APUSH Ch. 27 Terms

Tehran Conference

The first major Allied conference held in 1943 where Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met to coordinate military strategy and discuss post-war planning.

Lublin Poles

The Soviet-backed Polish provisional government installed by Stalin in Lublin, Poland, as opposed to the London-based Polish government-in-exile.

Yalta

The 1945 conference where Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin negotiated post-war European borders, the fate of Poland, and Soviet entry into the Pacific War.

Big 3

The three major Allied leaders — Franklin D. Roosevelt (USA), Winston Churchill (Britain), and Joseph Stalin (USSR) — who directed Allied strategy in WWII.

United Nations

The international peacekeeping organization established in 1945 to promote cooperation, security, and diplomacy among nations, replacing the failed League of Nations.

Security Council

The UN body responsible for maintaining international peace and security, consisting of five permanent members (USA, USSR, UK, France, China) with veto power.

Potsdam Conference

The 1945 post-war summit where Truman, Stalin, and Attlee finalized plans for Germany's occupation, reparations, and issued an ultimatum to Japan.

Chiang Kai-Shek

The Nationalist Chinese leader who fought Mao Zedong's Communist forces in the Chinese Civil War and later retreated to Taiwan after his defeat in 1949.

George Kennan

American diplomat and architect of the containment policy who argued in his "Long Telegram" and "X Article" that Soviet expansion must be firmly resisted.

Containment

The U.S. Cold War foreign policy strategy, largely shaped by Kennan, aimed at preventing the further spread of Soviet communism beyond its existing borders.

Truman Doctrine

Truman's 1947 policy pledging U.S. military and economic aid to any nation threatened by communist takeover, first applied to Greece and Turkey.

Marshall Plan

The 1948 U.S. economic recovery program that provided over $12 billion to rebuild war-devastated Western European economies and resist communist influence.

Atomic Energy Commission

The U.S. civilian agency created in 1946 to oversee and control the development and production of nuclear weapons and atomic energy research.

National Security Act of 1947

Legislation that reorganized the U.S. military establishment, creating the Department of Defense, the CIA, the NSC, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a 1949 military alliance among Western nations pledging mutual defense against Soviet aggression.

Warsaw Pact

The Soviet-led military alliance formed in 1955 among communist Eastern Bloc nations as a counter to NATO.

Berlin Airlift

The 1948–49 operation in which Western powers airlifted supplies into West Berlin after the Soviets blockaded all land access to the city.

People's Republic of China

The communist government established by Mao Zedong in 1949 after defeating Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War.

NSC-68

A top-secret 1950 National Security Council document that called for a massive buildup of U.S. military spending to confront the growing Soviet threat.

G.I. Bill of Rights

The 1944 Servicemen's Readjustment Act providing returning WWII veterans with education benefits, low-cost mortgages, and job training assistance.

Fair Deal

Truman's domestic policy program that sought to expand New Deal reforms, including national health insurance, civil rights legislation, and housing programs.

Taft-Hartley Act

The 1947 labor law passed over Truman's veto that restricted union powers, banned the closed shop, and required union leaders to swear they were not communists.

Dixiecrats

Southern conservative Democrats who broke from the party in 1948 over civil rights, forming the States' Rights Democratic Party and nominating Strom Thurmond for president.

Thomas Dewey

The Republican presidential candidate in 1948 who was widely expected to defeat Truman but lost in one of the greatest upsets in American electoral history.

Shelley v. Kraemer

The 1948 Supreme Court ruling that courts could not enforce racially restrictive housing covenants, a landmark early civil rights decision.

Film Noir

A dark, cynical style of American filmmaking popular in the 1940s–50s characterized by moral ambiguity, shadowy visuals, crime themes, and Cold War-era anxiety.

Fallout Shelters

Underground or reinforced structures built during the Cold War to protect civilians from nuclear blast and radioactive fallout in the event of atomic attack.

38th Parallel

The line of latitude dividing North and South Korea that served as the boundary before the Korean War and was roughly restored as the armistice line in 1953.

Syngman Rhee

The staunchly anti-communist first president of South Korea, whose authoritarian government ruled with U.S. backing during and after the Korean War.

Douglas MacArthur

The U.S. general commanding UN forces in Korea who was fired by Truman in 1951 for publicly challenging civilian authority and advocating war with China.

2nd Red Scare

The wave of intense anti-communist fear and suspicion in the late 1940s–50s that led to widespread investigations, blacklists, and violations of civil liberties.

HUAC

The House Un-American Activities Committee, which investigated alleged communist influence in American institutions, most famously targeting Hollywood figures.

Alger Hiss

A senior State Department official accused of being a Soviet spy by Whittaker Chambers; convicted of perjury in 1950, fueling fears of communist infiltration.

Federal Loyalty Program

Truman's 1947 executive program that investigated federal employees for communist ties or subversive activities, dismissing those deemed security risks.

Klaus Fuchs

A British-German physicist and Soviet spy who passed atomic bomb secrets to the USSR while working on the Manhattan Project, arrested in 1950.

David Greenglass

An army machinist at Los Alamos who passed atomic secrets to the Soviets and whose testimony helped convict his sister Ethel and brother-in-law Julius Rosenberg.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

American civilians convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union and executed in 1953, the only U.S. civilians put to death for espionage during the Cold War.

McCarran Internal Security Act

The 1950 law requiring communist organizations to register with the government and authorizing detention of suspected subversives during national emergencies.

Joseph McCarthy

The Wisconsin senator whose reckless and unsubstantiated accusations of communist infiltration dominated American politics from 1950 until his censure in 1954.

Dwight Eisenhower

The Supreme Allied Commander in WWII who became the 34th U.S. president in 1953, pursuing a moderate "Modern Republicanism" and ending the Korean War.

Richard Nixon

Eisenhower's vice president, former California congressman, and fierce anti-communist who rose to prominence through the Alger Hiss case.

Checkers Speech

Nixon's famous 1952 televised address defending himself against accusations of improper campaign funds, named for his family's dog Checkers.

Adlai Stevenson

The witty and intellectual Democratic presidential candidate who lost to Eisenhower in both 1952 and 1956, becoming a symbol of liberal Democratic politics.