His 102 Final Exam

Heinz Guderian

Heinz Guderian

• Developed Blitzkrieg or “lightning war” in his book Achtung Panzer

• Idea was to use tanks in huge, fast groups to break through the trenches, drive to depth, and encircle enemy forces

Blitzkrieg*

• Way to encircle and defeat an enemy army

• Germans think they have revolutionized war, but they haven’t because it had worked before (Napoleon, the Romans, Hannibal)

• What Germans had invented was a faster win to win a battle

Douhet

• Created a book called “Command of the Air”

Command of the Air

• Introduction of Douhet’s ideas of strategic bombing

Strategic Bombing

• Bombing the enemy’s economy and ability to wage war

• If this worked, the enemy army would be starving, without supply, and useless

  • You wouldn’t really need much of an army to defeat them

Area Bombing Directive

• Since previous bombers were wildly inaccurate with their bombing skills, they just decided to bomb the cities and their civilians

Maginot Line

• Quickly disposing of Poland, Hitler now turned west to France

• The French expected a German attack

• In defense, the French constructed a line of fortifications guarding the French/German border

Ardennes

• French protected rugged forest that they were sure the Germans would not pass through

• And indeed the German original plan called for them to attack right straight into Belgium as the French expected

Gamelin

• French military commander who made a critical error

• Instead of sticking with the plan France had in place for decades, he decided to move forward into Belgium, leaving the French to fight a battle or maneuver it was not prepared for

Manstein

• German commander who was backed by Hitler himself

• Opted for a plan to launch a surprise attack through the Ardennes

Stalin

• Held power as as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922-1952) and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1941-1953)

• Consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s

Operation Barbarossa*

• German plan to invade Russia, biggest military operation ever in history

• 3 million Germans are ready to attack with one thrust aimed toward St Petersburg, another towards Moscow, and another towards Stalingrad

• But Russia is a huge country and has space to use against the Germans (Russians can produce in a month what Germany produces in a year)

• Invasion made little military sense

Einsatzgruppen

• Tasked with the enslavement or slaughter of the Russian population to replace it with the German population

The Holocaust*

• Einsatzgruppen are the leading edge of the Holocaust

• German effort began at the Wannsee Conference of 1942

• Efforts to wipe out the Jews and Slavs of Europe

• Killed 6 million Jews

Wannsee Conference (should be part of the Holocaust answer if given as a short answer question)

• Meeting of senior government officials of Nazi Germany and Schutzstaffel leaders

• Nazi conference held in Wannsee, Berlin on Jan. 20, 1942, which decided to carry out the “Final Solution”

Sophie Scholl

• German teenage girl who chose not to ignore the Holocaust based on her religion

• One of the brave few to do so, killed from her beliefs

Pearl Harbor

• United States military base on Hawaii that was bombed by Japan on December 7, 1941

• Japanese plan was to strike hard here then erect a series of defenses around their home islands

• Knew that we were stronger than them, but hoped and believed that we wouldn’t have the guts to face the difficult war that lay ahead

D-Day (Normandy)

• June 6, 1944

• Allies launched an invasion in Normandy of the European mainland during World War II

  • However, did not win WWII

Manhattan Project*

• Secret U.S. project led by Robert Oppenheimer to develop the atomic bomb

• Real gamble

• Truman makes the decisions to drop bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• Bombing was so powerful here that it burned the shadows of people who were incinerated onto the pavement and nearby buildings

Bi Polar World

• World is ruled by 2 powerful countries

• Only two countries that matter

  • The United States and the Soviet Union

• Different parts of power are distributed all across the world

Monolithic Nature of Communism

• Belief that all communists in the world are working together on the same team to overthrow us

• Very oversimplified and dangerous way to look at the world

Containment*

• Opposite of appeasement

• American policy of resisting the further expansion of communism around the world

• Best represented in the Truman Doctrine dealing with Greece and Turkey in 1946

Truman Doctrine*

• Principle that the US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or Communist insurrection

• “The United States will defend any free nation from attack from without and revolution from within”

• America takes Britain’s place as the “policeman of the world”

Greece and Turkey

• First countries to receive help through the Truman Doctrine

• Joined NATO to guarantee their stability

Domino Theory

• Idea that says if we don’t contain, even in a place like Vietnam, it will set off a chain reaction of countries falling to communism that will end with our own fall

1949 (China and Russia)

