AMSCO United States History 2015 Edition, Chapter 26 Truman and the Cold War 1945-1952
Terms : Hide Images
| 10489513595 | Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill) | Signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 22, 1944, it was also known as the GI Bill. It provided veterans of the Second World War with funds for college education, unemployment insurance, and housing. (p. 557) |  | 0 |
| 10489513596 | baby boom | Between 1945 and 1960, 50 million babies were born. This generation would profoundly affect the nation's social institutions and economic life. (p. 558) |  | 1 |
| 10489513597 | Suburbs | These areas experienced huge population growth post-World War II. Low interest rates on mortgages that were government-insured and tax deductible made the move from the city to the suburb affordable for almost any family. In a single generation the majority of middle-class Americans became suburbanites. (p. 558) |  | 2 |
| 10489513598 | Levittown | William Levitt used mass production techniques to build 17,000 inexpensive homes on Long Island, New York. It became a symbol of the movement to the suburbs in the years after World War II. (p. 558) |  | 3 |
| 10489513599 | Sunbelt | After World War II, many Americans moved to southern states. They were attracted by a warmer climate, lower taxes, and defense-related industry jobs. (p. 558) |  | 4 |
| 10489513600 | Harry Truman | A moderate Democrat, he became president when Franklin Roosevelt died. He was a decisive, honest and unpretentious leader. (p. 558) |  | 5 |
| 10489513601 | Executive Order 9981 | In 1948, President Truman ordered the end of racial discrimination throughout the federal government including the armed forces. The end of segregation changed life on military bases, many of which were in the South. (p. 559) |  | 6 |
| 10489513602 | 22nd Amendment | In response to Franklin Roosevelt's four elections, Congress passed this constitutional amendment, which limited a president to a maximum of two full terms in office. (p. 560) |  | 7 |
| 10489513603 | States-Rights party | In 1948, Southern Democrats who supported segregation formed this new party in reaction the President Truman's support of civil rights. AKA Dixiecrats (p. 560) |  | 8 |
| 10489513604 | Fair Deal | President Truman's attempt at extending the New Deal with national health insurance, federal aid to education, civil rights legislation, public housing, and a new farm program. Most of the Fair Deal was defeated because of Truman's political conflicts with Congress and the pressing foreign policy concerns of the Cold War. (p. 561) |  | 9 |
| 10489513605 | Cold War | From the late 1940's to 1991, it dominated international relations. The Communist empire of the Soviet Union against the Western democracy of the United States. It was fought mainly through diplomacy rather than armed conflict, but brought the world dangerously close to a nuclear war. (p. 561) |  | 10 |
| 10489513606 | Soviet Union | A Communist nation, consisting of Russia and 14 other satellite states, that existed from 1922 to 1991. (p. 561) |  | 11 |
| 10489513607 | Joseph Stalin | The leader of the Soviet Union during World War II. In the Nonaggression Pact of 1939, he and Hitler agreed to divide up Eastern Europe. The Soviets later fought Hitler in World War II. They were unhappy when the British and Americans waited until 1944 to open a second battle front in France. (p. 562) |  | 12 |
| 10489513608 | United Nations | In the fall of 1945, this worldwide organization was founded and allowed membership of all countries. It had a 15-member Security Council that was to maintain international security and authorize peacekeeping missions. It is often referred to as the U.N. (p. 562) |  | 13 |
| 10489513609 | Security Council | Within the United Nations, this council consisted of 15 members. There were five permanent members that had veto power: United States, Great Britain, France, China, and the Soviet Union. (p. 562) |  | 14 |
| 10489513610 | Satellite nations | Central and Eastern European nations ruled by Communist dictators, most of them loyal to the Soviet Union. They included: Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, and others. (p. 562) |  | 15 |
| 10489513611 | Occupation zones | At the end of World War II, Germany was divided into four regions controlled by the Soviets, United States, Britain, and France. These areas were supposed to be temporary but the Soviets maintained control of the eastern area. (p. 563) |  | 16 |
| 10489513612 | Iron Curtain | The term popularized by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to describe the Soviet Union's policy of isolating and controlling the Soviet satellite states of Eastern Europe. (p. 563) |  | 17 |
| 10489513613 | Winston Churchill | After World War II he declared, "An iron curtain has been descended across the continent". He called for a partnership between Western democracies to halt the expansion of communism. (p. 563) |  | 18 |
| 10489513614 | George Kennan | Helped formulate Truman's containment policy. Expert on Soviet Affairs, in an influential article he wrote that only "a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies" would eventually cause the Soviets to back off their Communist ideology of world domination and live in peace with other nations. (p. 563) |  | 19 |
| 10489513615 | Containment | In 1947, President Truman adopted the advice of three top advisers on how to contain Soviet aggression. This policy called for a long-term, firm, and vigilant containment of the Soviet's expansion tendencies. They believed this would eventually cause them to back off their Communist ideology of world domination. (p. 563) |  | 20 |
| 10489513616 | Truman Doctrine | This doctrine was in response to a Communist-led uprising against the government in Greece and Soviet demand for some control of a water route in Turkey. In 1947, President Truman asked Congress for $400 million in economic and military aid to assist Greece and Turkey against totalitarian regimes. (p. 564) |  | 21 |
