APUSH Review Vocabulary 1920s, Great Depression, WWII, Cold War

Supreme Court Packing Bill

"Packing the Supreme Court " was Roosevelt's proposal in 1937 to "reform" the Supreme Court by appointing an additional justice for every justice over age of 70. Following the Court's actions in striking down major New Deal laws, FDR came to believe that some justices were out of touch with the nation's needs. Congress believed Roosevelt's proposal endangered the Court's independence and said no. Basically, DR tried to appoint lots of new Supreme Court justices urgently, all based on the fact they were his allies and liked new deal, didn't do it fairly. People were angry he tried to disrupt the checks and balances system.

Nativism

7) Nativism was a term used to describe people who favor those born in his country and is opposed to immigrants. They are mainly native born Americans who wants to limit immigration. They hated minorities, immigrants and Catholics. They helped create a political party known as the Know- Nothing Party.They helped put restrictions on immigrants during the 1920s.

Environmental Protection Agency

A governmental organization signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1970 designed to regulate pollution, emissions, and other factors that negatively influence the natural environment. The creation of the it marked a newfound commitment by the federal government to actively combat environmental risks and was a significant triumph for the environmentalist movement. When congress and President Nixon signed the National Environmental Protection Act, which created this new agency to enforce antipollution standards on businesses and consumers. The United States Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the Federal government of the United States which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress.

Siinclair Lewis

A heavy-drinking journalist who wrote Main Street and Babbitt, belittled small-town America.Was the chief chronicler of Midwestern life. He was a master of satire.

Langston Hughes

A leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance who described the rich culture of african American life using rhythms influenced by jazz music. He wrote of African American hope and defiance in poems such as "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and "My People"

Demagogues

A politician who arouses fervor by appealing to the lowest emotions of a mass audience, such as fear, hatred, and greed.

Manchuria

A territory of northeastern China constantly disputed over by Russia, China, and Japan between WWI and II. Japan occupied Manchuria in the 1930's as a buffer zone between its mainland territory and the USSR.

Nazism

Adolf Hitler used fascism to create this type of government based on totalitarian ideas and was used to unite Germany during the 1930s.

Soviet Invasion of Afganistan

At the end of December 1979, the Soviet Union sent thousands of troops into Afghanistan and immediately assumed complete military and political control of Kabul and large portions of the country. This event began a brutal, decade-long attempt by Moscow to subdue the Afghan civil war and maintain a friendly and socialist government on its border. It was a watershed event of the Cold War, marking the only time the Soviet Union invaded a country outside the Eastern Bloc, a strategic decision met by nearly worldwide condemnation. Leaders in the Kremlin had hoped that a rapid and complete military takeover would secure Afghanistan's place as an exemplar of the Brezhnev Doctrine, which held that once a country became socialist Moscow would never permit it to return to the capitalist camp. The United States and its European allies, guided by their own doctrine of containment, sharply criticized the Soviet move into Afghanistan and devised numerous measures to compel Moscow to withdraw.

Hiroshima;Nagasaki

Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a response to the Japanese Pearl Harbor attack. On August 6, 1945, the United States Army Air Forces attacked these two cities with the nuclear weapon "Little Boy," followed three days later by the detonation of the "Fat Man" bomb. These bombings took place during World War II against the Empire of Japan, part of the opposing Axis Powers alliance. The prevailing view is that the bombings ended the war months sooner than would otherwise have been the case, saving many lives that would have been lost on both sides if the planned invasion of Japan had taken place.

Banking Holiday

Bank Holiday was when Franklin Roosevelt closed all American banks for 4 days .During this time Congress meets to discuss legislation. This creates a great sense of relief for the public. To restore confidence in those banks that were still solvent, the president ordered the banks closed for a bank holiday on March 6, 1933.He went on the radio to explain that the banks would be reopened after allowing enough time for the government to reorganize them on a sound basis.

Totalitarian dictatorships

Benito Mussolini was the fascist dictator of Italy, and sought to recreate a Roman empire. Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935, and was known "Benevolent Dictator". In 1936 he joined Germany in the Axis pact , and allied Italy with Germany in World War II. Mussolini promoted expansionism, nationalism, anti-communism, and more. He wanted to make a new Roman Empire. Led Italy into WWII from 1940 until his capture in 1943, and then escape. He died at the hands of Italian partisans in 1945 at Lake Como, and was subsequently hung upside down from a lamppost at a petrol station in Milan so everyone could see his confirmed demise. Italy in WWII was part of the Axis Powers.Adolf Hitler lived from 1889 until 1945 (when he suicide). He believed that strong leadership was required to save Germanic society, which was at risk due to Jewish, socialist, democratic, and liberal forces. Leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZI). He was chancellor of Germany from 1933-1945, and dictator from 1934 to 1945 of Nazi Germany. He is associated with the rise of European fascism, the rise of the Axis Powers, and for orchestrating the Holocaust( which started WWII after invading Poland in 1939). His racial views were those of creating an Aryan master race and creating Lebensraum ("living space") for the German people in Eastern Europe. Hated and blamed Jews for all ailments of German society, and thus began a program of genocide known as the Holocaust. Fought in WWI. Met his end by his own hand in 1945, as Soviet Soldiers fought the last remnants of Nazi resistance in the Battle of Berlin.

