APUSH Unit 14

American Neutrality

America tried to stay out of WWII for as long as possible, with legislation such as the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937, which, together, stipulated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically go into effect. No American could legally sail on a belligerent ship, sell or transport munitions to a belligerent, or make loans to a belligerent. They were specifically tailored to keep the U.S. out of another conflict like WWI. This neutrality was of dubious morality because it showed that America would make no distinction whatsoever between brutal aggressors and innocent victims, thus helping dictators along their path of conquest. For example, when Britain and France joined the war, they badly needed airplanes and weapons, but the U.S. would not provide this aid at first because of the Neutrality Act of 1937 (until cash-and-carry was established). This mindset of neutrality ended in late 1941 when the U.S. destroyer Greer was attacked by undersea craft.

Korean War

After WWII, the U.S. and Soviet Union set up rival regimes below and above the 38th Parallel in Korea. Both professed to want the reunification and independence of Korea. Then, on June 25, 1950, North Korean army columns in Soviet tanks rumbled across the parallel and shoved South Korean forces back to Pusan. This incident proved the policy of containment and allowed the U.S. to put NSC-68 into action to build up its forces. The U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea as an aggressor when the Soviets were absent. The U.N. decided to "render every assistance" to restore peace, with the U.S. making up the overwhelming bulk of U.N. contingents and MacArthur leading the operation. MacArthur launched a daring amphibious landing behind the enemy's lines at Inchon, which was a success. When the U.N. Assembly authorized a crossing of the parallel by MacArthur, he did, but was pushed back by Chinese forces. MacArthur pressed for retaliation, but Washington policymakers would not allow him to do this because they did not want to enlarge the war, Europe was their primary concern, and the USSR was their primary foe. MacArthur had to be removed for insubordination when he would not cooperate with this "limited war" scheme. In July 1951, peace discussions began but got snagged on the issue of prisoner exchange. The talks dragged on for two years. After Eisenhower became president in 1952, he personally went to Korea to the peace talks. After he hinted about using atomic weapons, an armistice was finally signed (they may have also agreed to end the war just because it was so expensive). The fighting had lasted 3 years, but Korea remained divided at the 38th parallel. Communism had been contained.

President Eisenhower

As a general, this man led the assault on North Africa and D-Day. He emerged from WWII as a popular war hero, but refused to run for president in 1948. He ran for president in 1952, with Nixon as his running mate. He defeated Adlai Stevenson. After being elected, he went to the peace talks in Korea and an armistice was eventually reached 7 months later. As an "unpolitical" president, his greatest asset was his popularity. One of the first problems he encountered as president was McCarthy's anticommunist rampage. He did not do much to help African Americans gain civil rights, so that issue was left up to the Supreme Court. He complained that the Court's decision in Brown v. Board of education had upset "the customs and convictions of at least two generations of Americans" and he steadfastly refused to issue a public statement endorsing the Court's conclusions. However, he was forced to act in September 1957, when he had to send troops to Little Rock to escort the Little Rock Nine to their classes. The president's "dynamic conservatism" declared that people should be liberal and human in dealing with people but be conservative in dealing with people's money, economy, or government. He advocated small government, a balanced federal budget, and guarding against "creeping socialism." In Operation Wetback, he rounded up many illegal Mexican immigrants. In regard to Native Americans, he sought to terminate the tribes as legal entities and to revert to the assimilationist goals of the Dawes Severalty Act. He backed the Interstate Highway Act of 1956. He was president during the Vietnam War and Cold War. In the election of 1956, he beat Adlai Stevenson again. He persuaded Congress to pass the Landrum-Griffin Act to deal with labor issues. He established NASA after the USSR launched Sputnik. He was universally admired for his dignity, decency, sincerity, goodwill, and moderation. During his years, the U.S. was fabulously prosperous and the final 2 states were added to the Union. He exercised wise restraint in his use of military power and weaved the reforms of the New Deal and Fair Deal into national life.