| 10489513617 | Marshall Plan | A 1947 plan of U.S. economic aid to help European nations revive their economies and strengthen democratic governments, after the devastation of World War II. This plan offered $12 billion in aid to western and southern Europe. The Soviet Union refused to take any of the aid and the result was a deepening rift between non-Communist West and the Communist East. (p. 564) |  | 22 |
| 10489513618 | Berlin airlift | The Soviets cut off all access by land to West Berlin. The United States flew planes in with supplies to help the people. At the same time, the U.S. sent 60 bombers capable of carrying atomic bombs to bases in England. Stalin chose not to challenge the airlift and war was averted. (p. 564) |  | 23 |
| 10489513619 | East Germany | After World War II, this country was the German Democratic Republic, a satellite of the Soviet Union. (p. 564) |  | 24 |
| 10489513620 | West Germany | After World War II, this country was the Federal Republic of Germany, a U.S. ally. (p. 564) |  | 25 |
| 10489513621 | North Atlantic Treaty Organization | A military alliance, commonly known as NATO. It consists of the United States, Canada, and ten European nations. Its purpose was to defend Western Europe against outside attack. (p. 565) |  | 26 |
| 10489513622 | National Security Act | In 1947, this act provided for 1) a centralized Department of Defense to coordinate the operations of the military, 2) creation of the National Security Council (NSC) to coordinate the making of foreign policy in the Cold War, 3) creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to employ spies to gather information on foreign governments. (p. 566) |  | 27 |
| 10489513623 | Nuclear arms race | Soviet and American scientists were in an arms race to develop superior weapons systems. From 1945 to 1949 the U.S. was only country to have atomic bombs. In 1949 the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb. President Truman responded by approving the development of a hydrogen bomb which would be 1000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb. (p. 566) |  | 28 |
| 10489513624 | U.S. - Japanese Security Treaty | A 1951 treaty, in which Japan surrendered its claims to Korea and islands in the Pacific and the U.S. ended formal occupation of Japan. U.S troops remained on military bases in Japan to protect it from external enemies. (p. 567) |  | 29 |
| 10489513625 | Douglas MacArthur | Popular general who aggressively directed American forces during the Korean War. He clashed with President Truman, who removed him from command in 1951. (p. 566) |  | 30 |
| 10489513626 | Chinese civil war | The war between Communist Mao Zedong and Nationalist Chiang-Kai Shek. The United States gave $400 million in aid to the Nationalists, but 80 percent of it landed in Communist hands. The Communists took over China and forced the Nationalists to retreat to Taiwan. The U.S. did not recognize the People's Republic of China until 1979. (p. 567) |  | 31 |
| 10489513627 | Mao Zedong | The Communist leader of the People's Republic of China. He overthrew Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists. (p. 567) |  | 32 |
| 10489513628 | Korean War | On June 25, 1950 the North Korean army invaded South Korea. General Douglas MacArthur led a United Nations force consisting of mostly U.S. troops to help the South Korean army. By the time a peace agreement was signed in 1953 the north and south border was nearly in the same location, but 2.5 million people, including 54,000 Americans had died. (p. 568) |  | 33 |
| 10489513629 | Kim Il Sung | The Communist leader of North Korea during the Korean War. (p. 568) |  | 34 |
| 10489513630 | Syngman Rhee | The nationalist leader of South Korea during the Korean War. (p. 568) |  | 35 |
| 10489513631 | U.N. police action | The term to describe the Korean War because Congress supported the use of U.S. troops under the U.N. but had never declared war. (p. 568) |  | 36 |
| 10489513632 | 38th parallel | After World War II Japan gave up its former colony Korea and the country was divided along this parallel. The northern area was occupied by the Soviet forces and the south by the U.S. forces. (p. 568) |  | 37 |
| 10489513633 | House Un-American Activities Committee | After World War II, this House of Representative committee investigated Communist influence in the government and within organizations such as the Boy Scouts and Hollywood film industry. Many were called to testify before the committee and some were blacklisted. (p. 570) |  | 38 |
| 10489513634 | Hollywood blacklists | The House Un-American Activities Committee created a list of people who would be denied work in the film industry. (p. 570) |  | 39 |
| 10489513635 | Alger Hiss | He was a state department official who assisted Roosevelt at the Yalta conference. He denied that he was a Communist and had given secret documents to Whittaker Chambers. In 1950, he was convicted of perjury and sent to prison. (p. 571) |  | 40 |
| 10489513636 | Whittaker Chambers | A confessed Communist and witness for the House Un-American Activities Committee. (p. 571) |  | 41 |
| 10489513637 | Julius and Ethel Rosenberg | This couple was charged with running a spy ring for the Soviets in New York. In 1953, they were convicted of treason and executed. (p 571) |  | 42 |
| 10489513638 | Joseph McCarthy | A Republican senator from Wisconsin, who recklessly accused many government officials of being Communists. In December 1954 censured by the Senate which brought an end to his era. (p. 571) |  | 43 |
| 10489513639 | McCarthyism | During the early 1950s, this term was applied to the process of recklessly accusing people in the government and the arts of being Communists. (p. 571) |  | 44 |
