AP US History Chapters 34-39 – Flashcards
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What Herbert Hoover used to win the election of 1928. He promised this to every American. This plan didn't seem to work out too well by the time the 1932 election rolled around.
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Chicken in Every Pot
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One of the great assets of FDR was his wife. She was the niece of Teddy Roosevelt. She was tall, ungainly, and toothy. She was a champion of the dispossessed. She also became known as the "conscience of the New Deal". She traveled with FDR or on his behalf in all of his campaigns. She would become the most active First Lady in history. Through lobbying of her husband, her speeches, and here newspaper column she influenced the policies of the government. She always fought for the oppressed. Sadly, she had to deal with her husband's infidelity in their personal relationship. She was condemned by conservatives and loved by liberals. She was one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century.
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Eleanor Roosevelt
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Phrase used in one of FDR's 1932 speeches. He said he felt deep concern for these people who were common struggling folk. He would be assailed by the rich as a "traitor to his class". He fought for the common people and the people he felt needed help.
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Forgotten Man
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Many of Roosevelt's speeches about his New Deal for the "forgotten man" were ghostwritten by this group. This group was made up of a small group of reform-minded individuals. These people were mostly young-ish college professors who later authored much New Deal legislation.
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Brain Trust
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Roosevelt's New Deal programs were aimed at 3 R's - relief, recovery, reform. Short range goals were relief and immediate recovery, especially in the first two years. Long-range goals were permanent recovery and reform of current abuses, particularly the ones that produced the boom or bust catastrophe. These objectives often overlapped and got into another's way. Amid all of the haste, the large New Deal program sprung forward.
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Three R's
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After Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933 he got right to work. He declared a nationwide banking holiday from March 6 to March 10 as a prelude to opening banks on a sounder basis.
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Banking Holiday
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After his declaration of a banking holiday, he summoned the Democratic Congress into a special session to deal with the emergency at hand. From March 9 to June 16, 1933, Congress members cranked out an unprecedented basketful of remedial legislation. Some was derived from progressivism while some was directed at the current emergency state of the nation. Many essentials of the New Deal were passed. They were largely owed to the progressive era reform. Ideas like unemployment insurance, old-age insurance, minimum wage, conservation and development of national resources, and restrictions on child labor. Roosevelt commanded many of these progressive ideals and Congress passed them.
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Hundred Days
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Banking chaos required immediate action. This act was passed by Congress during the Hundred Days in 1933. It gave the president the power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange and to reopen solvent banks.
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Emergency Banking Relief Act
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Also passed during the Hundred Days this act provided for the FDIC which would insure individual deposits up to $5,000 (later raised). This ended the common epidemic of bank failures since the days of Jackson.
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Glass-Steagall Act
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Stood for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and was provided for in the Glass-Steagall Act passed in 1933. It helped to insure individual deposits up to $5,000 (later raised).
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FDIC
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At the time of FDR's inauguration 1 out of 4 Americans were jobless. Unemployment was an issue that was unavoidable. FDR didn't hesitate at all to use federal money to do this to assist the unemployed. He wanted to prime the pump of individual recovery. It was used in an analogy with a farmer's pump. A farmer has to pour a little water into a dry pump - "prime it"- to start the flow. He wanted to do this to curb unemployment and help the economy with federal money.
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Prime the Pump
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Agencies created in the New Deal (some in Hundred Days and others after). They were created to help employ Americans and kick start the economy from the Depression. The most popular of these agencies was the CCC.
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Alphabetical Agencies
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The most popular of all the alphabetical agencies created by FDR in the New Deal. It was abbreviated as the CCC. It provided employment in fresh-air government camps for 3 million uniformed young men, many who might have turned into criminals. Their work was outdoors and useful. It included reforestation, fire fighting (47 died), flood control, and swamp drainage. The recruits were required to help their parents by sending home most of their pay. Both human and natural resources were conserved, this agency took minor complaints from people that they were "militarizing" the nation. Despite the complaints, it provided employment, job training, and a healthy respite in the great outdoors away from urban life.
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Civilian Conservation Corps
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Stood for Federal Emergency Relief Administration. It was a result of the first major effort of Congress to deal with the unemployed. (Federal Emergency Relief Act). Its chief aim was immediate relief rather than long-range recovery. This administration was handed over to FDR's friend Harry L. Hopkins. This agency granted about $3 billion to the states for direct dole payments or for wages on works projects.
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FERA
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Head of the agency FERA. He was a painfully thin, shabbily dress, chain-smoking New York social worker who had won Roosevelt's friendship earlier in life and would become one of his most influential advisers. His agency granted in all $3 billion to the states for direct dole payments or for wages on work projects.
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Harry L. Hopkins
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Given the abbreviation AAA this was also passed in 1933 during the Hundred Days. One section of it made millions of dollars available to farmers to help pay their mortgages.
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Agricultural Adjustment Act
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Stood for Home Owner's Loan Corporation and was also passed in 1933 during the Hundred Days. It was designed to refinance mortgages on non-farm homes. It also assisted many households having trouble paying their mortgages. It ultimately assisted about a million badly pinched households. It not only bailed out mortgage-holding banks, it also bolted the political loyalties of relieved middle-class homeowners to the Democratic party.
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HOLC
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Established by FDR himself to curb unemployment. It was abbreviated as CWA and was established in late 1933. It was a branch of FERA and also fell under the direction of Hopkins. It was designed to provide purely temporary jobs during the emergency and served a useful purpose. Tens of thousands jobless citizens took jobs leaf raking or doing other "make-work" tasks that were dubbed as "boondoggling". The scheme was widely criticized as the work was very menial.
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Civil Works Administration
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He was known as the "microphone messiah". He was a Catholic priest from Michigan who began broadcasting in 1930 and whose slogan was "social justice". His anti-New Deal feelings to some 40 million radio fans finally became so anti-Semitic, fascistic, and demagogic that he was silenced in 1942 by superiors and forced off the air.
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Father Charles Coughlin
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Senator from Louisiana also known as Kingfish who was an agitator who capitalized on popular discontent to make pie-in-the-sky promises. He used his rabble-rousing talents to publicize his "Share Our Wealth" program which promised to "make every man a king" Every family was to receive $5,000 supposedly at the expense of H.L. Mencken (Long's "chief lieutenant") and the former clergyman Gerald L.K. Smith. Fear of this man becoming a fascist dictator of Louisiana ended when he was assassinated at the state Capitol in 1935.
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Huey Long
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Program publicized by Senator Huey Long in Louisiana that was used to capitalize on people's discontent with the New Deal. It would supposedly make "Every Man a King" and every family was to receive $5,000 at the expense of H.L. Mencken and Gerald L.K. Smith. Fear of this program and Long's demagoguery ended in 1935 when Long was shot dead.
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Share Our Wealth
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Another demagogue capitalizing on people's discontent was this man. He was a retired physician of California whose savings had recently been wiped out. He attracted the support of 5 million "senior citizens" with his plan that spoke to earthly need. Each old person 60 or older was to receive $200 a month, provided that the money be spend within the month. One estimate had this scheme costing 1/2 of the nation's income.
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Dr. Francis Townsend
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Abbreviated as WPA and passed by Congress in 1935, partly in order to quiet the unrest from the crack brained proposals. The objective of this agency was employment on useful projects. It was also launched under the supervision of Hopkins. This agency spent about $11 billion on thousands of public buildings, bridges, and hard surfaced roads. Not every project helped strengthen the infrastructures as one controlled crickets in Wyoming while another built a monkey pen in Oklahoma. Missions like these caused critics to speak up but the fact is that around 9 million people were given jobs and not handouts. Agencies of this large agency also found part-time jobs for needy high school and college students and also for unemployed white-collar workers who were actors, musicians, and writers (John Steinbeck). Cynical taxpayers condemned lessons in tap dancing and mural painting, but much precious talent was restored, self-respect preserved, and more than a million pieces of art were created.
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Works Progress Administration
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Abbreviated as NRA and was created in 1933 by Emergency Congress in order to stimulate a national comeback. This scheme was the most complex and far-reaching effort by the New Dealers to combine immediate relief with long-range recovery and reform. It was designed to assist industry, labor, and the unemployed. Individual industries (200 in all) were to work out codes of "fair competition" under which hours of labor would be reduced so that employment could be spread over more people. A ceiling was placed on maximum hours of labor, a floor was placed under wages to establish minimum levels. Labor was granted additional benefits. Workers were formally guaranteed the right to organized and bargain through representatives of their own choosing and not the company's. The hated "yellow dog" anti-union contract was forbidden and safeguarding restrictions were placed on the use of child labor. Industrial recovery through these "fair competition codes" would be painful as they called for self-denial of both management and labor. A blue eagle was designed as this organization's symbol and merchants subscribed to a code displayed in their windows with the slogan "We Do Our Part". A newly formed football team was christened the Philadelphia Eagles. There was so much enthusiasm for this agency that for a brief period there was a marked upswing in business activity. This agency eventually collapsed. Too much self-sacrifice was expected of labor, industry, and the public. It met criticism from all over including Henry Ford. The collapse was imminent after the Schechter decision. there were also businesspeople who few the blue eagle but violated the codes.
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National Recovery Administration
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Complete collapse of the NRA was imminent after this Supreme Court decision. It was also known as the "sick chicken" decision. The Supreme Court justices shot down the NRA and held that Congress could not delegate powers to the executive. They further declared that congressional control of interstate commerce could not apply to a local fowl business like that of the Schechter brothers in New York.
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Schechter
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Abbreviated as PWA and was also created in 1933 by Emergency Congress. It was created under the same act that hatched the NRA eagle. This organization was also intended for industrial recovery and unemployment. This agency was headed by the secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, a former bull-mooser. Long-range recovery was the primary purpose of the new agency and in time over $4 billion was spent on some 34,000 projects including public buildings, highways, and parkways. One spectacular achievement was the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River - the largest structure created by humans since the Great Wall of China. This dam made possible the irrigation of millions of acres of new farmland in a region with little industry and virtually no market for additional power.
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Public Works Administration
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Secretary of the Interior who headed the new Public Works Administration. He was a free-swinging former bull-mooser.
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Harold L. Ickes
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Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier sought to reverse the forced assimilation policies of the Dawes Act of 1887. After being inspired by a sojourn among the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, Collier promoted this "Indian New Deal" in 1934. It encouraged tribes to establish local self-governments, and preserve their native crafts and traditions. It also helped to stop the loss of Indian lands and revived tribes' interest in their identity and culture. Still, not all Indians bought into it because they felt they were being made museum pieces. 77 tribes refused to organize under its provisions while nearly 200 other established tribal governments.