Casablanca Conference

At this conference in January 1943, FDR met with Churchill. They agreed to step up the Pacific war, invade Sicily, increase pressure on Italy, and insist upon an "unconditional surrender" of the enemy.

National Defense Education Act

Late in 1958, this act authorized $887 million in loans to needy college students and in grants for the improvement of teaching the sciences and languages. It was a result of the critical comparison of the American educational system that came after the launching of Sputnik.

Suburbia

Many white people in America left the cities to go live in this new area. Government organizations such as the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration had home-loan guarantees that made it more economically attractive to own a home than to rent an apartment in the city, and so did tax deductions for interest payments on home mortgages. Government-built highways made commuting to work possible. The construction industry boomed to satisfy this demand. The Levitt brothers revolutionized the techniques of home construction. Critics whined about the aesthetic monotony of suburbs. While whites left cities, blacks entered and brought the grinding poverty of the rural South with them. Businesses fled to suburban shopping malls. Neat rows of look-alike tract houses, each with a driveway and lawn and sometimes a backyard swimming pool, came to symbolize the capacity of the economy to deliver the "American Dream." Most suburban men held white-collar jobs or upper-level blue-color jobs, while women worked in the home and had around two children. Life in the suburbs increasing the amount of people owning cars, as they had to commute to work.

Pearl Harbor

On Black Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japanese bombers carried out a surprise attack on this U.S. naval base in Hawaii. The attack took place while Tokyo was deliberately prolonging negotiations in Washington. About 3,000 casualties were inflicted on American personnel, many aircraft were destroyed, the battleship fleet was virtually wiped out, and numerous small vessels were damaged or destroyed. With this attack, war had been "thrust" upon the U.S. Then, Germany and Italy, allies of Japan, declared war on the U.S. on December 11, 1941.The attack aroused and united the U.S. as almost nothing else could have done.

Rosenbergs

These were two U.S. citizens who allegedly "leaked" atomic data to Moscow. Their names were Julius and Ethel. They were convicted in 1951 of espionage and, after prolonged appeals, went to the electric chair in 1953, making them the only people in American history ever executed in peacetime for espionage. Their sensational trial and electrocution, combined with sympathy for their 2 orphaned children, began to sour some citizens on the excesses of the red-hunters.

Lend-Lease Act

This bill was entitled "An Act Further to Promote the Defense of the United States." The underlying concept was "Send guns, not sons," or "billions, not bodies." America would send a limitless supply of arms to the victims of aggression, who in turn would finish the job and keep the war on their side of the Atlantic. It was the somewhat incidental result of gearing U.S. factories for all-out war production. Accounts would be settled by returning the used weapons or their equivalents to the U.S. after the war was over. The bill was opposed by isolationists and anti-FDR Republicans. Hitler viewed it as an unofficial declaration of war and began sinking U.S. ships. By the time the policy ended in 1945, the U.S. had sent about $50 million worth of arms and equipment.

Atlantic Conference

This conference was held in August 1941. Churchill and FDR met on a warship to discuss common problems. They formed the 8-point Atlantic Charter, which was eventually endorsed by all members of the Big 3 (U.S., England, USSR). This new covenant outlined the aspirations for a better world at war's end. It promised that there would be no territorial changes contrary to the wishes of the inhabitants, it affirmed the right of a people to choose their own form of government, and it declared for disarmament and a peace of security.

Potsdam Conference

This conference was held near Berlin in July 1945.Truman met with Stalin and the British leaders. Stalin was the only remaining original leader of the Big Three, since FDR had died and Churchill had been replaced. They issued a stern ultimatum to Japan: surrender or be destroyed. Japan refused to surrender.

Containment

This doctrine was developed by George F. Kennan. He held that Russia was relentlessly expansionist, but it was also cautious, so that the flow of Soviet power could be stemmed by "firm and vigilant containment." This plan was later denounced by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who promised not merely to stem the red tide but to "roll back" its gains and "liberate captive peoples."

