Download United States History EOC Review

World War II and . . . . Cold War Vocabulary List
Causes of World War II
-Allies - in World War II, it consisted of Great
Turning Points of the War
-Dwight D. Eisenhower - The leader of all the
Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and other
nations
-Axis Powers – in World War II it consisted of
Germany, Italy, and Japan
-Adolf Hitler – German leader of the National
Socialist (Nazi) party from 1933 to 1945; rose to
power by promoting racist and nationalist views
-Benito Mussolini – Italian fascist leader who
took power in the 1920s; called Il Duce (“the leader”);
known for his brutal policies
-Emperor Hirohito - political leader of Japan
during World War II
-Winston Churchill - leader of Great Britain
before and during World War II; a powerful
speechmaker who rallied Allied morale during the war
-Joseph Stalin - leader of the Soviet Union from
1924-1953; worked with Roosevelt and Churchill
during World War II but afterward became an
aggressive participant in the Cold War
-Fascism - a political philosophy that advocates a
strong, nationalistic government headed by a powerful
dictator
-Third Reich – a reference to Nazi Germany
under the leadership of Hitler from 1933-1945
-Kellogg-Briand Pact - agreement signed in
1928 in which nations agreed not to pose the threat of
war against one another
-Non-Aggression Pact - an agreement in which
two nations promise not to go to war with each other;
an example is Germany and Russia at the beginning of
World War II
-Munich Pact – the conceding of the Sudetenland
by Great Britain, France, and Italy to appease
Germany
-Neutrality Acts - a series of laws enacted in
1935 and 1936 to prevent U.S. arms sales and loans to
nations at war
-Quarantine Speech - given by FDR in 1937
calling for an international quarantine of the aggressor
nations (applying economic pressure to Italy and
Japan) as an alternative to American neutrality and
isolationism
-Lend-Lease Act - a law, passed in 1941, that
allowed the U.S to ship arms and other supplies,
without immediate payment, to nations fighting the
Axis Powers
-Four Freedoms – FDR’s State of the Union
Address to Congress on January 6, 1941 arguing for
the fundamental freedoms that humans “everywhere in
the world” ought to enjoy (freedoms of speech and
expression, worship, economic security, and from
fear)
Allied forces during World War II; he directed the
invasion of Normandy, France (D-Day); later became
President
-Douglas MacArthur - U.S. general during the
Great Depression, World War II, and the Korean War;
he was forced to resign by Truman in 1951
-George Patton – U.S. general in command of
Allied troops in Northern Africa, Sicily, and the
European Theater of Operations, (to include
Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge)
-Chester Nimitz - leader of American naval
forces in World War II at the Battle of Midway,
during which several Japanese aircraft carriers were
destroyed
-Newsreels - in the pre-television era people saw
the news in a series of short clips at their
neighborhood movie theaters
-Pamphlets - publications meant to assist in the
mobilization effort of the U.S. during World War II;
they were meant to educate Americans in the war
effort
-War Posters - helped mobilize the nation for
World War II; they called for sacrifice and
participation, for people to contribute time and money
and to conserve resources
-Airdrops - a type of airlift developed during
World War II to re-supply otherwise inaccessible
troops; propaganda letters were also a common item to
include in airdrops
-Blitzkrieg - German word meaning “lightning
war”; a sudden, massive attack with combined air and
ground forces intended to achieve a quick victory
-Battle of Britain - the name commonly given to
the effort by the German Luftwaffe to gain air
superiority over the British RAF before a planned sea
and airborne invasion of Britain (which never
occurred) during World War II
-Battle of Stalingrad - German soldiers
surrender to Soviets on January 31, 1943 after many
months of combat; proved to be the turning point of
the war in Eastern Europe
-Casablanca - The first American troops arrive
overseas; led by General Patton, U.S. and British
troops began the North African Campaign on
November 8, 1942; it targeted the key ports and
airports of Morocco and Algeria
-Battle of the Bulge - a month-long battle of
World War II, in which the Allies succeeded in turning
back the last major German offensive of the war
-D-Day (Operation Overlord) - a name
given to June 6, 1944, the day on which the Allies
launched an invasion of the European mainland during
World War II
1
World War II and . . . . Cold War Vocabulary List
Turning Points . . . . (continued)
-Holocaust - the systematic murder (genocide) of
Effects on American Life
-Selective Services Act - originally enacted in
Jews and other groups in Europe by the Nazis before
and during World War II
-V-E Day - a name given to May 8, 1945 (Victory
in Europe Day) on which General Eisenhower’s
acceptance of the unconditional surrender of Nazi
Germany marked the end of World War II in Europe
-Pearl Harbor - the Japanese attack on the U.S.