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Indian Reorganization Act
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Also known as the "Truth in Securities Act" it was designed to curb the "money changers" who had played fast and loose with gullible investors before the crash in 1929. This act required promoters to transmit to the investors sworn information regarding the soundness of their stocks and bonds.
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Federal Securities Act
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Stands for Securities and Exchange Commission. It was sanctioned in 1934 by Congress to take further steps in protecting the public against fraud, deception, and inside manipulation. This agency was designed as a watchdog agency. After the creation of this stock markets operated more as trading marts and less as gambling casinos.
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SEC
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Abbreviation for Tennessee Valley Authority. It was created in 1933 under the Emergency Congress. This enterprise was the result of the steadfast vision and zeal of George W. Norris of Nebraska. From the standpoint of "planned economy" this agency was the most revolutionary. The new agency was determined to discover how much the production and distribution of electricity cost so that a "yardstick" could be set up to test the fairness of rates charged by private companies. Utility companies lashed back at this entering wedge of government control and charged that the lower cost of TVA power was from dishonest bookkeeping and no taxes. Critics claimed it was socialism. The whole project involving the TVA brought many achievements. It brought full employment and the blessing of cheap electric power to the Tennessee area. It also brought low-cost housing, cheap nitrates, restoration of eroded soil, reforestation, improved navigation, and flood control. Rivers now ran blue and not brown and one of the most poverty stricken areas was being transformed into one of the most flourishing regions of the U.S. Foreigners were greatly impressed with the scheme. Conservative reaction labeled it as socialism and the scheme was confined to the Tennessee Valley.
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TVA
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Stands for Federal Housing Administration. It was created by Roosevelt in 1934 to speed recovery and better homes under policies for housing construction. The building industry was to be stimulated by small loans to householders for improving their dwellings and completing new ones. This agency was so popular that it was one of the few "alphabet agencies" to outlast the age of FDR. To bolster this program, the UHSA (United States Housing Authority) was created. It was an agency designed to lend money to states or communities for low cost construction. Units for about 650,000 low income people were started but fell short of needs after opposition from real estate promoters, builders, and landlords. Slum areas in America for the first time ceased to grow and even shrank.
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FHA
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Passed in 1935 this was the New Dealers greatest victory. It was one of the most complicated and far-reaching laws ever to pass Congress. To cushion future depressions this law provided for federal state unemployment insurance. To provide security for old age, specified categories of retired workers were to receive regular payments from Washington. These payments ranged from $10 to $85 a month (raised later) and were financed by a payroll tax on employers and employees. Provision was also created for the blind, the physically handicapped, delinquent children, and other dependents. By 1939 in an urbanized economy over 45 million people were eligible for this. It was met with bitter Republican opposition. Later more categories of workers were added and payments increased.
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Social Security Act
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Passed in 1935 it was also known as the National Labor Relations Act. This law created the National Labor Relations Board. It was one of the real milestones on the rocky road of the U.S. labor movement.
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Wagner Act
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Created in 1935 under the Wagner Act. It was created for administrative purposes and reasserted the right of labor to engage in self-organization and bargain collectively through representatives of its own choice. Under this new administration, a host of unskilled workers began to organize themselves into effective unions.
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National Labor Relations Board
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Stands for Committee for Industrial Organization. It was formed by John L. Lewis, boss of the United Mine Workers. It was created in 1935 within the ranks of the skilled-craft AF of L. Even though skilled workers had only showed lukewarm sympathy for the cause of unskilled labor, in 1936 they suspended the upstart unions associated with this new organization. This new organization used a revolutionary technique known as "sit down strike". they refused to leave the factory building at General Motors and prevented the importation of strikebreakers. This was done in 1936. This organization achieved victory when its union was recognized by GM as the sole bargaining agency for its employees. They broke ties with the AF of L in 1938 and they called themselves Congress of Industrial Organizations. By 1940 they claimed 4 million members including 200,000 blacks. Still, they continued on feuding with the AF of L.
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CIO
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Because the Supreme Court during FDR's presidency was ultraconservative and seemed to go against him, he devised a scheme to go against them and hopefully help the Supreme Court be of the people and of him. In 1937, he asked Congress for legislation to permit him to add a new justice to the Supreme Court for every member over 70 who would not retire (6 at the time). The maximum membership would then be 15. Roosevelt pointed out the necessity of injecting new blood to the Court because they were behind. This turned out to be false and made FDR look dishonest. Because of this scheme Roosevelt was vilified for trying to breakdown the system of checks and balances and was labeled a dictator. Many Republicans and even Democrats felt their liberties were in jeopardy. Congress eventually passed a court reform bill but it only appleid to lower courts and not the Supreme Court. It was FDR's first major legislative defeat. Despite losing, the Court became more friendly to the New Deal reforms. A succession of deaths and resignations allowed FDR to make 9 appointments. He had lost the war though as he had aroused many conservatives in both parties in Congress so not as many New Deal measures were passed. He had squandered much of his political good will.
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Court Packing Scheme
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During the period f 1932-1937 Roosevelt had kept the doctrine of a balanced budget. It wasn't until around late 1937 after the economy took a downturn and was labeled a "Roosevelt Recession". It had been government policies like Social Security that caused this. This man was a British economist whose recommendations FDR began to embrace. These recommendations would include stimulating the economy by planned deficit spending as opposed to the balanced budget. This policy marked a major turning point in the government's relation to the economy. "Keynesianism" became the new government orthodoxy and remained so for decades.
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John Maynard Keynes
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66 nation conference held in London in the summer of 1933. This conference revealed how thoroughly Roosevelt's early foreign policy was related to his strategy for domestic economic recovery. The delegates to this conference hoped to organize a coordinated international attack on the global depression. They wanted to stabilize the values of various nations' currencies and the rates at which they could be exchanged. This stabilization was essential to revival of world trade. Roosevelt had at first agreed to send an American delegation including Secretary of State Cordell Hull. Shortly after he started to have second thoughts about the conference because the conference might tie his hands economically do he didn't want to sacrifice the possibility of domestic recovery for international cooperation. He sent a message from his yacht announcing America's withdrawal to London. Without the US, the delegates adjourned empty handed. Roosevelt's every man for himself attitude plunged the planet into an even deeper economic crisis. The collapse also led to a trend of extreme nationalism and American isolationism. Roosevelt's actions plunged perfectly into dictators hands who wanted to ruin the peace. America wanted to keep to itself.
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London Economic Conference
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Passed by Congress in 1934. This act provided for the independence of the Philippines after a 12 year period of economic and political guarding and retention by 1946. The US agreed to relinquish their army bases but naval bases were reserved for future discussion. Americans weren't really freeing the Filipinos from them, they were freeing themselves from the Filipinos. Americans proposed to leave the Philippines to their own date while imposing economic terms that were very generous. The US abandoned its principal possession in Asia.
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Tydings-McDuffie Act
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Roosevelt inaugurated a new era in relations with the Latin Americans. He claimed in his inaugural address, "I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the Good Neighbor". His noninvolvement in Europe along with the embrace of the New World brothers suggested the US sought to be a regional power in the Western Hemisphere. Old fashioned intervention had just stimulated resentment, suspicion, and fear. With war-seizing dictators seizing power in Europe and Asia Roosevelt was eager to use Latin Americans to help defend the Western Hemisphere. Neighbors could be potential tools of aggressors. FDR renounced armed intervention under the Roosevelt Corollary of the Monroe Doctrine under TR. Late in 1933, the US formally endorsed non-intervention. The last marines departed from Haiti in 1934. Also in 1934 Cuba was released from the Platt Amendment although Guantanamo was retained. Also, Panama received an uplift in 1936 when the US relaxed its grip on it. Roosevelt also helped to deal with an issue with Mexico and oil reserves but it was resolved peacefully with nonintervention. FDR's attempts to help his neighboring countries paid rich dividends in goodwill among peoples to the south. The North seemed less a vulture and more an eagle to Latin America.
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Good Neighbor Policy
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The architect of this trade policy was Cordell Hull. It was associated with the Good Neighbor Policy and also popular in Latin America. He believed in low tariffs and that trade was a two-way street, a nation can buy abroad only as it sells abroad. He also believed that tariff barriers choke off foreign trade. This act was passed in 1934 by Congress. It was designed to lift American export trade from the depression. It was aimed at both relief and recovery and activated the low tariff policies of the New Dealers. This act avoided the dangerous uncertainties of tariff revision and whittled down the Hawley-Smoot Tariff by amending it. Roosevelt had the power to lower existing rates by up to 50% if the other country involved was willing to respond with similar reductions. The resulting pacts were able to become effective without formal approval from the Senate. This act was a landmark piece of legislation that reversed the traditional high protective tariff policy that had persisted since the Civil War. It paved the way for the American led free trade international system after World War II.
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Reciprocal Trade Agreement
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Secretary of State to FDR. He was originally intended to go to the London Economic Conference until Roosevelt withdrew. He was the chief architect behind the Reciprocal Trade Agreements and believed in low tariffs, trade is a two way street, a nation can only sell abroad as it buys abroad, tariff barriers choke off foreign trade and trade wars beget shooting wars. This man, with his zeal for reciprocity succeeded in negotiating pacts with 21 countries by 1939. During these years, foreign trade increased. These trade agreements also helped better economic and political relations with Latin America and proved to be an influence for peace.
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Cordell Hull
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Passed in 1934 by Congress that prevented debt dodging nations from borrowing further in the United States. If a country were to be attacked again by aggressors, they could stew in their own juices.
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Johnson Debt Default Act
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These acts were passed in 1935, 1936, and 1937. Taken together, they said that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically take effect. No American could sail on a belligerent ship, sell or transport munitions to a belligerent, or make loans to a belligerent. This legislation marked an abandonment of the traditional policy of freedom of the seas. These acts were specifically tailored to keep the nation out of a conflict like World War I. These acts proved America to be very short-sighted and only being prisoner of their own fears instead of helping others needs. These acts would make no distinction between brutal aggressors and innocent victims. These acts played right into the hands of the dictators.
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Neutrality Acts
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Took place in 1936-1939. It was a painful object lesson for the US in the folly of neutrality by legislation. Spanish rebels rising against the left-leaning Republican government of Madrid were headed by the fascist General Francisco Franco. He was aided by conspirators Hitler and Mussolini and wanted to overthrow the Loyalist regime which was assisted on a smaller scale by the Soviet Union. If America had been under its previous American practice they would have been able to sell weapons to the Loyalist regime, but Congress with encouragement from Roosevelt amended the existing legislation to apply an arms embargo to Loyalists and rebels. Franco called him a "gentleman" for it. America sat on the sidelines as Franco and his rebels strangled the Republican government of Spain. This entire debacle opened the door for other dictators in Europe.