D-Day

This invasion was led by General Eisenhower. On June 6, 1944, the enormous operation, involving 4,600 vessels, unwound. Patton misled the Germans into thinking that the blow would fall farther north. The Allies had already achieved mastery of the air over France, so they were able to block reinforcements by crippling the railroads and worsen German fuel shortages by bombing gasoline-producing plants. 5 beachheads were established, with the U.S. in charge of 2 of them. Most spectacular were the lunges across France by American armored divisions, commanded by Patton. The retreat of the Germans was hastened when an American-French force landed in August 1944 on the southern coast of France and swept northward. Paris was liberated in August.

Fair Employment Practices Commission

This is what FDR established in 1941 in order to monitor compliance with his edict that there should be no more discrimination in defense industries. Both the edict and this new agency he founded were responses to the "Negro March on Washington" that A. Philip Randolph was threatening to lead to demand equal opportunities for blacks in war jobs and in the armed forces.

V-E Day

This occurred on May 8, 1845, after the German government surrendered unconditionally the day before. The war was over in Europe. The Soviets had reached Berlin in April, and on April 30th, Hitler had killed himself. The Germans were left without a leader.

Marshall Plan

This plan was announced by Secretary of State George C. Marshall at Harvard commencement on June 5, 1947. He invited the Europeans to get together and work out a joint plan for their economic recovery. If they did so, then the U.S. would provide substantial financial assistance. This forced cooperation eventually led to the creation of the European Community. The European democracies met in Paris in July to thrash out the details. Marshall offered the same aid to the USSR and its allies, if they would make political reforms and accept certain outside controls. They refused to participate. The plan eventually called for spending $12.5 billion over 4 years in 16 cooperating countries. Congress voted the initial appropriations in April 1948. The plan was a success, as most western European nations started exceeding their prewar outputs and communist parties in Italy and France lost ground.

London Economic Conference

This sixty-nation conference met in summer 1933. The delegates hoped to organize a coordinated international attack on the global depression. They were eager to stabilize the values of the various nations' currencies and the rates at which they could be exchanged. Exchange-rate stabilization was essential to the revival of world trade. However, FDR did not agree with these policies because he wanted to pursue his inflationary policies at home to stimulate U.S. recovery. Because the U.S. would not agree to the plans, delegates left empty-handed. This every-man-for-himself attitude worsened the economic crisis.

WWII

This war lasted from 1939 to 1945. The United States entered in December 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. declared war on Japan, and Italy and Germany declared war on the U.S. The Allies (Soviet Union, U.S., United Kingdom, France, and China) opposed the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan). After Mussolini fled, Italy switched sides and joined the Allies, declaring war on Germany. D-Day occurred on June 6, 1944. V-E Day occurred on May 8, 1945. V-J Day occurred on September 2, 1945. Effects of the war were that isolationism disappeared in the U.S., there was new technology, the power of the atomic bomb was unleashed, penicillin was invented, there was hope for better relations with the Soviets, the U.N. was created, and totalitarianism in Europe was over.

Cold War

This was a continuing state of political and military tension between the powers of the Western world, led by the United States and its NATO allies, and the communist world, led by the Soviet Union, its satellite states and allies. Allied unity broke down after the defeat of their common enemy, Germany. The tension was caused by systemic conditions (meaning that the U.S. and USSR stepped up to fill the power vacuums after the collapse of a multi-polar world), ideology (capitalism vs. Marxism), national security systems (USSR wants defensive perimeter, influence over the Middle East, and access to the Mediterranean Sea; U.S. has protection from the oceans but wants open-door trade), and miscalculations in diplomacy (they are suspicious of each other). Also, the U.S. believed that the Soviets wanted to dominate the entire world, that all Communism in the world could be traced back to the Soviets, and the domino principle that if one nation becomes communist, its neighbors will too.

