us history exam 2

Works Progress Administration (1935)

The largest New Deal relief and recovery program. It employed millions of workers and built much of the nation’s public infrastructure. To give unemployed people jobs

“Court-packing”

FDR tried to add more justicies to the Supreme Court in 1937 to get outcomes he wanted, but it didn’t work

Dust Bowl

area in the West and Midwest plagued by drought and duststorms in 1930s

John Collier

head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; led the “Indian New Deal",” which protected Native American land and culture, resulting in the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

Good Neighbor Policy

FDR’s 1933 foreign policy where the U.S. promised not to militarily interfere in Latin America, treating the region with more respect

A. Philip Randolph

Civil rights leader who pressured the government for racial equality, leading Truman to sign Executive Order 9981 (1948) desegrating the military

Neutrality Acts

Laws passed in 1930s to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars by preventing the government and business from selling weapons or giving aid to countries at war

Lend-lease Act

1941 law allowing the U.S. to lend or lease weapons and supplies to Allied countries fighting in WWI without directly entering the war

Bataan Death March

Brutal forced march of Filipino and American prisoners of war by Japanese Army in WWII, resulting in thousands of deaths; symbolized Japanese brutality

Battle of Midway

Major naval battle fought June 4-7, 1942 in the Pacific during WWII, considered a turning point against Japan

Double V Campaign

Launched by the Pittsburgh Courier (newspaper) in 1942; Black Americans demanded victory against both the enemy in WWII and racial discrimination in the U.S.

GI Bill of Rights

(Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944) landmark law that provided returning WWII veterans with benefits like education funding, home loans, and employment assistance

Japanese Internment (1942-1945)

Following Pearl Harbor, the U.S. forcibly imprisoned over 120,000 Japanese Americans in internement camps due to fear and racial prejudice

Zoot Suit Riots

June 1943 in Los Angeles, marines and local police attacked Latino, Black, and Filipino youths who wore flashy “zoot suits,” rooted in racial rensions against Mexican Americans

Manhattan Project

Secret U.S. project during WWII to develop the atomic bomb, led by J. Robert Oppenheimer; resulting in bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945

Truman Doctrine

1947 policy where the U.S. pledged to defend allies against the spread of Communism around the globe

Marshall Plan

Massive U.S. foreign aid program after WWII to help Western Europe and Japan rebuild their economies and prevent the spread of Communism

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Alliance created in 1949 by Western nations for mutual defense against the Soviet Union

George F. Kennan

Soviet expert who developed the policy of “containment” in 1946, which became the foundation of U.S. foreign policy against the Soviet Union for decades

Korean Conflict

June 1950, Soviet-supplied North Korean army invaded South Korea across the 38th-parallel, drawing the U.S. into conflict

HUAC (House Commitee to Un-American Activities)

Congressional committee formed in 1935 to investigate Communist infiltration in the U.S., including the labor movement and federal agencies

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

American couple convicted in 1951 of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union; sentenced to death and executed in 1953, becoming the first American civilicans executed for espionage

Beats (or Beatniks)

Post-WWII writers who rejected mainstream American society and celebrated nonconformity and experimentation

“Flexible Response”

JFK’s 1961 strategy giving the U.S. multiple ways to respond to Soviet threats beyond just nuclear weapons

Bay of Pigs

1961 failed CIA-led invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, approved by JFK, attempting to overthrow Fidel Castro (Cuba Communist leader)

Cuban Missile Crisis

October 1962 standoff between the U.S. and Soviet Union after the Soviets began installing nuclear missiles in Cuba, the most dramatic nuclear confrontation of the Cold War

James Merideth

First Black student to attend the University of Mississippi (1962) helping enforce the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling to desegregate public education

Betty Friedan

Author of The Feminine Mystique (1963); co-founded NOW (1966) to advocate for women’s equal rights and equal pay

Watts Riot

1965 uprising in Los Angeles sparked by police brutality and poverty; showed the country that racial inequality wasn’t just a Southern problem; 34 people died and 4,000 were arrested

Black Panthers

Radical civil rights organization founded in Oakland (1966) by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale; advocated Black self-determination and armed self-defense against police brutality

Alcatraz

1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island by Native American activists for 19 months, demanding the federal government turn over the land; brought national attention to Native American rights

Wounded Knee

1973 occupation by AIM (American Indian Movement) activists in South Dakota; 71-day standoff with federal marshals demanding investigation of corruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)