WWII Terms - Part 2

Satellite Nations

A nation that is supposedly independent, but is controlled in its political and economical aspects by another nation. It was used to refer to the countries controlled by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, including Poland, Hungary, Romania, and other Eastern European nations.

George F. Kennan, Policy of Containment

He was known as the "Father of Containment." Kennan worked for the State Department. He argued, and the Truman Administration listened, that the Soviet Union desired to spread communism throughout the world, and that communism must be contained to where it already existed. This policy of containment directly influenced the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.

Churchill's "iron curtain speech"

In 1946, Winston Churchill gave the iron curtain speech at Westminster College in Missouri where he was receiving an honorary degree. It is today regarded as one of the most influential speeches of all time. It was delivered less than a year after the end of WWII. It described the line in Europe between the democratic nations of the West and Soviet communist countries in Eastern Europe. This is where the name "iron curtain" came from. The iron curtain was a boundary that divided Europe into two separate areas from the end of WWII until the end of the Cold War. The speech is also known as the "Sinews of Peace" speech.

Voice of America

It is a radio and television broadcasting service. VOA was organized in 1942 under the Office of War Information with news programs aimed at the areas that Nazi Germany and Japan controlled. They began broadcasting on February 24, 1942, and still broadcast today.

Dumbarton Oaks Conference

It took place in 1944. The conference was at Dumbarton Oaks mansion in Washington DC. Representatives of China, Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States attended. This is where proposals were made to organize the United Nations.

Bretton Woods conference

It was a meeting at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in July 1944. It took place during WWII and its purpose was to make financial arrangements for the postwar world. At the conference were attendants who represented 44 states and governments, including the Soviet Union. They created the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). This project was to make long-term funds available to states urgently needing such aid. It also created the International Monetary Fund (IMF); this was to finance short-term imbalances of international payments.

Truman Doctrine

It was a proclamation that said that the United States would help Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to keep them from becoming communist. Truman called upon the U.S. to "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures," which meant that the US was determined to keep communism from spreading.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer was a world famous physicist known for his role in the Manhattan Project. He is known as the father of the atomic bomb for his role as the director of research during the Manhattan Project.

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a U.S. military project aimed to win the race to develop atomic weapons. The project took place between 1941-1946 and famous physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer headed the scientific research. The first successful atomic detonation was in the New Mexican desert, code named Trinity. The second successful bomb was code named "Little Boy," and was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. The third and final bomb, code named "Fat Man," was dropped over Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. The project was born out of the fear that the Germans were researching nuclear weapons in the late 1930's (they were!). The project had many of the greatest minds in physics including J. Robert Oppenheimer, Albert Einstein, and Enrico Fermi. Many of the scientists working on the project were refugees from German-controlled countries.

United Nations Security Council

The United Nations is mainly responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security. The Security Council started with 11 members. 5 are permanent members China, France, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and the United States. The six non-permanents were elected by the United Nations General Assembly to serve for two-year terms. In 1965 an amendment was made to the United Nations charter that increased the Council membership to 15. The nonpermanent members were chosen to represent specific regions. 5 were from Africa or Asia, 1 was from Eastern Europe, 2 from Western Europe, and 2 from Latin America. Each member has one vote and the 5 permanent members hold the veto power. Any state may bring a dispute to the council. The council's first steps are to try to find a peaceful resolution. They may even authorize international peacekeeping forces. If these steps fail, then the Security Council is allowed to take military action against the offending nation. The UN headquarters is in Manhattan.

Yalta Conference

took place in February 1945, between FDR, Churchill, and Stalin near the Black Sea in Russia. Roosevelt asked for Soviet support in the Pacific War against Japan, specifically invading Japan proper; Churchill pressed for free elections and democratic governments in Eastern Europe (specifically Poland); and Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Eastern Europe as essential to the USSR's national security. At Yalta, all three agreed that Germany's surrender would be unconditional, and Germany and Berlin would be split into four zones of occupation (the other zone would go to France). Stalin seemed to promise free elections in Poland, but Churchill was suspicious (justifiably, as it turned out).

VE Day

(Victory Europe) was on May 7, 1945, when the WWII Allies accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler. He committed suicide on April 30, 1945 during the Battle of Berlin.