House Un-American Activities Committee

This was an investigative committee of the House of Representatives that came about in 1938 as part of the anti-communist measures sweeping the U.S. It was made to investigate "subversion." One of the areas that the committee especially focused in on was Communist infiltration of Hollywood. In 1948, committee member Nixon led the chase after Alger Hiss, who was a prominent ex-New Dealer. Hiss demanded the right to defend himself, and dramatically met with his chief accuser before the committee in August 1948. He was caught in embarrassing falsehoods, convicted of perjury in 1950, and sentenced to 5 years in prison.

U-2 Incident

This was one of the reasons that the Paris Summit conference failed. On the eve of the conference, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down deep in the heart of Russia.

Destroyers for Bases

This was the agreement worked out between the U.S. and Britain in September 1940 (when the U.S. was still "neutral"). Britain was in critical need of destroyers. FDR agreed to transfer to Great Britain 50 old-model, four-funnel destroyers left over from WWI. In return, the British promised to hand over 8 valuable defensive base sites, stretching from Newfoundland to South America, to the U.S. The U.S. kept these outposts for 99 years. FDR did this through a simple presidential agreement, without even asking Congress first. He was applauded by aid-to-Britain advocates, but criticized by isolationists and those who thought his methods of doing it were too secretive.

Cash and Carry

This was the system established by the Neutrality Act of 1939. European democracies might buy American war materials, but they would have to transport the munitions in their own ships, after paying for them with cash. America would thus avoid loans, war debts, and the torpedoing of the American arms-carriers. This improved America's moral and economic position.

Island hopping

This was the tactic used by the U.S. Navy against the Japanese-held islands in the Pacific. The strategy called for bypassing some of the most heavily fortified Japanese posts, capturing nearby islands, setting up airfields on them, and then neutralizing the enemy bases through heavy bombing. Deprived of essential supplies from the homeland, Japan's outposts would slowly wither on the vine. The plan was successfully led by Admiral Nimitz, who skillfully coordinated the efforts of naval, air, and ground units.

Teheran Conference

Churchill, FDR, and Stalin met here from November 28 to December 1, 1943. It was the first time they all had met together. They agreed on broad plans, especially those for launching Soviet attacks on Germany from the east simultaneously with the prospective Allied assault from the west. There was a spirit of cordiality and hope for friendly post-war feelings.

National Security Act

In 1947, this act created the Department of Defense, which would be headed by a new cabinet officer, the secretary of defense. Under the secretary, but now without cabinet status, would be the secretaries of the navy, the army, and the air force. Together, they were the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The act also established the National Security Council to advise the president on security matters and the Central Intelligence Agency to coordinate the government's foreign fact-gathering.

1956 election

In this election, Eisenhower (Republican) once again ran against Adlai Stevenson (Democrat). During this time of prosperity and peace, there was no reason for people to not re-elect Eisenhower. Eisenhower won again. However, he failed to win for his party either house of Congress.

McCarthyism

McCarthy, the Republican Senator from Wisconsin, was a huge anticommunist crusader. He accused Secretary of State Acheson of knowingly employed 205 Communists, denounced General George Marshall, and even attacked the U.S. Army in televised hearings. He flourished in the Cold War atmosphere of suspicion and fear. He damaged the American traditions of fair play and free speech. Eisenhower allowed him to control personnel policy at the State department, which resulting in severe damage to the morale and effectiveness of the professional Foreign Service. The Senate formally condemned him for "conduct unbecoming a member." He died of alcoholism 3 years later.

V-J Day

On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. On August 8, Stalin entered the war against Japan. On August 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. On August 10, Tokyo sued for peace on one condition, that Hirohito be allowed to remain on his ancestral throne as nominal emperor. The Allies accepted this condition on August 14. Finally, on September 2, this day was reached and the war formally ended.

Women in the War

Some 216,000 women were enlisted in the armed services in WWII. Women served with the WAACs (army), WAVES (navy) and SPARs (Coast Guard). Even more women, over 6 million, took up jobs outside the home. Many of them were mothers, so the government was obliged to set up some 3,000 day-care centers. When the war ended, many women wanted to keep working and often did. However, the great majority of American women continued their traditional roles in the home during WWII. At the war's end, two-thirds of women war workers returned to the home because of family obligations.

