APUSH 34-35 Simple IDs

London Economic Conference

International economic conference on stabilizing currency that was sabotaged by FDR

Philippines

Nation to which the U.S. promised independence in the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934

Good Neighbor Policy

FDR’s repudiation of Theodore Roosevelt’s Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, stating his intention to work cooperatively with Latin American nations

Neutrality Acts

A series of laws enacted by Congress in the mid-1930s that attempted to prevent any American involvement in future overseas wars

Spanish Civil War

Conflict between the rebel fascist forces of General Francisco Franco and the Loyalist government that severely tested U.S. neutrality legislation

Quarantine Speech

Roosevelt’s 1937 speech that proposed strong U.S. measures against overseas aggressors

Munich Conference

European diplomatic conference in 1938, where Britain and France yielded to Hitler’s demands for Czechoslovakia

Appeasement

Term for the British-French policy of attempting to prevent war by granting German demands

Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies

Leading U.S. group advocating American support for Britain in the fight against Hitler

America First Committee

Leading isolationist group advocating that America focus on continental defense and non-involvement with the European war

Lend-Lease Act

Controversial 1941 law that made America the arsenal of democracy by providing supposedly temporary military material assistance to Britain

Kristallnacht

A devastating night of Nazi attacks on Jewish businesses and synagogues that signaled a deepening of anti-Semitism and caused revulsion in the United States

Atlantic Charter

U.S.–British agreement of August 1941 to promote democracy and establish a new international organization for peace

USS Reuben James

U.S. destroyer sunk by German submarines off the coast of Iceland in October 1941, with the loss of over a hundred men

Pearl Harbor

Major American Pacific naval base devastated in a surprise attack in December 1941

Cordell Hull

FDR’s secretary of state, who promoted reciprocal trade agreements, especially with Latin America

Adolf Hitler

Fanatical fascist leader of Germany whose aggressions forced the United States to abandon its neutrality

Benito Mussolini

The lesser partner of the Rome-Berlin Axis who invaded Ethiopia and joined the war against France and Britain

Gerald Nye

Instigator of 1934 Senate hearings that castigated World War I munitions manufacturers as “merchants of death”

Francisco Franco

Fascist rebel against the Spanish Loyalist government

Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Young American volunteers who went to fight for Loyalist Spain against Franco’s Spanish fascist rebels.

Czechoslovakia

Small East European democracy betrayed into Hitler’s hands at Munich

Poland

East European nation whose September 1939 invasion by Hitler set off World War II in Europe

France

Nation whose sudden fall to Hitler in 1940 pushed the United States closer to direct aid to Britain

Charles A. Lindbergh

Leader of the America First organization and chief spokesman for U.S. isolationism

Wendell Willkie

Dynamic dark horse Republican presidential nominee who attacked FDR only on domestic policy

Winston Churchill

Courageous prime minister who led Britain’s lonely resistance to Hitler

Joseph Stalin

Russian dictator who first helped Hitler destroy Poland before becoming a victim of Nazi aggression in 1941

Iceland

North Atlantic nation near whose waters U.S. destroyers came under Nazi submarine attack

Hawaii

Site of a naval base where Japan launched a devastating surprise attack on the United States

Japanese Americans

A U.S. minority that was forced into concentration camps during World War II

War Production Board

A federal agency that coordinated U.S. industry and successfully mobilized the economy to produce vast quantities of military supplies

WAACs and WAVES

Women’s units of the army and navy during World War II

Bracero Program

Government arrangement whereby substantial numbers of Mexican workers were temporarily brought into the United States to provide agricultural labor

Rosie the Riveter

Symbolic personification of female laborers who took factory jobs in order to sustain U.S. production during World War II

Fair Employment Practices Commission

The federal agency established to guarantee opportunities for African American employment in World War II industries

Philippines

U.S.–owned Pacific archipelago seized by Japan in the early months of World War II

Battle of Midway

Crucial naval battle of June 1942, in which U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz blocked the Japanese attempt to conquer a strategic island near Hawaii

Unconditional Surrender

Controversial U.S.–British demand on Germany and Japan that substituted for a second front

Casablanca Conference

Site of 1943 Roosevelt-Churchill conference in North Africa, at which the Big Two planned the invasion of Italy and further steps in the Pacific war

Tehran

Iranian capital where Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met to plan D-Day in coordination with Russian strategy against Hitler in the East

D-Day

The beginning of the Allied invasion of France in June 1944

Battle of the Bulge

The December 1944 German offensive that marked Hitler’s last chance to stop the Allied advance

Iwo Jima and Okinawa

The last two heavily defended Japanese islands conquered by the United States near the end of World War II in 1945

Manhattan Project

The top-secret project to develop the atomic bomb

Henry J. Kaiser

Leading American industrialist and shipbuilder during World War II

John L. Lewis

Tough head of the United Mine Workers, whose work stoppages precipitated anti-strike laws

A. Philip Randolph

Head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters whose threatened march on Washington opened job opportunities for blacks during World War II

Erwin Rommel

Top German general in North Africa whose advance was finally halted at El Alamein by British General Montgomery

Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek)

U.S. ally who resisted Japanese advances in China during World War II

Douglas MacArthur

Commander of the U.S. Army in the Pacific during World War II, who fulfilled his promise to return to the Philippines

Chester W. Nimitz

Commander of the U.S. naval forces in the Pacific and brilliant strategist of the island-hopping campaign

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Commander of the Allied military assault against Hitler in North Africa and France

Winston Churchill

Allied leader who met with FDR to plan strategy at Casablanca and Tehran

Joseph Stalin

The Allied leader who constantly pressured the United States and Britain to open a second front against Hitler

Thomas E. Dewey

Republican presidential nominee in 1944 who failed in his effort to deny FDR a fourth term

Henry A. Wallace

FDR’s liberal vice president during most of World War II, dumped from the ticket in 1944

Harry S. Truman

Inconspicuous former senator from Missouri who was suddenly catapulted to national and world leadership on April 12, 1945

Albert Einstein

German-born physicist who helped persuade Roosevelt to develop the atomic bomb

Hirohito

Japanese emperor who was allowed to stay on his throne, despite unconditional surrender policy