The American Pageant 17th Edition Key Terms and People Chapter 34

Yalta Conference

1945 Meeting with US president FDR, British Prime Minister(PM) Winston Churchill, and and Soviet Leader Stalin during WWII to plan for post-war

Cold War

A conflict that was between the US and the Soviet Union. The nations never directly confronted each other on the battlefield but deadly threats went on for years.

Bretton Woods Conference

1944, (FDR) , The common name for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in New Hampshire, 44 nations at war with the Axis powers met to create a world bank to stabilize international currency, increase investment in under-developed areas, and speed the economic recovery of Europe.

United Nations

An international organization formed after WWII to promote international peace, security, and cooperation.

Nurenburg Trials 1945-1946

After WWII, the Allied forces agreed that Nazism had to be cut out of Germany. They tried twenty-two Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, Germany. 12 of the tried were hung, and 7 sent to jail.

Berlin Airlift

airlift in 1948 that supplied food and fuel to citizens of west Berlin when the Russians closed off land access to Berlin

Containment Doctrine

A foreign policy strategy advocated by George Kennan that called for the United States to isolate the Soviet Union, "contain" its advances, and resist its encroachments by peaceful means if possible, but by force if necessary.

Truman Doctrine

1947, President Truman's policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology, mainly helped Greece and Turkey

Marshall Plan

A United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe (1948-1952)

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

Military alliance created in 1949 made up of 12 non-Communist countries including the United States that support each other if attacked.

National Security Council

An office created in 1947 to coordinate the president's foreign and military policy advisers. Its formal members are the president, vice president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense, and it is managed by the president's national security assistant.

Korean War

The conflict between Communist North Korea and Non-Communist South Korea. The United Nations (led by the United States) helped South Korea.

House UnAmerican Activities

A commitee of The U.S House of Representatives created to investigate disloyal and subversive organizations and to uncover citizens with Nazi ties in the US. Its first chairman, Martin Dies, set the pattern for its anti-communist investigations.

McCartyism

anti-communist attitude/actions associated w/senator Joe McCarthy in the early 1950s including smear tactics and innuendo

Army-McCarthy Hearings

The Trials in which Senator McCarthey accused the U.S. Army of harboring possible communists.These trials were one of the first televised trials in America, and helped show America Senator McCarthey's irresponsibility and meanness.

executive order 9981

Establishes equality of treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services for people of all race, religions, or national origins

Taft-Hartley Act

Act that provides balance of power between union and management by designating certain union activities as unfair labor practices; also known as Labor-Management Relations Act (LMRA)

Operation Dixie

Failed effort by the CIO after World War II to unionize southern workers, especially in textile factories.

Employment Act of 1946

Enacted by Truman, it committed the federal government to ensuring economic growth and established the Council of Economic Advisors to confer with the president and formulate policies for maintaining employment, production, and purchasing power

GI Bill

law passed in 1944 to help returning veterans buy homes and pay for higher educations

Fair Deal

An economic extension of the New Deal proposed by Harry Truman that called for higher minimum wage, housing and full employment. It led only to the Housing Act of 1949 and the Social Security Act of 1950 due to opposition in congress.

Sunbelt

A region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the South and Southwest that has seen substantial population growth in recent decades, partly fueled by a surge in retiring baby boomers who migrate domestically, as well as the influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal.

Levittown

In 1947, William Levitt used mass production techniques to build inexpensive homes in surburban New York to help relieve the postwar housing shortage. Levittown became a symbol of the movement to the suburbs in the years after WWII.

Redlining

A process by which banks draw lines on a map and refuse to lend money to purchase or improve property within the boundaries.

Baby Boom

A cohort of individuals born in the United States between 1946 and 1964, which was just after World War II in a time of relative peace and prosperity. These conditions allowed for better education and job opportunities, encouraging high rates of both marriage and fertility.

Joesph Stalin

Ruled the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953. Ruled with an iron fist, using Five-Year Plans to increase industrial production and terror to crush opposition.

Jiang Jieshi

Chinese nationalist leader that was against Mao; supported by the US; loss to Mao, so he and his followers fled to Taiwan

Alger Hiss

A former State Department official who was accused of being a Communist spy and was convicted of perjury. The case was prosecuted by Richard Nixon.

George F. Kennan

an American advisor, diplomat, political scientist, and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War. He later wrote standard histories of the relations between Russia and the Western powers.

George C. Marshall

The head of allied forces in World War II; proposed economic aid to to rebuild Western Europe -> Marshall Plan

Joseph McCarthy

1950s; Wisconsin senator claimed to have list of communists in American gov't, but no credible evidence; took advantage of fears of communism post WWII to become incredibly influential; "McCarthyism" was the fearful accusation of any dissenters of being communists

Reinhold Niebuhr

Influential liberal protestant clergyman who crusaded against what he perceived as the drift away from Christian foundations for over five decades after WWI. He was vehemently against fascism, communism, and pacifism, and divided the world into "children of light" and "children of darkness."

Benjamin Spock

Pediatrician in the 1940s whose book "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care" influenced the upbringing of children around the world.