Margin Buying

Buying on margin allowed people to borrow most of the cost of the stock, making down payments as low as 10 percent. Investors depended that the price of the stock would increase so that they could repay the loan. When stock prices dropped, the market collapsed, and many lost everything they had borrowed and invested. Buying on margin is not good for the economy, and now days is illegal.

CCC

CCC employed about 3 million men (between 18-25) to work on projects that benefited the public, planting trees to reforest areas, building levees for flood control, and improving national parks, etc. Most pop form of legislation. Men only keep 20-25% of $, rest sent back to family.

Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge was Harding's vice president and successor, he had won popularity in 1919 as the Massachusetts governor who broke the Boston police strike. He was a man of few words who richly deserved the nickname of "Silent Cal." He restored honesty to government, and accelerated the tax cutting and antiregulation policies of his predecessor. His laissez-faire policies brought short-term prosperity from 1923 to 1929.Coolidge won easily the election of 1924, and believed in limited government that stood aside while business conducted its own affairs.

Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh was an American aviator, engineer, and Pulitzer Prize winner. He was famous for flying solo across the Atlantic, paving the way for future aviational development .Americans listened to the radio for news on Lindbergh's flight and welcomed his return to the United States with ticker tape parades larger than those for the returning soldiers of World War 1. Lindbergh was considered a popular hero of the decade.

Clarence Darrow

Clarence Darrow was the famous lawyer that defend Scopes during the "Scope Money Trial." He earned fame defending the values of science and modernism in the 1925 Scopes Trial. He made William Jennings Bryan look like a foolish with his clever questioning. Additionally, Darrow was hired by Chicago millionaires to save their sons Leopold and Loeb, from the death penalty.

Containment

Early in 1947, Truman adopted the advice of three top advisers in deciding to "contain" Soviet aggression. His containment policy, which was to govern U.S. foreign policy for decades, was formulated by the secretary of State, General George Marshall, Dean Acheson, and an expert of Soviet affairs, George F. Kennan. In an influential article, Keenan had written that only a "long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies" would eventually cause the Soviets to back off their communist ideology of world domination and live in peace with other nations. It was the basis of US foreign policy after WWII designed to stop the spread of communism. People argued that this policy attempted to do too much.

FLSA

FLSA, Federal Law that established certain minimum requirements for employee's hours, wages, premium overtime, and payroll records.

F.Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald was a novelist and chronicler of the jazz age. His wife, Zelda and he were the "couple" of the decade but hit bottom during the depression. His novel THE GREAT GATSBY is considered a masterpiece about a gangster's pursuit of an unattainable rich girl.

Flapper

Flappers were carefree young women with short, "bobbed" hair, heavy makeup, and short skirts. The flapper symbolized the new "liberated" woman of the 1920s. Many people saw the bold, boyish look and shocking behavior of flappers as a sign of changing morals. Though hardly typical of American women, the flapper image reinforced the idea that women now had more freedom.

Franklin D. Roosevelt/New Deal

Franklin Roosevelt was the democratic candidate who won the 1932 election by a landslide against Herbert Hoover. He refused to uphold any of Hoover's policies with the intent on enacting his own. He pledged a present a "New Deal" (its specific meaning ambiguous at the time to the American people) to the American public. Immediately after being sworn in to office on March 4, 1922, Roosevelt called congress in to a hundred-day-long special session.

HUAC/Hollywood 10

HUAC is the acronym for the House Committee on Un-American Activities. It was originally established in 1939 to seek out Nazis, and was reactivated in the post war years to find the communist. The Committee not only investigated government officials but also looked for the Communist influence in such organizations such as the Boy Scouts and in the Hollywood film industry. Those who refused to testify were tried for contempt of Congress, other were blacklisted from the industry.

Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway was among the writers most affected by the war (he had seen action on the Italian front in 1917).He responded to pernicious propaganda and the overblown appeal to patriotism by devising his own lean, word-sparing but word-perfect style.In The Sun Also Rises (1926), he told of disillusioned, spiritually numb American expatriates in Europe.In A Farewell to Arms (1929), he crafted one of the finest novels in any language about the war experience; a troubled soul, he finally blew out his brains with a shotgun blast in 1961.

Herbert Hoover and his philospohy

Herbert Hoover was the president of the United States from 1929 to 1932. He was a republican who ran on a campaign of prohibition and prosperity. The early years of his presidency brought about a great deal of prosperity for the United States. Many people blamed him for the stock market crash. Hoover had served three presidents, mostly under the commerce section; he competed with Alfred Smith.

Hoovervilles

Hoovervilles were used in the early years of the depression.The homeless made shacks out of scavenged materials. This gave the homeless who were affected by the depression a place to live. These Hoovervilles were also used by Bonus Marchers during their march to Washington D.C. to get their pension for fighting in WWI.

Levitowns

In 1947, William Levitt used mass production techniques to build inexpensive homes in surburban New York to help relieve the postwar housing shortage. Levittown became a symbol of the movement to the suburbs in the years after WWII. Utilized mass production techniques to build inexpensive homes in suburban NY to relieve postwar housing shortage; became symbol of movement to suburbs; conformity of houses; diverse communities; home for lower-middle class families.