Japanese Internment

The Washington top command, fearing that Japanese Americans might act as saboteurs for Japan in case of invasion, forcibly herded them together in concentration camps, despite the fact that about two-thirds of them were American-born U.S. citizens. This precaution was both unnecessary and unfair. The internment camps deprived these uprooted Americans of dignity and basic rights and they also lost hundreds of millions of dollars in property and foregone earnings. The wartime Supreme Court in 1944 upheld the constitutionality of this in Korematsu vs. U.S. In 1988, the U.S. government officially apologized and approved the payment of reparations of $20,000 to each camp survivor.

Good Neighbor Policy

This was FDR's new policy for relations with Latin America. At the Seventh Pan-American Conference in Uruguay, the U.S. delegation formally endorsed nonintervention. The last marines left Haiti in 1934, Cuba was released from the Platt Amendment (although the U.S. kept the base at Guantanamo), and the U.S. relaxed its grip on Panama. The policy was put to the test in Mexico, when the Mexican government seized U.S. oil properties in 1938, but FDR managed to thresh out a settlement. The policy was a success and brought about rich dividends in goodwill. FDR became known as a "traveling salesman for peace."

Yalta Conference

This was the final conference of the Big Three, in February 1945. It marked the high tide of Allied unity. Stalin, Churchill, and FDR laid final plans for smashing the German lines and assigning occupation zones in Germany to the victorious powers. Stalin agreed that Poland should have representative government based on free elections (he broke this promise). Bulgaria and Romania were also going to have free elections (he also broke this promise). They also announced plans for the United Nations, a new international peacekeeping organization. Stalin agreed to attack Japan within 3 months of the collapse of Germany (he actually kept this promise). In return, the Soviets would get the southern half of Sakhalin Island, Japan's Kurile Islands, joint control over the railroads in Manchuria, and special privileges at the ports of Dairen and Port Arthur. The Soviets also agreed to work with Chiang Kai-Shek (Nationalist leader in China) rather than Mao Zedong (Communist leader in China). The Big 3 were not drafting a comprehensive peace settlement. They were sketching general intentions and testing one another's reactions.

Paris Summit

This was the follow-up conference to the successful conference held at Camp David. It took place in May 1960. However, it turned out to be an incredible fiasco. Both Moscow and Washington had taken a firm stand on the issue of Berlin, and neither would back down. Then, on the eve of the conference, and American U-2 spy plane was shot down deep in the heart of Russia. Eisenhower assumed personal responsibility, but Khrushchev stormed into Paris full of criticism and the conference collapsed before it could get off the ground.

Truman Doctrine

Truman appeared before Congress on March 12, 1947 to request support for this doctrine. The doctrine said that it must be the policy of the U.S. to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. Specifically, he asked for $400 million to bolster Greece and Turkey, which Congress granted. Critics complained that it needlessly polarized the world into pro-Soviet and pro-American camps, construed the Soviet threat as primarily military in nature, and that Truman had overreacted by promising unlimited support to any despot who claimed to be resisting "Communist aggression."

Eisenhower Doctrine

In 1957, this doctrine pledged U.S. military and economic aid to Middle Eastern nations threatened by communist aggression. However, the real threat to U.S. interests in the Middle East was not communism but nationalism. The poor, sandy sheikdoms increasingly resolved to reap for themselves the lion's share of the enormous oil wealth that Western companies pumped out of the scorching Middle Eastern deserts. When Lebanon was threatened by Egyptians and communists, they called for aid under this doctrine and the U.S. sent several thousand troops to restore order.

African Americans in the War

In WWII, African Americans strived for a "Double V," which was victory over the dictators abroad and over racism at home. NAACP membership greatly increased, and a new organization, the Congress of Racial Equality, was established. FDR somewhat aided the Double V plan by issuing an executive order forbidding discrimination in defense industries. He also established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to monitor compliance with his edict. African Americans were drafted into the armed forces but were still generally assigned to service branches rather than combat units and had to deal with racism in the form of segregated blood banks for the wounded. Many African Americans moved northward after the war, giving up their rural way of life after the invention of the mechanical cotton picker reduced the need for labor in the South. Truman ended the segregation in federal civil service and ordered "equality of treatment and opportunity" in the armed forces with his report titled "To Secure These Rights."

