American History Semester 2 Final Study Guide

Recovery

"Pump - Priming" Temporary programs to restart the flow of consumer demand.

Josef Stalin

(18 December 1878 - 5 March 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until death 1953. Holding General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively dictator of the state.

Neville Chamberlain

(18 March 1869 - 9 November 1940) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany. However, when Adolf Hitler later invaded Poland, the UK declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, and Chamberlain led Britain through the first eight months of World War II.

Joseph Stalin

(1878-1953) was the leader of the Soviet Communist Party from 1922 until his death in 1953. Following the death of V.I. Lenin, the first leader of Soviet Russia, __ managed to win complete control of the party, ruling as a dictator for the next thirty years. He led the Soviet Union through World War II and—not without justification—believed that his country made the greatest sacrifices to defeat Nazi Germany. greatest sacrifices to defeat Nazi Germany. ____'s absolute insistence upon Soviet domination of Eastern Europe following the war's end was not entirely without justification; after all, Germany had invaded Russia via Eastern Europe during both World Wars, at a cost of tens of millions of Soviet lives. In Stalin's view, only Soviet control of the nations of Eastern Europe, including East Germany, could ensure that there would not be another repeat. Americans, however, viewed ___'s power grab in Eastern Europe—which crushed millions of people's dreams of self-determination—as proof of Soviet aspirations for world domination, and began to take measures to contain Soviet influence. The Cold War was on.

Harry S. Truman

(1884-1972) became the 33rd President of the United States upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945. Truman, who had only a high-school education and had been vice president for just 82 days before FDR's sudden death, inherited the monumental task of leading the United States through the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. Truman—who was, while in office, one of the least popular presidents in modern American history—won a surprising second term by defeating Republican Thomas Dewey in the election of 1948. The Cold War began under Truman's watch, as the president came to believe he must take a hard stance to contain the expansionist tendencies of the SU. The president's "Truman Doctrine" committed the United States to a policy of supporting foes of Communism everywhere. Truman's failure to lead the United States to victory in the Korean War led to a severe decline in support for the president's policies among the American people.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

(1890-1969), a Republican, was the popular 34th President of the United States, serving two terms from 1953 to 1961. Prior to his presidency, Eisenhower was a lifelong military man, commanding the D-Day invasion while serving as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II. As a presidential candidate in 1952, __ promised to institute a more forceful anti communist foreign policy than that of his predecessor, Democrat Harry S. Truman. Upon taking office __ negotiated an end to the Korean War, but also committed the United States to new covert interventions against Soviet-friendly governments in places like Iran and Guatemala. Eisenhower left office warning the American public about the dangers of the military-industrial complex growing too powerful in American life.

Nikita Khrushchev

(1894-1971) emerged as the new Soviet leader by prevailing in a bitter series of Moscow power struggles after Josef Stalin's death in 1953. In a famous speech in 1956, ______ denounced Stalin and called for greater cooperation between Communism and capitalism. His desire to enact reforms led to unrest in other Communist nations, which desired greater reforms than ____would allow. _________'s initial conciliatory stance towards the non-Communist world suggested a possible thawing in the Cold War, but when, in 1960, Soviet forces shot down an American U2 spy plane within Soviet airspace, ______ once again took a hard line against the United States. He sought to intimidate young American President John F. Kennedy, but his tense confrontation with Kennedy in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis ended in seeming defeat with the withdrawal of Soviet weapons. Khrushchev, weakened by the Missile Crisis, fell from power in 1964 when a conspiracy of rival party leaders pushed him into forced retirement.

Lyndon B. Johnson

(1908-1973) was the 36th president of the United States, assuming the office after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. Prior to serving as Kennedy's vice president, ___ had long represented Texas in the United States Senate. Johnson inherited Kennedy's foreign policy and most of his advisers. Believing he was carrying out Kennedy's legacy, Johnson massively escalated America's involvement in the Vietnam War.

Ronald W. Reagan

(1911-2004): American conservatives give credit for the Cold War's end to Ronald Reagan, but both Reagan and Gorbachev played big roles in ending the Cold War. Gorbachev was the fourth Soviet leader during Reagan's presidency. Relations between the two countries were extremely tense before he assumed power in 1985.

Richard M. Nixon

(1913 - 1994) was a Republican senator from California and the thirty-seventh president of the United States. Prior to his presidency, he also served as Dwight Eisenhower's Vice President from 1953 to 1961. Ultimately, his presidency ended in disgrace, with Nixon's 1974 resignation in the midst of the Watergate scandal. built his early political career almost entirely around the issue of anticommunism. He rode his reputation as an aggressive foe of Communism at home and abroad to the US Senate and the vice presidency. As president, however, Nixon changed course. With the aid of his National Security Advisor and (later) Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, __ moderated his strong anti communist views, surprising the world by pursuing détente with the Soviet Union and opening diplomatic relations with Red China.

