cold war


U.S. History II CP Unit 4 Test Study Guide


Directions:Please utilize the following study guide as an outline for Unit 4: The 1950s#1*. It is encouraged that you utilize 14th period or communicate with me via e-mail for extra clarification and assistance in understanding these topics and why they are significant. Some study strategies include creating flashcards (physical or an online quizlet https://quizlet.com/), creating a study group, reviewing the study guide, reviewing notes, homework, textbook, and instructional activities on Google Classroom. 


Lesson 1: Post WWII Readjustment & the Economic Boom of the 50’s

  • POTUS Truman- domestic and foreign policy

  • GI Bill of Rights- readjustment for soldiers by paying for half of their college tuition, a year's worth of unemployment benefits while looking for a job, and low-interest of fed gov loans

  • Taft-Hartley Act- Labor Management Relations Act where the fed gov reduces the activities and power of the labor unions. The gov doesn’t help them with problems that they have with their employer 

  • Fair Deal- an extension of the new deal. It made national health insurance, expand social security coverage, increased minimum wages by 40 to 50 cents, helped with flood control and irrigation problems, and gave financial support for cities to clear out slums and build houses for low income families

  • Dixiecrat- a states rights democratic party made by southern democrats that protested Truman's civil rights emphasis. Their prez was Governor J. Strom Thurmond. Democrats from south that have racis beliefs like jim crow laws

  • Civil Rights under Truman-desegregation of army

  • POTUS Eisenhower: believed “conservative when it comes to money and liberal when it comes to human beings.”

  • Dynamic Conservatism 

  • Interstate Highway Act: to create a network of highways that would connect cities and metropolitan areas, and to support national defense

  • Civil Rights Under Eisenhower: desegregated the District of Columbia and ended segregation in military combat units.

  • Mass Consumerism: the widespread purchasing and consumption of goods and services by a large population

  • Bill Levitt and the Suburbs: widely considered the "father of the suburbs" due to his pioneering role in developing large-scale, affordable suburban housing developments called "Levittowns," which utilized mass-production techniques to build identical homes quickly and efficiently, popularizing the concept of the modern suburb with his construction methods and marketing strategies.

  • Myers Family- African American family moved into a white neighborhood in the suburbs. Dad a WWII vet and had white collared job.  They bought off of another family 

  • Conglomerate- is a major corporation that includes a number of smaller companies in unrelated industries like the national telephone company combining with a car company 

  • Franchise- companies that offer similar products and services in different areas 

  • Baby Boom- babies born increased

  • Dr. Benjamin Spock- helped stop the spread of polio with a vaccine

  • Planned Obsolescence- businesses make products not last as long so you buy more




Lesson 2: American Culture- Mass v. Sub Culture

  • Mass culture- Ozzie agrees. Live in suburbs with the family and have traditional gender roles 

  • Subculture- Ginsberg agrees. Live out of gender roles, expression in art 

  • Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet- a mass culture TV show 

  • The American Dream, 1950s Style - live in the suburbs and have traditional gender roles.

  • Frustrations with the American Dream, 1950s Style: racial wealth gap and gender wage disparities, coupled with the ever-increasing cost of living

  • Rock n Roll-Subculture 

  • Allen Ginsberg- subculture supporter and leader of the Beat movement 

  • Beat Movement- an unconformity literature and social movement with art and poetry

  • Beatniks- followers of the Beat movement 

  • Betty Friedan & The Feminine Mystique- criticizes the traditional gender roles and the dissatisfaction with being a housewife 

  • Native Americans & Termination Policy-The  government terminates support of reserves

  • African Americans & Discrimination- Jim Crow still exists and there are not many laws helping AA

  • Hispanic Americans & The Longoria Incident- A Hispanic American WW2 vet didn’t have a proper burial so the community protested for his proper burial 

  • White Flight- white Americans leave cities to go to suburban lands (destroys cities)

  • Urban Renewal- tear down rundown buildings to build low-income housing 


Lesson 3: Origins of the Cold War

  • Communism v. Capitalism

  • Joseph Stalin v. Harry S. Truman 

  • Truman Doctrine- stop the spread of communism from where it exists 

  • Marshall Plan: proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe

  • Containment- keep communism were it is and don’t let it spread

  • Iron Curtain: Imaginary line separating East and West Europe during the Cold War

  • CIA-russell adler 🤤🤤 ermmmm anywyssss perform secret operations foreign countries for america

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Omg why is there a communist on my doc! 0o0

  • Satellite nation-Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and East Germany.

