Cold War and Postwar America

New Look

Eisenhower's defense strategy emphasizing nuclear weapons and "massive retaliation" instead of expanding conventional military forces

Brown v. Board of Education

The 1954 Supreme Court ruling declaring segregated public schools unconstitutional, challenging racial inequality during a period of affluence

Fair Deal

Harry Truman's postwar domestic program that sought to expand Social Security, raise the minimum wage, increase public housing, prohibit child labor, and push for expanded civil rights, including desegregating the armed forces

Is This Tomorrow

A 1947 comic book used as early Cold War propaganda that depicted Russians attacking Americans in order to revive and strengthen popular opposition to Communism and enlist citizens in resisting Soviet influence

Domino Theory

The belief that if one country fell to Communism, surrounding nations would fall as well, reinforcing U.S. commitment to containment

Rosenbergs

A couple convicted of giving atomic information to the Soviet Union and executed in 1953, though later evidence confirmed only Julius had passed information

NATO

A 1949 mutual defense alliance between the United States, Canada, and Western European nations in which members pledged to defend one another if attacked

Executive Order 9835

A 1947 order authorizing the FBI to conduct loyalty investigations of federal employees, expanding surveillance in response to fears of Communist infiltration

House Committee on Un-American Activities

Committee that investigated alleged disloyalty and suspected Communist influence in business, education, and especially Hollywood, contributing to blacklists in the entertainment industry. Abbreviated HUAC

Marshall Plan

The European Recovery Program that provided $13 billion in U.S. aid to rebuild Western Europe, encourage cooperation, reduce support for Communist parties, and boost the American economy

Iron Curtain

Winston Churchill's description of the divide between Western Europe and the Communist nations of Eastern Europe

National Security Act

A law that reorganized U.S. defense and intelligence agencies by creating the CIA, National Security Council, Department of the Air Force, and eventually the unified Department of Defense

Baby Boom

The dramatic rise in birthrates between 1946 and 1964 that shaped education, consumer culture, suburban growth, and youth identity

Containment

A Cold War strategy based on George Kennan's Long Telegram calling for limiting Soviet influence to where it already existed and preventing its political expansion

Joseph McCarthy

A senator who claimed the U.S. government was filled with Communists, led aggressive investigations, and was ultimately discredited during the televised Army-McCarthy hearings and censured by the Senate

Truman Doctrine

A U.S. policy offering financial and military assistance to Greece and Turkey to help them resist Communist movements, later expanded to any nation threatened by Communist takeover

GI Bill

Post-World War II law providing unemployment support, paying for college or job training, and offering low-interest home and business loans to veterans, though not all veterans could use their benefits equally

Sputnik

The first manmade satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, raising fears that Soviet technology surpassed U.S. capabilities

Levittown

A mass-produced suburban housing development that symbolized affordable homeownership but enforced racial restrictions