Term
|
Definition
| 1938 treaty in which the leading powers of Western Europe allowed Hitler to annex strategic areas of Czechoslovakia in order to satisfy his territorial aspirations (strategy of appeasement) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1939 agreement between Stalin and Hitler that divided Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union and said the two nations would not attack each other |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| American strategy of renouncing military intervention in Latin American affairs |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| "lighting wars"; fast and brutal attacks staged by Germany on its neighbors starting in 1940 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| city in central France, headquarters of the pro-German French regime installed in 1940 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| systematic killing of 6 million Jews, gypsies, and other societal scapegoats in Nazi concentration camps all over Europe |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| fierce battle fougt in the summer and autumn of 1940; Hitler attempted to break Britain's air power through heavy bombardment of British cities |
|
|
Term
| "America First Committee" |
|
Definition
| organization created to oppose US involvement in the Second World War; committee leaders argued that the Nazis were unstoppable and that the US should negotiate with them |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| basic human rights articulated by FDR to ensure that America's involvement in WWII was seen as ideologically ound: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Legislation passed in March 1941 empowering the presient to lend weapons and supplies to nations fighting the Germans or the Japanese |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| set of aims issued by Rosevelt and Churchill which stated that the war was being waged in the name of national self-determination and was not a war of conquest |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| group of three countries allied to fight Hitler: the US, Britain, and the Soviet Union |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Four major allies: the US, the soviet Union, Britain, and China; Roosevelt suggested that after the war, these countries exert their military power to ensure international peace |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| island in the Pacific Ocean; one of the Solomon Islands; location of 1943 battle that allowed the US and its allies a foothold in the Pacific |
|
|
Term
| Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) |
|
Definition
| Agency that required companies with federal contracts to make jobs available without regard to "race, creed, color, or national origin" |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Campaign championed by African Americans demanding "democracy at home and abroad" during WWII |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| wartime arrangement in which the US government brought several hundred thousand Mexican migrants to work on California farms |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, which promised unemplyment benefits, educational opportunities, low-interest housing loans, and medical care to millions of soldiers |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Largest battle of the western front; ended when the Germans failed to capture the Allied stronghold of Bastogne, Belgium and allowed Soviet forces to advance on Germany from the East |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| statement issued by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin in February 1945; promised independent regimes in Poland and EAstern Europe, yet conceded that pro-Soviet parties would have a large role in creating and sustaining these regimes |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| American project during WWII designed to harness the power of the atom and create an atom bomb |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the postwar ideological, economic, and military contest between the US and the Soviet Union |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Inernational organization that fosters discussions among the world's nations and monitors the well being of almost all individuals in the world |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| US strategy for dealing with the Soviet Union, with the intent of containing Communism and not letting it advance any farther than it already had |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| metaphor articulated by Eisenhower, referring to unstable nations as dominoes, with the US being obligated to prevent the dominoes from "falling" which would begin a process of Communist world domination |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| strategy of the US offering aid to nations that might be susceptible to Communist infiltration |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Truman Doctrine as it was administered in Europe by General George Marshal; the plan sent $13 billion to governments that promised to become or remain democracies |
|
|
Term
| North Atlantic Treaty Organization |
|
Definition
| pat that cemented an alliance of Western nations; prompted by the Berlin Crisis |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Classified paper written by American diplomats that portrayed an uncontrollably aggressive Soviet Union; the paper recommended stopping the threat by advocating a massive military build-up, the creation of hydrogen bombs, and rooting out all Communists on American soil |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Truman's twenty-one-point postwar plan that provided increases in the minimum wage, federal assistance in building homes, federal support for education and health care, jobs in public works, renewal of the Fair Employment Practices Commission |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Labor-Management Act of 1947 that banned the closed shop, outlawed collective bargaining within industries, and authorized the president to delay strikes by declaring a "cooling-off" period |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Discussion between Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and Vice President Richard Nixon in 1959 debating the relative merits of capitalism and Communism |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Group of screenwriters and directors accused of being members of the Communist Party |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| collection