APUSH Chapter 36 Free Essay Example

Harry S. Truman

Leader of US as WW2 ended, authorized dropping of atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, earning Japan’s surrender. Thereafter, his presidency characterized by hostile attitude towards Soviets, later manifested as Cold War. Best seen in his Truman Doctrine, which established containment as US’ foreign policy

George F. Kennan

Douglas MacArthur

after WW2, he led rebuilding effort in Japan. Lack of Soviet presence enabled rapid democratization of Japanese gvt. according to US methods. The MacArthur Constitution was adopted and renounced militarism, woman’s equality, and western-style Democratic gvt that allowed Japan to become industrial and economic power it is today

Dean Acheson

Joseph McCarthy

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

two American citizens who were accused of leaking information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. The couple was brought up on charges after it was discovered that the Soviet Union had detonated an atomic weapon much earlier than was previously thought possible. hey stand as the only people in American history to ever be executed in peacetime for espionage

Reinhold Niebuhr

An influential liberal Protestant clergyman who provided support for the Truman Doctrine and the Cold War. He violently opposed fascism, pacifism, and communism during this period and divided the world into the “children of light” and the “children of darkness.” n his perspective, Christian justice should provide for the use of force, if necessary, to take care of the threats from “children of darkness” such as Hitler and Stalin.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

the former scientific director of the Manhattan Project and then chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, he led a group of scientists who warned that the development of an H-bomb would be so deadly that it would essentially become a weapon of genocide. Despite protests, Truman went ahead with the development of the H-bomb in an attempt to outpace the Soviets in this arms race.

Henry Wallace

the former vice president, earlier parted with the administraton in his dealings with the Comminists and was nominated by new Progressive Party. Wallace opposed “dollar imperialism” that US was using and appeared to be Pro-Soviet. thus, he was bashed on

Thomas Dewey

Republican nominee for President in election of 1948. He looked assured of victory when the Democratic Party was split between their nominee, but Truman was guided to victory by the votes of the farmers, workers, and blacks, all of whom were wary of Republicans because of their negative experiences leading up to the Great Depression.

Adlai Stevenson

a liberal member of the Democratic Party, Stevenson served as the Governor of Illinois and was twice nominated as the Democratic candidate against Dwight D. Eisenhower. he was defeated twice and lost Democratic nomination to John F. Kennedy. however, he was appointed Amassador to United Nations by Kennedy

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Home from war in European theater, refused to be drafted by the democrats in election of 1948. ironically, he ran for presidency in election of 1952, but as a Republican. he won and became first republican pres. in two decades

Richard M. Nixon

anti-communist who played integral role in Alger Hiss case. Hiss denied his association with any Soviet spies, but was later convicted of perjury because his initial reports were found to be contrary to microfilm that had recorded his writings on his typewriter. Nixon’s successes as a red-hunter paved the way for him to win the vice presidential nomination under Dwight D. Eisenhower and eventually allow for him to become the President of the United States himself.

Yalta Conference

final meeting of Big Three. agreements made to smash remaining german lines and divide conquered germany into occupation zones. Stalin agreed that with revised boundaries, countries such as Poland would have free elections, but he didnt keep his promise.

Cold War

four and a half decade period following WW2 end in which difference of beliefs between USSR and US almost led to brink of war. it was dubbed “Cold War” with no actual fighting, but still provided threats with competition of advancing technology in weaponry

U.N. Security Council

Consisting of the Big Five Powers (the United States, Britain, the USSR, France, and China), this group had a good deal of control within the United Nations forum that was created towards the close of World War II. Unlike the failed League of Nations, this cooperative effort was headlined by American participation and looked towards great-power cooperation as opposed to great-power conflict

Nuremburg Trials

series of trials following the end of World War II in which various German officials were brought up on controversial, but serious charges against humanity. harsh justice, as twelve of the accused Nazis were hung while seven others were sentenced to long jail terms.

Iron curtain

first coined by Winston Churchill. The idea was that Europe had been divided by an iron curtain established by the Stalin-led Soviet Union such that the eastern bloc was controlled by
communist interests while the western bloc remained in the hands of active democracies. This iron curtain would become a major factor in the Cold War within Europe.

