Studied by 28 people
Alger Hiss
A state department employee that was accused of being a communist sympathizer and was found guilty of perjury when determined that he had lied in court about his sympathies during questioning
McCarthyism/2nd Red Scare
Another period of xenophobia carried out by Joseph McCarthy, a senator who saw communism in most and used rumored accusations of communism to oust political rivals
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
An organization tasked with investigating members of the government who were believed to hold either communist or fascist sympathies, through which McCarthy carried out most of his hunts.
Executive Order 9981
A 1948 order that officially ended segregation in America’s military
NSC-68
An organization that urged the US to invest into the military, specifically into a nuclear arsenal
Dixiecrats
A branch of Democrats that were all about segregation and racism
Taft-Hartley Act
An act that undermined national unionization efforts by making it illegal for any workplace to be a closed-shop, or union-workers only, operation.
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act
A bill that allowed millions of veterans the ability to obtain high school diplomas, attend college, receive valuable vocational training, and purchase homes and businesses with government-backed low-interest loans.
Defense Spending
The tendency for the government to pump money into military corporations and for the economy to benefit off of Federal spending
Douglas MacArthur and Japan
Douglas MacArthur was responsible for the rebuilding of Japan as a capitalist economy after WWII, largely leads to its flourishing and our later alliance
Tehran Conference
A conference in WWII where Stalin, Churchill, and FDR agreed on the basic structure of the UN and decided to coordinate D-Day
Yalta Conference
A conference where Stalin promises Churchill and Truman free elections in Eastern Europe for countries he controls, he completely lies and places puppet governments instead
Potsdam Conference
A conference that decided the splitting of Germany and Berlin into four zones controlled by each major Allied nation
Division of Germany
Germany and Berlin were split into zones controlled by each Allied power, and the American, French, and British zones became capitalist West Germany and West Berlin, while the Soviet zone became communist East Germany and East Berlin
United Nations
An international peacemaking organization involving a general assembly resembling each nation and a security council that is tasked with doing whatever it takes to prevent global war and only has 15 members with 5 permanent members (US, USSR, China, France, GB)
Formation of Israel
The UN was able to push for the creation of Israel out of Palestine as a Jewish homeland, largely because of the pushes of Zionists
Collective Security
The idea that an aggressor to any one country is an aggressor to everyone, promoting international peace
Iron Curtain Speech
Winston Churchill delivers a speech in Missouri about the Iron Curtain, a metaphor for Stalin’s mysteriously concealed communist buffer zone, that made Americans think more seriously about the threat of the USSR
Containment
Foreign policy that surrounds preventing the expansion of communism
Long Telegram
An overview of the USSR, including their history, plans, and expansionist goals, by George Kennan that ultimately calls for containment
George Kennan
A diplomat stationed in the USSR that makes the Long Telegram and proposes the idea of containment
Truman Doctrine
A doctrine that details our support for countries that are threatened by communist insurrections, specifically Greece and Turkey, helps by giving them a ton of money and establishes containment
Marshall Plan
The American government response to European economies overall, gives money to 16 different countries and drains us of 12 billion dollars
Berlin Airlift
Our response to the Berlin Blockade that the USSR used to force capitalists out of Berlin where we would bring planes that would drop goods into West Berlin to support them; the USSR abandons the blockade and Truman becomes painted as a hero, increasing his popularity
NATO
A military alliance involving most of capitalist North America and Western Europe
Warsaw Pact
A military alliance involving most of communist Eastern Europe and Asia
Chiang Kai-Shek
The leader of the capitalist Nationalist party in China during the Chinese Civil War
Mao Zedong
The leader of the communist party in China during the Chinese Civil War
Sino-Soviet Pact
A pact signed between Mao and Stalin that establishes helping each other to spread communism
Superpower
An advanced first-world country that takes a lead in deciding what the world should look like, includes the U.S. and USSR in the Cold War
Nikita Khrushchev
The dictatorial leader of the USSR after the death of Joseph Stalin
Destalinization
The removal of policies and institutions Stalin created while Khrushchev was in power
Sputnik
The world’s first human-made satellite as pioneered by the USSR
NASA
Also known as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, an organization committed to using the brightest minds to pioneer space travel
U-2 Incident
An American U-2 plane flown by Francis Gary Powers on an espionage mission to map military installations in the USSR that was shot down by the USSR on allegations of spying, heightening tensions
Interstate Highway System
A system of well-organized and well-built multi-lane highways spanning from coast to coast that made transportation easy in the 1950s
22nd Amendment
A Constitutional amendment that limited the term of American presidents to a two-term maximum
Operation PBSUCCESS
The American government feared that Jacobo Arbenz, the Guatemalan president, had accepted Soviet weapons to offset American imperialism and was thereby susceptible to communist intervention, and thereby the CIA led this operation to perform a coup to remove him
Operation AJAX
Iran saw the rise of Mohammad Mosaddegh who was willing to work with Iran’s communist Tudeh Party, and the CIA and Britain’s M16 saw him as a threat, especially to oil control, thereby enlisting this operation to oust him and place a pro-westerner, Mohammad Pahlavi, in power.
