7-9 vocab key-terms

Kellogg-Briand Pact

Kellogg-Briand Pact

Arms control agreement that outlawed war as an instrument of national policy following World War I. The policy proved unenforceable.

Appeasement

The policy of England and France that allowed the Nazis to annex Czechoslovak territory in exchange for Hitler promising not to take further land — a pledge he soon violated.

Tripartite Pact

agreement that created an alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan during WWII

Isolationism

a policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries.

American First Committee

Isolationist organization founded by Senator Gerald Nye in 1940 to keep the United States out of World War II.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. This surprise air and naval assault killed more than 2,400 Americans, seriously damaged ships and aircraft, and abruptly ended isolationism by prompting U.S. entry into World War II.

Neutrality Acts

Legislation passed between 1935 and 1937 to make it more difficult for the United States to become entangled in overseas conflicts. The Neutrality Acts reflected the strength of isolationist sentiment in 1930s America.

Lend-Lease Act

1941 law that authorized the president to aid any nation whose defense he believed was vital to American security.

Allies (WWI)

Political allies during World War I consisting primarily of Great Britain, France, and Russia. Italy joined in 1915 and the United States in 1917.

War Powers Act

Passed by Congress in 1973; the president is limited in the deployment of troops overseas to a sixty-day period in peacetime (which can be extended for an extra thirty days to permit withdrawal) unless Congress explicitly gives its approval for a longer period.

Double V

The slogan African Americans used during World War II to state their twin aims to fight for victory over fascism abroad and victory over racism at home.

Military Industrial Complex

Eisenhower first coined this phrase when he warned American against it in his last State of the Union Address. He feared that the combined lobbying efforts of the armed services and industries that contracted with the military would lead to excessive Congressional spending.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

An interracial organization founded in 1942 that directly protested against racial inequality in public accommodations.

Executive Order 9066

1942 executive order issued by President Franklin Roosevelt requiring all people of Japanese descent living on the West Coast to be relocated to internment camps.

Tuskegee Airmen

African American squadron that escorted bombers in the air war over Europe during World War II

Zoot Suit Riots

A series of riots in L.A. California during WW2, soldiers stationed in the city and Mexican youths because of the zoot suits they wore.

Second Front

The invasion of western Europe by the U.S, British, and French in 1944. This invasion was to take pressure off the Russians and divide the Germans. It was established by the D-Day Invasion.

Yalta Agreement

Agreement made shortly before the end of WWII between the US, Britain and Soviet Union dividing up Germany and compensation to the Soviets for loss of life and property.

D Day

June 6, 1944 invasion of German-occupied France by Allied forces. The D Day landings opened up a second front in Europe and marked a major turning point in World War II.

Manhattan Project

code name for the secret United States project set up in 1942 to develop atomic bombs for use in World War II

Island Hopping

This strategy, employed in the Pacific by the U.S. in World War II, directed American and Allied forces to avoid heavily fortified Japanese islands and concentrate on less heavily defended islands in preparation for a combined air, land, and sea invasion of Japan.

Holocaust

The Nazi regime's genocidal effort to eradicate Europe's Jewish population during World War II, which resulted in the death of 6 million Jews and millions of other "undesirables" — Slavs, Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled, and Communists.