  • Berlin Blockade: a Cold War crisis in which the Soviet Union cut off all land access to West Berlin in 1948. The blockade was imposed by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

  • Berlin Airlift- America sends supplies to Berlin by flying over it and dropping the supplies

  • NATO- north atlantic treaty agreement 

  • Warsaw Pact- 1955 Russia forced eastern european counties to make a packed that if any of them were in trouble they would help each other

  • Cold War- CoD black ops cold war featuring my pookie ookie russell adler 😍



Lesson 4: The Cold War Heats Up

  • Mao Zedong- Leader of the Communist Party of China who established the People's Republic of China in 1949, contributing to the global tensions of the Cold War.

  • Atomic Bomb- Karl Fuchs 

  • Surrogate War- proxy war not directly fighting but indirectly

  • Korean War - phases of war, who started it? How did it end?- North Korea started it, ended with no gain or loss, stayed at the same boundaries

  • General Douglas MacArthur

  • Domino Theory- if one country falls to communism the rest will too

  • “Forgotten War”- the Korean War was seen as the forgotten war because there was no winner or loser, the US didn’t declare war, and it wasn’t promoted on the media, veterins didn’t talk about it

  • NSC 68- truman recived secret doc that says they should increase funding for the hydrogen bombs and for the military

  • Eisenhower Doctrine- shift from containment to brinkmanship

  • John Foster Dulles- Secretary of State under Eisenhower, he was a key proponent of the policy of brinkmanship and played a significant role in shaping U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War.

  • Brinkmanship

  • Hungary-

  • Iran- American CIA gave several million dollars to anti-communist supporters to return Iran powers, it worked and the oil fields return to western companies

  • Guatemala- Eisenhower believed there was communist sympahisers cuz they cave acers of american land to peasants

  • Suez Canal- challenged the us relationship with 2 primary cold war allies britian and france

  • U2 Spy Plane Incident- The US promises not to spy over communist countries but they get cought by Russia and Francis Gary Powers the pilot was trialed and imprisoned 

  • Sputnik- Russias sattlelight

  • NASA


Lesson 5: The Cold War on the Homefront 

  • Communist Party: Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, China, North Korea. The growth of the Communist Party in America: nearly 80,000 claimed membership during WWII

  • Spy Cases: Alger Hiss, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg: Hiss accused of passing government secrets to the Soviet Union while working at the State Department, and the Rosenbergs accused of conspiring to steal atomic bomb information, leading to their execution in a highly controversial trial due to concerns about the fairness of the proceedings and the political climate of the time; all three cases were heavily influenced by the "Red Scare" and heightened fears of communist infiltration in the U.S.

  • Loyalty Review Board: seek out disloyal government workers

  • House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC): created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and rebel activities on the part of private citizens, public employees and organizations suspected of having Communist ties. Citizens suspected of having ties to the communist party would be tried in a court of law.

  • Blacklist- people who were accused of being communists have that on their record preventing them from getting jobs 

  • Hollywood 10: a group of 10 Hollywood writers, directors, and actors who were blacklisted from the film industry in 1947. They were accused of being communists or sympathizers with the Communist Party.

  • McCarran Act- made sure federal gov employees were loyal to democracy, was very loose and allowed a lot of small things to be open to accusations of communism

  • Red Scare- the fear of communist spies trying to destroy or take over our country

  • Joseph McCarthy: Senator from Wisconsin who claimed to have a list of communists in the government

  • McCarthyism : unproven  BIASED accusations covered with more accusations

  • Accusations against Army undo McCarthy’s efforts and end “witch hunt” - second red scare