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Spanish Civil War
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Speech given by FDR in Chicago, the supposed isolationist "capital" of America. The speech was delivered in autumn of 1937. Alarmed by recent aggression of the Japanese on China he called for "positive endeavors" to "quarantine" the aggressors - presumably by economic embargoes. The speech triggered a wave of protest from isolationists and other foes of involvement. They feared a moral quarantine would lead to a shooting quarantine. Startled by the response, Roosevelt retreated and sought less direct means to curb the dictators.
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Quarantine Speech
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In December 1937 this American ship was sank by Japanese aviators in Chinese waters. Two men were killed and 30 wounded. In the days of 1898 this may have provoked war but after Tokyo made the necessary apologies and paid a proper indemnity, Americans breathed a sigh of relief.
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USS Panay
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A conference about Hitler's aggression was held in Munich, Germany in September 1938. The Western European democracies, unprepared for war, betrayed Czechoslovakia to Germany when they consented to the taking of the Sudetenland. The democracies hoped that the concessions at this conference table would quench Hitler's thirst for conquest and bring "peace". Hitler even promised that the Sudetenland was the last "territorial claim I have to make in Europe." The entire conference was a symbol of appeasement of the democracies.
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Munich Conference
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Symbolized in the Munich Conference, it was just mere surrender on the installment. It was like giving a cannibal a finger in the hope of saving an arm. This idea would be just giving one of the dictators something they want in return for them to promise to stop. It was just another excuse to stay out of the war. Making concessions to dictatorial powers in order to avoid conflict.
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Appeasement
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Principled included in the Neutrality act of 1939. The principle said that European democracies could buy American war materials but only on this condition. They wouldn't have to transport their own ships and pay with cash. America would avoid loans, war debts, and torpedoing in American arms-carriers.
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Cash and Carry
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The months following Hitler's invasion of Poland while Britain and France waited were known as this. Hitler shifted his divisions from Poland for a knockout blow to France. Also during this period, Finland was taken by the Soviets as a buffer territory. This "war" came to an end in April 1940 when Hitler overran Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands. He then laid a paralyzing blow on France and Mussolini powered in and helped with the kill as well. The British managed to salvage the bulk of their disheveled army.
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Phony War
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While preparing the nation for war, Congress passed this on September 6, 1940. Under America's first peacetime draft - provision was made for training each year 1.2 million troops and 800,000 reserves. The act was later adapted to the requirements of a global war.
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Conscription
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At this conference, the United States agreed to share with its 20 New World neighbors the responsibility of upholding the Monroe Doctrine. Many European countries crushed by Germany had orphaned colonies so this was needed.
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Havana Conference
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After Britain began getting bombed FDR was faced with a decision to either hunker down in the Western Hemisphere and become this and not worry about Europe's problems or bolster Britain by all means short of war itself. Both sides had advocates.
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Fortress America
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Isolationists were not quiet during this period in the late 1930's early 1940's. They organized into this group. They proclaimed "England will fight to the last American." They said that America should concentrate what strength it had to defend its own shores if Hitler were victorious and would attempt an assault on America. Their basic philosophy was, "The Yanks are Not Coming". Their most effective speech maker was Charles A. Lindbergh.
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America First Committee
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Famed aviator and colonel, he was one of the most effective speech makers for the America First Committee. He had flown over the Atlantic in 1927. he was a famed isolationist.
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Charles A. Lindbergh
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This bill, patriotically number 1776 was entitled, "An Act Further to Promote the Defense of the United States". It was put on the country after the election was over. It was a device that would keep the nation out of the war rather than drag it in. The underlying concept was "send guns, not sons" and "billions not bodies". America would be an "arsenal of democracy". It would send a limitless supply of arms to the victims of aggression, who in turn would finish the job and keep the war on their side of the Atlantic. Accounts would be settled by returning the used weapons or equivalents to the US after the war was over. Most of the opposition of this came from isolationists and anti-FDR Republicans. It was approved in March 1941 by majorities in both houses of Congress. It was one of the most momentous laws to pass Congress. America pledged itself to bolster the nations that were indirectly defending it by fighting aggression. When the operation ended in 1945 America had sent about $50 billion worth of arms and equipment. It was an economic declaration of war. It marked the abandonment of any pretense of neutrality. It helped to gear the US factories for all-out war production. After this act, Hitler stopped avoiding attacking American ships because he viewed it as an unofficial declaration of war.
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Land-Lease
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On May 21, 1941 this unarmed American merchantman was torpedoed and destroyed by a German submarine in the South Atlantic outside a war-zone. This marked the beginning of the sinkings. Germany viewed the Lend-Lease Bill as an unofficial declaration of war so they began sinking ships.
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The Robin Moor
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Held in August 1941 while the Soviets were fighting the Germans. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill secretly met with FDR on a warship off the coast of Newfoundland. This would be the first of a series of conferences between the two statesmen for the discussion of common problems, including Japan in the Far East. The most memorable offspring of this meeting was the Atlantic Charter.
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Atlantic Conference
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Eight-point agreement that was spawned at the Atlantic Conference that was formally accepted by FDR and Churchill later that year and endorsed by the USSR later that year. It was suggestive of Wilson's Fourteen Pints and outlined the aspirations of the democracies for a better world at war's end. It was rather specific, while opposing imperialist annexations, it promised there would be no territorial changes contrary to the wishes of the inhabitants (self-determination). It further affirmed the right of a people to choose their own form of government and regain government abolished by dictators. Among other goals, the charter declared for disarmament and a peace of security, pending a "permanent system of general security" (New League of Nations). Liberals embraced this while isolationists condemned it. They felt a "neutral" America had no business dealing with belligerent Britain. The point was missed, the nation was no longer neutral.
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Atlantic Charter
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In September 1941 this US destroyer was provocatively trailing a German U-boat so the submarine attacked the destroyer without damages to either side. Roosevelt then claimed a shoot-on-sight policy.
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USS Greer
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On October 17, 1941 this escorting ship was engaged in a battle with U-boats and lost 11 men when it was crippled but not sunk.
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USS Kearny
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Two weeks after the Kearny sinking this destroyer was sunk off the coast of southwestern Iceland with the loss of more than a hundred officers and enlisted men.
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USS Reuben James
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The paralyzing blow of the Japanese on the US occurred at this place in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Japanese bombers on airplanes attacked without warning on this "Black Sunday". About 3,000 casualties were inflicted on Americans, many aircraft were destroyed, and the battleship fleet was virtually wiped out and numerous small vessels were damaged or destroyed. Fortunately for America, the three priceless aircraft carriers happened to be outside of the harbor. Congress declared war after this on December 11, 1941. The war was now official. This attacked only benefited Japan in the short run as the sneak attack aroused and united American as nothing else could have done. The bombs that hit this harbor had silenced the isolationists and many changed their views.
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Pearl Harbor
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Agreement with Britain to "get Germany first" as their strategy. If America gave its strength to the Pacific, Hitler might defeat Britain and the Soviets and emerge over all of Europe and be unconquerable. If Germany is knocked out first, then the combined Allied forces can be on Japan and take it out. Meanwhile, just enough American troops would be sent to prevent Japan from getting out of hand. This strategy was the solid foundation on which all American military strategy was built. Many Americans criticized this because they wanted revenge on Japan but FDR stuck to his strategy.
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ABC-1 Agreement
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Case in 1944 that upheld the constitutionality of the Japanese relocation camps because they were viewed as a threat. More than 4 decades later, the US government officially apologized and approved the payment of reparations of $20,000 to camp survivors.
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Korematsu v US
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Full employment and scarce consumer goods fueled an inflationary surge in 1942. This was created and brought ascending prices under control with extensive legislation.
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Office of Price Administration
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This group imposed ceilings on wage increases during this wartime period. This was met with some resistance by labor unions.
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War Labor Board
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Passed in June 1943. This act authorized the federal government to seize and operate tied up industries. Strikes against any government operated industry were made a federal offense. Under this act, Washington took the coal mines, and for a brief time the railroads. This act was passed in fear of strikes and lost production but as it turned out work stoppages accounted for less than 1% of the total working hours of the US wartime labor force. American workers on the whole were committed to the war effort.
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Smith-Connally Act
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During World War II the armed services enlisted 216,000 women for noncombatant duties. This group of "women in arms" was in the army branch.
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WAAC
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During World War II the armed services enlisted 216,000 women for noncombatant duties. This group of "women in arms" was in the navy branch.
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WAVES
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During World War II the armed services enlisted 216,000 women for noncombatant duties. This group of "women in arms" was in the Coast Guard branch.
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SPARS
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Even with exceptions for certain categories of people, the nations factories and farms were short of personnel so they needed to find extra workers. An agreement with Mexico in 1942 brought thousands of Mexican agricultural workers over the border to harvest the fruit and grain crops of the West. This program outlived the war by 20 years and became a fixed feature of the agricultural economy in Western states.
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Braceros
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FDR had called the South in 1938 "the nation's number one economic problem" and when the war came he seized the opportunity to accelerate the region's economic development. The states of the South received a disproportionate share of defense contracts including nearly $6 billion of federally financed industrial facilities. These were the seeds of the postwar blossoming of the new name for the South which is this.
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Sunbelt
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Stands for Fair Employment Practices Commission. After Roosevelt issued an executive order forbidding discrimination in defensive industries, he also established this. This commission would monitor compliance with the edict.
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FEPC
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Formally known as the elite 99th Fighter Pursuit Squadron. They were an all-black bomber unit that trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Of the 1,000 black pilots trained, 445 saw combat in Europe, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. In 1,600 missions, they never lost a bomber to enemy fighters.
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Tuskegee Airmen
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Blacks rallied behind this slogan. It meant victory over the dictators abroad and over racism at home.
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Double V
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Stood for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. During this period in World War II, membership shot up almost to the half million mark.
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NAACP
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Stood for Congress of Racial Equality. It was a new militant organization for blacks that shot up in 1942.
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CORE
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Navajos and Comanches in Europe proved to be a valuable resource as these. The would transmit radio messages in their native languages which were incomprehensible to the Japanese and Germans.