Marshall Plan

Basically, this was to rebuild the European economies to prevent them from falling to communism, and even the Soviet Union was offered assistance to help rebuild (they turned it down). It started in July 1947 and lasted for 4 years. This was a 13 billion dollar investment to help the European countries, and every country except Germany that took the money saw its economy rebound to pre-WWII levels. Unfortunately for Eastern Europe, Stalin forbade them from accepting the money (because he believed that the US was trying to undermine communism). The Marshall Plan was a spectacular success at keeping Western Europe from becoming communist.

Marshall Tito

From 1945-1980, he was the leader of Yugoslavia. Before assuming the leadership of Yugoslavia, during WWII, he organized the Yugoslav Partisans, which was a resistance movement to the Nazis. In 1945, Tito signed an agreement with the USSR that allowed Soviet troops to come into Yugoslav territory, but only temporarily. Tito's Yugoslavia, along with Albania, were the only communist countries of Eastern Europe that were not satellite nations - they kept their independence from the USSR (Soviet Union).

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the first-ever nuclear attacks in the history of the world. They were attacks by the U.S. on the Empire of Japan over two well-populated cities. The bombings took place after the intense conventional bombings of 67 other Japanese cities, including Tokyo. The Enola Gay dropped the first bomb, dubbed "Little Boy," on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. 90% of Hiroshima's buildings were damaged or destroyed and over 70,000 people were killed. Some 120,000 total were dead by the end of the year due to the bomb. Hiroshima was chosen for bombing because of its industrial importance. Three days later, on August 9, 1946, Nagasaki was bombed with a second atomic bomb named "Fat Man'. Nagasaki was chosen because of its industrial importance and because it had a large port. Nagasaki suffered between 45,000-80,000 casualties. These attacks were aimed to force the Japanese surrender before a land invasion was necessary (in hopes of avoiding another Iwo Jima). On August 12, 1945, the Japanese surrendered before any more bombs were dropped.

Nuremberg Trials

These were a series of trials for the prosecution of members of the leadership of Nazi Germany. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg and lasted from 1945-1949. 24 of the most important captured leaders of Nazi Germany were tried. Stalin wanted to execute 50,000-100,000 of the captured Nazi German Military officers! Alas, only 12 were sentenced to death by hanging.

Charles de Gaulle

was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II and later founded the French Fifth Republic and served as its first President. In France, he is commonly referred to as Général de Gaulle or simply Le Général. He is a great hero in French history because of his efforts to defeat the Vichy French government - the French government that collaborated with Hitler - and its leader Philippe Petain, and because he stood up to the United States while president in the 1960s.

Potsdam Conference

was held at Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945. President Truman (FDR had died just before the end of the war in Europe), Prime Minister Clement Attlee (he replaced Churchill part of the way through the conference), and Stalin represented the Big Three. The conference was characterized by a lot of tension and mistrust, foreshadowing the Cold War. The nations did agree on the prosecution of Nazi war criminals, the trials for which would be held at Nuremberg, Germany. Also, Germany would be demilitarized. The Western allies, especially Churchill, were suspicious of the motives of Stalin, who had already installed communist governments in the central European countries under his influence. Poland's government in exile was not allowed to return to rule Poland; instead, Poland was to be ruled by the communists chosen by the Soviet Union. The Potsdam Conference turned out to be the last conference among the Allied leaders. During the conference, Truman mentioned an unspecified "powerful new weapon" to Stalin; Stalin, who had known of its existence long before Truman did, encouraged the usage of any weapon that would hasten the end of the war. Towards the end of the conference, Japan was given an ultimatum (threatening "prompt and utter destruction," without mentioning the new bomb), and after Japan rejected conditional surrender, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively.

Partitioning of Korea

was the separating of Korea between the occupying forces of the US in the South and the USSR in the North, which made South Korea and North Korea. The dividing line was the 38th parallel, which today is the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea.

VJ Day

was the victory over Japan Day on August 15, 1945, which ended fighting in WWII when Emperor Hirohito accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. The formal Japanese signing took place on September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay on board the battleship the USS Missouri.