APUSH Period 8 Key Terms

Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill)

Signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 22, 1944, this act, also known as the GI Bill, provided veterans of the Second World War funds for college education, unemployment insurance, and housing

baby boom

A cohort of individuals born in the Unite States between 1946 and 1964, which was just after World War 2 in a time of relative peace and prosperity

suburban growth

Low interest rates on mortgages that were government-insured and tax deductible made the move from the city to the suburb affordable for almost any family. In a single generation the majority of middle-class Americans became suburbanites

Levittown

Four large suburban developments created in the U.S. featuring large numbers of similar houses that were built easily and quickly, allowing rapid recovery of costs

Sunbelt

VA to FL, extending to CA; saw a large population increase after WWII and rise of key industries

Employment Act of 1946

Enacted by Truman, it committed the federal government to ensuring economic growth and established the Council of Economic Advisers

inflation

A general and progressive increase in prices

Committee on Civil Rights

Truman bypassed the southern Democrats in key seats in Congress and established this committee to challenge racial discrimination in 1946

Executive Order 9981

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

22nd Amendment

Amendment that created a 2 term limit on presidents

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

Dixiecrats

southern Democrats who opposed Truman's position on civil rights. They caused a split in the Democratic party.

Strom Thurmond

Democratic governor of South Carolina who headed the State's Rights Party (Dixiecrat); he ran for president in 1948 against Truman and his mild civil rights proposals and eventually joined the Republican Party

Fair Deal

Truman's extension of the New Deal that increased min wage, expanded Social Security, and constructed low-income housing

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

Soviet Union

A Communist nation, consisting of Russia and 14 other states, that existed from 1922 to 1991

Joseph Stalin

Communist dictator of the Soviet Union

Security Council

Five permanent members( US, UK, France, China, USSR) with veto power in the UN. Promised to carry out UN decisions with their own forces

World Bank

a United Nations agency created to assist developing nations by loans guaranteed by member governments

satellite states

Eastern European states under the control of the Soviet Union during the Cold War

Iron Curtain

A political barrier that isolated the peoples of Eastern Europe after WWII, restricting their ability to travel outside the region

Winston Churchill

A noted British statesman who led Britain throughout most of World War II and along with Roosevelt planned many allied campaigns

George Kennan

He was an American diplomat and ambassador best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War

containment

American policy of resisting further expansion of communism around the world

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)

Berlin airlift

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

East Germany

German Democratic Republic

West Germany

Federal Republic of Germany

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

An international organization that has joined together for military purposes

National Security Act

Created the Central intelligence Agency

Arms race

Cold war competition between the U.S. and Soviet Union to build up their respective armed forces and weapons

space race

A competition of space exploration between the United States and Soviet Union

Chinese civil war

War between communist Mao Zse Tong and nationalist Chaing-Kai Shek. The communists took over and forced the nationalists to retreat to Taiwan

Mao Zedong

(1893-1976) Leader of the Communist Party in China that overthrew Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalists. Established China as the People's Republic of China and ruled from 1949 until 1976

Korean War

Conflict that began with North Korea's invasion of South Korea and came to involve the United Nations allying with South Korea and the People's Republic of China allying with North Korea

38th parallel

Dividing line between North and South Korea

Loyalty Review Board

(1947) federal board set up by President Truman that checked up on government workers, and dismissed those found to be communist

McCarran Internal Security Act

1950 - Required Communists to register and prohibited them from working for the government. Truman described it as a long step toward totalitarianism. Was a response to the onset of the Korean war

House Un-American Activities Committee

A congressional committee created to search out disloyal Americans & Communists

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

the Rosenbergs

Liberal Jews who were prosecuted in the 1950's over accused spying for the Soviets. Were convicted and senteced to death, and killed in 1953

Joseph McCarthy

US senator; claimed that their were Soviet spies and Communists within the government but had no evidence; discredited by the US senate

McCarthyism

The term associated with Senator Joseph McCarthy who led the search for communists in America during the early 1950s through his leadership in the House Un-American Activities Committee

election of 1952

A race between Dwight D. Eisenhower for the republicans and Adlai Stevenson for the democrats. Eisenhower won in a landslide

election of 1956

Saw a popular Dwight D. Eisenhower successfully run for re-election. This election was a rematch of 1952, as Eisenhower's opponent was Democrat Adlai Stevenson II, whom Eisenhower had defeated four years earlier

Adlai Stevenson

The Democratic candidate who ran against Eisenhower in 1952. His intellectual speeches earned him and his supporters the term "eggheads". Lost to Eisenhower

