Enter: The Cold War

Chapter 35 APUSH by Snezzies on Quizlet thank you <3

Yalta conference

Meeting of FDR, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, in February 1945 at an old Tsarist resort on the Black Sea, where the Big Three leaders laid the foundations for the postwar division of power in Europe, including a divided Germany an territorial concessions to the Soviet Union.

Cold War

The 45 year diplomatic tension between the US and the Soviet Union that divided much of the world into polarized camps, capitalist against communist.

Bretton Woods Conference

Meeting of western allies to establish a postwar international economic order to avoid crises like the one that spawned WWII.

United Nations (U.N.)

International body formed in 1945 to bring nations into dialogue in hopes of preventing further world wars.

Nuremberg war crimes trial

Highly publicized proceedings against former Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity as part of the Allies denazificaiton program in postwar Germany. The trials led to several executions and long prison sentences.

Berlin airlift

Year-long mission of flying food and supplies to blockaded West Berliners, whom the Soviet Union cut off from access to the West in the first major crisis of the Cold War.

containment doctrine

America's strategy against the Soviet Union based on ideas of George Kennan, and declared that the Soviet Union and communism were inherently expansionist and had to be stopped from spreading through both military and political pressure.

Truman doctrine

President Truman's universal pledge of support for any people fighting any communist inspired threat.

Marshall Plan

Massive transfer of aid money to help rebuild postwar Western Europe, intended to bolster capitalist and democratic governments and prevent domestic communist groups from riding property and rising to power.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Military alliance of Western European powers and the US and Canada established in 1949 to defend against the common threat from the Soviet Union, marking a giant stride forward for European unity and American internationalism.

National Security Council Memorandum Number 68 (NSC-68)

National Security Council recommendation to quadruple defense spending and rapidly expand peace-time armed forces to address Cold War tensions.

Korean War

First "hot war" or the Cold War. Began in 1950 when the Soviet-backed North Koreans invaded South Korea before meeting a counter-offensive by UN Forces, dominated by the US, and the war ended in stalemate in 1953.

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

Investigatory body established in 1938 to root out "subversion." Sought to expose communist influence in American government and society, in particular through the trial of Alger Hiss.

McCarthyism

A brand of vitriolic, fear-mongering anticommunism associated with the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy. In the early 1950s, Senator McCarthy used his position in Congress to baselessly accuse high-ranking government officials and other Americans of conspiracy with communism. The term named after hum refers to the dangerous forces of unfairness and fear wrought by anticommunist paranoia.

Army-McCarthy Hearings

Congressional hearings called by Senator Joseph McCarthy to accuse members of the army of communist ties. In this widely televised spectacle, McCarthy finally went too far for public approval. The hearings exposed the senator's extremism and led to his eventual disgrace.

Executive Order 9981

Order issued by President Truman to desegregate the armed forces. The president's action resulted from a combination of pressure from civil rights advocates, election-year political calculations, and the new geopolitical context of the Cold War.

Taft-Harley Act

Republican-promoted, anti-union legislation passed over President Truman's vigorous veto that weakened many of labor's New Deal gains by banning the closed shop and other strategies that helped unions organize.

Operation Dixie

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

Employment Act of 1946

Legislation declaring that the government's economic policy should aim to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power, as well as to keep inflation low.

GI Bill

Known officially as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act and ,ore informally as the GI Bill of Rights, this law helped returning WWII soldiers reintegrate into civilian life by securing loans to buy houses and farms and set up small business and by making tuition and stipends available for them to attend college and job training programs.

Fair Deal

President Truman's extensive social program introduced in his 1949 message to Congress. Republicans and Southern Democrats kept much of his vision from being enacted, except for raising the minimum wage, providing for more public housing, and extending old-age insurance to many more beneficiaries under the Social Security Act.

Sunbelt

The 15 state crescent through the American South and Southwest that experienced terrific population and productivity expansion during WWII and particularly in the decades after the war, eclipsing the old industrial Northeast.

Levittown

Suburban communities with a mass-produced tract houses built in the NY and Philadelphia metropolitan areas in the 1950s by William Levitt and Sons.

Baby boom

Demographic explosion from births to returning soldiers and others who had put off starting families during the war.

Joseph Stalin

Soviet dictator from Lenin's death in 1922 until his own death in 1953. He led the Soveit Union through World War II and shaped Soviet policies in the early years of the Cold War and secured protectice "satellite states" in Eastern Europe at Yalta Conference while pushing Soviet scientists to develop atomic weapons, escalating an arms race with the United States

Jiang Jieshi

Leader of Chinese Nationalists, also known as Chang Kai-shek. He was defeated by Mao Zedong's communist revolutionaries in 1949 and was forced to flee to the island of Taiwan, where, with the support of the United States, he became president of the Republic of China.

George F. Kennan

American diplomat who authored the "containment doctrine" in 1947, arguing that the Soviet Union was inherently expansionist and had to be stopped, via political and military force, from spreading throughoug the world

George C. Marshall

Former World War II general who became secretary of state under President Truman. He was the originator of the concept of the Marshall Plan to provide aid to reconstruct Western Europe in 1947

Joseph McCarthy

Senator from Wisconsin who rose to infamy by accusing the State Department of employing communists. McCarthy conducted high-profile red-baiting hearings that damaged countless careers before he finally over-reached in 1954 when he went after the U.S. Army. Following the Army-McCarthy hearings, he was censured by Senate and died of alcoholism shortly thereafter.

Reinhold Niebuhr

A liberal Protestant theologian whose teachings and writings aimed to relate Christian faith to the realities of modern politics. A socialist and pacifist as a young man, he came out of World War II committed to the doctrine of the "just war" and the necessity of resisting dark forces of evil like Hitler and Stalin, while remaining outspoken in defense of progressive social causes.

Benjamin Spock

Pediatrician and author of The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, which instructed parents on modern child-rearing, replacing traditional means of passing along such knowledge. "Spock" is often said to have been the bible of the baby boomer generation.