John F. Kennedy

(1917-1963) was the 35th president of the United States. Elected in 1960 at the age of 43, he became the youngest person ever to be voted into the White House. __served from 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. To this day, many Americans remember Kennedy as an idealistic champion of freedom at home and abroad, despite the fact that his policies on civil rights, Vietnam, and Cuba sometimes failed to live up to his soaring rhetoric. In the 1960 presidential campaign, __ positioned himself to the right of the Republican Eisenhower Administration by promising to close the "missile gap," the supposed Soviet superiority in long-range nuclear missiles. In fact, __'s "missile gap" charges were false; the US always had many times more intercontinental ballistic missiles than the Soviets. Still, __'s promises of a strong and aggressive Cold War posture appealed to voters, who narrowly elected him over vice president Richard Nixon. __'s reputation as a strong Cold Warrior soon ran aground in Cuba, where he was humiliated in the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion and where the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis nearly led to nuclear holocaust. Spooked by the near-disaster of the Missile Crisis, __ subsequently pursued more moderate policies with regard to the Soviet Union.

George H.W Bush

(1924-Present): A key focus of __'s presidency was foreign policy. He began his time in the White House as Germany was in the process of reunifying, the Soviet Union was collapsing and the Cold War was ending. ___ would be credited with helping to improve U.S.-Soviet relations. He met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-), and in July 1991, the two men signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Mikhail Gorbachev

(1931-Present) Gorbachev continued to rise in ranks until 1989, when he was elected as the Executive President of the Soviet Union. His presidency was at the height of the Cold War and he believed the war was the product of mistrust between the United States and the Soviet Union. He initiated Glasnost, a program that began to give more rights back to the people. Glasnost, or "openness," eventually encouraged general openness with other nations in the Cold War. Gorbachev's famous quote, "I detest lies," sums up the purpose and honesty of the Russians for Glasnost. The period of Glasnost eventually ended the Cold War, which was symbolized by the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.

Soviets Explode Their First Atomic Bomb

(1949): At a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name "First Lightning." In order to measure the effects of the blast, the Soviet scientists constructed buildings, bridges, and other civilian structures in the vicinity of the bomb. They also placed animals in cages nearby so that they could test the effects of nuclear radiation on human-like mammals. The atomic explosion, which at 20 kilotons was roughly equal to "Trinity," the first U.S. atomic explosion, destroyed those structures and incinerated the animals. According to legend, the Soviet physicists who worked on the bomb were honored for the achievement based on the penalties they would have suffered had the test failed. Those who would have been executed by the Soviet government if the bomb had failed to detonate were honored as "Heroes of Socialist Labor," and those who would have been merely imprisoned were given "The Order of Lenin," a slightly less prestigious award.On September 3, a U.S. spy plane flying off the coast of Siberia picked up the first evidence of radioactivity from the explosion. Later that month, President Harry S. Truman announced to the American people that the Soviets too had the bomb. Three months later, Klaus Fuchs, a German-born physicist who had helped the United States build its first atomic bombs, was arrested for passing nuclear secrets to the Soviets. While stationed at U.S. atomic development headquarters during World War II, Fuchs had given the Soviets precise information about the U.S. atomic program, including a blueprint of the "Fat Man" atomic bomb later dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, and everything the Los Alamos scientists knew about the hypothesized hydrogen bomb. The revelations of Fuchs' espionage, coupled with the loss of U.S. atomic supremacy, led President Truman to order development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.On November 1, 1952, the United States successfully detonated "Mike," the world's first hydrogen bomb, on the Elugelab Atoll in the Pacific Marshall Islands. The 10.4-megaton thermonuclear device instantly vaporized an entire island and left behind a crater more than a mile wide. Three years later, on November 22, 1955, the Soviet Union detonated its first hydrogen bomb on the same principle of radiation implosion. Both superpowers were now in possession of the so-called "super bomb," and the world lived under the threat of thermonuclear war for the first time in history.

Adolf Hitler

(20 April 1889 - 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer ("leader") of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. He was effectively dictator of Nazi Germany, and was a central figure of World War II in Europe and the Holocaust.

Winston Churchill

(30 November 1874 - 24 January 1965) was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer (as Winston S. Churchill), and an artist. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

(January 30, 1882 - April 12, 1945), commonly known as FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the President of the United States from 1933 to 1945. A Democrat, he won a record four presidential elections and dominated his party for many years as a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic depression and total war. His program for relief, recovery and reform, known as the New Deal, involved a great expansion of the role of the federal government in the economy. As a dominant leader of the Democratic Party, he built the New Deal Coalition that brought together and united labor unions, big city machines, white ethnics, African Americans, and rural white Southerners in support of the party. The Coalition significantly realigned American politics after 1932, creating the Fifth Party System and defining American liberalism throughout the middle third of the 20th century.

