basically a stray from neutrality, which Hitler realized and began attacking U.S. ships

Atlantic Charter

1941-Pledge signed by US president FDR and British prime minister Winston Churchill not to acquire new territory as a result of WWII amd to work for peace after the war

ABC-1 Agreement

Agreement with Britain that adopted the strategy to defeat Germany before concentrating on Japan

Executive Order No. 9066

Law that forced many Japanese-Americans into internment camps, potentially unconstitutional although deemed so by the Supreme Court.

War Production Board

During WWII, FDR established it to allocated scarce materials, limited or stopped the production of civilian goods, and distributed contracts among competing manufacturers

Office of Price Administration

WWII Office that installs price controls on essential items to prevent inflation

National War Labor Board

A board that negotiated labor disputes and gave workers what they wanted to prevent strikes that would disrupt the war

Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act

1943

*Congress was concerned about the loss of production due to labor strikes

*The Act authorized the federal government to seize and operate industries stopped by strikes

WAC, WAVES, SPARS

The women's branches of the U.S. Army established during World War II to employ women in noncombatant jobs. Women now participated in the armed services in ways that went beyond their traditional roles as nurses.

Bracero Program

Plan that brought laborers from Mexico to work on American farms

A. Phillip Randolph

He was the black leader of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. He demanded equal opportunities in war jobs and armed forces during WWII. He helped encourage the end of segregation in the military, although that happened after the war.

Fair Employment Practices Commission

FDR issued this committee in 1941 to enforce the policy of prohibiting employment-related discrimination practices by federal agencies, unions, and companies involved in war-related work It guaranteed the employment of 2 million black workers in the war factories.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

an interracial group founded in 1942 by James Farmer to work against segregation in Northern cities

Battle of Midway

1942 World War II battle between the United States and Japan, a turning point in the war in the Pacific

Douglas MacArthur

American general, who commanded allied troops in the Pacific during World War II.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

led the Allied invasion of North African and planned and executed the D-Day invasion at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge

D-Day

June 6, 1944 - Led by Eisenhower, over a million troops (the largest invasion force in history) stormed the beaches at Normandy and began the process of re-taking France. The turning point of World War II.

Thomas E. Dewey

the Governor of New York (1943-1955) and the unsuccessful Republican candidate for the U.S. Presidency in 1944 and 1948

V-E Day

May 8, 1945; victory in Europe Day when the Germans surrendered

Potsdam Conference

July 26, 1945 - Allied leaders Truman, Stalin and Churchill met in Germany to set up zones of control and to inform the Japanese that if they refused to surrender at once, they would face total destruction.

Manhattan Project

code name for the secret United States project set up in 1942 to develop atomic bombs for use in World War II

Harry S. Truman

Became president when FDR died; gave the order to drop the atomic bomb

V-J Day

"Victory over Japan day" is the celebration of the Surrender of Japan, which was initially announced on August 15, 1945