| A | B |
|---|
| Harry S. Truman | strong president; opposed Taft-Hartley Act; Became president by the death of FDR; Seemed unable to handle job but became one of the great presidents; Was re-nominated in 1948 by Democrats; Truman’s re-nomination split the democratic party, North vs. South vs. Progressives; Truman wasn’t believed to win, but did at the last minute; released Macarthur of duty when he opposed Truman’s orders and commented against government for not full support in Korea. |
| George F. Kennan | Mr. X, “containment doctrine” was drafted by him; lead to the “get tough with Russia”’ policy. |
| Douglas Macarthur | Tried to democratize Japan; followed plans in Germany; lead to the Japanese being one of the most powerful industrial countries; Macarthur was released of duty when he opposed Truman’s orders and commented against government for not full support in Korea. |
| Dean Acheson | Secretary of State; advised the president to be "clearer than truth" in presenting the case of the Truman doctrine to the American people. |
| Joseph McCarthy | Started a "witch hunting" using the red scare; Wisconsin republican, headed the House Committee on Un-American Activities. |
| Julius and Ethel Rosenberg | Accused of leaking atomic weapons secrets to USSR; were only two people to be executed during peacetime for espionage. |
| Benjamin Spock | Wrote the "Common Sense Book of Baby and Childcare," revolutionized the way children should be taken care of. |
| J. Strom Thurmond | Nominated for States Rights party in 1948 presidential election. Currently, oldest and most senior public official in the history of this country. |
| Henry Wallace | Nominated for Progressives party in 1948 presidential election; appeared as a pro-Soviet from his ideas and speeches. |
| Thomas Dewey | Republican nomination in 1948 presidential election; thought would win because of splitting of Democratic Party and its constituencies, but lost in the end. |
| Dwight Eisenhower | Became president in 1952, pursued a containment policy known as Massive Retaliation. |
| Richard M. Nixon | Assisted the Committee on Un-American Activities; went after communist spies and eastern Europe supporters, helped to convict Alger Hiss, Ike's VP in 1952, ran against Kennedy in 1960 and lost, became president in 1968. |
| Adlai Stevenson | The unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate in 1952 and 1956, he nonetheless gained enormous respect as a spokesman for liberal reform and internationalism. |
| Yalta Conference | Final conference of the big three: Churchill, FDR, and Stalin; FDR tried to get Stalin to enter war in Asia; Stalin agreed to attack Japan, three months after the fall of Germany. |
| Cold War | A four and a half decade standoff between America and the USSR; indirect conflict using satellite states as pawns to achieve larger international objectives. |
| United Nations | April 25, 1945: various nations meet and set up the UN, highly fashioned after the League of Nations idea; set up a highly headed by big five: US, Britain, USSR, France, China; With a smaller committee for other countries. |
| Nuremberg Trials | Trying of 22 nazi war criminals; 12 were executed and 7 got long jail terms. |
| Berlin airlift | Americans airlifted supplies to Berlin when Stalin choked the city by closing it off to Allied traffic. |
| Containment | Contain Russia's spread influence and power, proposed by Kennan and became the cornerstone of American foreign policy through the 1980s. |
| Truman Doctine | Set up policy to unlimitedly help ree countries that are resisting attempted subjugation by outside forces. |
| Marshall Plan | Would provide great financial support to nations if they set capitalist economics and governments, gave forty billion dollars to western European governments. |
| National Security Act | Created the Department of Defense and organized military organizations (army, air force, and navy); also established National Security Council, which advised president on security matters; Also the CIA was formed for fact finding in foreign affairs. |
| "White flight" | Flight of white Americans into suburbs, occured during the 1950s led to a variety of Civil Rights issues. |
| North Atlantic Treaty Organization | aka NATO; built up army for defense purposes; almost all western European countries were involved by 1955. |
| Taft-Hartley Act | Outlawed the all union shop, made union liable for damages from disputes, and required union leaders to take a non-Communist oath. |
| Committee on Un-American Activities | This House committee was charged with finding communists and Eastern Europe supporters and prosecuting them. |
| McCarran Act | Authorized president to arrest and detain suspicious people during an internal security emergency; Truman opposed but was passed anyway. |
| Point Four Program | Lend US money and technical aid to underdeveloped countries, which could then help themselves. |
| Fair Deal | Called for badly needed housing, full employment, higher minimum wage, and extended/comprehensive social security; wasn't agreed to by the republican congress, only got reforms in wages, housing, and small gains in social security. |
| 38th Parallel | Parallel separating north and south Korea; USSR supported North, while US supported the south. |
| NSC-68 | National Security Council Memorandum Number 68; suggested America quadruple its defense spending. |
| Inchon landing | Attack by Macarthur behind enemy lines; sent north Korean troops back across 38 parallel. |
| Sunbelt | California to Virginia; group of states in lower area of America whose population doubled compared to the rest of the United States. |
| Iron curtain | Curtain surrounding Russia and areas of influence during cold war. |