Alger Hiss

(November 11, 1904 - November 15, 1996) was an American government official who was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. Before he was tried and convicted, he was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department official and as a U.N. official. In later life he worked as a lecturer and author.

Detente

(a French word meaning release from tension) is the name given to a period of improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union that began tentatively in 1971 and took decisive form when President Richard M. Nixon visited the secretary-general of the Soviet Communist party, Leonid I. Brezhnev, in Moscow, May 1972.

Flapper

(in the 1920s) a fashionable young woman intent on enjoying herself and flouting conventional standards of behavior.

Theaters of War

: the entire land, sea, and air area that is or may become involved directly in war operations.

Containment

A United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge its communist sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

A boycott in which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating, took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the U.S. On December 1, 1955, four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. The boycott of public buses by blacks in Montgomery began on the day of Parks' court hearing and lasted 381 days. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system, and one of the leaders of the boycott, a young pastor named Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68), emerged as a prominent national leader of the American civil rights movement in the wake of the action.

Cuban Missile Crisis

A confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962 over the presence of missile sites in Cuba; one of the "hottest" periods ofthe cold war. The Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, placed Soviet military missiles in Cuba, which had come under Soviet influence since the success of the Cuban Revolution three years earlier. President John F. Kennedy ofthe United States set up a naval blockade of Cuba and insisted that Khrushchev remove the missiles. Khrushchev did.

FDA

A government agency established in 1906 with the passage of the Federal Food and Drugs Act.

Berlin Airlift

A military operation in the late 1940s that brought food and other needed goods into West Berlin by air after the government of East Germany, which at that time surrounded West Berlin ( see Berlin wall ), had cut off its supply routes.

Harlem Renaissance

A movement that spanned the 1920s. The Harlem Renaissance was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York. During the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement," named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke.

Marshall Plan

A program by which the United States gave large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after the devastation of World War II. It was proposed by the United States secretary of state, General George C. Marshall.

Space Race/ Arms Race

After World War II drew to a close in the mid-20th century, a new conflict began. Known as the Cold War, this battle pitted the world's two great powers-the democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union-against each other. Beginning in the late 1950s, space would become another dramatic arena for this competition, as each side sought to prove the superiority of its technology, its military firepower and-by extension-its political-economic system.By landing on the moon, the United States effectively "won" the space race that had begun with Sputnik's launch in 1957. For their part, the Soviets made four failed attempts to launch a lunar landing craft between 1969 and 1972, including a spectacular launch-pad explosion in July 1969. From beginning to end, the American public's attention was captivated by the space race, and the various developments by the Soviet and U.S. space programs were heavily covered in the national media. This frenzy of interest was further encouraged by the new medium of television. Astronauts came to be seen as the ultimate American heroes, and earth-bound men and women seemed to enjoy living vicariously through them. Soviets, in turn, were pictured as the ultimate villains, with their massive, relentless efforts to surpass America and prove the power of the communist system. With the conclusion of the space race, U.S. government interest in lunar missions waned after the early 1970s. In 1975, the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission sent three U.S. astronauts into space aboard an Apollo spacecraft that docked in orbit with a Soviet-made Soyuz vehicle. When the commanders of the two crafts officially greeted each other, their "handshake in space" served to symbolize the gradual improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations in the late Cold War-era.

Baby Boomers

Almost exactly nine months after World War II ended, "the cry of the baby was heard across the land," as historian Landon Jones later described the trend. More babies were born in 1946 than ever before: 3.4 million, 20 percent more than in 1945. This was the beginning of the so-called "baby __." In 1947, another 3.8 million babies were born; 3.9 million were born in 1952; and more than 4 million were born every year from 1954 until 1964, when the boom finally tapered off. By then, there were 76.4 million "baby __ " in the United States. They made up almost 40 percent of the nation's population.

Truman Doctrine

An American foreign policy created to counter Soviet geopolitical hegemony during the Cold War. It was first announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947 and further developed on July 12, 1948 when he pledged to contain Soviet threats to Greece and Turkey. No American military force was involved; instead Congress appropriated a free gift of financial aid to support the economies and the militaries of Greece and Turkey. More generally, the Truman doctrine implied American support for other nations threatened by Soviet communism. The Truman Doctrine became the foundation of American foreign policy, and led, in 1949, to the formation of NATO: a full-fledged military alliance that is in effect to this day. Historians often use Truman's speech to date the start of the Cold War.

The Great Depression

An economic recession that began on October 29, 1929, following the crash of the U.S. stock market. The Great Depression originated in the United States, but quickly spread to Europe and the rest of the world. Lasting nearly a decade, the Depression caused massive levels of poverty, hunger, unemployment and political unrest.

