Studied by 46 people
Social Welfare State (p. 768)
A term applied to industrial democracies that adopt various government-guaranteed social-welfare programs. The creation of Social Security and other measures of the Second New Deal fundamentally changed American society and established a national welfare state for the first time.
National Socialist (Nazi) Party (p. 768)
German political party led by Adolf Hitler, who became chancellor of Germany in 1933. The party’s ascent was fueled by huge World War I reparation payments, economic depression, fear of communism, labor unrest, and rising unemployment.
Rome-Berlin Axis (p. 769)
A political and military alliance formed in 1936 between German dictator Adolf Hitler and the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Neutrality Act of 1935 (p. 769)
Legislation that sought to avoid entanglement in foreign wars while protecting trade. It imposed an embargo on selling arms to warring countries and declared that Americans traveling on the ships of belligerent nations did so at their own risk.
Popular Front (p. 770)
A small but vocal group of Americans who pushed for greater U.S. involvement in Europe. American Communist Party members, African American civil rights activists, and trade unionists, among other members of the Popular Front coalition, encouraged Roosevelt to take a stronger stand against European fascism.
Munich Conference (p. 770)
A conference in Munich held in September 1938 during which Britain and France agreed to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland — a German-speaking border area of Czechoslovakia — in return for Hitler’s pledge to seek no more territory.
Committee to Defend America By Aiding the Allies (p. 771)
A group of interventionists who believed in engaging with, rather than withdrawing from, international developments. Interventionists became increasingly vocal in 1940 as war escalated in Europe.
America First Committee (p. 771)
The America First Committee (AFC) was the foremost United States isolationist pressure group against American entry into World War II. Launched in September 1940, it surpassed 800,000 members in 450 chapters at its peak.
Four Freedoms (p. 771)
Identified by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the most basic human rights: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The president used these ideas of freedom to justify support for England during World War II, which in turn pulled the United States into the war.
Lend-Lease Act (p. 771)
Legislation in 1941 that enabled Britain to obtain arms from the United States without cash but with the promise to reimburse the United States when the war ended. The act reflected Roosevelt’s desire to assist the British in any way possible, short of war.
Atlantic Charter (p. 772)
A press release by President Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill in August 1941 calling for economic cooperation, national self-determination, and guarantees of political stability after the war.
Pearl Harbor (p. 773)
A naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that was attacked by Japanese bombers on December 7, 1941; more than 2,400 Americans were killed. The following day, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan.
War Powers Act (p. 773)
The law that gave President Roosevelt unprecedented control over all aspects of the war effort during World War II.
Revenue Act (p. 775)
An act that expanded the number of people paying income taxes from 3.9 million to 42.6 million. These taxes on personal incomes and business profits paid half the cost of World War II.
Revenue Act (p. 775)
An act that expanded the number of people paying income taxes from 3.9 million to 42.6 million. These taxes on personal incomes and business profits paid half the cost of World War II.
Code Talkers (p. 776)
Native American soldiers trained to use native languages to send messages in battle during World War II. Neither the Japanese nor the Germans could decipher the codes used by these Navajo, Comanche, Choctaw, and Cherokee speakers, and the messages they sent gave the Allies great advantage in the battle of Iwo Jima, among many others.
Executive Order 8802 (p. 780)
An order signed by President Roosevelt in 1941 that prohibited “discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin” and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).
Serviceman’s Readjustment Act (1944) (p. 780)
Popularly known as the GI Bill, legislation authorizing the government to provide World War II veterans with funds for education, housing, and health care, as well as loans to start businesses and buy homes.
Zoot Suits (p. 783)
Oversized suits of clothing in fashion in the 1940s, particularly among young male African Americans and Mexican Americans. In June 1943, a group of white sailors and soldiers in Los Angeles, seeking revenge for an earlier skirmish with Mexican American youths, attacked anyone they found wearing a zoot suit in what became known as the zoot suit riots.
Executive Order 9066 (p. 787)
An order signed by President Roosevelt in 1941 that authorized the War Department to force Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes and hold them in relocation camps for the rest of the war.
