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| 697308320 | Allied Powers | Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States and their allies were referred to as the Allied Powers in World War II. See also: Axis Powers | |
| 697308325 | Appeasement | Trying to avoid war at all costs, the nations of Europe adopted the policy of appeasement, allowing Hitler to get away with a succession of relatively small acts of aggression and expansion. The United States went along with the policy. | |
| 697308331 | Atlantic Charter | In August of 1941, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt met off the coast of Newfoundland where they drew up the Atlantic Charter. It was a joint statement of war aims. It called for self-determination of all peoples, freedom of the seas, and a new system of general security. Fifteen nations, including the Soviet Union, endorsed the charter by September of the same year | |
| 697308338 | Axis Powers | Germany, Italy, and Japan constituted the Axis Powers in World War II. Aiding them were Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. See also: Allied Powers | |
| 697308343 | Fascism | A political system that exalts nation-and often race-above the individual and suppresses the rights and freedoms of individuals and groups of individuals in the name of national glory. It involves a strong autocratic national government, usually headed by a charismatic dictatorial leader. Fascism grew out of the political chaos that resulted in Europe with the Great Depression | |
| 697308347 | Good Neighbor Policy | Roosevelt promised such a policy towards the other nations of the western hemisphere in his first inaugural address. His motives made sense; intervening in Latin America in support of dollar diplomacy made no sense as the United States in the midst of the Great Depression did not have the resources to invest in other countries. In addition, the militaristic behavior form Italy and Germany suggested a better course would be to ask for Latin American assistance in defending the area. The Pan-American conferences heard Roosevelt pledge the United States would never again intervene in the internal affairs of a Latin American country, in contrast to Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. | |
| 697308354 | Isolationism | After World War I was over, the prevailing opinion of Americans was that the U.S. should not get involved with problems in other nations. Peace conferences and treaties were acceptable forms of involvement. The consensus was that even utilizing economic sanctions against aggressive nations would only lead to military involvement. | |
| 697308362 | Kellogg-Briand Pact | This 1928 agreement was the culmination of some cleaver diplomatic moves on the part of the French and the Americans. The French wanted the Americans to sign an agreement never to go to war against each other. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg countered with a plan to have all the nations sign. Eventually 62 nations signed; however, the treaty had an escape clause of self-defense. | |
| 697308365 | Keynesian Economics | John Maynard Keynes published The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money in 1936. The Keynesian ideas of using government spending to boost the economy were used to justify New Deal spending and anticipated additional spending. Keynes thought massive spending by government was the way to end the recession. | |
| 697308371 | Lend-Lease Act | This bill authorized the president to sell, transfer, exchange, lend, lease or otherwise dispose of arms and other equipment and supplies to "any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States." President Roosevelt knew that Great Britain could not sustain another war and the United States would be the key to its survival. | |
| 697308377 | Nazi Party | The Nazi Party in Germany, similar to the Fascists in Italy, believed that an autocratic government was necessary to organize the nation and save it from the chaos of democracy. With Hitler as its leader, it sought to glorify the German nation and the Aryan race, pursuing an aggressive militaristic foreign policy and a domestic policy that involved extermination of the Jews, who the Nazis perceived to be non-German and non-Aryan. The Nazi Party grew out of resentments over provisions in the Treaty of Versailles and the economic and political chaos caused by the Great Depression in Europe. Hitler seized power through popular appeal and the bullying tactics of his "brown shirts," his supporters | |
| 697308383 | Neutrality Acts | There were three: one in 1935, 1936, and 1937. Each piece of legislation applied to nations that were proclaimed to be at war. In 1935 the president was authorized to prohibit all arms shipments and forbid U.S. citizens to travel on ships of the warring nations. The 1936 version restricted the extension of loans and credit to warring nations and the 1937 version also disallowed the shipment of arms to the opposing sides in the civil war in Spain. FDR signed each with great reservation. | |