The U-2 Incident

An international diplomatic crisis erupted in May 1960 when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) shot down an American U2 spy plane in Soviet air space and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers (1929-77). Confronted with the evidence of his nation's espionage, President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) was forced to admit to the Soviets that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been flying spy missions over the USSR for several years. The Soviets convicted Powers on espionage charges and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. However, after serving less than two years, he was released in exchange for a captured Soviet agent in the first-ever U.S.-USSR "spy swap." The U-2 spy plane incident raised tensions between the U.S. and the Soviets during the Cold War (1945-91), the largely political clash between the two superpowers and their allies that emerged following World War II.

Children's March

As the campaign continued that month, SCLC leader James Bevel started to enact plans for a "Children's Crusade" that he and other leaders believed might help turn the tide in Birmingham. Thousands of children were trained in the tactics of nonviolence. On May 2nd, they left the 16th Street Baptist Church in groups, heading throughout the city to protest segregation peacefully. One of their goals was to talk to the mayor of Birmingham about segregation in their city. They were not met with a peaceful response. On the first day of the protest, hundreds of children were arrested. By the second day, Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor ordered police to spray the children with powerful water hoses, hit them with batons, and threaten them with police dogs.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. King, both a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist, had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s. Among many efforts, King headed the SCLC. Through his activism, he played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African-American citizens in the South and other areas of the nation, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors. King was assassinated in April 1968, and continues to be remembered as one of the most lauded African-American leaders in history, often referenced by his 1963 speech, "I Have a Dream.

Rosa Parks

Civil rights activist Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her refusal to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus spurred a city-wide boycott. The city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses. Rosa Parks received many accolades during her lifetime, including the NAACP's highest award.

Deficit Spending

During the 1930s the new ideas in economics followed the thinking of John M. Keynes. Keynesian economics were designed to counteract the business cycle and thus save capitalism from the advances of socialist and communist economic ideas which were then capturing the imagination of the economically disadvantaged. The idea - which persists to this day - is that during times of economic distress the government should borrow money (by issuing bonds) and use that money to stimulate the economy from the consumer up to the producer. Roosevelt called this "pump priming" and used it as the opposite of the plan of his predecessor Hoover, whose "trickle down" theory suggested that prosperity would result from placing more money in the hands of producers from where it would gradually reach consumers. The other half of Keynesian economic theory is usually ignored or forgotten today: that during times of prosperity the government should run a surplus in order to build up reserves to be used during ill times to reduce the amount of deficit/borrowing. In the last 40+ years, the USA government ran surplus only at the end of the Clinton administration. Most other presidential administrations have run deficits in good times as well as bad.

North African Theater

During the Second World War, the ___ Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War) and in Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch) and Tunisia (Tunisia Campaign).The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had colonial interests in Africa dating from the late 19th century. The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth and exiles from German-occupied Europe. The United States entered the war in 1941 and began direct military assistance in North Africa on 11 May 1942.

Herbert Hoover

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 - October 20, 1964) was the 31st President of the United States (1929-33). President during Great Depression, but was very conservative and preceded to do nothing for the country, causing the country to live in shantytowns or HooverVilles, prompting a landslide victory for the 1933 election.

Relief

Immediate action taken to halt the economies deterioration.

NATO / Warsaw Pact

In 1949, the prospect of further Communist expansion prompted the United States and 11 other Western nations to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Soviet Union and its affiliated Communist nations in Eastern Europe founded a rival alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955. The alignment of nearly every European nation into one of the two opposing camps formalized the political division of the European continent that had taken place since World War II (1939-45). This alignment provided the framework for the military standoff that continued throughout the Cold War (1945-91).

Depression Economics

In economics, a depression is a sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity in one or more economies. It is a more severe downturn than an economic recession, which is a slowdown in economic activity over the course of a normal business cycle.

Margin Buying

In the 1920s more people invested in the stock market than ever before. Stock prices rose so fast that at the end of the decade, some people became rich overnight by buying and selling stocks. People could buy stocks on margin which was like installment buying. People could buy stocks for only a 10% down payment! The buyer would hold the stock until the price rose and then sell it for a profit. As long as the stock prices kept going up, the system worked. However, during 1928 and 1929, the prices of many stocks went up faster than the value of the companies the stocks represented. Some experts warned that the bull market would end.