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Code Talkers
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Americans on the homefront suffered little from the war compared to the peoples of other nations. In America, the war invigorated the economy and lifted the country out of the decade long depression. The gross national product went from less than $100 billion in 1940 to more than $200 billion in 1945. Corporate profits rose from about $6 billion in 1940 to almost twice as much 4 years later. Overtime pay fattened pay envelopes. Disposable personal income doubled. On December 7, 1944 Macy's store rang up the biggest sales day in history. When price controls were lifted in 1946, America's lust for consumerism pushed prices up 33% in less than 2 years. Government touched more American lives intimately during the war than ever before. Every household felt the constraints of rationing. Millions of people served in the armed forces and millions worked in the industries. The people's personal needs were taken care of by government sponsored housing projects, day-care facilities, and health plans. The Office of Scientific Research and Development channeled hundreds of millions of dollars into university-based scientific research. A partnership between government and universities was established. The flood of war dollars swept the plague of unemployment. War had cured the depression. The postwar economy continued to depend dangerously on military spending for its health. The wartime bill amounted to about $330 billion. Taxes were raised heavily (up to 90%) but only 2/5 of war costs could be paid with revenues. The remainder would be borrowed. The war had cost about $10 million an hour.
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Homefront
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Chinese generalissimo who was resisting Japanese invasion of China. After Japan cut the Burma Road America had to fly supplies over the Himalayan mountains to him.
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Jiang Jieshi
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Elegant and egotistical American commander who had to hold off the Japanese army landing the Philippines at Bataan. The 20,000 American troops under his command held off violent attacks until April 9, 1942. Before inevitable surrender this commander was ordered by Washington to depart secretly for Australia to head the resistance against the Japanese there. He left by motorboat and airplane and proclaimed, "I shall return". After America's surrendered they were forced by the Japanese on the Bataan Death March for 80 miles to prisoner of war camps. Japan gained control of the Philippines on May 6, 1942.
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General Douglas MacArthur
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Japan after taking islands in the Pacific sought to take Midway Island which was about a thousand miles northeast of Honolulu. From this base, Japan could launch strategic attacks on Pearl Harbor and possibly compel the US to negotiate a cease-fire in the Pacific. The naval battle at Midway was fought on June 3-6, 1942. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, a naval strategist, directed a smaller but skillfully maneuvered force under Admiral Raymond A. Spruance against the Japanese invading fleet. The fighting was all done by aircraft and the Japanese broke off action after losing 4 vital carriers. This was a pivotal victory for the US. Combined with Coral Sea, this success halted the Japanese juggernaut.
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Battle of Midway
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Strategy that the US Marines, Navy, and army divisions were using in the Pacific. They were doing this with the Japanese held islands as they advanced on Tokyo. This new strategy called for bypassing some of the most heavily fortified Japanese posts, capturing nearby islands, setting up airfields on them, and then neutralizing the enemy bases through heavy bombing. Deprived of the essential supplies from the homeland, Japan's outposts would wither and die.
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Leapfrogging
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Hitler's submarines operated in these while attacking with frightful effect in the North Atlantic. During ten months of 1942 more than 500 merchant ships were reported lost.
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Wolf Packs
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What the Americans called the Mediterranean and North Africa. They preferred to attack Hitler's fortress Europe through this as opposed to a frontal assault on France as done in World War I.
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Soft Underbelly
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This location was in newly occupied French Morocco and it was the place where FDR met with Churchill at a historic conference in January 1943. The "Big Two" agreed to step up the Pacific War, invade Sicily, increase pressure on Italy, and insist upon an "unconditional surrender" of the enemy. This policy would hearten the Soviets who feared separate Allied peace negotiations. It would also forestall changes of broken armistice terms which had come after 1918.
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Casablanca
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Capital of Iran which was decided to be the meeting place of FDR, Churchill, and Stalin. The discussions from November 28 to December 1, 1943 progressed smoothly. The most important achievement was agreement on broad plans, especially those for launching Soviet attacks on Germany form the east simultaneously with an Allied assault from the west.
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Teheran
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The US prepared for the cross-channel invasion of France from England. Britain's isle groaned with munitions, supplies, and nearly 3 million fighting men. The US was to provide most of the troops so Dwight D. Eisenhower was put in command. French Normandy was pinpointed for he invasion assault. On this day, June 6, 1944 the amphibious operation involving 4600 vessels was launched. Stiff resistance was encountered by the Germans who were expecting an attack further north. The Allies already had mastery of the air over France and were able to block reinforcement by crippling the railroads. They also worsened German fuel shortages by bombing gasoline plants. The Ally beachhead was gradually enlarged, consolidated, and reinforced.
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D-Day
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American commander who was put in charge of the D-Day invasion at Normandy. He had already distinguished himself in the North Africa and Mediterranean campaigns not only for his military capacity but also for his gifts as a conciliator of clashing Allied interests.
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General Eisenhower
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Blustery and profane general who had the nickname "Blood n' Guts". He helped lead American lunges across France after D-Day. He helped along with forces from the south to liberate Paris in August 1944. Allied forces now rolled towards Germany.
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General Patton
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Hitler gave all he could with his reserves on December 16, 1944 against thinly held American lines in the Ardennes Forest. His objective was the Belgian port Antwerp, key to the Allies supplies. The out manned Americans were caught off guard and driven back creating a "bulge" in the Allied line. The ten day penetration was stopped after the 101st Airborne Division stood firm at Bastogne. The commander A.C. McAuliffe answered German demands for surrender with one word: Nuts. Reinforcements were rushed in and Hitler's last ditch offensive was stopped at this battle.
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Battle of the Bulge
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On May 7, 1945 what was left of the German government surrendered unconditionally. May 8 was declared this official day. Allied countries rejoiced.
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V-E Day
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General MacArthur was on the move after his conquest of New Guinea. He headed towards the Philippines and landed at Leyte Island on October 20, 1944 with the summons, "People of the Philippines I have returned...Rally to me." Japan's navy now made a last chance effort to destroy MacArthur and this led to a giant clash at Leyte Gulf which was 3 battles (October 23-26, 1945). The Americans won all of them despite almost losing when Admiral William F. Halsey was decoyed by a feint. Japan was done as a sea power after this and the US now dominated the west Pacific.
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Battle of Leyte Gulf
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Tiny island which was needed as a haven for damaged American bombers returning from Japan, was captured in March 1945. This 25 day assault cost over 4,000 Americans dead.
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Iwo Jima
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At this conference held near Berlin in July 1945, President Truman met with Stalin and the British leaders. The men at the conference issued a stern ultimatum to Japan: surrender or be destroyed. American bombers showered thousands of warnings but no response was forthcoming. This conference lasted 17 days.
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Potsdam Conference
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Japan still refused to surrender so the Potsdam threat was fulfilled. On August 6, 1945 a lone American bomber dropped one atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima and about 180,000 people were left killed, wounded, or missing. 70,000 died instantly. Two days later on August 8, Stalin entered the war against Japan and overran depleted Japanese forces in Manchuria and Korea in a six day victory parade. Even after Hiroshima the Japanese did not surrender. On August 9, 1945 American aviators dropped a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki and about 80,000 people were killed or missing. The Japanese could endure no more after this and they sought peace.
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Hiroshima/Nagasaki
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Victory in Japan day celebrated officially on September 2, 1945 official surrender ceremonies were conducted by MacArthur on the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The Japanese were able to keep their leader Hirohito.
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V-J Day
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Passed in 1959, it was designed to bring labor leaders to book for financial shenanigans and to prevent bullying tactics. It contributed to the curbing of unions as anti-labor people capitalized on the situation.
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Landrum-Griffin Act
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Passed by a Republican controlled Congress in 1947 and vetoed by President Truman. Labor leaders condemned the act as a "slave-labor" law. It outlawed the "closed shop", made unions liable for damages that resulted from jurisdictional disputes among themselves and required union leaders to take a non-communist oath. This act was one of the several obstacles that slowed the growth of organized labor. During the New Deal, organized labor had made gains.
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Taft-Hartley Act
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Passed in 1946 after being influenced by Democrats. It made it the government policy "to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power." The act created a three-member Council of Economic Advisers to provide the president with the data and the recommendations to make that policy a reality.
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Employment Act
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Passed in 1944 and also known as the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944. It was enacted partly out of fear that the employment markets would never be able to absorb 15 million returning veterans at wars end. It made generous provisions for sending the former soldiers to school. Some 8 million veterans took advantage of this opportunity. The majority attended vocational and technical schools but colleges and universities also were stormed by ex-GIs. The total spent for education for these men neared $14.5 billion in taxpayer dollars. The act also enabled the Veterans Administration to guarantee about $16 billion in loans for veterans to buy homes, farms, and small businesses. By raising education levels and stimulating the construction industry, this bill powerfully nurtured the robust and long-lived economy that took hold in the late 1940's and shaped the entire history of the postwar era.
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GI Bill of Rights
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Much of the prosperity in America following the war rested on very large military budgets which led some critics to call the US this. The upturn in 1950 was fueled by large preparations for the Korean War. Defense spending accounted for 10% of the GNP. Pentagon dollars "primed the pumps" of high-technology industries (aerospace, plastics, electronics) and the US dominated these industries. The military budget also funded much scientific research and development.
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Permanent War Economy
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Author who wrote the book The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. It was published in 1945 and instructed millions of parents during the ensuing decades in the kind of homely wisdom that was once transmitted naturally from grandparent to parent and parent to child. In these fluid postwar years, friendship was hard to sustain.
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Dr. Benjamin Spock
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Created by the innovative Levitt brothers. Their first appeared on New York's Long Island in the 1940's. They revolutionized the techniques of home construction. They erected hundreds of thousands of dwellings in a single project and specialized crews working from standardized plans laid foundations while others raised factory-assembled framing modules, put on roofs, strung wires, installed plumbing, and finished the walls in record time with cost-cutting efficiency. Critics complained about the monotony but eager home buyers moved in by the minute as the construction industry boomed. Blacks were prohibited from living here.
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Levittown
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White migration from the inner city to the suburbs. Migrating blacks from the South came up and filled the urban neighborhoods left by the white middle class. The blacks imported the grinding poverty of the rural South into Northern cities. Taxpaying businesses fled from downtown shops to suburbanite malls.
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White Flight
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The huge leap in the birthrate in the decade and a half after World War II in 1945. Confident young men and women tied the knot in record numbers at wars end. The nation's empty cradles were filled as more than 50 million babies were added to the population by the end of the 1950's. The soaring birthrate finally crested in 1957 and was followed by a deepening birth dearth. By 1973 fertility rates dropped below the point necessary to maintain existing population figures. This generation helped to stimulate the economy greatly.