| 697308389 | Nye Committee | Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota led a committee investigation into the U.S. entry into World War I. The committee concluded that the main impetus for participations in the war was the pressure of the greedy bankers and arms manufacturers. This opinion would influence legislation for years. | |
| 697308394 | Pearl Harbor | On December 7, 1941 Japanese planes staged a surprise attack and bombed the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Of the eight battleships there, three were sunk, one grounded, one capsized, and the others were badly damaged. President Roosevelt spoke to Congress the next day and asked for a declaration of war. It was approved with one dissenting vote (Jeanette Rankin of Montana). On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. It was now a global conflict. | |
| 697308402 | Washington Armaments Conference | President Harding invited eight major foreign powers to the conference in 1921. Charles Evans Hughes was the hero of the moment when he said: "the way to disarm is to disarm them." The resulting Five-Power Treaty included tonnage limits and a 10-year moratorium on the building of battleships. Other agreements reached at the conference included a mutual respect for possessions in the Pacific and support for the open-door principle for trade and investment purposes. The negative side of the agreements was that the participants were in no way obligated to comply and there was no way to force compliance | |
| 697308408 | Bracero Program | To combat the labor shortage in 1942, Mexico agreed to provide farm workers in exchange for a promise on the part of the United States not to draft them. As a result, approximately 200,000 farm workers entered the U.S. on one-year contracts and were paid wages at the going rate | |
| 697308412 | Winston Churchill | Churchill was the Prime Minister of Great Britain during most of World War II. He was a great friend of FDR. His tenaciousness served as an inspiration to the millions in London who were subjected to nightmare bombings for 11 months and did not surrender. | |
| 697308417 | D-Day | The invasion of Normandy and Europe (Operation Overload) by the forces of Great Britain and the United States was led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. It took place on June 6, 1944. It was the largest amphibious assault ever staged. | |
| 697308423 | Fair Employment Pracitices Committee (FEPC) | The Commission was established to investigate civil rights abuses. It also worked to withhold federal funding from any state with mandated school segregation and public facilities | |
| 697308428 | Hiroshima | The United States warned Japan that it had weapons of mass destruction. The Japanese were warned to surrender or suffer the consequences. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. 100,000 people died within seconds and thousands more within the next five days. The second bomb was dropped three days later on Nagasaki. The Japanese then surrendered. | |
| 697308433 | Holocaust | The systematic effort by the Nazis to eliminate the Jews in Europe. The death camps had ovens that operated day and night to burn the bodies. This genocide eliminated between six and eight million Jews beginning in 1936 | |
| 697308437 | Japanese Internment | After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, fears that the Japanese were about to invade the western part of the United States seemed to have some foundation. President Roosevelt was persuaded to issue an executive order calling for the collection and internment of thousands of Japanese Americans. There were 10 camps, one as far away from the west coast as Arkansas. The Japanese were given hours to collect their things and then whites argued over the property left behind. Many pieces of property were never returned. Many years after the war was over, the Japanese Americans received compensation from the federal government in the amount of $20,000 for each family member affected by the internment | |
| 697308444 | Douglas MacArthur | MacArthur commanded the American army forces in the South Pacific and is known for his legendary "I will return" with the troops in the Philippines. He would orchestrate the surrender of the Japanese on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri and would serve as the commander in Japan of all U.S. forces for the first few years after the war was over (This in effect made him ruler of Japan). | |
| 697308450 | Manhattan Project | This top-secret project to build the world's first nuclear weapon began in 1942. Directed by J. Robert Oppenheimer, it spent $2 billion and employed over 100,000 people to build a weapon whose power came from atoms. It was successfully tested in New Mexico on July 16, 1945 | |
| 697308456 | Office of Price Administration (OPA) | The wartime OPA had maintained some price controls while gradually ending the rationing of most goods. After the war, Truman asked for a one-year extension of the powers. There was a campaign to end the controls. Congress passed a bill to extend the life of the OPA, but also set in place many restrictions. Truman vetoed the bill. The OPA expired after the 1946 elections | |