• Soviets detonate their own atom bomb, falling ahead of schedule

• China falls to communism, which means Containment has failed dramatically

• All of this forces us to rethink our Cold War strategy

Korean War

• Starts in 1950

• North Korean invasion of the south that catches us by surprise and almost defeats us

• Led by Macarthur, we are able to push the North Koreans back

  • But then China returns with 500,000 men

Limited War*

• Truman is left with a horrible decision; in order to win Korea, the US would have to fight China and the Soviet Union; could lead to the destruction of the planet

• We have to fight Korea to defend containment, but if we “fight to win,” we might lose the war; neither China/Soviets want to destroy the world, but we don’t want to lose Korea either

• So both fight in a limited fashion, never throwing our full weight into the campaign

MacArthur

• An American general who commanded the Southwest Pacific in WWII (1939-1945)

• Oversaw the successful Allied occupation of postwar Japan and led United Nations forces in the Korean War

Truman

• 33rd president, after FDR’s death

• Led the U.S. through the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War

• Put an end to WWII in the Pacific by dropping an atomic bomb on Japan

Eisenhower

• 34th president, did not like the idea of wars you would either lose or end in a tie

• Developed Massive Retaliation

  • If Russia got out of line at all, we would nuke Moscow

Massive Retaliation

• A strategy of military counterattack that involves the use of nuclear weapons

• Threatening to use massive force in response to aggression

Sputnik

• 1957

• Launch of the first satellite by the Soviets

• Inaugurates the Space Race, but also indicated that the Soviets had Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, which could get to atom bombs in the US in 20 minutes

Kennedy

• Youngest US president in 1962, democrat

• Nikita Khruschev tested Kennedy and pushed him around

Cuban Missile Crisis*

• 1962, the Soviet Union began to secretly install missiles in Cuba to launch attacks on US cities

• The confrontation that followed brought the two superpowers to the brink of war before an agreement was reached to withdraw the missiles

McNamara

• Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense; created Graduated Escalation

Graduated Escalation

• Slow ramping up of pressure to send a message to the Soviets

• Based on the Rational Actor Paradigm of geopolitics; took the form of a naval blockade in Cuba

Vietnam-era draft*

• Becomes the controversial social flashpoint of the war

• Boomer generation, the biggest in history, is now threatened with death

• 3 million serve in Vietnam, but 15 million avoid service

Westmoreland

• US commander in Vietnam

• The French warned him that the communist and their method of war were both tough

• He was determined we could get away with the same kind of war - because we are Americans, and Americans don’t lose

Airmobility

• Used choppers to land troops almost anywhere to lock the enemy into battle

Battle of the Ia Drang Valley*

• The first and most critical battle of the Vietnam War

• Communists attacked the American base at Plei Me and then ran away; perfect chance for Westmoreland to use airmobility to catch them

• Three day long battle, enemy chooses when to fight and when to leave

• America only fought to produce body count, not territory

Search and Destroy

• A military strategy that became a large component of the Vietnam War

  • Involved inserting ground forces into hostile territory, search out the enemy, destroy them, and withdraw immediately afterward

Lyndon Johnson

• President during the Vietnam War after JFK was killed

• Personality impacted the events of Vietnam

• Focus was on his Great Society program and he didn’t want a war that distracted from that

• Had to fight in Vietnam, and was assured that it would be a quick and easy war; so he decided to fight it quietly and with little investment

  • Ironically, everything he did to keep it quiet made it more controversial

Tet Offensive*

• Viet Cong’s largest attack of the war

• Attacked nearly every major city in South Vietnam at the same time

• Hoped the South Vietnamese people would join them in a revolution, but that didn’t happen

  • 80,000 enemy soldiers attack with about 50,000 killed in Tet

• War now grabbed citizens’ attention

  • Government and military kept telling people not to worry, that all was well, and that we were winning

  • However, being attacked from everywhere made the people think otherwise

Walter Cronkite

• Most watched newsman in the country during the Vietnam War, trusted by all

Clark Clifford

• Secretary of defense that replaced Robert McNamara

• Undertook the first real study of the Vietnam War

• Afterwards, he informed Johnson that there was no real way to win the war, and that the US should withdraw

Truman’s military desegregation*

• Truman decided to sign an executive order in banning segregation in the Armed Forces in 1946

• A huge step forward, especially given that these armed forces will soon be fighting in Korea

