Erica Furtado

Holocaust
• Extremists blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in WWI
• September 15, 1935 - Nazis passed Nuremberg Laws:
o Stripped Jews of their German citizenship.
o Prohibited from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of
“German or related blood.”
o were required to carry ID cards
• The “Jewish Question” evolved in three steps:
1. Expulsion: Get them out of Europe
2. Containment: Confine in one place —Ghettos
3. “Final Solution”: annihilation
• Other Groups Targeted:
o Gypsies (Sinti and Roma)
o Homosexuals
o Jehovah’s Witness
o Handicapped Germans
o Poles
o Political Dissidents
• Wannsee Conference-determine a more effective way to kill Jews
• The Nazis aimed to kill 11 million Jews
• The Nazis managed to kill at least 6 million Jews.
US response to Holocaust
• Evian Conference - summer of 1938 in Evian, France.
o 32 countries met to discuss what to do about the Jewish refugees who
were trying to leave Germany and Austria.
o Despite voicing feelings of sympathy, most countries made excuses for
not accepting more refugees.
• Some US congressmen proposed the Wagner-Rogers Bill
o let 20,000 endangered Jewish refugee children into the country

German Strategies-Blitzkrieg
• Take more Eastern Europe for natural resources
• Take Middle East for Oil
• Maintain possessions in West
• Blitzkrieg- surprise attacks, "Lighting fast" rapid advances into enemy territory,
with coordinated massive air attacks, which struck and shocked the enemy as if it
was struck by lightning. The German military in World War 2 achieved most of its
great victories with the Blitzkrieg tactic.

Pearl Harbor
• Japan is an island country, suffered in depression, needed to expand
• Militarists take over, decide to expand to get more natural resources.
• Japan needs supplies in order to expand further
• -Japan began taking advantage of crisis in Europe, by extending power in Pacific
• Upsets United States, because the US has economic/political ties in Asia
• US knew Japan would go to East Indies (Thailand), broke Japanese code
• US threatened Japan
 o Japan did not listen
• US created a trade embargo (limited Japan’s ability to buy oil, iron ore)
• Japan has 2 options
o Re-establish relations with US to restore flow of supplies
o Find supplies elsewhere (seize British/Dutch possessions in Pacific)
• At first, Japan attempts to compromise, but FDR and his secretary of state (Hull)
basically will only compromise IF Japan guarantees the respect of China’s
territory
• Japanese prime minister Konoye unable to do this, militarists refuse
• Konoye was forced out of office, replaced with General Hideki Tojo (leader of the
War Party)
• Japan was desperate for oil
• Decoded Japanese message that attack by Japanese would be matter of days
by 11/29
o U.S. did not know where attack would take place
o Convinced Japan would strike Britain/Dutch possessions in South Pacific
before US
o One fleet began sailing east from Kurile Islands on Nov. 25
o U.S. more focused on Japanese fleet sailing southward through China
Sea
o Total miscalculation of Japanese attack

The Manhattan Project/Atomic Bomb

• After Germany surrenders on May 8, 1945, many scientists working on the
project see no reason to continue.
o But continue on to test the bomb anyway
• Trinity Test
o Night, July 16, 1945 à 1st atomic bomb was detonated in an empty
desert in NM
 Blinding flash, visible 180 miles away
 Deafening Roar as shock wave traveled across desert
 Created crater in desert
 Worked and more powerful than most dared to hope
D-Day
• Code named – Operation Overlord
• Enormous invasion force had been gathering in England for 2 years
• Germans expected the invasion to be at the narrowest part of English Channel
• Y-Day – June 1st
o Everything had to be ready to go
o No corrections could be made
o Only waiting for Supreme Commander’s word to go
• First Attempt: June 4, 1944
o Wind and high seas make conditions poor
• VERY Early June 6, 1944
o Airplanes, battleships bombarded the Nazi defenses
o Paratroopers dropped behind German lines night before to seize critical
roads and bridges for the push inland
• 5 major beaches in Normandy
 o Utah and Omaha – US
o Gold and Sword – British
o Juno – Canadian
• 156,000 troops crossed English Channel
• Fighting fierce, but superior manpower and equipment forced German troops off
coast of Normandy in a week
• Allied forces went on to liberate Paris August 25, 1944
o Force most of German troops out of Belgium and France by September

Stalingrad
• considered by many historians to have been the turning point.
• Stalingrad bled the German army dry in Russia
o Germany Army was in full retreat.
• believe that Hitler ordered the taking of Stalingrad simply because of the name of
the city and hatred of Joseph Stalin.
•
Battle of the Bulge
• Known as the Ardennes Offensive
• The initial attack by the Germans created a bulge in the Allied front line, making it
more known as the Battle of the Bulge.
• largest battle fought by the Americans in World War Two.
o 600,000 American troops were involved in the battle
• Germans ran out of fuel
• Significance: Last HUGE German offensive, showed the Germans were truly
defeated

