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History DBQ

Terms in this set (73)

FDR's "four freedoms" speech
freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear, as described by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his January 6, 1941, State of the Union Address
Norman Rockwell
a magazine illustrator who painted paintings of the Four Freedoms; his paintings succeeded in linking the Four Freedoms with the defence of traditional American values; his paintings suggested some of the ambiguities within the idea of freedom and emphasized private situations
FDR's "good neighbor" policy
policy proclaimed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first inaugural address in 1933 that sought improved diplomatic relations between the United States and its Latin American neighbors
Chiang-Kai-Shek
internationalist in the Chinese civil war that was halted by Japan's invasion
Mao Zedong
communist in the Chinese civil war that was halted by Japan's invasion
Manchuria
a providence in northern China that Japan invaded, seeking to expand its military and economic power in Asia
Adolph Hitler
embarked on a campaign to control the entire continent; in violation of the Versailles Treaty, he pursued German rearmament; the failure of Britain, France, and the United States to oppose this action convinced him that the democracies could not muster the will to halt his aggressive plans
Benito Mussolini
the founder of fascism; invaded and conquered Ethiopia
Munich Conference
1938; awarded Hitler the Sudetenland, proclaiming that he had guaranteed "peace in our time"
appeasement
Roosevelt had little choice but to follow this policy adopted by Britain and France, who hoped that agreeing to Hitler's demands would prevent war
Senator Nye's hearings
revealed that international bankers and arms exporters had pressed the Wilson administration to enter World War I and had profited handsomely from it; during a time where many Americans remained convinced that involvement in World War I had been a mistake
isolationism
the desire to avoid foreign entanglements that dominated the U.S. Congress in the 1930s; beginning in 1935, lawmakers passed a series of Neutrality Acts that banned travel on belligerents' ships and the sale of arms to countries at war;
Neutrality Acts
series of laws passed between 1935 and 1939 to keep the United States from becoming involved in war by prohibiting American trade and travel to warring nations; showed that the definition of neutrality had changed
Stalin's non-aggression pact
signed with Hitler in 1939
Axis powers
in World War II, the nations of Germany, Italy, and Japan
Allied powers
the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, each led by an iron-willed, larger-than-life figure: Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin; united in their determination to defeat Nazi Germany, they differed not only in terms of the societies they represented but also their long range goals
Winston Churchill
became the British prime minister in 1940; vowed to resist a threatened Nazi invasion; pointedly called on the "new world, with all its power and might," to step forward to rescue the old after the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
German planes launched devastating attacks on London and other cities; inspired "destroyers-for-bases," an increase in defence spending, and the draft in the United States
"cash and carry"
arms had to be paid for in cash and transported in British ships; Congress in 1940 agreed to allow this after a tumultuous debate; a way for the United States to legally help Britain and France (see Neutrality Acts)
America First Committee
organized by opponents of involvement in Europe, with hundreds of thousands of members and a leadership that included such well-known figures as Henry Ford, Father Coughlin, and Charles A. Lindbergh
Election of 1940
FDR ran for a third term; international situation was too dangerous and domestic recovery too fragile for him to leave office; opponent: Wendell Willkie; differences between candidates were more muted than in 1936: both supported the 1940 law establishing the nation's first peacetime draft; FDR won
fall of France
1940- Hitler invaded France; French surrendered, leaving the British alone; ; inspired "destroyers-for-bases," an increase in defence spending, and the draft in the United States
Lend-Lease Act
1941 law that permitted the United States to lend or lease arms and other supplies to the Allies, signifying increasing likelihood of American involvement in World War II
German invasion of USSR
more than 3 million german soldiers took part in this in 1941; after sweeping through western Russia, German armies in August 1942 launched a siege of Stalingrad, a city located deep inside Russia on the Volga River; this proved to be a catastrophic mistake
Interventionists
those who wanted to enter the war in Europe in order to protect democracy; felt that the U.S. economy would suffer if it were left as the only democratic country because it would not trade freely with totalitarian regimes; trade was already being affected by the Japanese control of the Pacific
Atlantic Charter
agreement issued August 12, 1941, following meetings in Newfoundland between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, that signaled the Allies' cooperation and stated their war aims
Tokyo's decision for war
Japan felt that the U.S. was depriving them of raw materials because of the embargo it set on Japan because they invaded Southeastern Asia; Japan felt that the U.S. was not negotiating with them, so they decided to bomb Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941