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Baby Boom
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The "accidental" president who had to take over after FDR died. He was trim and owlishly bespectacled with graying hair and a friendly, toothy grin. He was called the "average man's average man". His height at 5 feet 8 inches was average. He was the first president in many years without a college education. He had farmed, served as an artillery officer in France in World War I, and failed as a haberdasher. He then tried Missouri politics where he rose form judgeship to US senator. Although he was protege of a political machine in Kansas City, he managed to keep his hands clean. At first, he attacked his tasks with humility but eventually he evolved from a pipsqueak to a man who was cocky and confident. He thrust suddenly into a giant job. He permitted keeping his "Missouri gang" around him and was stubbornly loyal to them even when they were caught doing something. On occasion he would sent critics hot tempered "s.o.b" letters. Despite all this, he had down-home authenticity, few pretensions, rock-solid probity, and moxie - the ability to face difficulty with courage. He was not one to dodge responsibility and one of his favorite sayings was "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."
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Harry S Truman
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The final fateful conference of the Big Three had taken place in February 1945 here. At this former tsarist resort on the warm shores of the Black Sea, Stalin, Churchill, and FDR reached agreements after pledging their faith with vodka. Final plans were laid for smashing the buckling German lines and shackling the Axis foe. Stalin agreed that Poland, with revised boundaries, should have representative government with free elections - an agreement he soon broke. Bulgaria and Romania would be the same - he broke that promise too. The Big Three also announced plans for a new international peacekeeping organization - The United Nations. The most controversial decision here involved the Far East and Japan. The Soviets agreed to help attack Japan in return for the southern half of Sakhalin Island and Japan's Kurile Islands as well. They already had heavy casualties. They would also be granted joint control over the railroads of China's Manchuria and special privileges in the two key ports of that area - Dairen and Port Arthur. These concessions gave Stalin control over vital industrial centers of America's weak Chinese ally. As it turned out, the Soviet Union wasn't really needed in Japan so critics argued that FDR had sold away China and sold out Poland and other European countries to Stalin (Before Atomic Bomb). People also argue that this agreement actually set limits to Stalin's ambitions and he could've taken much more if it wasn't for the conference. China would be overthrown by communists four years later. The fact about this conference is that the Big Three were not drafting a peace settlement; at most they were sketching general intentions and testing one another's reactions. The agreements made were elastic and FDR even admitted it.
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Yalta
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The Western Allies met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in 1944 and established this. It would encourage world trade by regulating currency exchange rates.
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International Money Fund
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Also founded at the meeting of the Western Allies at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in 1944. This was created to promote economic growth in war-ravaged and underdeveloped areas. The US took the lead in creating theses international bodies and supplied most of the funding. The Soviets declined to participate.
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World Bank
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Despite Roosevelt's death 13 days earlier the United Nations Conference opened on April 25, 1945. Unlike Wilson, FDR chose both Democrats and Republicans for the American delegation. Representatives from 50 nations met at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House and created the United Nations charter. It strongly represented the old League of Nations covenant. It featured the Security Council dominated by the Big Five Powers (US, USSR, France, Britain, and China) each whom had the right of veto and the Assembly, which could be controlled by smaller countries. In contrast with the League, this charter was passed in the Senate by a vote of 89 to 2 in 1945. This body set up its permanent glass home in New York City. It helped to preserve peace in Iran, Kashmir, and other trouble spots. It played a large role in crating the new Jewish state of Israel. The UN Trusteeship Council helped guide former colonies to independence. Through such arms as UNESCO, FAO, WHO, this body brought benefits to people all over the world. One of the early failures of this body was when US delegate Bernard Baruch called in 1946 for a UN agency with worldwide authority over all things atomic. Soviet delegates suggested all possession of nuclear weapons be outlawed. Both plans collapsed and the atomic clock ticked over the two superpowers throughout the Cold War.
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United Nations
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The Allies agreed Nazism ha to be cut out of German politics so Nazi leaders had to be punished for war crimes. The trials that would accomplish this were held in Nuremberg, Germany in 1945-1946. The Allies tried 22 top culprits and the accusations were crimes against the laws of war and humanity and plotting aggressions contrary to solemn treaty pledges. Justice was harsh. 12 accused Nazis were hanged, 7 served long jail terms and one cheated the hangman by swallowing a hidden cyanide capsule. The trials of smaller powered Nazis continued for years. Legal critics condemned these proceedings as judicial lynchings because the victims were tried for offenses that hadn't been clear crimes when the war had started.
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Nuremberg Trials
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Like Germany, Berlin was divided into four sectors and each one of the Four Powers was assigned one. Because Berlin was deep in the Soviet zone of Germany ad it was behind the "iron curtain" of secrecy and isolation that Stalin created, the Soviets in 1948 choked off all rail and highway access to Berlin. they wanted the Allied areas to starve out. Berlin became a symbolic issue for both sides. It was a test of wills between the two countries. The US organized a gigantic airlift in the midst of the tension and for nearly a year, American pilots brought thousands of tons of supplies a day to Berliners (their foreign enemies). Western Europeans took heart of America's demonstration of honor to commitments. The Soviets finally lifted the blockade in May 1949. Also, in 1949 the governments of the two Germanies were officially established.
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Berlin Airlift
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Concept in the "containment" doctrine created in 1947 by George F. Kennan. The concept held that Russia, tsarist or communist, was relentlessly expansionary. But Russia was also cautious and the "flow of Soviet power into every nook and cranny available to it" could be stemmed by "firm and vigilant containment".
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Containment
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Brilliant young diplomat and Soviet specialist, he formulated the "containment doctrine" in 1947. The doctrine led to Truman's adoption of a "get-tough-with-Russia" policy in 1947.
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George F. Kennan
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On March 12, 1947 the president went before Congress and requested support for this. Specifically, he asked for $400 million to bolster Greece and Turkey against communist pressures. More generally, Truman declared that "it must be the policy of the US to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." It was a sweeping and open-ended commitment of vast proportions. Critics said that Truman had overreached by promising unlimited support to anyone, even a tiny despot "resisting communism". Critics also complained that it divided the world into pro-Soviet and pro-American camps. Supporters say it was Truman's fear of a revived isolationism that led to this.
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Truman Doctrine
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Western democratic nations like France, Germany, and Italy needed help recovering from the war and were in danger of being taken over by inside Communist parties. Secretary of State George C. Marshall created a plan to solve this problem. The democratic nations of Europe rose to the occasion and met in Paris in July 1947. There, Marshall also offered the same aid to Soviets and their allies if they made some political reforms and accepted certain outside controls. The Soviets walked out and denounced the plan. The actual plan called for spending $12.5 billion over 4 years in 16 cooperating countries. Congress at first balked at the amount after spending $2 billion on international organizations but a Soviet coup in Czechoslovakia propelled legislators to vote for the initial appropriations in April 1948 Congress needed to help Europe. The plan was a great success. American dollars pumped reviving blood into the economic veins of the struggling Western European countries. Within a few years, most of the countries were exceeding their pre-war outputs and an "economic miracle" in Europe occurred. The Communist parties in France and Italy lost ground and the two were saved from communism.
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Marshall Plan
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The Soviet menace spurred the creation of a new national security apparatus. Congress in 1947 passed this which crated the Department of Defense. The department would be housed in the Pentagon building and would be headed by a new cabinet officer, the Secretary of Defense. under the secretary, but without cabinet status, were the civilian secretaries of the navy, the army, and the air forces. The heads of each service were brought together as Joint Chiefs of Staff. This act also established the National Security Council to advise the president on security matters and the Central Intelligence Agency to coordinate the government's foreign fact-gathering. Congress resurrected the military draft, providing for conscription of young men from 19 to 25 years old.
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National Security Act
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In 1948 the western European democracies of Britain, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands signed a treaty of defensive alliance at Brussels and then invited the US to join. The proposal confronted America with a historical decision. They had traditionally avoided entangling alliances especially in peacetime but this treaty would serve a few valuable purposes. It would strengthen the policy of containing the USSR, it would provide framework for reintegration of Germany, and it would reassure Europeans that a traditionally isolationist US wouldn't abandon them. The Truman administration decided to join the European pact which was abbreviated NATO. The treaty was signed in Washington on April 4, 1949. The 12 original signatories pledged to regard an attack on one as an attack on all and promised to respond with "armed force" if necessary. Membership would be boosted to 15 by 1955with addition of Greece, Turkey, and West Germany. This agreement marked a departure from American diplomatic convention, a gigantic boost for European unification, and a significant step in militarization of the Cold War. It became the cornerstone of all Cold War policy towards Europe. NATO's threefold purpose was "to keep the Russians out, the Germans down, and the Americans in."
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North Atlantic Trade Organization
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Secretary of State to Truman who was bristly mustached and British-looking. He was assaulted with Truman by Republicans who had "lost China". He was accused of withholding aid from Jiang Jieshi so he would fall to the communists. He and Truman replied that if a regime didn't have support of its people it couldn't be saved. He never had China to lose.
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Dean Acheson
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Passed in 1940, it was the first peacetime anti-sedition law since 1798. It was created because of an anti-red movement in the US against communists. In 1949 11 communists were brought before a New York jury for violating this law. They were convicted of advocating the overthrow of the American government by force. Their convictions were upheld in Dennis v. United States.
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Smith Act
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Formally known as the Committee on Un-American Activities, it was created by the House in 1938 to investigate "subversion".
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HUAC
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Committee member of HUAC. He was an ambitious red-catcher who led the chase after Alger Hiss in 1948.
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Richard Nixon
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He was a prominent ex-New Dealer and a distinguished member of the "eastern establishment". He was being chased by men like Nixon on HUAC. He was accused of being a communist agent in the 1930's and demanded the right to defend himself. He met his chief accuser before HUAC in August 1948. He denied everything but was then caught in falsehoods, convicted of perjury in 1950 and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
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Alger Hiss
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Senator who led the search for communists in Washington. Sadly, it wasn't just the Soviet Union that was being branded with communism but real or perceived social changes in America (sexual freedom and civil rights).
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Joseph McCarthy (Chapter 37)
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Bill vetoed by Truman who feared the red hunt was turning into a witch hunt. It authorized the president to arrest and detain suspicious people during an "internal security emergency". Critics said that the bill had of police-state, concentration camp tactics. The bill was enacted over Truman's veto.
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McCarran Internal Security Bill
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Two notorious communist spies who allegedly "leaked" atomic data to Moscow. They were convicted in 1951 of espionage and went to the electric chair in 1953. They were the only people in American history executed for espionage in peacetime. Their trial and the execution combined with sympathy for their children began to sour some citizens on the excesses of red-hunters.
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Julius and Ethel Rosenburg
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Southern Democrats who opposed the nomination of Truman because he stood for civil rights for blacks. They met at their own convention in Birmingham, AL with Confederate flags and nominated Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina on a state's rights party ticket for the election of 1948.