General MacArthur

In the Pacific arena of WWII, this American commander held a strong defensive position at Bataan until his troops were finally defeated, he fled to Australia, and his troops were forced to take part in the infamous Bataan Death March to prisoner-of-war camps. Later, he completed the conquest of New Guinea and headed to the Philippines. Thanks to him, the U.S. won all three battles of the gigantic clash at Leyte Gulf. The Philippines were finally conquered in July 1945. He conducted the official surrender ceremonies on V-J Day. He emerged as a major war hero after WWII. After the war, he successfully ran the reconstruction of Japan and democratized it. His constitution that was put in place in Japan renounced militarism, provided for women's equality, and introduced western-style democratic government. His troops were put into action beside the South Koreans in the Korean War. He succeeded in a daring amphibious landing behind enemy lines at Inchon. When he crossed the 38th Parallel, Chinese forces fell upon him and U.N. forces had to retreat. He wanted to retaliate, but Truman would not let him, so when he continued to protest, he was fired for insubordination.

1952 election

In this election, the Democrats nominated Adlai E. Stevenson, governor of Illinois. The Republicans nominated Dwight Eisenhower, with Nixon as his vice president. Eisenhower was very popular because of his grandfatherly, nonpartisan pose, and he left the campaigning to Nixon. Nixon looked bad when people found at that he had tapped into a secretly financed "slush fund" while he was Senator. However, he regained composure during his "Checkers Speech." Eisenhower won.

1948 election

In this election, the Republicans re-nominated New York governor Thomas E. Dewey. The Democrats nominated Truman for another term because Eisenhower refused to run. The Southern Democrats refused to support him because he was in favor of civil rights for blacks, so they nominated Governor J. Strom Thurmond from South Carolina, on a States Rights' party ticket. Former Vice President Henry A. Wallace ran as nominee of the new Progressive party. Wallace assailed dollar imperialism and seemed to be pro-Soviet. Because the Democrats were split between three candidates, Dewey seemed sure to win. However, Truman won and the Democrats regained control of Congress. Truman won because of support from farmers, workers, and blacks and because Dewey came across as being arrogant and evasive.

NATO

In 1948, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg signed a path-breaking treaty of defensive alliance at Brussels. They then invited the U.S. to join them. The U.S. joined in order to strengthen the policy of containment, to provide a framework for the reintegration of Germany, and to reassure jittery Europeans that the U.S. was not going to abandon them. The treaty was signed in Washington on April 4, 1949. The nations pledged to regard an attack on one as an attack on all and promised to respond with "armed force" if necessary. The Senate approved it on July 21. Later, Greece, Turkey, and West Germany joined. The formation of this organization marked a departure from American diplomatic convention, was a boost for European unification, and was a significant step in the militarization of the Cold War. The red counterweight to this group was the Warsaw Pact, which was signed by Eastern European countries and the Soviets.

Fair Deal

In 1949, this was the plan that Truman outlined to Congress after his re-election. It called for improved housing, full employment, a higher minimum wage, better farm price supports, new TVAs, and an extension of Social Security. However, most of the plan fell victim to congressional opposition from Republicans and southern Democrats. The only major successes came in raising the minimum wage, providing for public housing in the Housing Act of 1949, and extending old-age insurance to many more beneficiaries.

NSC-68

In 1950, Truman's National Security Council recommended this document. It said that the U.S. should quadruple its defense spending. It was buried at the time but was resurrected during the Korean War. Truman ordered a massive military buildup, well beyond what was necessary for the immediate purposes of the Korean War. Soon the U.S. had 3.5 million men under arms and was spending $50 billion per year on the defense budget.