The Rosenbergs

Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 - June 19, 1953) and Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (September 28, 1915 - June 19, 1953) were American citizens who spied for the Soviet Union and were executed for conspiracy to commit espionage, and passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviets.The other atomic spies who were caught by the FBI offered confessions and were not executed, including Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, who supplied documents to Julius from Los Alamos and served 10 years of his 15-year sentence; Harry Gold, who identified Greenglass and served 15 years in Federal prison as the courier for Greenglass; and a German scientist, Klaus Fuchs, who served nine years and four months.In 1995, the United States government released a series of decoded Soviet cables, codenamed VENONA, which confirmed that Julius acted as a courier and recruiter for the Soviets, but did not provide definitive evidence for Ethel's involvement.Ethel's brother David Greenglass, whose testimony had condemned her, later stated that he had lied to protect his own wife Ruth, who had been the actual typist of the classified documents he stole,[6]and that he was encouraged by the prosecution to do so. Morton Sobell, who wastried with the Rosenbergs, served 17 years and 9 months of a 30-year sentence.In 2008, Sobell admitted he was a spy and stated that Julius Rosenberg had spied for the Soviets, but that Ethel Rosenberg had not.Sobell also stated in a letter to the New York Times that he did not know anything about Julius Rosenberg's involvement with David Greenglass and atomic espionage.

Khrushchev Visits America

Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet head of state to visit the United States. During the next two weeks, Khrushchev's visit dominated the news and provided some dramatic and humorous moments in the history of the Cold War. Khrushchev came to power in the Soviet Union following the death of long-time dictator Joseph Stalin in 1954. Many observers believed that Khrushchev, a devoted follower of Stalin during the 1930s and 1940s, would not provide much difference in leadership. He surprised them, however, by announcing that he sought "peaceful coexistence" with the United States and denouncing the "excesses" of Stalinism. During the late 1950s, Khrushchev continued to court a closer relationship with the United States and often praised President Dwight D. Eisenhower as a man who also sought peace. In 1959, the U.S. and Soviet governments shocked the world by announcing that Khrushchev would visit America in September and meet with Eisenhower face to face. Khrushchev's first day in America was mostly taken up with formal receptions and a motorcade from the airport to downtown Washington. At the airport, Khrushchev announced that he had arrived in America "with open heart and good intentions. The Soviet people want to live in friendship with the American people." Groups of spectators and several military bands lined the way of the motorcade procession from the airport, and Eisenhower, Khrushchev, and Mme. Khrushchev sat together in the back of a convertible to wave at the crowds. Once in town, Khrushchev almost immediately sat for a nearly two-hour talk with Eisenhower and his advisers. Longer and more involved talks were scheduled for later in the Soviet leader's visit. "Because of our importance in the world, it is vital that we understand each other better," Eisenhower declared at a state dinner that night. Khrushchev agreed, adding that friendship was necessary "because our two countries are much too strong and we cannot quarrel with each other." During the next few days, Khrushchev took the opportunity to tour the United States before his summit meeting with Eisenhower. Although Khrushchev's trip was more of a goodwill visit than an opportunity for significant negotiations, the tour provided some moments of high drama and low comedy, particularly during the Soviet leader's trip through California.

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929. On this date, share prices on the New York Stock Exchange completely collapsed, becoming a pivotal factor in the emergence of the Great Depression. Start of Great Depression, increased poverty rates and sent country into crisis.

"I Have A Dream Speech"

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr., delivered a speech to a massive group of civil rights marchers gathered around the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom brought together the nation's most prominent civil rights leaders, along with tens of thousands of marchers, to press the United States government for equality. The culmination of this event was the influential and most memorable speech of Dr. King's career. Popularly known as the "I have a Dream" speech, the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. influenced the Federal government to take more direct actions to more fully realize racial equality.

March On Washington

On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups, the event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech, a spirited call for racial justice and equality.

Korean War

On June 25, 1950, the _____ began when North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union and China, invaded South Korea, which was supported by the United States. General MacArthur, leader of the United Nations forces, drove the North Koreans back across the divide, yet encountered a Chinese invasion. ____ , conflict between Communist and non Communist forces in Korea from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953. At the end of World War II, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into Soviet (North Korean) and U.S. (South Korean) zones of occupation. The Chinese pushed the allied forces back and the combating forces fought back and forth along the hilltops of the country. In the end, the Korean War was settled along the 38th parallel by an Armistice in 1953. The war is considered to have ended at this point, even though there was no peace treaty.

Chinese Revolution

On October 1, 1949, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The announcement ended the costly full-scale civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), which broke out immediately following World War II and had been preceded by on and off conflict between the two sides since the 1920's. The creation of the PRC also completed the long process of governmental upheaval in China begun by the Chinese Revolution of 1911. The "fall" of mainland China to communism in 1949 led the United States to suspend diplomatic ties with the PRC for decades.

Reform

Permanent programs to avoid another depression and insure citizens against economic disasters.

Jimmy Carter

The Cold War's brief respite came to an end during __-'s presidency. Denouncing the Soviet Union's human rights violations against dissidents and favoring a policy of confrontation, ___and National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski ended Nixon's policy of détente. Though the policy shift had begun prior to ___'s presidency, the new administration's actions completed the policy realignment. Brzezinski, born in Warsaw, Poland, led the effort and proudly claimed that he was "the first Pole in three hundred years in a position to really stick it to the Russians." Brzezinski worked to enhance the U.S.-China relationship in an attempt to further isolate the Soviets. In 1979, the U.S. and China exchanged ambassadors for the first time in decades. Brzezinski also called on Congress to develop new ballistic missiles to replace existing technology. The request for new missiles ensured the resurgence of an arms race between the US & Soviet Union.