Marshall Plan

In December, Truman summited to Congress a $$17 billion European Recovery Program, better known as Marshal Plan. In 1948, $12 billion in aid was approved for distribution to the countries of Western Europe over a four-year period. The Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites were also offered Marshall Plan aid, but they refused to take part, fearing that their countries might become dependent of the United States. The Marshal Plan worked exactly ass hoped, the massive infusion of U.S. dollars helped Western Europe achieve self-sustaining growth by the 1950s, and ended any real threat of Communist political successes in that region. It also bolstered U.S. prosperity by increasing U.S. exports to Europe. Yet if deepened the rift between the non-communist West and the Communist East.

Keynesian Economics/pump priming

John Maynard Keynes was a British economist who argued that for a nation to recovery fully from a depression, the government had to spend money to encourage investment and consumption. Keynes said deficit spending was acceptable because in difficult times the government needed to spend well above its tax revenues in order to initiate economic growth, "priming the pump". His ideas became known as Keynesian economics. His theories helped justify New Deal deficit spending.

McCarthyism

Joseph R. McCarthy was a Republican Senator who made a speech accusing Secretary of State Dean Acheson of knowingly employing 205 Communist party members in February of 1950. Even though the accusations later proved to be false, McCarthy gained the support of the public. With the Republican victory in the election of 1952, his rhetoric became bolder as his accusations of communism grew. McCarthy was reckless and power-hungry demagogue who intimidated even President Eisenhower before his bubble burst; his policy became known as McCarthyism.

D-Day

June 6, 1944 - Led by Eisenhower, over a million troops (the largest invasion force in history) stormed the beaches at Normandy and began the process of re-taking France. The turning point of World War II.

Marcus Gravey

Marcus Garvey, a charismatic immigrant, was the leader of the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Garvey advocated individual and racial pride for African Americans and developed political ideas of Black Nationalism. He established an organization for black separatism, economic self-sufficiency, and a back-to-Africa movement. Garvey's sale of stock in the Black Star Steamship line led to federal charges of fraud. In 1925, he was tried, convicted, and jailed. He later was deported to Jamaica, and his movement collapsed. Garvey's thinking helped inspire a later generation to embrace the cause of black pride and nationalism.

Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger was an American leader of the movement to legalize birth control during the early 1900's. As a nurse in the poor sections of New York City, she had seen the suffering caused by unwanted pregnancy. Sanger founded the first birth control clinic in the U.S. and the American Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood. Even though the use of contraceptives for birth control was against the law in almost every state, Sanger and other advocated of birth control achieved growing in the twenties.

A.Mitchell Palmer

Mitchell Palmer was the Attorney General of the United States. He was a known demagogue during 1919-1920 who used the fear created by the Red Scare by issuing raids known known as Palmer raids into suspected communists homes and deporting them by to their country of origin. These raids lead to protests and bombings to many homes of justices and politicians including himself. However, he gained the support of the American people and power.

Domino Theory

NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO was a military alliance for defending all members from outside attack. Truman selected General Eisenhower as NATO's first Supreme Commander and stationed U.S. troops in Western Europe as a deterrent against a Soviet invasion. Thus, the containment policy led to a military buildup and major accomplishments abroad. The Soviet Union countered in 1955 by forming the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance for the defense of the Communist states of Eastern Europe. It was established in 1949 to defend against the common threat from the Soviet Union, marking a giant stride forward for European unity and American internationalism.

NATO

NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO was a military alliance for defending all members from outside attack. Truman selected General Eisenhower as NATO's first Supreme Commander and stationed U.S. troops in Western Europe as a deterrent against a Soviet invasion. Thus, the containment policy led to a military buildup and major accomplishments abroad. The Soviet Union countered in 1955 by forming the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance for the defense of the Communist states of Eastern Europe. It was established in 1949 to defend against the common threat from the Soviet Union, marking a giant stride forward for European unity and American internationalism.

NIRA/NRA/PWA

NIRA set up the National Recovery Adminstration and set prices, wages, work hours, and production for each industry. Based on theory that regulation of the economy would allow industries to return to full production, thereby leading to full employment and a return of prosperity. NRA encouraged businesses to set minimum wage & abolish child labor. Tried to set up codes governing pricing and other practices for every industry. Helped people stay in work and for the employers to get the same amount of wages. Workers don't work more than 40 hrs/wk, better working conditions. Prices of these products are higher b/c helps fund gov & economy. Tried to do all: relief, recovery, and reform. Ruled unconstitutional in 1935. PWA intended both for industrial recovery and for unemployment relief. Headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, it aimed at long-range recovery by spending over $4 billion on some 34,000 projects that included public buildings, highways, and parkways.

SEC

New Deal agency established to provide a public watchdog against deception and fraud in stock trading.This kept the banks honest and prohibited using peoples' money for stocks.

Social Security Act

New Deal program that financed old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and other forms of income assistance.

Dwight Eisenhower

Nicknamed "Ike", was a General of the Army (five star general) in the United States Army and U.S. politician, who served as the thirty-fourth President of the United States (1953-1961).As President, he oversaw the cease-fire of the Korean War, kept up the pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, made nuclear weapons a higher defense priority, launched the Space Race, enlarged the Social Security program, and began the Interstate Highway System.