Plessy vs Ferguson

• 1896

• A Supreme Court case in which “separate but equal” was upheld in public facilities such as schools

Brown vs Board of Education*

• Oliver Brown of Kansas and 12 other black families sued to fight segregation in schools

• On May 17, 1954, the Court declared that racial segregation in public schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, effectively overturning the 1896 Plessy v Ferguson decision

Massive Resistance

• Policy declared by Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia

• Citizens councils form throughout the south to coordinate white efforts to stall integration

• VA, AL, GA, MS, NC, SC, and LA all declare law to be null and void

  • And begin to steer public funding to founding of white academies just in case

Harry Byrd

• Senator of Virginia that advocated “massive resistance” to resist integration

Montgomery Bus Boycott*

• Post Rosa Parks’ arrest, African American leaders demand a boycott of the busses and turn to a younger minister, MLK Jr., to lead them

• African Americans stopped riding busses, opting to carpool or walk instead

• Great economic pressure on the city

• Lasted for over a year, soon the busses stopped gaining monetary value and decided to integrate its busses

Rosa Parks

• A black woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery and spurred the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Martin Luther King Jr.

• A minister who fought for justice through peaceful protest—and delivered some of the 20th century's most iconic speeches, "I Have a Dream"

• In the mid-1950s, Dr. King led the movement to end segregation and counter prejudice in the United States through the means of peaceful protest

Little Rock (Central High)*

• 9 black girls try to enroll at white Central High and a white mob forces them to leave

• Eisenhower sent out 10,000 National Guard and 1,000 paratroopers to stay there for the school year and make sure they can go to school safely

Orval Faubus

• Rather than let 9 black girls go to Central High, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus shuts down all Little Rock schools for the remainder of the year

• For this, he was re-elected with a landslide vote

• Integrations still faced a steep uphill battle

North Carolina A&T

• Four students, inspired by King and Montgomery, sat in at the Woolworth’s segregated lunch counter

• Within four days, the groups had grown to more than 300 students

• Sit ins spread throughout the south, and by July, Woolworths throughout the south voluntary integrated

Sit In

• A form of protest in which demonstrators occupy a place, refusing to leave until their needs are met

James Meredith

• First African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi after the intervention of the federal government

Battle of Oxford

• Kennedy ordered 30,000 troops to protect James Meredith and let him be able to go to school

• The fight lasted for 2 days; 2 were killed, 375 wounded

• Federal troops remained on campus for the rest of the year.

Birmingham

• Surge of violence against civil rights protestors led by the KKK

• In 1963, so many KKK bombs were set off that it became known as Bombingham

Wallace

• Governor of Alabama

• Known for his staunch segregationist and populist views

16th Street Baptist Church

• Site of the bombing by KKK members in September 1963 which killed four young African-American children on their way to choir and injured many more

March on Washington

• Supporters of civil rights from across the nation gathered in Washington, D.C.

• Gives us our most powerful moment perhaps of the whole movement, Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech

Medgar Evers

• Chief member of the Jackson NAACP who was gunned down in his driveway in June 1963 by De La Beckwith

Byron De La Beckwith

• Assassinated the civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963

• Was not prosecuted again until 1994 after bragging about the killings many more times, and found guilty

Theron Lynd

• Circuit Clerk and Registrar of voters for Forrest County, MS

• Gave only 1% of African-Americans living in Hattiesburg the ability to vote when 30% lived there

Civil Rights Act*

• Outlaws segregation in all public spaces

• President Lyndon Johnson makes it his mission as part of his Great Society to pass national legislation regarding Civil Rights

  • Told that this might be a political death sentence, but he does it anyhow

• Passed in July 1964

Selma March

• March 1965

• Selma citizens tried to march to state capitol of Montgomery to register, but were assaulted and thrown back on the Edmond Pettus Bridge

• 20,000 sympathizers from all over the country come to join the march, which then succeeds

Voting Rights Act

• Passed in August 1965

• Outlaws discrimination in voting

Clyde Kennard

• Tried to enroll to Southern Miss in 1956, 1958, and 1959 despite it still being segregated

• Framed and went to jail at Parchman for 7 years, released when it was discovered that he was dying

Armstrong and Branch

• Two black women who were the first African American students at USM

Vernon Dahmer

• Local NAACP leader, pushed to get African Americans the right to vote

• Killed in the firebombing of his home in January 1966

• Last words in the hospital were: “I’ve been active in trying to get people to register to vote. People who don’t vote are deadbeats on the state. I figure a man needs to do his own thinking. What happened to us last night can happen to anyone, white or black. At one time, I didn’t think so, but I have changed my mind.”