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Dixiecrats
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Governor of South Carolina who was nominated in 1948 by Dixiecrats in Birmingham, AL at their own convention. He would oppose Truman.
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Strom Thurmond
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Program unleashed by Truman in his 1949 message to Congress. It called for improved housing, full employment, a higher minimum wage, better farm price supports, new TVAs, and an extension of Social Security. Most of this proposition fell victim to congressional opposition of Republicans and Southern Democrats. the only major successes came in raising minimum wage, providing for public housing, and extending old-age insurance to more people.
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Fair Deal
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After North Korean aggression, the occasion called for a vast expansion of the American military. Truman's NSC in 1950 in this document recommended that the US should quadruple its defense spending. Buried at the time because it was politically impossible to implement, it was resurrected by the Korean crisis. Truman now ordered a massive military buildup and the US had 3.5 million men under arms and was spending $50 billion per year on the defense budget. It was a key document of the Cold War because it marked a major step in militarization of American foreign policy and reflected the sense of almost limitless possibility that absorbed American society. It rested on the assumption that the American economy could bear without strain this enormous program.
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NSC-68
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This entire issue officially began in 1950. After WW2 the Soviets had accepted the territory of Koreas north of the 38th parallel and the Americans got the southern area. There were two rival regimes set up. A problem arose when on June 25, 1950 North Korean armies marched across the parallel and the South Korean forces were pushed back. America felt they needed to prove a point and with NSC-68 their military grew. They needed to stand up for South Koreans. In 1950, Truman obtained unanimous condemnation of North Korea as an aggressor from the United Nations Security Council. the council called up UN members to "render every assistance" to restore peace. Two days later, Truman ordered American air and naval units to support South Korea. He also ordered Douglas MacArthur's occupation troops into action alongside South Koreans. MacArthur would take his orders from Washington and not the council. MacArthur launched an amphibious attack behind enemy lines at Inchon. The gamble worked brilliantly and within two weeks the North Koreans scrambled back behind the 38th parallel. MacArthur then got the order to cross over the 38th parallel to take on the North Koreans but then the Chinese threatened to intervene and when MacArthur fought, they did. He was pushed back to the 38th parallel again once the Chinese got involved. MacArthur ordered retaliation of China but the officials in Washington disagreed and refused because of the risk of the USSR. MacArthur sneered at the concept of "limited war" and publicly talked about Truman. Truman had no choice but to fire MacArthur and Truman was condemned by the people. In July 1951 truce discussion began and dragged on unproductively for two years while men died.
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Korea
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Line that divided Korea into North and South. The North was controlled and supported by Russia and the South was by the Americans. Rival regimes were set up above and below the parallel.
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38th Parallel
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Witty, eloquent, and idealistic governor of Illinois. He was nominated as the Democratic candidate for the 1952 presidential election. The Democrats were blighted by military deadlock in Korea, Truman's clash with MacArthur, war-bred inflation, and possible scandal in the White House. He would lose the election to Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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Adlai Stevenson
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"Ike's" running mate in the 1952 election. He was a California senator who was distinguished as an anti-communist red hunter. Eisenhower left him to do the campaigning. He lambasted his opponents with accusations about corruption, the Korean War, and communism. He called Stevenson "Adlai the appeaser". this man wasn't all clear as he had a secretly financed "slush fund". He used theatrical appeal with his "checkers speech". He and Ike ended up winning the election.
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Richard Nixon (Chapter 38)
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Speech Nixon gave that had a theatrical appeal filled with self-pity. He had to do this because reports had surfaced about him and a secret "slush fund". In this speech Nixon referred to the family cocker spaniel, Checkers. This speech saved him a spot on the ballot. This speech also showed the political potentialities of TV. He had appealed to American people in their living rooms. His performance showed the power and effect of TV and how it could influence people better than radio ever could.
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Checkers Speech
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Anti-communist crusader and senator. He was one of the first problems that Eisenhower had to deal with. He was elected to the Senate as a trumped "war hero" but in reality he was just a junior senator from Wisconsin until he came up with the charge that scores of known communists worked in the State Department. He accused in 1950 Secretary of State Dean Acheson for having knowingly employed 205 communist party members. Pressed to reveal names, he later said there were only 57 communists and in the end failed to root out one. The speech war this man started gave him national visibility and his Republican colleagues used this usefulness as an attack on the Democratic party. This man's rhetoric grew bolder and accusations spread further after Republican victory. He saw the red hand of Russia everywhere. He even accused ex-secretary of State George Marshall as part of the communist conspiracy. this man flourished in the Cold War atmosphere of suspicion and fear. He wasn't the first or most effective red hunter but he was the most ruthless and id the most damage to American traditions of fair play and free speech. The careers of countless writers, officials, and actors were ruined after this man "named" them often unfairly as communists or communist sympathizers. Politicians trembled at his onslaughts as public opinion supported him. Eisenhower detested him in private but publicly tried to stay out of his way. Eisenhower tried to appease him by allowing him to control the personnel of the State Department. After this action there was severe damage to the morale and effectiveness of the department. In particular, his purges deprived the government of Asian specialists who could have been useful for Vietnam. this man finally went too far when he called out the Army. The military men fought back in televised hearings in 1953. This man made himself look bad on the television and was condemned by the Senate a few months later for "conduct unbecoming a member". He died a few years later of chronic alcoholism. "McCarthyism" has been passed into the English language as a label for the dangerous forces of unfairness and fear that a democratic society can unleash only at its peril.
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Joseph McCarthy
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Fourteen year old African American who was lynched by a Mississippi mob in 1955 for allegedly leering at a white woman.
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Emmett Till
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Young pastor at Montgomery Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. He was barely 27 years old and an unlikely champion of the downtrodden and disfranchised. He was raised in a prosperous black family in Atlanta and educated partly in the North. he had for most of his life been sheltered from the worst of segregation. But his oratorical skills, passionate devotion to biblical and constitutional conceptions of justice, and his devotion to the non-violent principles of Gandhi helped to thrust him to the forefront of the black revolution that would soon pulse across the South and the nation.
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MLK Jr.
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Chief legal counsel of the NAACP (later a Supreme Court justice) who in 1950, in the case of Sweatt v. Palmer, got from the High Court a ruling that separate professional schools for blacks failed to meet the test of equality.
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Thurgood Marshall
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A college-educated black seamstress who made history in Montgomery, AL in December 1955. She boarded a bus, took a seat in the "whites only" section and refused to give it up. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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Rosa Parks
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Sparked after Rosa Park's arrest in 1955. It was a year long black boycott of the city buses and showed that the blacks throughout the South would no longer meekly submit to the oppressive segregation. This boycott also helped a leader MLK Jr. to emerge.
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
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Broad jawed chief justice who was the former governor of California. He was brought to the bench by Eisenhower and shocked both him and other traditionalists with his active judicial intervention in previous social taboo issues. He persisted in encouraging the Court to apply his populist principles. He was breaking the path for civil rights progress.
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Earl Warren
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Pushed by Chief Justice Earl Warren for the civil rights movement of the day this was when the Supreme Court stepped up to confront social issues because Congress wouldn't. It promoted judicial intervention in previously taboo social issues. It was assailed by critics of the time.
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Judicial Activism
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Landmark decision of the Warren Court in May 1954. It was epochal. The justices ruled that segregation in the public schools was "inherently unequal" and unconstitutional. The unanimous, uncompromising decision startled conservatives because it reversed Plessy v. Ferguson. Desegregation, the justices said, with "all deliberate speed".
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Brown v. Board of Education
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Case in 1896 that ruled "separate but equal" facilities were legal under the Constitution. The case Brown v. Board overturned all of that and this case itself. The doctrine of "separate but equal" would be dead.
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Plessy v. Ferguson
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Governor of Arkansas who in September 1957 mobilized the National Guard to prevent 9 black students from enrolling in Little Rock's Central High School. Eisenhower was forced to send federal troops to escort the children.
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Orval Faubus
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Nine black students who were enrolled at Little Rock's Central High School. The governor of Arkansas tried to prevent them from enrolling by deploying the National Guard. Eisenhower stepped in and sent federal troops to protect the students and enforce the integration of schools law in 1957.
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Little Rock Nine
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Policy declared by Senator Harry F. Bird to unite other white politicians and leaders to campaign for new state laws and policies to prevent public school integration. This attitude was reflected in the signing of the "Declaration of Constitutional Principles" pledging allegiance to resistance of integration. More than a hundred southern politician signed it.
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Massive Resistance
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Formed by MLK Jr. and stood for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. It aimed to mobilize the vast power of black churches on behalf of black rights. This was a shrewd strategy because the churches were the largest and best organized black institutes allowed to flourish under segregation.
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SCLC
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Formed by Southern black students in April 1960 it stood for Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. It was designed to give more focus and force to sit-ins, wade-ins, lie-ins, and pray-ins all over the south to compel equal treatment. They were young and impassioned and would eventually lose patience with the stately tactics of the SCLC and the deliberate legalisms of the NAACP.
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SNCC
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Passed in 1956 it was backed by Ike. The act was a $27 billion plan to build 42,000 miles of motorways. Laying down these roads created countless jobs and speeded suburbanization of America. It also offered benefits to trucking, car, oil, and travel industries but hurt railroads of business. It also created problems about air quality and energy consumption. It also had bad consequences for cities as down towns withered and suburbanite malls popped up.
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Interstate Highway Act
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Incoming Secretary of State in the early 1950's. He was a pious churchgoer with a sanctified manner who was criticized by people to be "Dull, Duller, Dulles". He promised not to stem the red tide but to "roll back" its gains and "liberate captive people". The Republicans during this time also sought to balance the budget by cutting military spending. When this man was asked how the contradictory goals would be reached he answered, "with a policy of boldness."
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John Foster Dulles
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In 1954 Eisenhower sought to relegate the army and the navy to the backseat and build up a fleet of super-bombers or Strategic Air Command equipped with nuclear bombs. These weapons would bring this to the Soviet Union or China if they got out of hand. It would bring "more bang for the buck." It would have a paralyzing nuclear impact.
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Massive Retaliation
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New Soviet premier after dictator Joseph Stalin died in 1953. Ike sought to negotiate with this man for peace during this Cold War. This man rudely rejected Ike's proposals at the Geneva Summit Conference in 1955. When Ike called for "open skies" over both the USSR and US he replied "This is a very transparent espionage device. you could hardly expect us to take this seriously." Ike went home empty handed.