Lend Lease Act

On 11th March 1941, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act. The legislation gave President Franklin D. Roosevelt the powers to sell, transfer, exchange, and lend equipment to any country to help it defend itself against the Axis powers. A sum of $50 billion was appropriated by Congress for Lend-Lease. The money went to 38 different countries with Britain receiving over $31 billion. Over the next few years the British government repaid $650 million of this sum.

Watergate

On June 17, 1972, several burglars were arrested inside the office of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. This was no ordinary robbery: The prowlers were connected to President Richard Nixon's reelection campaign, and they had been caught while attempting to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. While it's not certain whether Nixon knew about the Watergate espionage operation before it happened, he took steps to cover it up afterwards, raising money for the burglars, trying to stop the FBI from investigating the crime, destroying evidence and firing uncooperative staff members. In August 1974, after his role in the Watergate conspiracy had finally come to light, the president resigned. His successor, Gerald Ford, immediately pardoned Nixon for all the crimes he "committed or may have committed" while in office. Although Nixon was never prosecuted, the Watergate scandal changed American politics forever, leading many Americans to question their leadership and think more critically about the presidency.

Brown v. Board of Education

On May 17, 1954 the United States Supreme Court handed down its ruling in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The Court's unanimous decision overturned provisions of the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had allowed for "separate but equal" public facilities, including public schools in the United States. Declaring that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," the Brown v. Board decision helped break the back of state-sponsored segregation, and provided a spark to the American civil rights movement.

Iran Hostage Crisis

On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 American hostages. The immediate cause of this action was President Jimmy Carter's decision to allow Iran's deposed Shah, a pro-Western autocrat who had been expelled from his country some months before, to come to the United States for cancer treatment. However, the hostage-taking was about more than the Shah's medical care: it was a dramatic way for the student revolutionaries to declare a break with Iran's past and an end to American interference in its affairs. It was also a way to raise the intra- and international profile of the revolution's leader, the anti-American cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The students set their hostages free on January 21, 1981, 444 days after the crisis began and just hours after President Ronald Reagan delivered his inaugural address. Many historians believe that hostage crisis cost Jimmy Carter a second term as president.

Poland

On September 1, 1939 German tanks and planes began full-scale invasion of Poland. When Germany invaded, they broke their agreement, so Britain and France declared war, starting World War II. After signing the non-aggression pact Hitler had a surprise attack, German tanks and troops rumbled across the Polish border. Poland was the first to fall for Germany's type of warfare called blitzkrieg. Keeping their pledge, Britain and France declared war against Germany—and soon afterward, they were also at war with its Axis allies, Italy and Japan. World War II in Europe had begun.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked December 7, 1941. The Japanese naval air force made a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base in this place in Hawaii. Several battleships of the U.S. Pacific fleet were damaged or sunk. This attack resulted in an American declaration of war the following day. Canada also declared war on Japan. Canadian soldiers in Hong Kong were soon fighting as the Japanese attacked the British colony the same day as this. In that time, 2,400 Americans were killed, almost 1,200 were wounded, 20 warships were sunk, and approximately 150 airplanes were destroyed.

Prohibition

Prohibition was the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. It was passed by the 18th amendment and 'enforced' by the Volstead Act. However, did this not stop people from drinking alcohol either in public places or at home. Rival groups of gangsters, organized crime, and the sale of illegal booze rose from prohibition. So did other illegal activities involving prostitution, gambling, and narcotics. With the coming of the Great Depression, in 1933, the Twenty-first amendment repealing the 18th amendment was ratified, and millions celebrated the New Year by toasting the end of prohibition.

Relief,Recovery,Reform

Relief, recovery, and reform where the three components of the New Deal. The first "R" was the effort to help the one-third of the population that was hardest hit by the depression, & included social security and unemployment insurance. The second "R" was the effort in numerous programs to restore the economy to normal health, achieved by 1937. Finally, the third "R" let government intervention stabilize the economy by balancing the interests of farmers, business and labor. There was no major anti-trust program.

Fireside chats

Roosevelt went on the radio on March 12, 1933, to present the first of many fireside chats to the American people. The president assured his listeners that the banks which reopened after the bank holiday were now safe. The public responded as hoped, with the money deposited in the reopened banks exceeding the money withdrawn. The firechats were the informal radio talks President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had with Americans during the Great Depression. They not only unified America with these nationwide speeches, rose American spirits by encouraging Americans through the Great Depression. FDR was the first president to effectively use the radio for politics. These talks occurred at least once a month, maybe even more frequently.

Sacco and Vanzetti

Sacco and Vanzetti were two Italian-born laborers and anarchists who were tried, convicted and executed via electrocution on August 23, 1927 in Massachusetts. They were killed for the 1920 armed robbery and murder of a pay-clerk and a security guard in South Braintree, Massachusetts. The case incited controversy based on questions regarding culpability, the question of the innocence or guilt of Sacco and Vanzetti, and conformance, the question of whether the trials were fair to Sacco and Vanzetti. Many believed they had been framed for the crime because of their anarchist and pro-union activities, and mainly because they were foreigners.