SCLC

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was formed in 1957 just after the Montgomery Bus Boycott had ended. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference's (SCLC) main aim was to advance the cause of civil rights in America but in a non-violent manner. From its inception in 1957, its president was Martin Luther King - a post he held until his murder in 1968.The SCLC brought together all the various strands of civil rights organisations and put them under one organisation. Originally called the 'Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Non-violent Integration', the organisation adopted the title Southern Christian Leadership Conference - by including the word 'Christian', it emphasised the spiritual nature of the organisation. SCLC called for three basic 'wants':

European Theater

The ___ of World War II, also known as the European War, was a huge area of heavy fighting across Europe, from Germany's and the Soviet Union's joint invasion of Poland in September 1939 until the end of the war with the Soviet Union conquering much of Europe along with the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945 (Victory in Europe Day). The Allied forces fought the Axis powers on two major fronts (the Eastern Front and Western Front) as well as in the adjoining Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre.

Pacific Theater

The _____ theater, during World War II, was a major theater of the war between the Allies and Japan. Defined by the Allied powers' Pacific Ocean Area command, including most of the Pacific Ocean and its islands, while mainland Asia was excluded, as were the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Borneo, Australia, most of Territory of New Guinea and the western part of the Solomon Islands.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

The ______ ______ ______ ______, known in Latin America as Invasión de Playa Girón (or Invasión de Bahía de Cochinos or Batalla de Girón), was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. A counter-revolutionary military, trained and funded by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF) and intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from Guatemala, the invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, under the direct command of Prime Minister Fidel Castro.

Mobilization

The act of assembling and making both troops and supplies ready for war. The word mobilization was first used, in a military context, in order to describe the preparation of the Russian army during the 1850s and 1860s.

Prohibition

The act of prohibiting the manufacturing, storage in barrels or bottles, transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol including alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to periods in the histories of countries during which the prohibition of alcohol was enforced. Became legal in 1933.

Great Migration

The movement of 6 million blacks out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that occurred between 1910 and 1970.

Bonus Army

The popular name of an assemblage of some 43,000 marchers—17,000 World War I veterans, their families, and affiliated groups—who gathered in Washington, D.C., in the spring and summer of 1932 to demand cash-payment redemption of their service certificates. Uproar caused Hoover to initiate violence on the army, causing deaths and multiple injuries.

Red Scare

The practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. It also means "the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second ___, lasting roughly from 1950 to 1956 and characterized by heightened political repression against communists, as well as a campaign spreading fear of their influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, "McCarthyism" soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is also now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries. Ex. saying your co-worker is a communist to receive their job. (METAPHOR FOR THE CRUCIBLE PLAY)

Red Scare

The rounding up and deportation of several hundred immigrants of radical political views by the federal government in 1919 and 1920. This "scare"was caused by fears of subversion by communists in the United States after the Russian Revolution.

UN

World War II brought a surge of hope that a revised League of Nations, now supported by the United States and the Soviet Union and profiting from the lessons of the 1930s, might serve as the basis for a new international order. Because the League of Nations had become discredited, especially in the eyes of the Soviet Union, which was expelled from the league in 1940 for attacking Finland, it was necessary to create a new world organization.

The Geneva Summit

a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Held on July 18, 1955, it was a meeting of "The Big Four": President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of Britain, Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France.

SEC

a U.S. government agency that oversees securities transactions, activities of financial professionals and mutual fund trading to prevent fraud and intentional deception.

AAA

a United States federal law of the New Deal era which reduced agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land and to kill off excess livestock. Its purpose was to reduce crop surplus and therefore effectively raise the value of crops.

FHA

a United States government agency created as part of the National Housing Act of 1934. It sets standards for construction and underwriting and insures loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building.

HUAC

a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, investigated allegations of communist activity in the U.S. during the early years of the Cold War (1945-91). Established in 1938, the committee wielded its subpoena power as a weapon and called citizens to testify in high-profile hearings before Congress. This intimidating atmosphere often produced dramatic but questionable revelations about Communists infiltrating American institutions and subversive actions by well-known citizens. ___'s controversial tactics contributed to the fear, distrust and repression that existed during the anticommunist hysteria of the 1950s. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, ___'s influence was in decline, and in 1969 it was renamed the Committee on Internal Security. Although it ceased issuing subpoenas that year, its operations continued until 1975.

