US History 2nd Semester Exam Vocab Review

totalitarianism

Theory of government in which a single party or leader controls the economic, social, and cultural lives of its people.

Benito Mussolini

Dictator of Italy and leader of the Fascist Party.

Adolf Hitler

Dictator of Germany & the Nazi Party

anti-semitic

Predjudiced against Jewish People

appeasement

It is a policy of granting concessions to a potential enemy in the hope that it will maintain peace.

Munich Pact

Agreement that preserved peace for for approximately 11 months, "not our time!"

blitzkrieg

A sudden attack that hit Poland from three directions meaning lightening war. Using tanks, planes, and motorized vehicles in an all out assault with an emphasis on speed and power.

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, Japan and others...

Allies

Britain, France, United States, Soviet Union, and many others...

Lend-Lease Act

Numbered 1976, Act authorized Roosevelt to sell, transfer, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of any defense article in the interest of the United States.

Pearl Harbor

Hawaii, the site of the United States Navy's main Pacific Base.

WAC

Women's Army Corps, which allowed women to serve in non-combat roles in the U.S. Army during WWII

December 7, 1941

date of the attack on Pearl Harbor, marking America's entry into WWII

September 1, 1939

date of Germany's invasion of Poland, marking the beginning of WWII

isolationism

view that the United States should stay out of conflicts with other nations

interventionism

view that the United States should be involved in world politics and conflicts such as WWI and WWII

Unconditonal Surrender

Giving up completly without any concessions.

Saturation bombing

Tactic of dropping massive amounts of bombs in order to inflict maximum damage.

Strategic bombing

Tactic of dropping bombs on key political and industrial targets.

Bracero Program

Plan that brought laborers from Mexico to work on American farms.

Internment

Temporary imprisonment of members of a specific group.

D-Day

June 6, 1944, the day Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy, France.

Battle Of The Bulge

In Decmber 1944, Hitler orderd a counterattack on Allied troops in Belgium, but it crippled Germany by using up reserves and demoralizing its troops.

Harry S. Truman

U.S. president at the end of WWII; gave the order to drop the atomic bomb

Island hopping

World War 2 strategy that involved seizing selected japanses- held islands in the Pacific while bypassing others.

Kamikaze

Japanese pilots who deliberately crashed planes into American ships during World War 2.

Manhattan Project

Code name of the project that developed the atomic bomb.

Holocaust

Name now used to decribe the systematic murder of Jews by the Nazi.

Anit-Semitism

Prejudice and discrimination against Jewish people.

Genocide

Willful annihilation of a racial, political, or cultureal group.

Concentration Camp

Camps used by the Nazis to imprisom "undesirable" members of society.

Superpower

Powerful country that plays a dominant economic, political, and military role in the world.

United Nations (UN)

Organization founded in 1945 to promote peace.

Rationing

Government controlled limits on the amount of certain goods that civilians could buy during wartime.

Korematsu v. United States

court case in which the Supreme Court allowed the government to continue its policy of Japanese-American internment

black market

illegal buying and selling of outlawed or restricted goods

Franklin D. Roosevelt

leader of the United States at the beginning of WWII

Hideki Tojo

prime minister of Japan during WWII

WInston Churchill

prime minister of the United Kingdom during most of WWII

Auschwitz

largest and most infamous Nazi death camp

Hiroshima

Japanese city that was hit with the first atomic bomb on August 6, 1945

Satellite State

Country controlled by a more powerful nation

Cold War

Worldwide rivalry between the U.S. and Soviet Union

Iron Curtain

term for the Cold War division between the Soviet-dominated East and the U.S.-dominated West.

Containment

keeping Communism from spreading to countries that are not Communist

Marshall Plan

a United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe (1948-1952)

NATO

an international organization created in 1949 by North American and Western European nations for purposes of collective security

Warsaw Pact

treaty signed in 1945 that formed an alliance of the Eastern European countries behind the Iron Curtain

Mao Zedong

Chinese communist leader until his death in 1976

Limited War

war fought to achieve only specific goals

Arms Race

a competition between nations to have the most powerful armaments

CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)

an independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

an independent agency of the United States government responsible for aviation and spaceflight

Sputnik

The world's first space satellite; launched by the Soviets

Red Scare

a period of general fear of communists

Blacklist

put on a blacklist so as to banish or cause to be boycotted

Joseph R. McCarthy

led a crusade to investigate officials he claimed were Communists

McCarthyism

unscrupulously accusing people of disloyalty (as by saying they were Communists)

Soviet Bloc

The communist nations in Eastern Europe closely allied with the Soviet Union

Berlin Blockade

Soviet efforts to close off West Berlin from outside trade and force the city to accept communist rule

Harry Truman

president from 1945 to 1953

Joseph Stalin

Communist dictator of the Soviet Union from 1927-1953

Massive Retaliation

A military doctrine and nuclear strategy in which a state commits itself to respond with much greater force in the event of an attack.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

president from 1953 to 1961