| 697308459 | Joseph Stalin | He was the Russian leader during World War II who joined the Allied Powers in the fight against Germany. After the war, Stalin led a country that did not demobilize, that took over other countries in what would become known as the Eastern Bloc, and sent thousands of Russians to the Siberian work camps. | |
| 697308465 | Harry Truman | Roosevelt's vice president knew nothing about the Manhattan Project and had met with FDR only twice since the election. He became president upon FDR's death on April 12, 1945 and said he felt like the sun and the moon and the stars had all fallen in on top of him. He was so solicitous of Eleanor Roosevelt that he postponed moving into the White House for over a month to give Eleanor time to collect her things and move out. He would go on to win a second term as president. | |
| 697308469 | War Powers Act | The 1941 legislation gave the president a directive to reassign government agencies to conduct the war effort. The Second War Powers Act gave the president power to allot materials and facilities as needed for defense, with penalties for those who failed to comply | |
| 697308474 | War Production Board (WPB) | Created in 1942, the WPB was responsible for converting the consumer economy to a wartime economy, for retooling the factories, and for directing manufacturers. Mosquito netting was made in former shirt-making plants, auto manufacturers built ambulances and tanks, and the refrigerator manufacturers would now produce munitions | |
| 697308477 | Yalta Conference | In February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin planned what would occur after the Allied victory. Germany would be divided into four occupation zones; the Soviets would declare war against Japan, getting control of the southern half of Sakhalin Island in return; and a new world peace organization would be formed | |
| 697308482 | Atomic Energy Commission | Created in 1946, the Commission was created to address the disagreements over who would control the use of atomic energy—the military or civilians. The Civilian Commission would work with the president who was given sole power to use atomic weapons during a time of war | |
| 697308485 | Baby Boom | With the returning troops at the end of the war, the number of babies born in the following years was much higher than in previous years. The baby boom generation is usually calculated as those born between 1946 and 1969. | |
| 697308489 | Berlin Airlift | Following the closing of the roads to Berlin by the Soviets, Truman knew a direct confrontation was ill advised. He chose instead to fly material over Soviet controlled Germany, sending 450 tons of food and materials to West Berlin each day and night for 11 months | |
| 697308492 | Containment | This was the 1947 policy with regards to the Soviet Union that Truman adopted on the advice of Secretary of State George Marshall, his undersecretary Dean Acheson, and George F. Kennan, an expert on Soviet affairs. This policy, which was to keep the Soviet Union from further expansion, would be the foundation of foreign policy for years to come. | |
| 697308495 | Dixiecrats | A split in the Democratic Party produced Strom Thurmond as a candidate for president in the 1948 election. Thurmond's conservative southern Democrats were called "Dixiecrats." Truman won the election, beating Thurmond and Republican Thomas E. Dewey, in spite of the division within his party. | |
| 697308498 | Fair Deal | Each president after Roosevelt named his legislative package. FDR had the New Deal, and Truman had the Fair Deal—an ambitious reform program that included national health care, aid to education, civil rights legislation, and a new farm program. Most of his bills were defeated in Congress. | |
| 697308502 | GI Bill | Trying to soften the effects of demobilization, the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944 brought funding to the veterans. Over $13 billion was spent for veterans on education, training, medical treatment, and loans for building houses | |
| 697308505 | Alger Hiss | Hiss had served in several government departments and had been the secretary-general of the United Nations charter conference. Whittaker Chambers (a former Soviet agent) testified before the House of Un-American Activities Committee that he had received certain documents from Hiss 10 years earlier. Hiss denied this and sued for libel. His 1950 perjury trials (one mistrial, then a conviction) were nonconclusive | |
| 697308509 | House Un-American Activities Committee | Formed in 1938, the Committee (HUAC) kept calling attention to perceived Communist "subversives" in the government. Truman signed an executive order setting up procedures for a federal employee loyalty program. Every person entering civil employment would be subject to a background check | |
| 697308512 | Korean War | The forces of Communist North Korea crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea. UN forces were called upon to act. The United States responded immediately; in all, 14 nations sent some kind of assistance. Truman was sure that Stalin was behind the aggression and this belief motivated other decisions—to station more U.S. troops in Europe under NATO and to assist the French in Indochina (the seeds of the Vietnam War). There would never be a final peace conference; the truce line near the 38th parallel became the new border. | |