Sam Bowers

• Convicted of the murder of Vernon Dahmer and a leading white supremacist in Missisippi during the Civil Rights movement

• In his case, there were four all white hung juries, not convicted until 1998

Black Panthers

• Was founded in October 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale

• Revolutionary organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality

Baath Party

• Formed to unite Arab lands under Socialism and against Israel/Western Imperialism

Nasser

• Egyptian president

• Nationalizes the Suez Canal

• Even unites three of the Middle East’s countries into the United Arab Republic

• Going to be an oil giant

Eisenhower Doctrine

• 1958

• Stands up South Arabia as a counterbalance of Egypt

• Middle eastern countries could request American economic assistance or aid from US military forces if they were being threatened by armed aggression

Wahhabism*

• Advocates a purification of Islam

• A conservative and intolerant form of Islam that is practiced in Saudi Arabia

• Focuses on the literal interpretation of the Quran

Israeli Wars

• Six Days War: Preemptive attack on Egypt, Syria, and Jordan

  • Mobility wins against Sword and Shield tactics

• Yom Kippur War: Egypt and Syria attack Israel

  • Troubles, but technology comes to the rescue

See deep/strike deep*

• The United States wanted to fight more like Israel, so if Israel could see the whole army (see deep) then they would strike the entire army (strike deep)

Powell Doctrine

• Consisted of a series of questions identifying the conditions that should be met before committing U.S. military forces to battle

  • Only fight short, overwhelming wars

  • Avoid nation building

  • Make sure of public support

  • Rely on maneuver and speed to win

  • Preemption is an option

Total Force Policy

• Ongoing effort by the service to transition its reserve component forces, both the army reserve and the National Guard, into an operational force

Afghan War

• Iran falls to Islamic leadership in 1979

• Russia invades Afghanistan in 1979

• Seize major cities, but cannot control countryside

Mujahedeen

• Calling for holy war (Jihad) locals rise up against Soviets

• Armed and trained by the US

• Cause great damage to Russian forces over eight years

• Soviets pull out in 1989, government falls soon after

Jihad

• Holy war

Al Qaeda

• One of the Mujahedeen troops we arm and train

• Led by Osama Bin Laden

• Followers of Wahhabist Islam

Osama Bin Laden

• Founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda and mastermind of numerous terrorist attacks against the United States and other Western powers

Taliban

• A brutal, fundamentalist religious group that held power over most of Afghanistan during the late 1990s

Sadaam Hussein

• Iraqi leader

• Invades Kuwait in 1990

  • Has an army of 900,000 with 4,500 tanks and bio weapons

  • Now controls 25% of the world’s oil

  • Wants to take Saudi Arabia to control 50% of the world’s oil

Kuwait

• Country in the middle east whose invasion leads to the Persian Gulf War

• Hussein invades and obtains 25% of the world's oil

Persian Gulf War*

• 1990-1991

• War fought between a coalition led by the United States and Iraq to free Kuwait from Iraqi invaders

George HW Bush

• President during the Gulf War

• Decides on Operation Desert Storm

• Our new super war meant to destroy the Soviets will be unleashed on Iraq

Carlos Maraghella*

• Brazilian terrorist

• Author of “Mini Manual of the Urban Guerrilla”

• Writes that to do the job of a terrorist, you have to invoke a massive governmental response

Mini Manual of the Urban Guerrilla*

• Book written by Brazilian guerrilla fighter Carlos Maraghella

• The book that Al Qaeda read that lead to the fall of the World Trade Center

Terrorism

• Acts of violence designed to promote a specific ideology or agenda by creating panic among an enemy population

World Trade Center

• Once an icon for the global economy in New York

• Became a target for terrorism in 1993 and most notably on September 11, 2001

• Al-Qaeda was solely responsible for the 9/11 attacks

Operation Enduring Freedom

• Began on October 7, 2001 (not even a full month after 9/11 attacks)

• In response to the September 11 attacks, airstrikes targeting Al-Qaeda and the Taliban had begun in Afghanistan

George W. Bush

• 43rd president of the US who began a campaign against terrorism in 2001

• Decided on Operation Iraqi Freedom