Chapter 25 Flashcards
(34 cards)
Benito Mussolini
led Italy’s Fascist party, which attracted dissatisfied war veterans, nationalists, and those afraid of rising communism. Dressed in black shirts, the Fascists marched
on Rome and installed Mussolini in power as “II Duce” (the Leader)
Adolf Hitler
used bullying tactics against Jews as well as Fascist ideology to
increase his popularity with disgruntled, unemployed German workers. Hitler seized the opportunity presented by the depression to play upon anti-Semitic hatreds. With his personal army of “brown shirts,” Hitler gained control of the German legislature in early 1933.
Charles Lindbergh
To mobilize American public opinion against the war, they formed the America First Committee and engaged speakers like Charles Lindbergh to travel the country warning against the folly of getting involved a second time in Europe’s troubles.
Wendell Wilkie
The Republican popular candidate to run against FDR. Criticized the New Deal, but agreed to give aid to Britain. He was against FDR breaking the two-term precedent set by George Washington.
Dwight Eisenhower
Douglas MacArthur
During the Bonus March, General Douglas MacArthur, the army chief of staff, used tanks and tear gas to destroy
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Directed by the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the project employed over 100,000 people and spent $2 billion to develop a weapon whose power came from the splitting of the atom. The atomic bomb, or A-bomb, was successfully tested on July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman, a moderate Democratic senator from Missouri, replaced the more liberal Henry Wallace as FDR’s vice president in the 1944 election. Thrust into the presidency after Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, Truman matured into a decisive leader whose basic honesty and unpretentious style appealed to average citizens. President Truman attempted to continue in the New Deal tradition of his predecessor.
Good Neighbor Policy
In his first inaugural address in 1933, Roosevelt promised a “policy of the good neighbor” toward other nations of the Western Hemisphere.
Fascism
the idea that people should glorify their nation and their race through an aggressive show of force—became the dominant ideology in European dictatorships in the 1930s.
German Nazi Party
The Nazi party was the German equivalent of Italy’s Fascist party. It arose in the 1920s in reaction to deplorable economic conditions after the war and national resentments over the Treaty of Versailles.
Axis Powers
1940, Japan, Italy, and Germany signed a treaty of alliance which formed the Axis Powers
Appeasement
Hoping to avoid open conflict with Germany, the democracies adopted a policy of appeasement—allowing Hitler to get away with relatively small acts of aggression and expansion. The United States went along with the British and French policy.
Blitzkrieg
Poland was the first to fall to Germany’s overwhelming use of air power and fast-moving tanks—a type of warfare called blitzkrieg (lightning war).
Neutrality Acts
Isolationist senators and representatives in both parties held a majority in Congress through 1938. To ensure that U.S. policy would be strictly neutral if war broke out in Europe, Congress adopted a series of neutrality acts, which Roosevelt signed with some reluctance. Each law applied to nations that the president proclaimed to be at war.
America First Committee
In 1940, after World War II had begun, the isolationists became alarmed by Roosevelt’s pro-British policies. To mobilize American public opinion against the war, they formed the America First Committee and engaged speakers like Charles Lindbergh to travel the country warning against the folly of getting involved a second time in Europe’s troubles.
Cash and Carry
The British navy still controlled the seas. Therefore, if the United States ended its arms embargo, it could only aid Britain, not Germany. Roosevelt persuaded Congress in 1939 to adopt a less restrictive Neutrality Act, which provided that a belligerent could buy U.S. arms if it used its own ships and paid cash. Technically, “cash and carry” was neutral, but in practice, it strongly favored Britain.
Destroyers for Bases
In September 1940, Britain was under constant assault by German bombing raids. German submarine attacks threatened British control of the Atlantic. Roosevelt could not sell U.S. destroyers to the British outright without alarming the isolationists. He therefore cleverly arranged a trade. Britain received 50 older but still serviceable U.S. destroyers in exchange for giving the United States the right to build military bases on British islands in the Caribbean.
Lend-Lease Act
Roosevelt proposed ending the cash-and-carry requirement of the Neutrality Act and permitting Britain to obtain all the U.S. arms it needed on credit. The president said it would be like lending a neighbor a garden hose to put out a fire. Isolationists in the America First Committee campaigned vigorously against the lend-lease bill. By now, however, majority opinion had shifted toward aiding Britain, and the Lend-Lease Act was signed into law in March 1941
Four Freedoms
Addressing Congress on January 6, 1941, the president delivered a speech that proposed lending money to Britain for the purchase of U.S. war materials and justified such a policy because it was in defense of “four freedoms.” He said the United States must stand behind those nations that were committed to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
Atlantic Charter
With the United States actively aiding Britain, Roosevelt could foresee the possibility that the United States might soon be drawn into the war. He arranged for a secret meeting in August with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill aboard a ship off the coast of Newfoundland. The two leaders drew up a document known as the Atlantic Charter that affirmed what their peace objectives would be when the war ended. They agreed that the general principles for a sound peace would include self-determination for all people, no territorial expansion, and free trade
Pearl Harbor
The U.S. fleet in the Pacific was anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, while most American sailors were still asleep in their bunks, Japanese planes from aircraft carriers flew over Pearl Harbor bombing every ship in sight. The surprise attack lasted less than two hours. In that time, 2,400 Americans were killed (including over 1,100 when the battleship Arizona sank), almost 1,200 were wounded, 20 warships were sunk or severely damaged, and approximately 150 airplanes were destroyed.
War Production Board
Early in 1942, the War Production Board (WPB) was established to manage war industries. Later the Office of War Mobilization (OWM) set production priorities and controlled raw materials. The government used a cost-plus system, in which it paid war contractors the costs of production plus a certain percentage of profit.
Manhattan Project
The top-secret Manhattan Project had begun in 1942. Directed by the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the project employed over 100,000 people and spent $2 billion to develop a weapon whose power came from the splitting of the atom. The atomic bomb, or A-bomb, was successfully tested on July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
