Chapter 26

International Monetary Fund

An international organization of 183 countries, established in 1947 with the goal of promoting cooperation and exchange between nations, and to aid the growth of international trade.

National Security Council

An office created in 1947 to coordinate the president's foreign and military policy advisers. Its formal members are the president, vice president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense, and it is managed by the president's national security assistant.

George C. Marshall

Marshall rose through the administrative ranks and served as the army's Chief of Staff during World War II, then as U.S. ambassador to China. Beginning in 1948 General Marshall oversaw the implementation of the European Recovery Program, since called The Marshall Plan, an economic policy to help Western Europe recover from the devastation of World War II.

Atomic Energy Commission

To oversee the control and development of nuclear weapons. The "Barouch Plan" set up the International Atomic Development whose goal was for use of peaceful potentials for atomic energy and to provide nations with security against surprise attacks.

The Fair Deal

Truman's Fair Deal sought to continue and extend FDR's New Deal. Truman managed to win a minimum wage increase, a public housing bill, and an extension of Social Security to more beneficiaries. He was unsuccessful in his call for national health insurance, aid to education, civil rights legislation, and the repeal of Taft-Hartley.

Integrating the Armed Forces

Truman's executive Order No. 9981 on July 26. The order stated that "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin."

The Taft-Hartley Act

Truman: This act limited the power of labor unions, and achieved a balance between labor and management. It limited high union membership dues, placed limits on union contributions to political campaigns, and required unions to give employers a 60 day notice before going on strike.

The Berlin Airlift

Stalin cut off land access to Berlin as a challenge to the West.US heads a massive 9-month airlift to bring food, clothes, etc. to the citizens of West Berlin. Stalin backs down

Whittaker Chambers

TIME magazine editor and former communist. Confessed to spying for the Soviet Union during the 1930's. Named fellow spies, some of them in Roosevelt's cabinet such as Alger Hiss.

Thomas E. Dewey

The Republican presidential nominee in 1944, Dewey was the popular governor of New York. Roosevelt won a sweeping victory in this election of 1944. Dewey also ran against Harry Truman in the 1948 presidential election. Dewey, arrogant and wooden, seemed certain to win the election, and the newspapers even printed, "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" on election night. However, the morning results showed that Truman swept the election, much to Dewey's embarrassment.

The House Un-American Activities Committee

Was created before WW2 to investigate dis-loyalty to the government. During WW2, Hollywood produced many Pro-Soviet films. In 1947, HUAC investigates Hollywood for possible Communist influence. The committee subpoenas 43 witnesses from the movie industry; actors, directors, screen writers, etc. 10 witnesses refused to cooperate and went to prison. They were called the Hollywood 10. They circulated a list called the "Black List", which warned any companies of the film industries of suspected communist supporters. Careers were ruined because of this list.

The Hollywood Ten

When Hollywood producers and writers were called to testify, this group of people refused to answer questions about their own political beliefs and those of their colleagues, they were sent to jail for contempt.

The Dixiecrats

fourth party in 1948 presidential campaign organized by white southerners who left the Democratic convention when a civil rights plank was adopted. Nominated Thurmond of South Carolina

Atomic Energy Act

1946, congress granted the Atomic Energy Commission control of all research and development under the strictest standards of national security. Provides for the development and regulation of the uses of nuclear materials and facilities in the US.

The Korean War

A war between North and South Korea, it was basically a stalemate. Before the war, they were divided at the 38th parallel. North Korea invaded South, took their capital Seoul in 1950. The UN intervened to suppress the invasion, and the coalition forces were led by Douglas MacArthur. China then helped North Korea. When MacArthur publicly stated his desire to bomb Chinese bases in Manchuria, he was removed from his post because his superiors didn't want a 3rd World War. Eventually, the boundary went back to the 38th parallel, there was a demilitarized zone established, and they signed an armistice treaty

The Marshall Plan

After WWII, this document was created....it said that the US would provide food and economic assistance to any European country that needed helpto recover from WWII. Truman offered it to the Soviet Union but Stalin didn't accept it. It greatly improved many western European countries.