Pacific Fleet naval base on December 7, 1941 brought
the U.S. into World War II
-Island Hopping - a military strategy used by the
Allies during World War II that involved selectively
attacking specific enemy-held islands and bypassing
others
-Battle of Midway - a World War II battle that
took place in early June, 1942; the turning point of the
war in the Pacific
-Battle of Okinawa - 1945 World War II battle
between the United States and Japan
-Battle of Iwo Jima - bunkered Japanese
soldiers defended Japanese islands; included fiercest
fighting in the Pacific campaign; high casualty rates
led to Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb
-J. Robert Oppenheimer - physicist who led
the American effort in World War II to develop the
first atomic bomb
-Manhattan Project - the U.S. program to
develop an atomic bomb for use in World War II
-Atomic Bomb - nuclear attacks against Japan in
an effort to end World War II early; “Little Boy” was
dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and “Fat
Man” was dropped on Nagasaki three days later
-V-J Day - the government of Japan accepted the
American terms for surrender on August 14, 1945;
Victory in Japan Day was celebrated the next day
-Tehran - site of preliminary discussions between
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin at the end of 1943
-Yalta - site of a second meeting between Roosevelt,
Churchill, and Stalin in February, 1945 to plan the
final defeat of Germany and to make decisions about
the postwar world
-Potsdam - the final meeting between the leaders of
Great Britain, the U.S., and the Soviet Union to decide
the fate of Germany, to establish post-war order, and
to decide peace treaty issues
-Nuremberg Trials - the court proceedings held
in Nuremberg, Germany after World War II in which
Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes
1917, it required men to register for military service
-Women's Army Corps (WAC) - the
women's branch of the US Army during World War II;
the first women other than nurses to serve with the
Army; about 150,000 American women served
because the shortage of men necessitated a new policy
-“Rosie the Riveter” - cultural icon of the U.S.
that represents the 6 million women who worked in
manufacturing plants producing war materials while
the men were over seas fighting
-War Production Board - an agency
established during World War II to increase efficiency
and discourage waste in war related industries
-Rationing – the government found it necessary to
ration food, gas, and even clothing in order to control
supply and demand during World War II; Americans
were asked to conserve on everything; it was
introduced to avoid public anger with shortages
-War Bonds - began on May 1, 1941 in an effort
to raise money for the projected entry of the U.S. into
World War II
-Japanese Internment - confinement of
Japanese-Americans in prison-like camps during
World War II
-Korematsu v. United States - 1944 Supreme
Court case alleging violations of civil rights by the
U.S. government for detaining Japanese-Americans in
internment camps during World War II
-Great Migration - the movement of more than
five million African Americans in the United States
that took place from 1941 until 1970; they moved to
take skilled jobs in the defense industry during World
War II and jobs in the burgeoning industrial cities
-Baby Boomers - a term used to describe a
person who was born between 1946 and 1964;
following World War II, there was an unusual spike in
birth rates
-G.I. Bill - the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of
1944 which created a whole new middle class (general
issue)
-Middle class - a social class consisting of those
people who have a degree of economic independence,
but not a great deal of social influence or power;
numbers increased during and after World War II
-Levittown - mass produced houses; affordable
houses in the 1950s
2
World War II and . . . . Cold War Vocabulary List
-Geneva Accords - divided Vietnam at the 17th
Beginnings of the Cold War
-Iron Curtain - a phrase used by Winston
parallel
-Nikita Khrushchev - served as First Secretary
Churchill in 1946 to describe an imaginary line that
separated Communist countries in the Soviet bloc of
Eastern Europe from countries in Western Europe;
marked the beginning of the Cold War
-Marshall Plan - the program proposed by
Secretary of States George Marshall in 1947, under
which the U.S. supplied economic aid to European
nations to help them rebuild after World War II
-Truman Doctrine - a U.S. policy, announced
by President Harry S. Truman in 1947, of providing
economic and military aid to free nations threatened
by Communism; first used to aid Turkey and Greece
-Berlin Airlift - a 327-day operation in which
U.S. and British planes flew food and supplies into
West Berlin after the Soviets blockaded the city in
1948
-Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) created by Congress with the National Security Act of
1947 and signed into law by President Harry S.
