World War II and Cold War Key Terms and Policies

Neutrality Acts

A series of laws enacted in 1935 and 1936 to prevent United States arms sales and loans to nations at war.

Blitzkrieg

A sudden, massive attack with combined ground and air forces, intended to achieve a quick victory.

Holocaust

The systematic genocide of Jews and other groups by the Nazi before and during World War II.

Allies

The group of nations - including Great Britain, The Soviet Union, and the United States - in World War II.

Axis Powers

The group of nations - including Germany, Italy, and Japan - in World War II.

Cash and Carry

A policy, in 1939, where the United States agreed to sell arms and supplies as long as the purchasing country arranged for the transport using their own ships and paid immediately in cash, assuming all risk in transportation.

Lend-Lease Act

A law, passed in 1941, which allowed the United States to ship arms and other supplies, without immediate payment, to nations fighting the Axis Powers.

Atlantic Charter

A 1941 declaration of principles in which the United States and Great Britain set forth their goals in opposing the Axis Powers.

Pearl Harbor

United States naval base and headquarters of the United States Pacific fleet, which was attacked on December 7, 1941 and brought the United States into World War II.

Manhattan Project

The United States program to develop an atomic bomb for use in World War II.

Rationing

A restriction of people's right to buy unlimited amounts of particular foods or other goods, usually implemented during wartime to ensure adequate supplies for the military.

Kamikaze

Involving or engaging in the deliberate crashing of a bomb filled airplane into a military target.

Hiroshima

The first city in history to be targeted by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, near the end of World War II.

Nagasaki

The second and last city in history to be targeted by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 11:02 a.m. on August 9, 1945, near the end of World War II.

Nuremberg Trials

The court proceedings held after World War II, where Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes.

22nd Amendment

Sets a term limit for election to the office of President of the United States.

Internment

Confinement or a restriction in movement, especially under wartime conditions.

United Nations

An international peace keeping organization to which most nations in the world belong, founded in 1945 to promote world peace, security, and economic development.

Cold War

The state of hostility, without direct military conflict, that developed between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II.

Containment

The blocking of another nation's attempts to spread its influence.

Iron Curtain

A phrase used by Winston Churchill in 1946 to describe an imaginary line that separates Communist countries in the Soviet bloc of Eastern Europe from the Democracies of Western Europe.

Truman Doctrine

A United States policy, in 1947, of providing economic and military aid to free nations threatened by internal and external opponents.

Marshall Plan

A United States program, in 1947, under which the United States supplied economic aid to European nations to help them rebuild after World War II.

Berlin Airlift

A 327 day operation in which United States and British planes flew food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviets blockaded the city in 1948.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

A defensive military alliance formed in 1949 by ten Western European nations, the United States, and Canada.

Warsaw Pact

A military alliance formed in 1955 by the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite nations.

Korean War

A conflict between North Korea and South Korea, lasting from 1950-1953, in which the United States, along with other United Nation countries, fought on the side of the South Koreans and China fought on the side of the North Koreans, which ended in an armistice and the creation of a demilitarized zone along the 38th Parallel.

McCarthyism

The attacks, often unsubstantiated, by Senator Joseph McCarthy and others on people suspected of being Communists in the early 1950s.

Eisenhower Doctrine

A United States commitment to defend the Middle East against attacks by any Communist nation made in 1957.

Brinkmanship

The practice of threatening an enemy with massive military retaliation for any aggression.