D- Day (p. 790)
June 6, 1944, the date of the Allied invasion of northern France. D-Day was the largest amphibious assault in world history. The invasion opened a second front against the Germans and moved the Allies closer to victory in Europe.
Holocaust (p. 792)
Germany’s campaign during World War II to exterminate all Jews living in German-controlled lands, along with other groups the Nazis deemed “undesirable.” In all, some 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust, most of them Jews.
Manhattan Project (p. 793)
Top-secret project authorized by Franklin Roosevelt in 1942 to develop an atomic bomb ahead of the Germans. The Americans who worked on the project at Los Alamos, New Mexico (among other highly secretive sites around the country), succeeded in producing a successful atomic bomb by July 1945.
Yalta Conference (p. 806)
A meeting in Yalta of President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and Joseph Stalin in February 1945, in which the leaders discussed the treatment of Germany, the status of Poland, the creation of the United Nations, and Russian entry into the war against Japan.
United Nations (p. 807)
An international body agreed upon at the Yalta Conference, and founded at a conference in San Francisco in 1945, consisting of a General Assembly, in which all nations are represented, and a Security Council of the five major Allied powers — the United States, Britain, France, China, and the Soviet Union — and seven other nations elected on a rotating basis.
Potsdam Conference (p. 807)
The July 1945 conference in which American officials convinced the Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin to accept German reparations only from the Soviet zone, or far eastern part of Germany. The agreement paved the way for the division of Germany into East and West.
Containment (p. 808)
The basic U.S. policy of the Cold War, which sought to contain communism within its existing geographic boundaries. Initially, containment focused on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, but in the 1950s it came to include China, North Korea, and other parts of the developing world.
Truman Doctrine (p. 809)
President Harry S. Truman’s commitment to “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” First applied to Greece and Turkey in 1947, it became the justification for U.S. intervention into several countries during the Cold War.
Marshall Plan (p. 809)
Aid program begun in 1948 to help European economies recover from World War II.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (p. 812)
Military alliance formed in 1949 among the United States, Canada, and Western European nations to counter any possible Soviet threat.
Warsaw Pact (p. 813)
A military alliance established in Eastern Europe in 1955 to counter the NATO alliance; it included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.
NSC-68 (p. 813)
Top-secret government report of April 1950 warning that national survival in the face of Soviet communism required a massive military buildup.
Cold War Liberalism (p. 818)
A combination of moderate liberal politics that preserved the programs of the New Deal welfare state and forthright anticommunism that vilified the Soviet Union abroad and radicalism at home. Adopted by President Truman and the Democratic Party during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Taft-Hartley Act (p. 819)
A Law passed by the Republican-controlled Congress in 1947 that overhauled the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, placing restrictions on organized labor that made it more difficult for unions to organize workers.
Fair Deal (p. 820)
The domestic policy agenda announced by President Harry S. Truman in 1949. Including civil rights, health care, and education reform, Truman’s initiative was only partially successful in Congress.
Loyal-Security Program (p. 821)
A program created in 1947 by President Truman that permitted officials to investigate any employee of the federal government for “subversive” activities.
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) (p. 821)
A Congressional committee especially prominent during the early years of the Cold War that investigated Americans who might be disloyal to the government or might have associated with Communists or other radicals.
“New Look” (p. 826)
A defense policy of the Eisenhower administration that stepped up the production of the hydrogen bomb and developed long-range bombing capabilities.
Domino Theory (p. 828)
Premier of the Soviet Union from 1958-1964, he was a communist party official who emerged from the power struggle after Stalin's death in 1953 to lead the USSR. He crushed a pro-Western uprising of Hungary in 1956, and, in 1958, issued an ultimatum for Western evacuation of Berlin.
Eisenhower Doctrine (p. 829)
President Eisenhower’s 1957 declaration that the United States would actively combat communism in the Middle East.
Bay of Pigs (p. 830)
A failed U.S.-sponsored invasion of Cuba in 1961 by anti-Castro forces who planned to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government.
Cuban Missile Crisis (p. 831)
The 1962 nuclear standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States when the Soviets attempted to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba.
Peace Corps (p. 832)
Program launched by President Kennedy in 1961 through which young American volunteers helped with education, health, and other projects in developing countries around the world.
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