NIRA

a law passed by the United States Congress in 1933 to authorize the President to regulate industry in an attempt to raise prices after severe deflation and stimulate economic recovery

Isolationism

a policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries. Ex. "During the 1930s, the combination of the Great Depression and the memory of tragic losses in World War I contributed to pushing American public opinion and policy toward isolationism. Isolationists advocated non-involvement in European and Asian conflicts and non-entanglement in international politics. Although the United States took measures to avoid political and military conflicts across the oceans, it continued to expand economically and protect its interests in Latin America"

Foreign Policy

a policy pursued by a nation in its dealings with other nations, designed to achieve national objectives. QUOTE: German ______ "Following the Nazi rise to power, Adolf Hitler's government conducted a foreign policy aimed at the incorporation of ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) living outside German borders into the Reich; German domination of western Europe; and the acquisition of a vast new empire of "living space" (Lebensraum) in eastern Europe. Creating German control in Europe, Hitler calculated, would require war, especially in eastern Europe. The "racially inferior" Slavs would either be driven east of the Urals, enslaved, or exterminated. Besides acquiring Lebensraum, Hitler anticipated that the "drive to the East" would destroy Bolshevism."

Socialism

a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole

Communism

a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. A way of organizing a society in which the government owns the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) and there is no privately owned property.

CCC

a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families as part of the New Deal. Originally for young men ages 18-23, it was eventually expanded to young men ages 17-28.

New Deal

a series of domestic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1938, and a few that came later. They included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term (1933-37) of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.MAIN:The main goals of the New Deal can be expressed in three words: Relief, Recovery, and Reform. The New Deal hoped to provide Relief from the suffering caused by the Great Depression. This was accomplished by the Bank Holiday and removing America from the Gold Standard. Recovery was to put the country back to work and restore the confidence of the American people. Programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, which put young men to work, and the Works Progress Administration were for this purpose. Also important here was the Tennessee Valley Authority which built dams for the production of electricity in poverty stricken areas of Appalachia. The final goal, reform, was to prevent this from happening again. Among the efforts towards recovery were the Glass-Steagall Act which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; the Social Security Act which provided income for elderly and disabled Americans, and the Federal Securities Act which required disclosure of important information regarding stocks and bonds before they were offered for sale.

Iron Curtain

a term used in the West to refer to the boundary line which divided Europe into two separate areas of political influence from the end of World War II until the end of the Cold War. During this period, Eastern Europe was under the political control and/or influence of the Soviet Union, while Western Europe enjoyed political freedom (see Free World). The term comes from a long speech by Winston Churchill on March 5, 1946 in Fulton, Missouri:

Dust Bowl

also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent wind erosion (the Aeolian processes) caused the phenomenon.

Fascism

an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. (extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice). INFO: The ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party, which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party that ruled the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945, the post-war Italian Social Movement and subsequent Italian neo-fascist movements. Benito Mussolini consolidated control over the Fascist movement in 1919 with the founding of the Fasci italiani di combattimento, whose opposition to socialism he declared: We declare war against socialism, not because it is socialism, but because it has opposed nationalism. In Italy, Benito Mussolini used his charisma to establish a powerful fascist state. Benito Mussolini coined the term "fascism" in 1919 to describe his political movement. He adopted the ancient Roman fasces as his symbol. The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was head of the Italian government from 1922 to 1943. A Fascist dictator, he led Italy into three successive wars, the last of which overturned his regime. Benito Mussolini was born at Dovia di Predappio in Forlì province on July 29, 1883.

Capitalism

an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

FDIC

an independent agency of the United States (U.S.) federal government that preserves public confidence in the banking system by insuring deposits

SSA

an independent agency of the United States federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits.

Expansion

extension of a state's territory by encroaching on that of other nations, pursued as a political strategy. QUOTE: During the first three years of World War II, from September 1939 through November 1942, a series of military victories permitted German domination of the European continent.

Domino Theory

governed much of U.S. foreign policy beginning in the early 1950s, held that a communist victory in one nation would quickly lead to a chain reaction of communist takeovers in neighboring states. In Southeast Asia, the United States government used the ____ to justify its support of a non-communist regime in South Vietnam against the communist government of North Vietnam, and ultimately its increasing involvement in the long-running Vietnam War (1954-75). In fact, the American failure to prevent a communist victory in Vietnam had much less of a global impact than had been assumed by the ____. Though communist regimes did arise in Laos and Cambodia after 1975, communism failed to spread throughout the rest of Southeast Asia.

Jim Crow Laws

in U.S. history, statutes enacted by Southern states and municipalities, beginning in the 1880s, that legalized segregation between blacks and whites. The name is believed to be derived from a character in a popular minstrel song.

