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Unit 13
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Pearl Harbor | Site of surprise Japanese attack that caused the United States to enter WWI |
Operation Overlord/D-Day | Turning point in Western Europe in which America and other allies, led by Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower, liberated France and began closing in on Germany |
Iron Curtain | Term for the "barrier" that isolated the Soviet-controlled countries in Eastern Europe and separated them from democratic nations in Western Europe |
McCarthyism | Strategy of using fear and false accusations to pain power; used by Senator who accused people of being communists during the second Red scare |
Adolf Hitler | Fascist dictator of Germany during WWII who ordered the killing of minority groups during the Holocaust |
Battle of Midway | Turning point in Pacific Theatre that marked the beginning of the decline of Japanese control in the Pacific Ocean |
Harry Truman | President who oversaw the end of WWII and the beginning of the Cold War |
Manhattan Project | Secret American Government project that created the first atomic bomb, which was later used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force Japan to surrender and end WWII |
The St. Louis Affair | Incident in which a ship of Jewish Refugees to the United States was denied due to nativist immigration laws; many of these refugees died in the holocaust. |
The Neutrality Acts | Series of laws that aimed to keep the United States out of WWII by avoiding the causes of WWI |
United Nations | International Peacekeeping Organization created after WWII which the United States joined and led |
Rosie the Riveter | This famous symbol encouraged women to work on the home front during WWII |
The "Double V" Campaign | This program, aimed at black Americans, promoted fighting against both Hitler's racism and against racism in the United States. |
Containment | American foreign policy of keeping communism from spreading to new countries, often with military or economic aid |
Korean War | Military conflict fought in the 1950's to prevent communism from spreading further in Southeast Asia |
Berlin Airlift | Event in which Truman bypassed the Stalin's blockade with airplanes and saved West Berlin from communism |
War Production Board | Federal agency that regulated production and converted many factories to produce war materials during WWII |
Korematsu v. United States | This supreme court ruling said that Japanese internment during WWII was constitutional as a national security measure |
Cold War | Post-war time of tension between communist and anti-communist countries, especially between the Soviet Union and the United States |
Communism | A system in which economy and property are held in common, not by individuals, creating economic equality; in reality, this system can give rise to dictatorships. |
Yalta Conference | Meeting of Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin in which they agreed to divide Germany after the war, prosecute Nazi war criminals, and create the United Nations |
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) | An anti-communist military alliance formed among the United States with Western European countries |
Second Red Scare | Time in the United States of high fear of communism and nuclear war during the cold war |
Lend-Lease Act | This law allowed Britain (and other countries later) to "borrow" war materials without technically violating the neutrality acts |
Atlantic Charter | Agreement in which FDR and Churchill set post-war goals after Germany's defeat; they agreed to promote self-government, oppose imperialism, and create what became the United Nations |