Lost Generation

Scorning religion as hypocritical and bitterly condemning the sacrifices of wartime as a fraud perpetrated by money interest were the dominant themes of the leading writers of the post war decade. The disillusionment of writers caused the writer Gertrude Stein to call them the "lost generation". Figures identified with the "Lost Generation" include authors and poets F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, Waldo Peirce, and John Dos Passos. It also refers to the time period from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. More generally, the term is used for the generation of young people coming of age in the United States during and shortly after World War I.

Andrew Mellon

Secretary of the Treasury during the Harding Administration. He felt it was best to invest in tax-exempt securities rather than in factories that provided prosperous payrolls. He believed in trickle down economics.

Sputnik

Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite, which was launched by Moscow in 1957. This satellite sparked U.S. fears of Soviet dominance in technology and outer space. It led to the creation of NASA in 1958, to direct the U.S. efforts to build missiles and explore outer space. Fear of nuclear was intensified by Sputnik, since the missiles that launched the satellites could deliver thermonuclear warheads anywhere in minutes. Additionally, in 1958 Congress responded with the National Defense and Education Art, which authorized giving hundreds of millions of federal many to the schools for science and foreign language education.

TVA

Tennessee Valley Authority. Built dams for flood control and hydroelectric power in the Tennessee valley, created projects to combat erosion and deforestation.

21st Amendment

The 21st amendment was placed in order to repeal the 18th amendment. It allowed alcohol consumption to be legalized. This created more gap between the Old and New generations now the New generation now could drink alcohol without breaking the law.

25th Amendment

The 25th amendment says that if the President dies, resigns, or is removed through impeachment, the Vice President becomes President. (This was vague before this Amendment, with the President's "powers & duties" going to the Vice President, but not necessarily the title of "President".) Vice President also takes over if President is "incapacitated" and unable to execute the duties of the office.

American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an American Indian advocacy group in the United States, founded in July 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Initially formed to address American Indian sovereignty, treaty issues, spirituality, and leadership, while simultaneously addressing incidents of police harassment and racism against Native Americans forced to move away from reservations and tribal culture by the 1950s-era enforcement of the U.S. federal government-enforced Indian Termination Policies originally created in the 1930s. "As independent citizens and taxpayers, without good education or experience, most 'terminated' Indians were reduced within a few years to widespread illness and utter poverty, whether or not they were relocated to cities," from the reservations. The various specific issues concerning Native American urban communities like the one in Minneapolis, "red ghettos", include unusually high unemployment levels, overt and covert racism, police harassment and neglect, drug abuse like mainly alcoholism, crushing poverty, domestic violence and substandard housing. AIM's paramount objective is to create "real economic independence for the Indians."

Axis Powers

The Axis Powers were those states opposed to the Allies during the Second World War. The three major Axis Powers were Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Empire of Japan. At their zenith, the Axis Powers ruled empires that dominated large parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Pacific Ocean. However, the Second World War ended with their total defeat (they lost against the Big Three).

Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway was an enormous battle that raged for four days near the small American outpost at Midway Island. Taking place from June 4-7 in 1942, at the end, despite great losses, the United States was clearly victorious. The American navy destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers and lost only one of its own; the action regained control of the central Pacific for the US. The interception and decoding of Japanese messages enabled U.S. forces to destroy four Japanese carriers and 300 planes.

Camp David Accords

The Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David. The two framework agreements were signed at the White House, and were witnessed by United States President Jimmy Carter. The second of these frameworks led directly to the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. Due to the agreement, Sadat and Begin received the shared 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. The first framework, which dealt with the Palestinian territories, was written without participation of the Palestinians and was condemned by the United Nations.

Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl was the drought-stricken plains areas from which hundreds of thousands of "Okies" were driven during the Great Depression. Parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas were hit hard by dry topsoil and high winds that created blinding dust storms. This area of the Great Plains became called that because winds blew away crops and farms, and blew dust from Oklahoma to Albany, New York. The Dust bowl ruined farms and left many farmers without crops and money.

Fair Deal

The Fair Deal was under Truman's presidency 1949-53.Truman launched an ambitious reform program, which he called the Fair Deal. In 1949, he urged Congress to enact national health care insurance, federal aid to education, civil rights legislation, funds for public housing, and a new farm program. Conservatives in Congress managed to block most of the proposed reforms, except an increase in the minimum wage (from 40 cents to 75 cents) and the inclusion of more workers under social security. Most of the Fair Deal bills were defeated because of Truman's political conflict with Congress, and the pressing of foreign policy concerns of the Cold War.

Fall of Siagon

The Fall of Saigon, or the Liberation of Saigon, depending on context, was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the Vietcong on April 30, 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period to the formal reunification of Vietnam under the Socialist Republic. North Vietnamese forces, under the command of General Van Tien Dung, began their final attack on Saigon on April 29, 1975, with Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces commanded by General Nguyen Van Toan suffering heavy artillery bombardment. This bombardment at the Tan Son Nhat Airport killed the last two American servicemen to die in Vietnam, Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge.

