Post WWII
What was America's relationship with/feelings towards the USSR? Why did we feel this way (list 3 reasons)?
There was a lot of distrust and fear
We felt this way due to the atomic bomb, lend and lease aid, Casablanca Conference, Land expansion, and Non-Aggression Pact
What did the Currency Reform Program lead to?
It led directly to the Berlin Blockade and the airlift that saved the people of West Berlin from starvation
What was the purpose of the 38th parallel?
-Split Korea into 2 hemispheres
-supposed to be temporary (but the soviets influenced communism in North Korea, so the 38th parallel lasted)
What was significant about Truman's victory in 1948?
-It was the 5th consecutive Democratic win in a presidential election
-The media was convinced the he would loose
What is the Taft-Hartley Act/Labor-Management Relations?
-United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions
-It was enacted by congress over the veto of Truman, becoming a law on June 23, 1947
What was the Baruch Plan?
Inspectors were able to check in on Stalin/the USSR to make sure he wasn't creating any bombs
How were the people in West Berlin affected by the Soviets?
-they suffered from the Soviet's cut off of all highways, railroads, and water routes to Berlin
Who sends troops out to South Korea in 1949? Why?
-The UN (U.K, France, U.S., China, USSR)
-Because North Korea invaded South Korea
What is white flight? The Baby Boom?
-White flight: Large-scale migration of white people demo areas becoming more racially/ethnically diverse
-Baby Boom: People born between '46-'64, as a unique social and cultural force
What was HUAC? How did the Cold War influence its creation? What is blacklist?
-HUAC: interrogated suspected communists (targeted Hollywood actors, directors, producers, etc)
-Cold War enhanced the power of the government and how the people accepted this new power (paranoid by overwhelming fear of communism)
-Blacklist: ruined peoples lives due to some form of association with communism
What was the Executive Order 9835, and what did it reveal?
- It was Truman's loyalty program designed to root out communist influence in the U.S. federal government
-Revealed--through access of the Venona Files-- communist spies in America
What was the Berlin Airlift/Operation Vittles? What did it result in?
-It was the biggest aerial resupply mission ever embarked upon
-resulted in Stalin lifting the blockade in may of 1949
Who is Douglas MacArthur? What is Inchon?
-Commanding general of the Korean War Campaign
-Amphibious attack led to push the Yalu river (successful)
What did Truman's Fair Deal entail?
-It extended off of the New Deal Programs
-Sustained economic growth that could finance new government programs
Who was Joseph McCarthy? What was McCarthyism (Red Scare)? Why did it eventually end?
-He was a republican senator who claimed to have had over 200 names of suspected communists in the government
-McCarthyism was the practice of accusing individuals of disloyalty or subversion with insufficient evidence/ method of investigation and accusation regarded as unfair, in order to suppress opposition
-Ended because McCarthy began accusing veterans of being communists which was unacceptable in the eyes of Americans
What was the National Security Act of 1947, and what programs did it create? (list 2)
-Mandated a major reorganization of the foreign policy and military establishments of the U.S. Government
-Created the USC, Department of defense, Air Force, CIA
Name 3 countries that were apart of NATO and 3 apart of the Warsaw Pact
Nato: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States
Warsaw Pact: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania
What does MAD stand for?
M-Mutually
A-Assured
D-Destruction
What were levittbowns and why were they significant?
-Affordable suburban towns
-deducted interest payments on mortgages
-known for nurturing "Baby Boomers"
Who were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg? What did their crime lead to?
-They were an American couple found guilty of espionage (leaked secrets of an atomic bomb to the USSR)
-Lead to the McCarran Internal Security Act (all subversives in the U.S. can be detained in times of emergency)
Name 2 Similarities and Differences between the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan:
Similarities:
-Both were adopted as U.S. foreign policies that sought to stopping the spread of Soviet Communism
-Both strengthened our relationship with allies/defense
Differences:
-Truman wishes to supply economic aid, as well as military and political aid, while Marshall just validates providing economic aid,
-Truman Doctrine just applies to Greece and Turkey, while the Marshall Plan was implied to help all European countries threatened by communism.
Who was the Chinese Civil War between?
Mao Zedong and Chang Kai Shek
On what terms did the war end on?
Armistice: both sides wanted to stop fighting
Demilitarization Zone: buffer land
Why didn't Truman run for re-election in 1952?
-low popularity rate (due to dispute with MacArthur)
-Korean War failure
How did Truman appeal to Civil Rights/LGBTQ+ community?
-fought against racial discrimination
-integrated the military
-supported the Mattachine Society/Daughters of Bilitis