Ch 16-18

Stalingrad

Turning point in Eastern Europe; Soviet Union defeated Germany.

Atlantic

Battle of the Atlantic: Allies fought to control shipping lanes against German U-boats.

Bulge

Last major German offensive on the Western Front, winter of 1944.

Britain

Air battle; Britain's Royal Air Force resisted German Luftwaffe attacks.

Operation Torch

Allied invasion of North Africa led by Eisenhower.

Midway

Turning point in the Pacific; U.S. defeated Japan and began offensive.

Okinawa

Major Pacific battle, key for a potential invasion of Japan.

Leyte Gulf

One of the largest naval battles; U.S. regained control of the Philippines.

Munich Conference

1938 meeting where Britain and France appeased Hitler by letting him take Sudetenland.

Island Hopping Strategy

U.S. tactic to capture strategic Pacific islands and move closer to Japan.

Dwight Eisenhower

Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

Douglas MacArthur

U.S. General in the Pacific; led postwar Japan.

Chester Nimitz

U.S. Navy commander in the Pacific.

Robert Oppenheimer

Scientist behind the Manhattan Project.

Joseph Stalin

Soviet dictator during WWII and early Cold War.

Adolf Hitler

Nazi leader of Germany.

Benito Mussolini

Fascist leader of Italy.

Hideki Tojo

Japanese Prime Minister and military leader.

Francisco Franco

Dictator of Spain; stayed neutral in WWII.

Start of the War: What events?

Invasion of Poland (1939) triggered Britain and France to declare war on Germany.

Internment Camps

Japanese Americans forcibly relocated due to fear of espionage after Pearl Harbor.

Lend-Lease Act

Allowed U.S. to send weapons to Allies before officially entering WWII.

Neutrality Acts

1930s laws aiming to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars.

Treaty of Versailles

Peace treaty ending WWI; harsh terms on Germany helped lead to WWII.

Holocaust

Systematic genocide of 6 million Jews by the Nazis.

Nagasaki & Hiroshima

Japanese cities bombed by the U.S. in 1945 to end the war.

Mein Kampf

Hitler's book outlining his ideology: antisemitism, Lebensraum (living space), Aryan supremacy.

Nuremberg Trials

Trials of Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Non-Aggression Pact

1939 agreement between Germany and the USSR to not attack each other.

GI Bill of Rights

Provided benefits to WWII veterans: education, housing, loans.

Mao Zedong

Communist leader of China; won the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

Chiang Kai-Shek

Nationalist Chinese leader defeated by Mao; fled to Taiwan.

Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet leader after Stalin; involved in Cuban Missile Crisis and de-Stalinization.

Kim Il Sung

Communist leader of North Korea during the Korean War.

Truman Doctrine

U.S. would support free peoples resisting communism (started with Greece and Turkey).

Eisenhower Doctrine

Promised U.S. aid to any Middle Eastern country resisting communism.

Marshall Plan

Massive U.S. aid program to rebuild Western Europe and resist communism.

Containment

U.S. policy to stop the spread of communism globally.

Brinkmanship

Willingness to go to the brink of war to stop communism (nuclear threats included).

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

13-day standoff over Soviet missiles in Cuba; closest the world came to nuclear war.

Berlin Uprising

1953 East German workers' revolt; crushed by Soviet tanks.

Capitalism

Economic system based on private ownership and free markets (U.S.).

Communism

Economic system where the state owns all property and controls production (USSR).

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

Investigated suspected communists in the U.S. (especially in Hollywood).

CIA Actions

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency supported coups or operations in countries like Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954).