Causes of the Great Depression

The Great Depression was the economic crisis and period of low business activity in the U.S. and other countries. It roughly began with the stock-market crash in October, 1929, and continued through most of the 1930s. It was one of the darkest moments in World History. The Great Depression took place from 1929-1939. Before it was over, two presidents Hoover, and Roosevelt would devote 12 years to seeking the elusive oath recovery. Uneven distribution income, stock market speculation, excessive use of credit, overproduction of consumer goods, weak farm economy, and government politics all contributed to the Great Depression. The depression had a global impact affecting economies in Europe especially Great Britain and Germany. The Great Depression finally ended with the start of WWII.

Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a black artistic movement in New York City in the 1920s in Harlem, New York. With a population of almost 200,000 by 1930, Harlem became famous in the 1920s for its concentration of talented actors, artist, musicians, and writers. The Jazz age, and the UNIA (brought by Marcus Gravy) was a result of the Harlem Renaissance. Leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance were musician Duke Ellington & Louis Armstrong, poet Counctee Cullen, poet Clude McKay, multitalented Paul Robeson, and the great blues singer Bessie Smith.

Fordney-McCumber Tariff

The Hawley-Smoot Tariff passed by the Republican Congress set tax increase ranging from 31% to 49% on foreign imports. It was signed by president Hoover in June 1930, and it was the highest tariff rate in history. Its political purpose was to satisfy U.S. businesses leaders who thought a higher tariff would protect their markets from foreign competition. In retaliation for the U.S. tariff, however, European countries enacted higher tariffs on their own against U.S. goods. The effect was to reduce trade for all nations, meaning that both the national and international economies sank further into depression.

Jazz

The Jazz Age was the term used to describe the image of the liberated, urbanized 1920s, with a flapper as the dominant symbol of that era. Many rural, fundamentalist Americans deeply resented the changes in American culture that occurred in the "Roaring Twenties." The Jazz age was a time of cultural change; it generally refers to the arts such as writing, music, artwork, and architecture. American Jazz music emerges from African American church and community, and it becomes international, uniquely American. Jazz became a symbol of the "new" and "modern" culture of the cities.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

The Kellogg-Briand Pact was known for being a "Toothless international agreement of 1928 that pledged nations to outlaw war." Agreement also referred to as the Pact of Paris; Coolidge's Secretary of state and the French foreign minister signed it in 1928. It was a pledge to forswear war as an instrument of national policy. It was ultimately ratified by sixty-two nations. The Kellogg-Briand Pact was a naive treaty that outlawed war, and once again was toothless.

Korean War

The Korean War, 1950 to 1953 was the First "hot war" of the Cold war. The Korean War began in 1950 when the Soviet-backed North Koreans invaded South Korea before meeting a counter-offensive by UN Forces, dominated by the United States. After WWII, Korea had been partitioned along the 38th parallel into a northern zone governed by the Soviet Union, and a southern zone controlled by the U.S. In 1950, after the Russians had withdrawn, leaving a communist government in the North, the North invaded the South. The U.N. raised an international army led by the U.S. to stop the North. It was the first use of U.N. military forces to enforce international peace. Called a limited war, because the fighting was to be confined solely to the Korean peninsula, rather than the countries involved on each side attacking one another directly. Congress supported the use of U.S. troops in the Korean crisis but failed to declare war, accepting Truman's characterization of U.S. intervention as merely a "police action."

Central High School/ Little Rock 9

The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. States in the Deep South fought the Supreme Court's decision with a variety of tactics, including the temporary closing of the public schools. In Arkansas in 1956, Governor Orval Faubus used the state's National Guard to prevent nine African American students from entering Little Rock Central High School, as ordered by a federal court. President Eisenhower then intervened. While the president did not actively support deseg- regation and had reservations about the Brown decision, he understood his constitutional responsibility to uphold federal authority. Eisenhower ordered federal troops to stand guard in Little Rock and protect black students as they walked to school. He thus became the first president since Reconstruction to use federal troops to protect the rights of African Americans.

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan project was a secret research and development project of the U.S to develop the atomic bomb. Its success granted the U.S the bombs that ended the war with Japan as well as ushering the country into the atomic era. The bomb was first tested July 16, 1945 in the desert of New Mexico. It was directed by the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, and employed over 100,000 people, spending $2 billion to develop a weapon whose power came from the splitting of the atom. The bombs made at the Manhattan Project served to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Munich Pact/appeasement policy

The Munich Conference was a European diplomatic conference which took place in 1938. Britain and France conceded to Hitler's demands for Czechoslovakia. They allowed him to take over Czechoslovakia as long as he agreed to expand no further. The agreement was seen as an assurance of peace.

National Origins Act of 1924

The National Origins Act of 1924 had the primary purpose to restrict the flow of newcomers from Southern and Eastern Europe. It established immigrant quotas that discriminated against Southern and Eastern Europeans. This was the primary reason for the decrease in the numbers of Europeans immigrating to the US in the 1920s. It basically limited immigration from southern and Eastern Europe, permitted larger members of immigrants from northern and western Europe, and prohibited immigration from Asia.

New Deal coalition

The New Deal Coalition was FDR' administration of people who are strong and knowledgeable in their certain fields. It had professors, women, and minorities.

Nye Commission

The Nye Committee was formed to investigate whether or not munitions manufacturers and bankers were pro-war in WWI solely to make profit. It increased anti-war atmosphere and pushed to pass Neutrality Acts. They claimed they had caused America's entry into World War 1. Public opinion pushed Congress to pass the Neutrality Acts to keep us out of WWII.

