Taft-Hartley Act
(1947) It outlawed the "closed" shop, made unions liable for damages that resulted from jurisdictional disputes among themselves, and required union leaders to take a non-Communist oath.
Fair Deal
Made by Truman in his 1949 message to Congress. It was a program that called for improved housing , full employment, higher minimum wage, better farm price supports, new TVA's, and the extension of social security. Its only successes: raised the minimum wage, better public housing, extended old-age insurance to more people.
Thirty-eighth parallel
The line dividing Korea into two sections, north of the parallel the communist Soviet Union was in charge and south of the parallel was democratic America was in charge. This line would become the demilitarized zone after the Korean conflict.
NSC-68
First drawn up in 1950, NSC-68, or National Security Council Memorandum Number 68, was buried until the Korean crisis later that year. This document suggested that the U.S. could afford to spend upward of 50% of its gross national product for security.
Inchon landing
The landing of UN troops, by General Douglas MacArthur, behind enemy lines at Inchon in Korea. In order to push back the North Korean troops.
Containment
US foreign policy after WWII designed to stop the spread of communism. (Truman Doctrine)
Truman Doctrine
Truman wanted to prevent the spread of communism. He wanted it "contained". The first implementation of the Truman Doctrine was $400 million given to aid Greece and Turkey to prevent a communist takeover.
Marshall Plan
Issued in response to the struggling European countries, the Marshall Plan would allow the U.S. to give financial assistance to certain countries. This was done to prevent communism from rising in countries like France and Italy, whose economies where suffering after WWII. It was agreed in July 1947 that the U.S. would spend $12.5 billion, over four years, in sixteen different nations. In order to receive financial assistance you had to have a democratic government.
National Security Act
Passed by Congress in 1947 and it created the Department of Defense. It also established a National Security Council (NSC) to advise the president on security matters and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to coordinate the government foreign fact-gathering.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Military alliance between the US, Canada and 10 European nations signed on April 4, 1949. It was committed to building military defense of Europe against Communist Russia. Dwight D.Eisenhower became the Supreme Commander of NATO.
Yalta Conference
A conference between Stalin and FDR in an attempt to get Russian support in the highly anticipated invasion of Japan. Russia ,in return, received the southern part of Sakilin Island that it had lost to Japan and joint control of Manchuria's railroads. The Allies also reluctantly allowed Poland to become communist. Many Americans saw this deal as a failure.
Cold War
The Cold War began in 1945 after WWII. It was a global ideological conflict between democracy and communism. (United States versus Soviet Union)
United Nations
United Nations conference took place on April 25, 1945 --FDR died on April 12, but had chosen Republican and Democratic representatives to meet at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House with representatives from 50 nations, fashioning a United Nations' charter similar to the old League of Nations covenant --- featured a Security Council dominated by the US, Britain, USSR, France, and China (the big 5 powers) who could veto, and an Assembly that could be controlled by smaller countries --the UN's permanent home was in NY city.
Iron Curtain
The "iron curtain" refers to the secrecy and isolation of the Soviet Union and its satellite states, East Germany, Hungary, and Poland, after World War II. The phrase was first used by Winston Churchill while he was giving a speech in the United States.
Berlin airlift
The USSR had embargoed all supplies that would go into the Allied Germany. In response, America used many planes to take and drop food and supplies into Berlin. They did this to show the USSR that they were determined to maintain control of Berlin. It worked, the Soviets lifted the blockade.
J. Strom Thurmond
He was nominated for president on a States' Rights Party (Dixiecrats) in the 1948 election. Split southern Democrats from the party due to Truman's stand in favor of Civil Rights for African American. He only got 39 electoral votes.
Thomas Dewey
He worked for a well known New York City law firm. He was Governor of New York State and was elected District Attorney in 1937. He was Governor 3 different times and ran for president twice although he was defeated both times. 1948 the newspapers had him defeating Truman but Truman won.
Adlai Stevenson
The Democratic candidate who ran against Eisenhower in 1952. His intellectual speeches earned him and his supporters the term "eggheads". Lost to Eisenhower.
Dwight Eisenhower
Called "The Republican's Choice" along with his vice president Richard Nixon. He was the commander of the allied forces in Europe, the army chief-of-staff after the war, and the director of NATO for two years. Dwight displayed "grandfatherly good will". The night before the 1952 presidential elections, he declared that he would personally go to Korea and end the war. This helped to win the majority in 41 of the lower 48 states. Eisenhower reigned over a period of unstable peace and prosperity. He was elected to another term in 1956.
Richard Nixon
He was a committee member of the House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities (to investigate "subversion"). He tried to catch Alger Hiss who was accused of being a communist agent in the 1930's. This brought Nixon to the attention of the American public. In 1956 he was Eisenhower's Vice-President.
George F. Kennan
A brilliant young diplomat, and a Soviet specialist, who crafted the "containment doctrine."
Douglas MacArthur
He was the supreme allied commander during the Cold War in 1945. After World War II, MacArthur was put in charge of putting Japan back together. In the Korean War, he commanded the United Nations troops. He was later fired by Harry Truman for insubordination.
Douglas MacArthur
Allied commander and five star general in the U.S. army. He headed the U.S. army in Japan and Korea but was fired by Truman for questioning the actions of his superiors in the midst of the Korean war.
Joseph McCarthy
A Republican Senator from Wisconsin who was strongly against communism. McCarthy claimed there were many communists in the State Department. He did not have much evidence to support his accusations, and his search for communists was considered a type of "witch-hunt." When his lack of evidence was discovered, he was censored by Congress and lost his seat in Congress.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
They were convicted in 1951 of giving atomic bomb data found by American scientists to the Soviet Union. They are the only Americans ever executed during peacetime for espionage.
Harry S. Truman
He was called the "accidental president" and "the average man's average man." He was the first president in many years without a college education, he had farmed, served as an artillery officer in France during WWI, and failed as a haberdasher. Then he rose from precinct-level politics in Missouri to a judgeship to the U.S. Senate. Though a protege of the political machine in Kansas City, he had kept his own hands clean.