Richard Nixon

1969-1964; Republican; Ended Vietnam War; Recognized China/ Watergate scandal; First president to resign

modern Republicanism

Eisenhower's government plan: "conservative when it comes to economics, more Liberal when it comes to social programs "

Department of Health

Department that administers federal programs dealing with public health, welfare, and income security

Education and Welfare

State government as provider

Interstate Highway Act/System

1956 Eisenhower 20 yr plan to build 41,000 mi of highway, largest public works project in history

brinkmanship

A policy of threatening to go to war in response to any enemy aggression

massive retaliation

Eisenhower's policy; it advocated the full use of American nuclear weapons to counteract even a Soviet ground attack in Europe

CIA covert action

during time when Iranian oil industry was under governments contorol

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of North Vietnam

Geneva Conference

A conference between many countries that agreed to end hostilities and restore peace in French Indochina and Vietnam

domino theory

A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

an international organization for collective defense to block further communist gains is Southeast Asia - 1954

State of Israel

Jews wanted to be given Palestine as their holy land and to be protected from persecution

Suez Canal crisis

International waterway through the Isthmus of Suez

Arab nationalism

After being decolonization many Arab nations came together to establish Pan-Arabism and a sense of nationalism and culture apart from European and American influence

Eisenhower Doctrine

Policy of the US that it would defend the Middle East against attack by any Communist country

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

an international economic organization whose member countries all produce and export oil

Nikita Khruschev

Succeeded Stalin as the head of the Soviet Communist Party and became the Soviet premier

peaceful coexistence

The thaw in cold war tensions between the superpowers

Warsaw Pact

An alliance between the Soviet Union and other Eastern European nations. This was in response to the NATO

Sputnik

The world's first space satellite. This meant the Soviet Union had a missile powerful enough to reach the US

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Defense Education Act

Provided funds for education and training in science, math ,and foreign languages

U-2 incident

A 1960 incident in which the Soviet military used a guided missile to shoot down an American U-2 spy plane over Soviet territory

Cuba and Fidel Castro

castro worked with che to overthrow baptista and the military junta, US din't want to help but russia was

military-industrial complex

Eisenhower warned of a drastic military buildup in his farewell address

Jackie Robinson

The first African American player in the major league of baseball. His actions helped to bring about other opportunities for African Americans

Thurgood Marshall

1st black supreme court justice

Brown v. Board of Education

1954 - The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated

Southern Manifesto

1956, Opposition of Southern congressmen to Brown v. Board of Education decision

Rosa Parks

Refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. After she was jailed, the Montgomery bus boycott was organized

Montgomery Bus Boycott

In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal

Martin Luther King Jr.

Civil Rights Leader. Born in Atlanta. Developed a non-violent approach to social change after studying others like Gandhi. Founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Gave the "I have a Dream Speech" at the March of Washington

Civil Rights Act of 1957

A federal law that authorized federal action against segregation in public accommodations, public facilities, and employment

Civil Rights Act of 1960

A federal law that authorized federal action against segregation in public accommodations, public facilities, and employment

Civil Rights Commission

Set up by the Civil Rights Act and was made to investigate violations of civil rights and authorized federal injunctions to protect voting rights

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

1957 group founded by Martin Luther King Jr. to fight against segregation using nonviolent means

nonviolent protest

a peaceful way of protesting against restrictive racial policies

sit-ins

to protest at lunch counters that served only whites, African Americans students began staging this

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

students whose purpose was coordinate a nonviolent attack on segregation and other forms of racism

popular culture

Culture found in a large, heterogeneous society that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics

rock and roll

music that grew out of rhythm and blues and that became popular in the 1950s

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger

beatniks

A United States youth subculture of the 1950s that rebelled against the mundane horrors of middle class life

television

Made mass media availably for people all over the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world

election of 1960

Richard Nixon, Eisenhower's former vice president, was nominated by the Republican

John F. Kennedy

US President during Vietnam who was later assassinated

New Frontier

Kennedy's plan, supports civil rights, pushes for a space program, wans to cut taxes, and increase spending for defense and military

Warren Commission

committee that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy

Peace Corps

Federal program established to send volunteers to help developing nations

Alliance for Progress

a program in which the United States tried to help Latin American countries overcome poverty and other problems

Bay of Pigs

An unsuccessful invasion of Cuba in 1961, which was sponsored by the United States. Its purpose was to overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro

Berlin Wall

A wall separating East and West Berlin built by East Germany in 1961 to keep citizens from escaping to the West