Palmer raids

The Palmer Raids were attempts by the United States Department of Justice to 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. Though more than 500 foreign citizens were deported, including a number of prominent leftist leaders, Palmer's efforts were largely frustrated by officials at the U.S. Department of Labor who had responsibility for deportations and who objected to Palmer's methods. The Palmer Raids occurred in the larger context of the Red Scare, the term given to fear of and reaction against political radicals in the U.S. in the years immediately following World War I.

RFC

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation has the acronym of RFC. This federally funded, government-owned corporation was created by Congress early in 1932 as a measure for propping up faltering railroads, banks, life insurance companies, and their financial institutions. The president reasoned that emergency loans from the RFC would help to stabilize these key businesses. The benefits would the "trickle down" to smaller businesses and ultimately bring recovery. Democrats scoffed at this measure, saying it would only help the rich.

Causes of the Red Scare

The Red Scare began at the end of WWI as a result of the fall of the Russian Czar and the beginning of the Soviet Union. This put fear into the minds of the American people of communism coming to America as many union leaders like Eugene Debs claimed as being communist. This fear was heightened by the demagogue A. Mitchell Palmer who arrested many "so called" communists through his Palmer raids. This was a foreshadow of how McCarthyism who impact America during the Cold War.

2nd Red Scare

The Republicans, however, were far from satisfied. In fact, the stalemate in Korea and the loss of China provided Republican politicians with plenty of material to characterize Truman and the Democrats as "soft on communism." They attacked leading Democrats as members of "Dean Acheson's Cowardly College of Communist Containment." Curiously, just as a Red Scare had followed U.S. victory in World War I, a second Red Scare followed U.S. victory in World War II. The Truman administration's tendency to see a Communist conspiracy behind civil wars in Europe and Asia contributed to the belief that there were also Communist conspirators and spies in the U.S. State Department, the U.S. military, and all institutions in American society.

Julius& Ethel Rosenburg

The Rosenbergs were Americans who were members of the NYC Communist Party. Ethel Rosenberg's brother had supposedly turned over detailed diagrams of America's first atomic bomb to the Rosenbergs, who then gave them to the Soviet consul in NYC. After a controversial trial in 1951, the Rosenbergs were found guilty of treason and executed for the crime in 1953.Civil rights groups raised questions about whether anticommunist hysteria had played a role in the conviction and punishments of the Rosenbergs.

Scopes Monkey Trial

The Scopes trial occurred in 1925. It was a highly publicized trial where John Thomas Scopes violated a Tennessee state law by teaching evolution in high school. Scopes was prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan and defended by Clarence Darrow. He was convicted but the verdict was later. This trial displayed the fundamentalism prevalent in rural areas at the time, and focused on creationism v. evolution. In the trial, William Jennings Bryan argued on the side of fundamentalism, while Clarence Darrow argued for evolution. Bryan was left looking like a fool, and soon after, while preparing his speech, he died of a stroke.

Taft-Hartley Act

The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, sponsored by U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft and Representative Fred A. Hartley, was designed to amend much of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (the Wagner Act) and discontinued parts of the Federal Anti-Injunction Act of 1932. The Taft-Hartley Act was the first major revision to the Wagner Act, and after much resistance from labor leaders and a veto from President Harry S. Truman, was passed on June 23, 1947. The act also required union leaders to take an oath stating that they were not communists. Although many people tried to repeal the act, the Taft-Hartley Act stayed in effect until 1959 when the Landrum-Griffin Act amended some of its features.

Teapot Dome

The Teapot dome was located in Wyoming, and it was the scandal for Albert B. Fall and General Harry Daughtery. The Teapot is known as a Harding Administration scandal in which Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall profited from secret leasing to private oil companies of government oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California. Daughtery also took bribed for agreeing not to prosecute certain criminal suspects. These scandal rose in 1924, shortly before, however, Harding died suddenly in August 1923. Therefore, he was never implicated for these scandals.

Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine stated that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere. This was in attempt to stop the spread of the sphere of communist influence. The president asked Congress in March 1947 for $400 million in economic and military aid to assist the "free people" of Greece and Turkey against "totalitarian" regimes. While Truman's speech may have oversimplified the situation in Greece and Turkey, it gained bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

NLRA/Wagner Act

The Wagner Act guaranteed the right of unions to organize and to collectively bargain with management.

Washington Naval Commission

The Washington Naval Conference took place during the years 1921- 1922. It was a military conference called by the administration of President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington, D.C. from 12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922. It resulted in three major treaties: Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty (more commonly known as the Washington Naval Treaty) and the Nine-Power Treaty and a number of smaller agreements. These treaties preserved peace during the 1920s but are also credited with enabling the rise of the Japanese Empire as a naval power leading up to World War II. Most important, it called for disarmament.

Yalta Conference

The Yalta Conference was a conference between Stalin, Churchill, and FDR in an attempt to get Russian support in the highly anticipated invasion of Japan. Russia, in return, received the southern part of Sakilin Island that it had lost to Japan and joint control of Manchuria's railroads. The Allies also reluctantly allowed Poland to become communist. Many Americans saw this deal as a failure.Basically, Russia agreed to declare war on Japan after the surrender of Germany and in return FDR and Churchill promised the USSR concession in Manchuria and the territories that it had lost in the Russo-Japanese War.