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Nikita Khrushchev
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Vietnamese leader who had tried to personally appeal to Woodrow Wilson in Paris in 1919 to support self-determination in southeast Asia. Cold War events dampened anti-colonial hope in Asia as their leaders including this man became increasingly communistic while the US became increasingly anti-communistic. The US was funding a French colonial war in Indochina against nationalists including this leader. The French garrison was trapped hopelessly at Dienbienphu and it fell to the nationalists which provoked the halving of Vietnam at the conference at Geneva. It would be halved at the 17th parallel. This leader led the communist government in North Vietnam while a pro-Western government under Ngo Dinh Dien was constructed in South Vietnam. Vietnam was a dangerously divided country.
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Ho Chi Minh
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Fortress where the French garrison fell in 1954 to Vietnamese nationalists and Ho Chi Minh took control of North Vietnam after the division of Vietnam at Geneva. This fortress fell because the US did not offer help fearing another war in Asia right after Korea.
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Dienbienphu
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Because of fear of the USSR penetrating into the oil-rich Middle East the US had to take action. The government of Iran was supposedly influenced by the Soviets and was resisting the power of the large Western companies controlling Iranian petroleum. In response, the CIA engineered a coup in 1953 to install this young shah as a kind of dictator in Iran. It was successful in the short run for securing Iranian oil for the West, but left a bitter legacy of resentment of American intervention. More than two decades later they would take revenge on the shah and his American allies.
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Mohammed Reza Pahlevi
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President of Egypt who was an ardent Arab nationalist. He was seeking funds to build an immense dam on the upper Nile for needed irrigation and power. America and Britain offered financial help but once he flirted with the communist camp, they withdrew from their offer. he the nationalized the Suez Canal which was chiefly owned by French and British stockholders. His actions prompted the Suez Crisis.
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Nasser
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Prompted by Nasser when he nationalized the Suez Canal and cut the jugular of Europe's oil supply. Secretary Dulles tried hard to make sure of no armed intervention by the European powers and of the Soviets. The French and British kept Washington in the dark and then proceeded to launch a joint assault on Egypt in October 1956. The french and British had made a fatal miscalculation. They figured the US would supply them with oil while their Middle Eastern supplies were disrupted but the US refused. Eisenhower resolved to let them "boil in their own oil" and refused emergency supplies. The oilers' allies had to withdraw their troops and for the first time a United Nations police force was sent to maintain order. This crisis also marked the last time in history the US could brandish its "oil weapon." The Middle East was becoming more prominent in the oil industry.
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Suez Crisis
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Proclaimed in 1957 it pledged US military and economic aid to the Middle Eastern nations threatened by communist aggression.
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Eisenhower Doctrine
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On October 4, 1957 Soviet scientists launched this into orbit around the globe. It was like a beeping "baby moon". A month later they outdid themselves by sending another capsule up with the same name but it was larger and carried a dog. This scientific breakthrough shattered American self-confidence as the Soviets had been trying to convince the uncommitted nations that the shortcut to superior industrial production was through communism. These capsules gave credence to their claim. America was seemingly taking a backseat in the scientific achievement department. The Soviet troops were occupying outer space while the US troops were at a high school in Little Rock. These satellites also worried people militarily as they figured the Soviets could now launch intercontinental missiles at them. Ike said the US should not be concerned. People figured the Soviets had gone all out for rocketry. This whole experience also led the Us to improve their educational system with more "solid" subjects. NDEA authorized $887 million in loans to help college students learn sciences and languages.
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Sputnik
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Term used in the US for the perceived superiority of the number and power of the Soviets missiles in comparison with its own. The US wanted this gap to be closed and wanted to focus more on weapons like ICBMs.
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Missile Gap
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Also known as intercontinental ballistic missiles. The US believed after Sputnik that the Soviets had them because of their launch into space. By the 1960's the US had caught up to Russia and successfully tested their own. These weapons are what caused the apparent "missile gap".
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ICBM's
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After rocket fever swept the US after Russia's Sputniks. Eisenhower established this in the late 1950's. It stood for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It was dedicated to rocket development. In February 1958 the US finally manged to put a 2.5 pound satellite into orbit. By the end of the decade several satellites were launched.
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NASA
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This incident turned the follow up conference of Camp David (Paris "summit conference") scheduled for May 1960 turned out to be a fiasco. On the eve of the conference an American U-2 spy missile was shot down in the heart of Russia. After bureaucratic denials in Washington, Ike took personal responsibility. Khrushchev stormed the conference with accusations and the conference at Paris collapsed.
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U2 Incident
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Black bearded doctor who engineered a revolution in Cuba in 1959. He denounced Yankee imperialists and began to expropriate valuable American properties in a land-distribution program. Washington responded by releasing Cuba from "imperialistic slavery" by cutting off heavy US imports of Cuban sugar. Castro retaliated to that by further confiscating American property and making his left wing dictatorship an economic and military satellite of Moscow. Nearly one million anti-Castro Cubans came to the US between 1961 and 2000. The US broke diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961. Americans thought about invoking the Monroe Doctrine on Cuba but Khrushchev proclaimed it was dead and if the US hurt this man, missiles would rain on America.
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Fidel Castro
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Debate involving Nixon and Khrushchev that took place in Moscow in 1959. Nixon vigorously defended American democracy and everyone claimed he alone knew how to "stand up to" the Soviets at the time.
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Kitchen Debate
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Tall, youthful, tooth-flashing, millionaire senator from Massachusetts. He won impressive victories at the primaries and defeated Lydon B. Johnson for the candidacy of the Democratic party in 1960. His challenging acceptance speech called upon the American people for sacrifices to achieve their potential greatness which he called the New Frontier. He was a Roman Catholic and feelings of anti-Catholicism arose in the nation as people feared an alliance with the Pope. He charged that the Soviets had gained on America in prestige and power. Television also may have tipped the scales as four debates were held on TV. Nobody "won" the debates as Kennedy held his own with the more "experienced" Nixon. these debates showed the importance of image as many viewers found Kennedy's glamor and vitality more appealing than Nixon's tired and pallid appearance. Kennedy won this election of 1960 with support from workers, Catholics, and African Americans. He was the youngest man to date and the first Catholic to be elected president.
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John F. Kennedy
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Kennedy's political philosophy illustrated at his acceptance speech in 1960 for the Democratic nomination. He called upon the American people to make sacrifices to achieve their potential greatness which was this.
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New Frontier
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Feminist author of the best-selling book The Feminine Mystique. She spoke to millions of able, educated women who applauded her indictment of the boredom of suburban housewifery. Many of these women she spoke to were already working for wages but struggled against the guilt and frustration of leading an "unfeminine" life as defined by the postwar "cult of domesticity".
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Betty Friedan
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Book written by Betty Friedan in 1963. It was a best-seller that was a classic of feminist protest literature that helped to launch the modern women's movement.
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Feminine Mystique
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Baptist "televangelist" who used the television as a medium to spread the Christian gospel in the 1950's.
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Billy Graham
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Secret agreements at the highest level of this was the subject of the Power Elite (1956). It was written by muckraking sociologist C Wright Mills who became a hero to "new left" student activists of the 1960's. it is a relationship between a nation's military, economy, and politics. The military is the biggest part of the economy. Eisenhower warned the people in his farewell speech of this dominating the country.
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Military Industrial Complex
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Kennedy's challenge in his acceptance speech at the Democratic nomination in 1960. His challenge quickened patriotic pulses. The phrase developed into a label for his administration's domestic and foreign programs.
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New Frontier (Chapter 39)
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35 year old brother of JFK who was a member of one of the youngest cabinets. He served as attorney general. "Bobby" once said JFK "would find some legal experience" useful once he began to practice law. He set out to recast the priorities of the FBI which deployed nearly a thousand agents on "internal security" work but targeted only limited organized crime people and gave no attention to civil rights. He would be resisted by J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director.
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Robert Kennedy
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FBI director who resisted Robert Kennedy's attempts to recast the priorities of the FBI. He had served longer on the FBI than Robert Kennedy had been alive.
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J. Edgar Hoover
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Business whiz who left the presidency of the Ford Motor Company to take over the Defense Department in Kennedy's young cabinet. He was a part of "the best and brightest" men around the president.
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Robert S. McNamara
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An army of idealistic and mostly youthful volunteers. JFK proposed that they bring American skills to underdeveloped countries.
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Peace Corps
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In June 1961 in Vienna, Kennedy met with this Soviet premier. This man developed an aggressive attitude and threatened to make a treaty with East Germany and cut off Western access to Berlin. Though shaken, the president refused to be bullied. The Soviets backed off from most of their aggressive threats but then suddenly began building the Berlin Wall.
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Khrushchev
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Despite the Soviets backing off form their most bellicose threats made at Vienna, they followed through with this. In August 1961 construction of this began. It was a barbed wire and concrete barrier designed to plug the heavy population drain from East Germany to West Germany through the Berlin funnel. To the free world it looked like a giant enclosure around a concentration camp and was called the "Wall of Shame". It stood for almost 3 decades as an ugly scar symbolizing the post WW2 division of Europe into two hostile camps.
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Berlin Wall
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There was a shift away from the previous doctrine of "massive retaliation" as JFK and McNamara developed this doctrine. It was developing an array of military "options" that could be precisely matched to the gravity of the crisis at hand. To this end, JFK increased spending on conventional military forces and bolstered the Special Forces like the Green Berets who were an elite anti-guerrilla outfit trained to kill with scientific finesse. This doctrine, though sane, contained lethal logic. It potentially lowered the level at which diplomacy would give way to shooting and also provided a mechanism for a progressive, and possibly endless stepping up of force.
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Flexible Response
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In 1961 JFK extended the hand of friendship with this to the Latin American countries. He hailed it as the Marshall Plan for Latin America. A primary goal was to help the "Good Neighbors" close the gap between the rich and the poor and quiet communist agitation. Results were disappointing as there was little alliance and little progress. America's handouts had little positive impact on Latin America's social problems.
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Alliance For Progress
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Kennedy had inherited from the Eisenhower administration a CIA backed scheme to topple Fidel Castro from power by invading Cuba with anti-communist exiles. Trained and armed by Americans and supported by American air power, the invaders would trigger a popular uprising in Cuba and sweep to victory or so it was predicted. On April 17, 1961 some 1200 exiles landed at Cuba's Bay of Pigs. Kennedy from the outset had decided against direct intervention and the old aircraft of the anti-Castroites was no match for Castro's. In addition, there was no popular uprising. With the invasion bogged down, Kennedy stood fast in his decision to keep hands off and the anti-Castroites were forced to surrender. Many rotted in jail for 2 years but were eventually "ransomed" fro some $62 million worth of American pharmaceutical drugs and supplies. JFK assumed full responsibility for the failure.
