The New Deal and Its Legacy

New Deal- a law passed by Congress in 1933 to increase production while boosting wages and prices; it created the National Recovery Administration

Welfare State- a social system in which the government takes responsibility for the economic well being of its citizens by providing programs and direct assistance

Fascism-a political movement based on an extreme nationalism in which the state comes first and individual liberty is secondary

Blitzkrieg-"lightning war," the German military strategy during World War II of attacking without warning

War Production Board-the federal agency set up to manage the conversion of industries to military production during World War II

War Refugee Board-an agency created in 1944 that arranged for Jewish refugees to stay at centers in Italy and North Africa, as well as in former army camps in the United States

Women Army Corps-a women's unit of the U.S. Army, established in 1942

Axis Powers-the alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II

Battle of Midway-the U.S. naval victory in the Pacific during World War II that stopped Japanese expansion and forced Japan to focus on defense

Manhattan Project-the top-secret U.S. government project that developed the atomic bomb

United Nations-an international organization founded in 1945 to further the causes of peace, prosperity, and human rights

Nuremberg War Crime Trials-a series of trials in 1945 and 1946 in Nuremberg, Germany, in which an international military tribunal convicted former Nazi leaders of war crimes

Yalta Conference-held in February 1945 in the Soviet city of Yalta, a conference of the main Allied leaders—U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt, British prime minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin—to plan the future of post-World War II Europe

Containment-after World War II, the U.S. foreign policy practice of attempting to restrict the expansion of Soviet influence around the world

Truman Doctrine-a U.S. foreign policy, established in 1947 by President Harry S. Truman, of providing economic and military aid to countries—initially Greece and Turkey—that were attempting to resist communism

Molotov Plan-a Soviet plan, initiated by Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov in 1949, to aid in the economic recovery of Eastern Europe after World War II by establishing the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance to create two-way trade agreements between the Soviet Union and other COMECON members and to integrate members' economies

North Atlantic Treaty Organization-as part of the Cold War, a military alliance formed in 1949 among the United States, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Iceland, Italy, Britain, Denmark, Norway, and Portugal—and expanded to include Greece and Turkey in 1952 and West Germany in 1955—to establish collective security against the Soviet Union (NATO)

Korean War-a war fought on the Korean Peninsula from 1950 to 1953 after troops from communist North Korea, armed with Soviet weapons, invaded democratic South Korea, prompting the United States and the United Nations to send forces to support South Korea and fight to unify the Korean Peninsula into one democratic nation, which in turn prompted China to join the war on North Korea's side; at war's end, the peninsula remained divided into two nations

Mutual Assured Destruction-during the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, the principle that either side would respond to a nuclear attack by launching its own missiles, which helped prevent the Cold War from becoming a hot war (MAD)

Loyalty Oaths-a person who believes in communist ideology but is not a member of the Communist Party

McCarthyism-the practice of publicly accusing people of subversive activities without evidence to back up the charges; named for Senator Joseph McCarthy, who began such a practice in the early 1950s as part of the search for communists in the United States during the early Cold War

Fair Deal-President Harry S. Truman's domestic program, which he began promoting in 1945 with such intentions as increasing the minimum wage, increasing aid to agriculture and education, and enacting a national heath insurance program, only some of which Congress approved

Blue-Collar Workers-a person who works in a factory or at a skilled trade, usually for an hourly wage

Baby Boom-the large increase in the number of babies born in proportion to the size of the population that took place after World War II and lasted until 1964

Polio Vaccine-a vaccine, for the often deadly disease polio, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk and released for use in the United States in 1955

Poverty Line-the minimum amount of income one needs to meet basic needs

De facto Segregation-segregation established by practice and custom, rather than by law

Miscegenation-interracial marriage

Congress of Racial Equality-an organization founded in 1942 that was dedicated to civil rights reform through nonviolent action (CORE)

Brown vs Board of Education-the 1954 Supreme Court ruling declaring that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional

Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee-a civil rights organization formed in 1960 by college students, who organized sit-ins and other nonviolent protests (SNCC)

March on Washington-a 1963 protest in which more than 250,000 people demonstrated in the nation's capital for "jobs and freedom" and the passage of civil rights legislation

Voting Rights Act of 1965-an act of Congress outlawing literacy tests and other tactics that had long been used to deny African Americans the right to vote

Black Nationalism-a doctrine, promoted by the Nation of Islam, calling for complete separation from white society

Afrocentrism-a focus on African history, culture, and achievements of African peoples and their descendants in the United States

Preferential Treatment-giving preference to a minority or female job applicant because of that person's ethnicity or gender

National Organization for Women-a group formed in 1966 to advance women's rights (NOW)

Feminism-the movement for women's equality

Stonewall Riots-riots in 1969 by customers of a gay bar in New York in response to a police raid; the clash marked the beginning of the gay rights movement

National Aeronautic and Space Administration-a U.S. government agency established in 1958 for the research and development of space exploration vehicles and projects (NASA)

Berlin Wall-a concrete wall that the communist East German government erected in 1961 to cut off West Berlin from the rest of East Germany and prevent East Germans from escaping into democratic West Berlin; the wall stood until 1989

Test Ban Treaty-an agreement signed by the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain in 1963 to ban nuclear testing in the atmosphere but allow underground testing

Economic Opportunity Act-a law passed by Congress in 1964 to create dozens of federal antipoverty programs, including the Job Corps and VISTA, and the Office of Economic Opportunity to oversee them

Medicaid-a health insurance program that is jointly financed by federal and state governments and that covers low-income people as well as older Americans who have used up their Medicare benefits

Sexual Revolution-

Counterculture-a group in society with ideas and behaviors very different from those of the larger mainstream culture