Berlin airlift

airdropping of supplies in Berlin for almost a year. airlift from the Allies to the Berliners living in their sections became necessary when talks about German currency reform and four-power control soured and when the angered Soviets turned to a land blockade of Berlin.

“Containment doctrine”

first proposed by George Kennan, concept formed on belief that Russia was naturally expansionary and that the spread of communism as a threat to governments around the world needed to be stemmed by containing the Soviets with their communist ideas to where they already were.

Truman Doctrine

Truman went before Congress and asked for $400 million to aid these governments against the spread of communism. This was later extended to say that “it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” The Truman Doctrine provided the basis for conflicts in Korea and Vietnam throughout the rest of the Cold War.

Marshall Plan

A plan proposed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall that would use American capital to bring about the rebuilding of European society following World War II. Under this policy, $12.5 billion were give over four years to sixteen cooperating nations, and money went long way reestablishing European economy.

National Security Act

this act created the Department of Defense, which was to be housed in the Pentagon and led by the secretary of defense. The act also provided for the establishment of the National Security Council (NSC) to advise the president on security matters and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to coordinate the government’s foreign fact gathering

white flight

mass migration of whites to suburbs after end of WW2. Modernization had allowed for the development of suburbs and wealthy whites took advantage of the growing prosperity to get away from all of the congestion within the cities.

North Atlantic Treaty of Organization

the American propensity to remain out of entangling alliances since the days of George Washington were reversed by American entry into NATO. The twelve original signees agreed to regard an attack on one as an attack on all and promised to respond with “armed force” if necessary. The NATO pact was a significant step in European unification and the militarization towards the Cold War.

Taft-Hartley Act

The act undid many of the New Deal gains when the first Republican-controlled Congress in fourteen years passed this bill over President Truman’s veto. To labor leaders, the bill was seen as a “slave-labor law” because it outlawed the “closed” (all-union) shop, made unions liable for damages that resulted from jurisdictional disputes among themselves, and required union leaders to take a noncommunist oath.

House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)

a committee established by the House of Representatives to look into subversion. This group included notable red-hunters such as Richard M. Nixon, who was a hard-line anti-communist that went to great extents to expose espionage in the Alger Hiss case.

McCarran Act

authorized the president to arrest and detain suspicious people during an “internal security emergency.” Critics of this bill protested that it essentially enacted a police-state, concentration-camp atmosphere that was not representative of the democratic ideals that America stood for. Indeed, many Americans began to realize that the red hunt was turning into a witch hunt

Atomic Energy Commission

an agency established by the United States government after World War II to foster and control the peace time development of atomic weaponry and technology. J. Robert Oppenheimer, along with several other scientists within the Manhattan Project, came to see that the development of such weapons could be catastrophic for the continued growth and prosperity of the world.

Dixiecrats

The name given to the Southern Democrats, who in 1948, dissatisfied with the party’s nomination of Harry Truman, decided to take a page out of their secessionist forefathers’ book and met in Birmingham, Alabama with Confederate flags brashly in evidence.

Fair Deal

the platform that Harry Truman ran on in the election of 1948. The Fair Deal called for improved housing, full employment, a higher minimum wage, better farm price supports, new TVAs, and an extension of Social Security. However, most of Truman’s Fair Deal ideas fell victim to congressional opposition from Republicans and Southern Democrats.

Hydrogen Bomb

The H-bomb was first detonated at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific in 1952 by the Americans. This came after strong protests from notable individuals such as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the leader of the Manhattan Project, and Albert Einstein, the physicist who had originally conceived the feasibility of these atomic weapons. Yet, President Truman was more concerned with staying ahead of the Soviets in this arms race

NSC-68

National Security Council Memorandum Number 68, a 1950 document that was revived as a result of the Korean War. originally put forth by the National Security Council and had called for a quadrupling of defense spending. However, at the time, it had been seen as impractical to implement. With the rise of the Korean, however, the rearmament of the United States could once again take place and efforts to build up the military ultimately resulted in 3.5 million men under arms and a spending of some $50 billion per year on the defense budget, some 13 percent of the GNP.

Thirty-eighth parallel

The geographical line that was agreed upon following
the end of the Korean War to divide North and South Korea. The line had been basically the original boundary between the two sides before the fighting had begun and had served as an important guideline for military strategy throughout the fighting.