Conservatism

is any political philosophy that favours tradition (in the sense of various religious, cultural, or nationally-defined beliefs and customs) in the face of external forces for change, and is critical of proposals for radical social change. Ex (Herbert Hoover during Great Depression)

Neutrality

not taking part or giving assistance in a dispute or war between others Many countries made such declarations during World War II. Most, however, became occupied, and in the end only the states of Andorra, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (with Liechtenstein), and Vatican (the Holy See) remained neutral of the European countries closest to the war. EX. United States practiced Neutrality during beginning of WWII until December 8th 1941, declaring war on Japan.

Totalitarianism

of or relating to a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life. exercising control over the freedom, will, or thought of others;authoritarian; autocratic. QUOTE: The __ states of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler(1933-45) and the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin (1924-53) were the first examples of decentralized or popular _____, in which the state achieved overwhelming popular support for its leadership. This support was not spontaneous; it's genesis depended on a charismatic leader; and it was made possible only by modern developments in communication and transportation.

PWA

part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression

Internment

putting a person in prison or other kind of detention, generally in wartime. During World War II, the American government put Japanese-Americans in __ camps, fearing they might be loyal to Japan

Satellite Nation

term first used to describe certain nations in the Cold War. These were nations that were aligned with (but also under the influence and pressure of) the Soviet Union. The _____'s of the Cold War were Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and East Germany. Or Even countries that is dominated politically and economically by another nation

Civil Disobedience

the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is a symbolic or ritualistic violation of the law, rather than a rejection of the system as a whole. Civil disobedience is sometimes, though not always,defined as being nonviolent resistance.

Brinkmanship

the art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, typically in politics. Ex: When two people are taunting each other before a fight, yet neither want to actually fight each other.

Homefront

the civilian population and activities of a nation whose armed forces are engaged in war abroad. QUOTE: "The home front covers the activities of the civilians in a nation at war. World War II was a total war; homeland production became even more invaluable to both the Allied and Axis powers. Life on the home front during World War II was a significant part of the war effort for all participants and had a major impact on the outcome of the war. Governments became involved with new issues such as rationing, manpower allocation, home defense, evacuation in the face of air raids, and response to occupation by an enemy power. The morale and psychology of the people responded to leadership and propaganda. Typically women were mobilized to an unprecedented degree."

Holocaust

the killing of millions of Jews and other people by the Nazis during World War :an event or situation in which many people are killed. QUOTE: "The word "__," from the Greek words "holos" (whole) and "kaustos" (burned), was historically used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an altar. Since 1945, the word has taken on a new and horrible meaning: the mass murder of some 6 million European Jews (as well as members of some other persecuted groups, such as Gypsies and homosexuals) by the German Nazi regime during the Second World War. To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community. After years of Nazi rule in Germany, during which Jews were consistently persecuted, Hitler's "final solution"-now known as the ___-came to fruition under the cover of world war, with mass killing centers constructed in the concentration camps of occupied Poland."

FERA

the new name given by the Roosevelt Administration to the Emergency Relief Administration (ERA) which President Herbert Hoover had created in 1932.

Nativism

the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants. Ex. Palmer Raids. (The Palmer Raids were a series of raids by the United States Department of Justice intended to capture, arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists, from the United States. The raids and arrests occurred in November 1919 and January 1920 under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer.) + (The Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, the Per Centum Law, and the Johnson Quota Act (ch. 8, 42 Stat. 5 of May 19, 1921) restricted immigration into the United States)

Internationalism

the principle of cooperation among nations, for the promotion of their common good, sometimes as contrasted with nationalism, or devotion to the interests of a particular nation. EX. America declares war on Japan after Pearl Harbor, whole nation is united in cause.

The Yalta Conference

the second wartime meeting of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the conference, the three leaders agreed to demand Germany's unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world. Stalin also agreed to permit free elections in Eastern Europe and to enter the Asian war against Japan, for which he was promised the return of lands lost to Japan in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. Although most of these agreements were initially kept secret, the revelations of the conference particulars became controversial after Soviet-American wartime cooperation degenerated into the Cold War.

Appeasement

to conciliate, propitiate imply trying to preserve or obtain peace. To appease is to make anxious overtures and often undue concessions to satisfy the demands of someone with a greed for power,territory, etc. QUOTE: Britain and France pursued a policy of ____ in the hope that Hitler would not drag Europe into another world war. Appeasement expressed the widespread British desire to heal the wounds of World War I and to correct what many British officials regarded as the injustices of the Versailles Treaty. On September 27, 1938, when negotiations between Hitler and Chamberlain were strained, the British Prime Minister addressed the British people. Excerpts of this speech and another before the House of Commons are included here.

Blitzkrieg

war conducted with great speed and force; specifically : a violent surprise offensive by massed air forces and mechanized ground forces in close coordination. QUOTE: "A form of warfare used by German forces in World War II. In a ___, troops in vehicles, such as tanks, made quick surprise strikes with support from airplanes. These tactics resulted in the swift German conquest of France in 1940 (see fall of France). Blitzkrieg is German for "lightning war."