Bonus Marchers

The bonus March occurred in 1932. Unemployed veterans marched to DC demanding the payment of bonuses that had been promised to them. At at a later date (1945) congress didn't pass the Bonus Bill they wanted. Hoover ordered the US army to break up their encampment. General Douglas McArthur, the army's chief of staff, used tanks and tear gas to destroy the shantytown and drive the veterans from Washington. The incident caused many Americans to regard President Hoover as a heartless and uncaring.

Henry Ford

The business period was personified by Henry Ford. He perfected the assembly line at his Rouge Rive Plant and could produce a new car every 10 seconds. Ford-style mass production was then applied to other industries, lowering costs, and starting mass consumption.These cars were unreliable—a driver would have to also be half mechanic. But, they were inexpensive, especially Ford's Model T. When Ford switched to the Model A, the assembly line technique made the Model A affordable for practically any working person. When the stock market crashed in 1929, there were 26 million registered cars—1 car for every 4.9 people America.

Berlin Airlift

The first major crisis of the Cold War focused on Berlin. The Berlin Airlift was Truman's move to prevent the removal of US troops from Berlin, while also helping the troops to survive. He ordered US planes to fly in supplies to the people of West Berlin, and also sent 60 bombers capable of carrying atomic bombs to bases in England. The Berlin Airlift was the point effort by the US and Britain to fly food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet blocked off all ground routes into the city.

Trickle Down Economics

The theory was that the govenment would give money to the upper class who would use that money to help the lower class by giving them jobs or funding in things needed for them to suceed.Coolidge would assist the hard pressed railroads,banks, and rural credit corporations in the hope that if financial health were restored at the top of the economic pyramid, unemployment would be relieved at the bottom on a trickle down basis. Got Congress to spend $2.25 billion on useful public works. However, that money was kept by the upper-class and never came down to the lower class which made the lower-class to suffer.

Neutrality Acts 1935-1939

There were three main neutrality acts to prevent the United States from entering World War 2. They prohibited sale of arms to belligerents in a war; banned loans to belligerents; citizens cannot travel to countries at war or travel on armed ships; and passed to prevent American involvement in future overseas wars. The Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 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, or sell or transport munitions to a belligerent nation, or make loans to a belligerent. This displayed that America was not willing to go to war and desired to remain neutral and isolationist.

Destroyers for bases deal

This destroyer-bases exchanged occurred in September of 1940(since Britain was under constant assault of German bombing raids). German submarine attacks threatened British control of the Atlantic. Destroyer-for-Bases Deal was Roosevelt's compromise for helping Britain as he could not sell Britain US destroyers without defying the Neutrality Act. Britain received 50 old but still serviceable US destroyers in exchange for giving the US the right to build military bases on British Islands in the Caribbean.

FDIC

This entity provided insurance to personal banking accounts up to $5,000. These assured people that their money was safe and secure. This agency still functions today.

Tojo/Hirohito

This general was prime minister of Japan during World War II while this man was dictator of the country. He gave his approval for the attack on Pearl Harbor and played a major role in Japan's military decisions until he resigned in 1944

Hundred Days

This is the term applied to President Roosevelt's first three months in taking office. During this time, FDR had managed to get Congress to pass an unprecedented amount of new legislation that would revolutionize the role of the federal government from that point on. This era saw the passage of bills aimed at repairing the banking system and restoring American's faith in the economy, starting government works projects to employ those out of work, offering subsidies for farmers, and devising a plan to aid in the recovery of the nation's industrial sector. Immediately after being sworn in to office on March 4, 1922, Roosevelt called congress in to a hundred-day-long special session.

Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding was the 29th president of the United States, winning the election of 1920 against James Cox. He was a Republican from Ohio who was unclear about where he stood on every issue. Harding was handsome and well liked, yet his abilities as a leader were less than presidential. Therefore, recognizing his limitations and hoping to make up for them he appointed able men into his cabinet. Additionally, Harding pardoned the socialist leader Eugene Debs, and won his release from federal prison. Also, Harding approved an increase in tariff rates under the Fordney-McCumber Tariff.

Endangered Species Act

When Congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, it recognized that our rich natural heritage is of "esthetic, ecological, educational, recreational, and scientific value to our Nation and its people." It further expressed concern that many of our nation's native plants and animals were in danger of becoming extinct. Conservationists demanded laws that would pro- tect against pollution and destruction of the environment. In 1970, Congress passed the Clean Air Act and created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and followed this legislation in 1972 with the Clean Water Act. In 1980, the Superfund was created to clean up toxic dumps, such as Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York.

Baby booms

Younger marriages and larger families resulted in 50 million babies entering the United States population between 1945 and 1960. As the baby-boom generation gradually passed from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, it would profoundly affect the nation's social institutions and economic life in the last half of the 20th century. Initially, the baby-boom tended to focus women's attention on raising children and homemaking. By the end of the decade, about 32 million babies had been born, compared with 24 million in the lean 1930s.By 1960, one-third of married women worked outside the home.

Fascism

military dominated government that controls all aspects of life. Nation greater importance than individual.