of names of hundreds of people deemed "subversive" whom Hollywood executives agreed not to hire |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Committees organized in the 1950s and 1960s to defend segregation in the South |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| facilitating the economic and political maturation of developing nations; political strategy emplyed by President Kennedy |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| barrier built in 1961 by the Communist government to separate impoverished, Soviet-controlled East Berlin from the more prosperous West Berlin |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 13 day confrontation between the Kennedy administration and the Cuban Communist regime in October 1962; Castro had agreed to allow the Soviet Union to base a few of its nuclear missiles in Cuba, thus potentially triggering a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| legislation outlawing all discrimination on in public faciliteis based on color, religion, sex, and national origin, and establishing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate violations of the law in employment |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| umbrella term refering to many government assistance programs, especially Aid to Families with Dependent Children |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| legislation passed in 1965 curtailing the quota system of the 1920s and permitting larger numbers of non-Europeans to settle in the US |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| legislation allowing the president to "take all necessary measures to repel armed attack against the forces of the US and to prevent further aggression," which was used to justify US involvement in Vietnam |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Winding path through North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, which the North Vietnamese used to supply the Viet Cong |
|
|
Term
| search and destroy operations |
|
Definition
| strategy used during wartime in which the US army would locate enemy forces, retreat, and call in airpower |
|
|
Term
| Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) |
|
Definition
| Organization founded in 1959 declaring that young people were tired of older political movements, even older radical ones; formed the core of self-conscious "New Left" movement, which rejected the Old Left's ideologies of economic justice in favor of an ideology of social justice |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Black nationalist organization whose leaders rejected the integrationist perspective of mainstream civil rights protesters, calling stead for an independent black nation-state |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Movement bridging the gap between black nationalism and the civil rights struggle; its leaders argued that black people should have control over the social, educational, and religious institutions in their communities and advocated black pride |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| social movement of the sixties that consciously rejected traditional politics, social values, and corporate consumerism |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| counterculture adherents who embraced new attitudes toward drugs, sex, popular culture, and politics |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| secrete defense department study, published in 1971, which revealed that the government had lied and purposely deceived the American public over major events in the Vietnam war in an attempt to manipulate public opinion |
|
|
Term
| Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) |
|
Definition
| Sessions held between president Nixon and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev, in which the two leaders agreed to freeze the number of long-range missile launchers and build certain new missiles only after they had destroyed the same number of older missiles |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| French term meaning "a relaxing" or "an easing"; refers to more relaxed relations with America's supposed enemies, China and the Soviet Union |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Conflict of 1967 during which Israel destroyed Egypt's and Syria's armies, and took significant land along the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and Sinai Peninsula |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| economic cycle in which prices keep going up (inflation) while the economy is losing jobs (or stagnating) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania that suffered a meltdown in 1979 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1978 peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, brokered by President Carter |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| prgram meant to ensure that a certain perentage of a company's employees are minorities or that a certain percentage of government contracts are given to minority-owned businesses |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| supreme court decision of 1973 whic struck down laws in forty-six states that limited a woman's access to a safe, legal abortion |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| theory that states that tax cuts would produce new investment, which would, i turn, generate an increase in federal revenues; these revenues would eventually "trickle down" to the lower classes in the form of more jobs |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| right-wing Nicaraguan guerrilla group during the 1980s |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| inequality in trade where country's exports to another outweigh the second country's exports ot the first country |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| complete expulsion of an entire ethnic population from a particular area |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| political ideology that eclectically blended liberal and conservative philosophies and policies, sometimes called "the Third Way," components include conservative economic principles and liberal social principles |
|
|
Term
| World Trade Organization (WTO) |
|
Definition
| International agency designed to resolve disputes between trading partners and advocate free trade |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Political principle articulated by President George W. Bush in which he declared America's right to fight a "preemptive war" against any nation that, one day, might threaten the US |
|
|