Truman; had the authority to conduct covert
operations abroad and gather intelligence
-Hydrogen Bomb - the second basic type of
nuclear weapon produced by the United States; could
be over a thousand times more powerful than an
atomic bomb
-Douglas MacArthur - led United Nations
forces defending South Korea in 1950-51 against
North Korea's invasion; was removed from command
by President Harry S Truman in April 1951 for
insubordination and failure to follow Presidential
directives
-Korean War - “America’s Forgotten War;” an
example of how the US was trying to contain
communism by not allowing South Korea to fall to
communism
-Police Action - another name for a military
action undertaken without a formal declaration of war;
the term was first used by Truman to describe the
Korean War
-Eisenhower Doctrine - a plan to prevent
countries in the Middle East from falling to
communism
-Berlin Wall - built by the Soviet Union to stop
the flow of East Germans into West Germany by way
of Berlin; fell in 1989 signaling the end of Cold War
-Israel - after World War I, the League of Nations
approved a "national home for the Jewish people”; in
1947 the United Nations approved a partition into two
states, one Jewish and one Arab; on May 14, 1948,
Israel declared its independence; its victory in the
subsequent Arab-Israeli War expanded the borders of
the Jewish state
-Chinese Civil War- 1949, China fell to
communism
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from
1953 to 1964, following the death of Joseph Stalin; he
was responsible for the De-Stalinization of the USSR,
as well as several liberal reforms ranging from
agriculture to foreign policy; removed from power in
1964
-U-2 Incident - a U.S. spy plane shot down by the
Soviets which the U.S. initially denied any knowledge
of; led to the cancellation of a meeting between
Eisenhower & Khrushchev to discuss peace between
the U.S. & the Soviet Union
-Limited Test Ban Treaty - the first nuclear
treaty signed by JFK & Khrushchev; banned nuclear
testing above the ground which would eliminate the
radioactive fallout that this testing results in
-Fidel Castro - came to power in an armed
revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of Batista in
1959; led the transformation of Cuba into a one-party
socialist republic; ally of Soviet Union throughout the
Cold War
-Bay of Pigs - a failed mission in Cuba to remove
Castro from power that hurt JFK’s popularity
-Cuban Missile Crisis - brought the U.S. & the
Soviet Union to the brink of war; JFK forced the
Soviets to remove their missiles from Cuba
Organizations to Maintain Peace
-Alliance for Progress- a program under JFK
to promote economic development & prevent Latin
American countries from falling to communism
-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization) - a defensive military alliance
(collective security) formed in 1949 by ten Western
European countries, the United States, and Canada
-O. A. S. (Organization of American
States)- to condemn communist infiltration into the
Americas & to increase cooperation among the
Americas
-S.E.A.T.O. - South East Asia Treaty Organization
formed to prevent Vietnam and other South East Asian
countries from falling to communism
-National Security Act, 1947 - a law that
allowed Truman to realign and reorganize the U.S.
armed forces, foreign policy, and the intelligence
communities in the aftermath of World War II; created
the Department of Defense, the CIA, and the National
Security Council
3
World War II and . . . . Cold War Vocabulary List
Organizations . . . . (continued)
-National Security Council - a group that
assists the President in considering national security
and foreign policy matters
-United Nations - an international peacekeeping
organization to which most nations in the world
belong; founded in 1945 to promote world peace,
security, and economic development; replaced the
League of Nations
-Warsaw Pact - a military alliance formed in
1955 by the Soviet Union and its Eastern European
satellites in response to the formation of NATO
4