Japan bombed the naval base in Hawaii to cripple American naval power in the Pacific; over 2,000 servicemen killed, many aircraft & naval vessels damaged/destroyed; fortunately, no aircraft carriers docked at Pearl Harbor that day; FDR asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan
Bataan "death march"
the Japanese forced 78,000 American and Filipino troops to lay down their arms- the largest surrender in American military history; thousands perished on the way to a prisoner-of-war camp, and thousands more died of disease and starvation after they arrived
Battle of Midway
1942- four Japanese aircraft carriers, along with other vessels, were destroyed; turning point of the Pacific naval war- allowed American forces to launch the bloody campaigns that drove the Japanese from fortified islands in the western Pacific and brought American troops closer to Japan
liberation of North Africa
in November 1942, British and American forces invaded North Africa and by May 1943 forced the surrender of the German army commanded by General Erwin Rommel
liberation of Italy
in July 1943, American and British forces invaded Sicily, beginning this
D-Day, June 6, 1944
when an Allied amphibious assault landed on the Normandy coast and established a foothold in Europe, leading to the liberation of France from German occupation
Dwight D. Eisenhower
commanded nearly 200,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers on D-Day
Battle of Stalingrad
bolstered by an influx of military supplies from the United States, the Russians surrounded the German troops and forced them to surrender; some 800,000 Germans and 1.2 million Russians perished in the fighting; the German surrender here in January 1943 marked the turning point of the European war
Holocaust
systematic racist attempt by the Nazis to exterminate the Jews of Europe, resulting in the murder of over 6 million Jews and more than a million other "undesirables"
military diversity and draft
military service threw together Americans from every region and walk of life, and almost every racial and ethnic background (blacks continued to serve in segregated units); many were the children of immigrants who now emerged from urban ethnic communities to fight alongside Americans from rural regions with very different cultures and outlooks
War Production Board
federal agency created by FDR to set production levels, price controls, wage controls, etc.
Office of Price Administration
federal agency created by FDR; sent out booklets that set limits on oil, etc.; propaganda for people not fighting
Office of Scientific Research and Dev't
reaction to the fact that Germany and Japan were further along than the U.S.; brought American and British scientists together; built bigger airplanes that would allow the Air Force to fly higher and longer to avoid radar and go on long bombing runs
sonar and radar
World War II was the war in which these were developed
Saturday Morning Post essays
Rockwell's paintings in the Saturday Evening Post had essays; three said Rockwell's values were American and opposite of those of the Axis powers; essay for Freedom from Want showed how Four Freedoms inspired hopes for a better future as well as nostalgia for Rockwell's imagined small-town past
Office of War Information
created in 1942 to mobilize public opinion; feared Americans had vague understanding of WWII's purposes; used radio, film, the press, etc. to give the conflict ideological meaning; concerned they were devoting too much time promoting New Deal social programs, Congress eliminated most of its funding
Rosie the Riveter
the female industrial laborer depicted as muscular and self-reliant in Norman Rockwell's famous magazine cover; showed that women did not have to undermine their femininity to work
Henry Luce's The American Century
Americans must embrace the role as the "dominant power in the world" and seize the opportunity to share with "all peoples" their "magnificent industrial products" and the "great American ideals," foremost among which stood "love of freedom"; offered a vision of worldwide free enterprise
Henry Wallace
wrote "The Price of Free World Victory"; liberal New Dealer; predicted that the war would usher in a "century of the common man" and the "march of freedom" would continue in the postwar world, marked by international cooperation, not any single power's rule; anticipated a global New Deal
John Maynard Keynes
British economist; thought government spending was the best way to promote economic growth, even if it caused budget deficits; WWII ended the Depression by implementing a military version of Keynesianism; the National Resources Planning Board (NRPB) wanted a continuation of Keynesian spending in peacetime
Harry Truman
FDR's successor in 1945 after FDR succumbed to a stroke; to him fell one of the most momentous decisions ever confronted by an American president- whether to use the atomic bomb against Japan; reasoned that the bomb was a weapon, and weapons are created to be used
GI Bill of Rights
the 1944 legislation that provided money for education and other benefits to military personnel returning from World War II; authorities allowed southern black veterans to use education benefits only at segregated colleges, limited job training, restricted loans for farm purchase to white veterans
Hayek's The Road to Serfdom
the 1944 surprise best-seller by a previously obscure Austrian-born economist; claimed that even the best-intentioned government efforts to direct the economy posed a threat to individual liberty; offered a simple message- "planning leads to dictatorship"
embracing pluralism and diversity