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Bay of Pigs
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After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion intended on overthrowing him, he was pushed even further into the Soviet embrace. The Americans continued to plan covert operations to assassinate or overthrow him.
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Fidel Castro (Chapter 39)
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Khrushchev took little time in taking advantage of the debacle in Cuba. In October 1962 the aerial photos of American spy planes revealed that the Soviets were secretly and speedily installing nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba. The Soviets evidently intended to use these weapons to shield Castro and blackmail the United States into backing down in Berlin and other trouble spots. On October 22, 1962 JFK ordered a naval "quarantine" of Cuba and demanded immediate removal of the threatening weaponry. He also stated that any attack on the US from Cuba would be regarded as coming from the USSR and would trigger nuclear retaliation. For a week, Americans waited as Soviet ships approached the patrol line established by the Navy off of Cuba. Seizing or sinking a Soviet vessel would be considered an act of war. Only in 1991 were the full dimensions of the plan revealed. The Russians revealed their ground forces in Cuba already had operational nuclear weapons at their disposal and were authorized to launch if attacked. Khrushchev finally flinched, on October 28 he agreed to a partially face-saving compromise. He would pull out the missiles from Cuba and the US would end the quarantine and not invade the island. The US would also remove from Turkey some of its own missiles targeted on the USSR.
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Cuban Missile Crisis
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French word for relaxation. It was a kind of policy that Kennedy laid the foundations for in his speech at American University in 1963. He wanted to lay the foundation for a realistic policy of peaceful coexistence with the USSR. That speech was the modest origins of the policy later known as this.
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Detente
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Blacks who fanned out to end segregation in facilities serving interstate bus passengers by riding on the buses. A white mob torched a Freedom bus near Anniston, AL in May 1961 and Robert Kennedy's personal representative was beaten unconscious in another anti-Freedom riot in Montgomery. When southern officials were unwilling or unable to stem the violence, Washington dispatched federal marshals to protect these people.
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Freedom Riders
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29 year old black Air Force veteran who attempted to register in the newly integrated University of Mississippi in October 1962. He encountered violent opposition and in the end Kennedy had to send 400 federal marshals and 3,000 troops to enroll this man in his first class. He ultimately graduated but at the price of the lives of 2 men, many injuries, and about 4 million taxpayer dollars.
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James Meredith
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A black Mississippi civil rights worker who was shot down by a white gunman on the night of Kennedy's stirring television address on civil rights.
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Medgar Evans
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Alleged assassin of JFK who was shot on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. He was a furtive figure who shot Kennedy in the brain from a concealed area with a rifle. He was then shot to death in front of television cameras by self-appointed avenger Jack Ruby. The events surrounding the two murders are so bizarre that even an elaborate investigation couldn't quiet the doubts of what really happened.
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Lee Harvey Oswald
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Self-appointed avenger who killed Lee Harvey Oswald in front of television cameras after JFK was shot.
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Jack Ruby
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Vice president to Kennedy who took over after Kennedy's assassination. He was a Texan who towered six feet three inches. He hailed from the populist hill country of west Texas, whose people first sent him as a congressman in 1937. FDR was his political "daddy" and he supported the New Deal measures down the line. After he lost a Senate race in 1941, he learned that liberal political beliefs don't win elections in Texas. He changed his ideology and once in the Senate he became a masterful wheeler-dealer. He became the Democratic majority leader in 954. He could convince people and force people to do things using the "Johnson treatment" - a display of backslapping, flesh-pressing, and arm-twisting. His ego and vanity were legendary. As president, he shed the conservative ideals he had to use in the Senate and revealed his true ideology as a liberal. He pushed for the Civil Rights Act, the "War on Poverty", and the "Great Society".
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LBJ
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LBJ said himself, "No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the passage of this bill". After a lengthy conservative filibuster, it was finally passed in 1964. It banned racial discrimination in most private places open to the public including theaters, hospitals, and restaurants. It strengthened the federal government's power to end segregation in schools and other public places. It also created the EEOC. The act also included a sexual clause which conservatives tried to take out. It was not taken out and this act became a powerful instrument of federally enforced gender and racial equality. In 1965, LBJ also called an "executive order" requiring all federal contractors to take "affirmative action" against discrimination.
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Civil Rights Act of 1964
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Created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 it stood for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It was created to eliminate discrimination in hiring.
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EEOC
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1964; Republican contender against LBJ for presidency; platform included lessening federal involvement, therefore opposing Civil Rights Act of 1964. His Vice-Presidential candidate, William Miller, also made him appear very trigger happy, for he supported not just bombing North Vietnam, but nuking it to death. He was horrible with befriending voters, and lost by largest margin in history (39%). He attacked the federal income tax, the Social Security System, the TVA, civil rights legislation, the nuclear test ban treaty, and the Great Society.
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Barry Goldwater
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Alleged attack of US ships by North Vietnamese torpedoes in the Tonkin Gulf on August 4, 1964. Prompted the escalation of the War in Vietnam. Johnson called the attack "unprovoked" and ordered a "limited" retaliatory air raid against the North Vietnamese.
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Gulf of Tonkin Incident
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A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress passed on August 7, 1964 in direct response to a minor naval engagement known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. It is of historical significance because it gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization (blank check), without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of military force in Southeast Asia. Congress virtually abandoned their war-declaring powers.
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Tonkin Gulf Resolution
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LBJ called for this and added proposals of his own for this billion dollar ideal. LBJ voiced special concern for Appalachia where sickness and poverty were common. To escalate this, Congress doubled the appropriation of the Office of Economic Opportunity to $2 billion and granted more than $1 billion to redevelop the gutted hills and hollows of the Appalachia. LBJ also prodded Congress into creating new cabinet offices: the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to which he named the first black cabinet secretary in American history, economist Robert C. Weaver. Other notable laws established the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities designed to lift the level of American cultural life.
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War on Poverty
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President Johnson called his version of the Democratic reform program this. In 1965, Congress passed many Great Society measures, including Medicare for elderly and Medicaid for the poor, civil rights legislation, immigration reform,and federal aid to education. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the "national origins" quota system in place since 1921. The act doubled the size of immigrants allowed to enter annually (290,000). The law also permitted the admission of close relatives of US citizens and many took advantage of this. Medicare made dramatic reductions in poverty among the elderly. Other anti-poverty programs like Project Head Start improved the educational performance of underprivileged.
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Great Society
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1965; invalidated the use of any test or device to deny the vote and authorized federal examiners to register voters in states that had disenfranchised blacks; as more blacks became politically active and elected black representatives, it brought jobs, contracts, and facilities and services for the black community, encouraging greater social equality and decreasing the wealth and education gap. The 24th Amendment was ratified in 1964 and abolished the poll tax. This act marked the end of an era of the civil rights movement, the era of nonviolent demonstrations.
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Voting Rights Act of 1965
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1952; renamed himself X to signify the loss of his African heritage; converted to Nation of Islam in jail in the 50s, became Black Muslims' most dynamic street orator and recruiter; his beliefs were the basis of a lot of the Black Power movement built on separationism and nationalist impulses to achieve true independence and equality. In 1965 he was gunned down by rival Nation of Islam gunmen while giving a speech in New York City.
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Malcolm X
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Party that advertised black power in the US. Violence became a tactic used in the black community as this group openly brandished weapons in the streets of Oakland.
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Black Panthers
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Trinidad-born leader of SNCC urged the abandonment of peaceful demonstrations and promoted "black power."
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Stokely Carmichael
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A slogan used to reflect solidarity and racial consciousness, used by Malcolm X. It meant that equality could not be given, but had to be seized by a powerful, organized Black community. Some advocates used it to describe an effort to speed the integration of American society and exercise the political and economic rights gained by the civil rights movement. Other African-Americans breathed a vibrant separatist meaning into this concept. They emphasized black distinctiveness, promoted "afro" hairstyles and dress, shed "white" names for African identities, and demanded black studies programs at schools and universities.
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Black Power
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A bombing campaign began in 1965 and authorized by President Johnson. This tactical movement relentlessly bombed Vietcong-occupied land, decimating the landscape of hundreds of miles of land. However, the intricate and enormously large network of tunnels the guerrilla soldiers had built were largely unharmed, and it failed to stop the Vietcong from continuing to press on. For the first time he ordered attacking US troops to land. By the end of 1965, some 184,000 troops were involved in Vietnam.
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Operation Rolling Thunder
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1968; National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese forces launched a huge attack on the Vietnamese New Year (Tet), which was defeated after a month of fighting and many thousands of casualties; major defeat for communism, but Americans reacted sharply, with declining approval of LBJ and more anti-war sentiment.
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Tet Offensive
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Minnesota senator who declared in 1967 that he would run against Johnson on a platform to end the war in Vietnam. His early campaign attracted little notice, but in the weeks following the Tet offensive it picked up steam. In the New Hampshire Democratic primary in March 1968, he captured 42 percent of the vote, compared to 48 percent for Johnson. This slim margin of victory was viewed as a defeat for the president. He used a small army of anti-war college students as campaign workers. The Democrats were divided on the war issue.
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Eugene McCarthy
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A prominent liberal senator from Minnesota dedicated to the promotion of civil rights and was a supporter of the war, he served as Johnson's vice-president from 1964-68 and ran an unsuccessful personal campaign for the presidency in 1968.
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Hubert Humphrey
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The Republicans met in Miami Beach in 1968 and nominated this man. He was a former vice president who lost to Kennedy in 1960. He was a "hawk" on Vietnam and a right-leaning middle of the roader on domestic policy. He pleased Goldwater conservatives and was acceptable to party moderates. He appealed to southern white voters and to the "law and order" element when he had Spiro T. Agnew as his running mate who was known for tough stands against dissidents and black militants. The Republican platform called for victory in Vietnam and a strong anti-crime policy. He ended up winning the election over Humphrey with 301 electoral votes and 43.4% of popular votes. He was the first president elect since 1848 not to bring in on his coattails at least one house of Congress for his party in an initial party election. He didn't carry a single major urban city which showed urban strength of the Democrats who also won 95% of the Democratic vote. He was a minority president who owed his election to divisions over the war and protest against the unfair draft, crime, and rioting.
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Richard Nixon (Chapter 39)
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Stood for Students for a Democratic Society which had once been at the forefront of the anti-poverty and anti-war campaigns. By the end of the decade they had spawned an underground terrorist group called the Weathermen.
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SDS
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Violent terrorist faction of the SDS that had spawned at the end of the 1960's. They were an underground group that wanted to overthrow the government similar to the Russian Revolution. Peaceful protest turned into violence and drug use increased.
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Weathermen Underground
