coldwar

GI Bill

A program that helped returning veterans attend college, buy homes, and start businesses.

Baby Boom

The term describing the 50 million babies entering the U.S. population between 1945 and 1960.

Levittown

A project of 17,000 mass produced homes on Long Island representative of postwar suburbia.

Sunbelt

The region of growth following WWII in the West and the South as a result of defense spending.

22nd Amendment

The amendment that limited a president to a maximum of two full terms.

Taft-Hartley Act

A pro-business act passed over the veto of Harry Truman in 1947 that limited the power of unions.

Dixiecrats

The group that nominated Strom Thurmond for president in 1948 after splitting from the Democrats over civil rights.

Fair Deal

Harry Truman's ambitious reform program.

U.N. Security Council

The council made up of France, the U.K., the U.S., the Soviet Union, and China.

Truman Doctrine

A policy that stated the U.S. would support countries resisting communism.

Iron Curtain

A term used by Winston Churchill to describe the division between Western democracies and Eastern communist countries.

Marshall Plan

A U.S. program providing aid to Western Europe for economic recovery after WWII.

Soviet Union

The country that refused to participate in the Marshall Plan.

Berlin

The German city that the Soviet Union cut off all western access to by land in June 1948.

Berlin Airlift

The operation where the U.S. and its allies supplied West Berlin by air after the Soviet blockade.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

The first Supreme Commander of NATO.

National Security Act of 1947

An act that created the National Security Council (NSC) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Douglas MacArthur

The American general in charge of the reconstruction of Japan.

Taiwan

The place where Chinese nationalists retreated and claimed to be the legitimate government of all of China.

China

The country that came to the rescue of North Korea in 1950.

Joseph McCarthy

The Republican Senator from Wisconsin who used the fear of communism to gain power.

Smith Act

An act that made it a crime to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.

McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950

An act that made it unlawful to support the establishment of a totalitarian government and created detention camps for subversives.

House Un-American Activities Committee

The committee that launched investigations into the influence of communists in the Hollywood film industry.

Rosenbergs

A couple whose trial and execution symbolized the fears of communism and espionage during the Cold War.