the struggle against Nazi tyranny and its theory of a master race discredited ethnic and racial inequality; government and private agencies eagerly promoted equality as the definition of Americanism and a counterpoint to Nazism
bracero program
system agreed to by Mexican and American governments in 1942 under which tens of thousands of Mexicans entered the United States to work temporarily in agricultural jobs in the Southwest; lasted until 1964 and inhibited labor organization among farm workers since bracers could be deported at any time
zoot suit riots
1943 riots in which club-wielding sailors on leave and policemen attacked Mexican-American youths in Los Angeles; illustrated the limits of wartime tolerance
Navajo "code-talkers"
a group of American Indians who served in the army, who transmitted messages in their complex native language, which the Japanese could not decipher
Japanese-American internment
policy adopted by the Roosevelt administration in 1942 under which 110,000 persons of Japanese descent, most of them American citizens, were removed from the West Coast and forced to spend most of World War II in internment camps; it was the largest violation of American civil liberties in the twentieth century
Nisei
American-born Japanese-Americans, and therefore citizens; many spoke only English, had never been to Japan, and had tried to assimilate despite prevailing prejudice
Executive Order 9066
ordered the relocation of all persons of Japanese descent from the West Coast; authorities removed more than 110,000 men, women, and children to camps far from their homes; the order did not apply to persons of Japanese descent living in Hawaii
Korematsu v. United States
1944 Supreme Court case that found Executive Order 9066 to be constitutional; Fred Korematsu, an American-born citizen of Japanese descent, defied the military order that banned all persons of Japanese ancestry from designated western coastal areas; the Court upheld Korematsu's arrest and internment
apology and restitution
a long campaign for acknowledgement of the injustice done to Japanese-Americans followed the end of the war; in 1988, Congress apologized for internment and provided $20,000 in compensation to each surviving victim; President Bill Clinton awarded Fred Korematsu the presidential Medal of Freedom
2nd Great Migration
the movement of black migrants from the rural South to the cities of the North and West, which occurred from 1941 through World War II, that dwarfed the Great Migration of World War I
segregation and the armed forces
during the war, more than 1 million blacks served in the armed forces; they did so in segregated units, largely confined to construction, transport, and other noncombat tasks; black soldiers sometimes had to give up their seats on railroad cars to accommodate Nazi prisoners of war
A. Philip Randolph
the black labor leader who in July 1941 called for a March on Washington; his demands included access to defence employment, an end to segregation, and a national antilynching law; founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Executive Order 8802
to persuade Randolph to call off the March on Washington, Roosevelt issued this order, which banned discrimination in defence jobs and established a Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to monitor compliance; the black press hailed the order as a new Emancipation Proclamation
Fair Employment Practices Comm. (FEPC)
investigative agency; lacked enforcement powers; its existence marked shift in public policy; hearings exposed patterns of racial exclusion; first federal agency since Reconstruction to campaign for equal opportunity for blacks; helped black workers get jobs in industrial plants and shipyards
Double-V campaign
led by The Pittsburgh Courier, the movement that pressed for victory over fascism abroad and over racism at home; it argued that since African-Americans were risking their lives abroad, they should receive full civil rights at home
CORE
the Congress of Racial Equality; founded by an interracial group of pacifists in 1942; held sit-ins in northern cities to integrate restaurants and theaters
Gummar Myrdal's An American Delimma
account of U.S.'s racial past, present, & future by a Swedish social scientist; showed how deeply racism was entrenched in laws, politics, economics, social behavior, combined w/admiration for what the author called the American Creed- belief in equality, justice, equal opportunity, & freedom
Pan-African Congress
met between 1919 and 1945; attended by black intellectuals from the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa, these gatherings denounced the colonial rule of Africa and sought to establish a sense of unity among all people in the African diaspora
Battle of the Bulge
December 1944; in a desperate gamble, Hitler launched a surprise counterattack in France; pushed Allied forces back 50 miles, creating a large bulge in their lines; the largest single battle ever fought by the U.S. Army; produced over 70,000 American casualties; by early 1945 the assault had failed
V-E Day
May 8, 1945, the day World War II officially ended in Europe
Manhattan Project
secret American program during World War II to develop an atomic bomb; J. Robert Oppenheimer led the team of physicists at Los Alamos, New Mexico
Iwo Jima and Okinawa
two battles in Japan in 1945; they had a huge death toll; inspiration for Truman's decision to bomb Japan because he figured an invasion would lead to death counts like these
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
the two Japanese cities that the United States bombed in 1945
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