Gi Bill of Rights

Also known as Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 gave money to veternas to study in colleges, universities, gave medical treatment, loans to buy a house or farm or start a new business

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

American communists who were executed after having been found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage. The charges were in relation to the passing of information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Theirs was the first execution of civilians for espionage in United States history

General Douglass MacArthur

During WWII, he and Admiral Nimitz dislodged the Japanese military from the Pacific Islands they had occupied. Following the war, he was in charge of occupation of Japan. After North Korea invaded South Korea, Truman sent the US military to defend South Korea under the command of MacArthur. Later in the war, Truman expressed his willingness to negotiate the restoration of prewar boundaries which MacArthur attempted to undermine. Truman fired MacArthur for his insubordination.

Employment Act of 1946

Enacted by Truman, it committed the federal government to ensuring economic growth and established the Council of Economic Advisors to confer with the president and formulate policies for maintaining employment, production, and purchasing power

Iron Curtain Speech

Given by the former Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill, in Missouri, in which he talks about the dangers of communism engulfing Europe.

J. Strom Thurmond

He was nominated for president on a States' Rights Party (Dixiecrats) in the 1948 election. Split southern Democrats from the party due to Truman's stand in favor of Civil Rights for African American. He only got 39 electoral votes.

Jackie Robinson

He was the first African-American baseball player to play professionally in 1947. He was able to break the color barrier and seemed to successfully overcome the racism so prevalent in his sport. He was also was able to contribute to the winning of the pennant and Rookie of the Year in his first year of playing

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

In 1949, the United States, Canada, and ten European nations formed this military mutual-defense pact. In 1955, the Soviet Union countered NATO with the formation of the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance among those nations within its own sphere of influence.

The Berlin Blockade

In efforts to gain complete control of Berlin, the Soviet Union blockaded the East German border to all land and water traffic into Berlin from the west in 1948. This was in response to the unification of American, French, and British zones to form West Germany.

Containment policy

Policy introduced by Harry S. Truman after WWII that said the duty of the U.S. was to stop the spread of Totalitarianism (implying Communism); Defined the foreign policy for the period after WWII until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989

The Cold War

Refers to the period following WWII until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.This was a period when much of the world was divided by the communist/non-communist battle for military and political superiority. While the USA and the USSR were unquestionably the world's two superpowers, they avoided direct military conflict. Instead, they sought to bring other countries into their fold.

Breton Woods Agreement

The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the world's major industrial states in the mid-20th century. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary relations among independent nation-states.

The Election of 1948

Truman faced a daunting challenge in 1948. Republicans had won control of Congress in 1946 and appeared to be ready to win back the White House with their nominee Thomas Dewey. The Democrats hoped to dump Truman and draft Eisenhower (who declined to run). Then the Democrats split three ways: Strom Thurmond led a walkout of Southern Democrats offended by Truman's support for civil rights (Thurmond won four Southern states.) Henry Wallace, opposed to Truman's strong Cold War position, led the left wing of the Democratic party into the new Progressive party. Truman, however, refused to concede. He ran an aggressive whistle-stop campaign, giving the "Do-Nothing" Republican Congress "hell" for its passage of the Taft-Hartley Act and speaking in favor of civil rights and health insurance. He won.

Federal Employee Loyalty Program

United States Executive Order 9835, sometimes known as The Loyalty Order, was signed March 21, 1947[1] by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. The order established the first general loyalty program in the United States, which was designed to root out communist influence within the various departments of the U.S. federal government.

McCarthyism

practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence.

Truman Doctrine

(HT) , 1947, President Truman's policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology, mainly helped Greece and Turkey

NSC-68

1950; National Security Council Memorandum 68 recommended that the US quadruple defense spending to meet the challenges of the Cold War. Initially this recommendation was ignored, but the Korean War cleared the way for its implementation. By 1953 defense spending took up two-thirds of the federal budget.

Joseph McCarthy

1950s; Wisconsin senator claimed to have list of communists in American government, but no credible evidence; took advantage of fears of communism post WWII to become incredibly influential; "McCarthyism" was the fearful accusation of any dissenters of being communists

Alger Hiss

A U.S. State Department official involved in the establishment of the United Nations. He was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 by Whittaker Chambers and prosecuted by Richard Nixon; convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950.