| 697308516 | Douglas MacArthur | MacArthur led the American troops in Korea. His prediction of a total victory by Christmas turned out to be premature. He wanted an "unlimited war" and urged the use of atomic weapons. When he criticized Truman in a letter read on the floor of the House, it left Truman to respond to the act of insubordination, and MacArthur was removed from his command | |
| 697308519 | Marshall Plan | This extensive program offered economic aid after World War II to European countries devastated by World War II. The European Recovery Program was funded with $12 billion over a four-year period. The Soviet Union and its allies were also offered aid, but they refused fearing a dependence on the United States. The Marshall Plan worked exactly as Truman and Marshall had hoped. Western Europe became a firm ally of the United States and achieved growth by the 1950s. | |
| 697308523 | McCarthyism | In 1950 an obscure Wisconsin senator—Joseph McCarthy—made a speech and charged that the State Department was "infested" with Communists. He claimed to have a list of names. Although he never produced a list of names or uncovered any Communists, he held the government in fear. He continued unchecked until the end of the Korean War, when his charges were refuted. He then left government and disappeared from public view | |
| 697308526 | National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) | The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 set up the NLRB and conditions for the operation of labor unions. The NLRB would serve as an agency to which employers could appeal for rulings on the legitimacy of unions as collective bargaining units | |
| 697308529 | National Security Council (NSC) | The 1947 National Security Act created the NSC, whose role is to coordinate the defense and foreign policies of the United States. It includes the president, vice-president, secretary of defense, and the secretary of state. The Council's special advisers include the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and the president's national security adviser | |
| 697308532 | NATO | The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded in 1949 with General Dwight D. Eisenhower as its first head. This organization committed the United States to the defense of Western Europe; this was a military alliance for defending its members from attack—a deterrent against a Soviet invasion. The Soviets responded by forming the Warsaw Pact, an alliance of the Communist states of Eastern Europe. | |
| 697308535 | Julius and Ethel Rosenberg | The Rosenbergs were convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviets and executed in 1953. Klaus Fuchs, a British scientist who had worked on the Manhattan project, admitted to giving secrets to the Russians. An FBI investigation uncovered another spy ring, and implicated the Rosenbergs. President Eisenhower denied their appeal for clemency saying that by giving atomic secrets to the Soviets that they had put millions at risk | |
| 697308538 | Taft-Hartley Act | The 1947 legislation allowed individual states to ban closed shops (where nonunion workers could not be hired) but in other states allowed a union shop (new hires could be required to join the union). It also described "unfair" union practices, such as boycotts and refusals to bargain in good faith. See also: National Labor Relations Board | |
| 697308541 | Truman Doctrine | This doctrine embodied the containment policy that was implemented because of Soviet-supported uprisings in Greece. Truman asked Congress for $400 million to aid Greece and got bipartisan support. Although the Doctrine at first directed the funds as aid for Greece and Turkey, it would become the standard when dealing with the Soviets everywhere in the world | |
| 697308544 | Harry Truman | Truman was unpretentious as the president; he had to lead the country following the only man ever elected president more than two times (FDR). He supported civil rights and desegregated the federal government and the armed forces. He got the minimum wage raised from $0.40 to $0.75 an hour and expanded the requirements for people who would be eligible under Social Security | |
| 697308547 | United Nations | The first meeting of this multinational peacekeeping organization was held in San Francisco in 1945. First conceived during the meetings of leaders of the Allies during World War II, the United Nations, as it was to be called, was designed in eight weeks. The Senate readily approved U.S. participation on October 24, 1945. The headquarters are located in New York City | |
| 697308550 | Henry A. Wallace | Wallace had been FDR's liberal vice president for three terms until the election of 1944, when FDR dropped him and replaced him with Harry S. Truman. Truman was a moderate, a position FDR felt was more in keeping with the changing times. Truman would become president upon FDR's death on April 12, 1945. |