Suez Crisis
In 1956, Egypt’s leader Gammal Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, which prohibited British, Israeli, and French transportation, provoking all three to war, which prompted Nasser to turn to Soviet help; in response, Eisenhower intervened and told them to back off while additionally providing infrastructure aid to Egypt
Assassination of Patrice Lumumba
Patrice became the leader of the Congo in Africa upon its independence, however, America feared his government would allow Soviet companies access to the country’s mining resources, leading to the CIA assassinating him
Division of Korea
Korea was divided into two zones at the 38th Parallel after Japan relinquished control, communist North Korea under USSR control (led by Kim Il Sung) and democratic South Korea under US control (led by Syngman Rhee)
MacArthur and Korea
The UN was able to place troops led by MacArthur in Korea, and MacArthur called for a more aggressive push of troops in Korea, leading to Truman firing him
Result of Korean War
Containment works, millions of Koreans and many Americans were killed, Truman uses it as justification to expand the military, expanded the power of the president to declare war, ramps up cold war hostilities, and led to criticism of Truman as “soft on communism”.
Massive Retaliation
A massive buildup of weapons, especially nuclear weapons, to retaliate when attacked
John Foster Dulles
Gives Eisenhower ideas on a much more aggressive approach to communism and comes up with massive retaliation
Military Industrial Complex
The notion expressed by Eisenhower that the arms race has gotten so out of control that it has had heavy effects on politics and Americanism
Arms Race
The American rush to out compete the Soviets in military power
JFK Becomes President
JFK wins his presidency in 1960 against Nixon narrowly partially due to televised presidential debates which aired his charisma
New Frontier
The term JFK uses to describe his domestic policy, including an expansion of social welfare, the advancement of the space program, and some tackling of race issues
Peace Corps
A volunteer organization created as part of the New Frontier program that was designed to help others in less developed countries overseas
Race to the Moon
JFK uses America’s losses in the “space race” to bolster funding for a moon landing, which occurs with the Apollo 11 mission
Air Conditioning Effect
It allowed people to expand westward and southward as a warm climate became more tolerable by modern air conditioning
Population Shift in 1950’s
Many people ended up switching to suburban life in the 50s, and home ownership rates skyrocketed
“The Affluent Society”/”The Other America”
A book published by John Galbraith that examined America’s new post WWII consumer economy and political culture, noticing unparalleled riches and yet criticizing the underlying structures of an economy based upon production and consumption
National Defense Education Act
An act that bolstered federal support to education, particularly in math and science
Levittown
The first prototypical suburban community established by William Levitt in 1946 in Long Island, New York
Baby Boom
A trend in birth rates skyrocketing occurring due to increases in overall family wealth after WWII
Car Culture of 1950s
The establishment of companies such as Ford, Buick, GM, Hudson, and Pontiac, as well as highways and entertainment venues, led to the normalization of the sedan and a high overall car ownership rate
American Bandstand
A televised program that established rock and roll as the new popular music of the 1950s
Television of 1950s
Televisions were owned by close to 80% of American homeowners in 1960, and they largely were used for news, sitcoms, and Hollywood films, providing a new wealth of entertainment for the American people
Suburbanization
The mass movement of American people to suburban housing settings
Bay of Pigs Incident
The CIA trains Cuban rebels to fight against communist Fidel Castro with American weapons, however, upon their deployment, they have no support and are quickly seized, disappointing JFK
Berlin Wall
A Soviet wall that divided East and West Berlin to make sure nobody could flee to West Berlin
Cuban Missile Crisis
We fear that the USSR will put missiles in Cuba, and we see those missiles with a reconnaissance plane, which caused JFK to “quarantine” Cuba and ask Khrushchev to back down, he agrees if we remove our missiles from Turkey, which we comply with
Flexible Response
JFK’s established method of focusing on diplomacy before aggressing to military action
Assassination of JFK
JFK is sniped down and assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on Nov 22, 1963, permitting Lyndon Bates Johnson to take office
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Flashcard (63)