Battle of Berlin
• The Battle of Berlin was one of the final battles of the European Theatre of World
War II. A massive Soviet army attacked Berlin from the east.
• The battle lasted from late April 1945 until early May. Before it was over, Adolf
Hitler committed suicide, and Germany surrendered five days after the battle
ended

US treatment of Japanese Americans

• Treated Japanese American poorly
o Worried about spies
• Unfairly put them in jail without fair trial

Truman Doctrine
• a policy set forth by U.S. President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947 stating
that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to
prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere

Marshall Plan
• was a primary program, 1947–51, of the United States for rebuilding and creating
a stronger economic foundation for the countries of Western Europe.
Berlin Airlift
• Germany was divided amongst the victors, the United States, the Soviet Union,
Great Britain, and France.
o The Soviet Union took control of the Eastern half of Germany,
o the Western half was divided amongst the US, Great Britain, and France.
• the capital city of Berlin was also divided into four parts,
o one half being Soviet controlled
o the rest divided amongst the others.
• Tension between how to rule Germany
o Led to Berlin Blockade- Soviet Union blocked the US and all other
supplies from entering Berlin
• Berlin Airlift- U.S. flew supplies into Berlin to feed the starving people to get past
blockade

NATO
• Most the the continent's governments had fallen to the Nazis during the war, so
the two superpowers were left with the responsibility of setting up new
governments.
• Each promised to allow free elections, but in the end, did not.
o This left eastern and western Europe divided by style of government
(eastern was communist, western was not) and left Germany divided
between the two superpowers.

Iron Curtain Speech

• On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill delivered
• a crowd of more than 40,000 people.
• The speech was named by Churchill, “The Sinews of Peace,”
o changed the way the democratic West viewed the Communist East.
Churchill's use of “The Iron Curtain” (based on the war economics
between the United States and Britain) made the phrase common and
was recognized throughout the world

Chinese Civil War

• fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911- new Republic of China formed.

o central government, unable to maintain effective control over the country
• two organizations created
o the Nationalist Party
o Chinese Communist Party During the 1920s, these two organizations
• 1927 the Nationalists turned on the Communists and the Chinese Civil War
• The two sides fought ruthlessly until 1937, when all-out war broke out when the
Japanese renewed their attack on China.
o The Communists and the Nationalists officially declared an alliance, but in
fact actual cooperation was almost nonexistent and fighting between the
two continued even as the Japanese advanced.
• Communists captured Beijing and declared the founding of the People’s Republic
of China
 • Nationalists fled to Taiwan, and that government has remained on the island ever
since.

Brinkmanship

• Japan had controlled Korea since 1910

• SU controlled N. Korea = Communist
• US controlled S. Korea = Non-Communist
• 1949, both SU and US withdrew troops, left North and South staring bitterly at
one another
• June 25, 1950 – N. Korea invaded S. Korea
• Alarmed US who did not want another Asian country to fall to communism
• North Korea winning war
• MacArthur’s miracle counter attack -Sept 15, 1950
o War changed from Defensive to Offensive
• MacArthur wants full attack on China to end stalemate in Korea
o 1. Blockade China’s coast
o 2. Use Atomic Bombs
o 3. Get Chiang Kai Shek’s troops to invade S. China
• Truman rejected requests
• March 1951, everything was as it was before any fighting began
• MacArthur unhappy with Truman and fired
• July 1953, armistice finally signed ending war, stalemate at best
o N. Korea had been pushed back, communism contained without a
world war, and without use of A-Bomb
o BUT Korea was still 2 nations instead of one
• Effects:
o 54,000 Americans died
o Cost between $20 and 22 billion
o Democrats lost 1952 election, partially due to cost of war and inability
to win
o Korean War increased fear of Communist aggression
o Lead to a hunt for spies on whom to blame Communist gains

Loyalty Review Board –

o issued an executive order setting up the Fed Employees Loyalty and Security
Program, which included the Loyalty Review board
o Purpose: investigate gov. employees and to dismiss any found disloyal to the US
gov. Not clear what disloyal meant
o Investigated 3.2 million employees, dismissed 212 as security risks à not
allowed to see evidence or know who accused them
o Another 2,900 resigned because didn’t want to be investigated

House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)

 o Developed from Congressional committee created to search out disloyalty before
WW2 figuring those same people may still be disloyal, made headlines in 1947
when investigated Communist influence in the movie industry
o Hollywood did have a substantial number of Communists, former communists,
and socialists
o Since SU had been an ally, Hollywood had produced several pro-Soviet films
o After 1945, many thought films proved that subversives (someone who attempts
to overthrow an established gov.) were spreading Soviet propaganda, so tried to
rid Hollywood of Communists
McCarthyism
o Made one unsupported claim after another

CAUSES

• SU establish communist regimes in E. Europe after WW2

• SU develops A-Bomb quicker than expected
• Korean War ends in stalemate
• Republicans gain by accusing Truman/ Democrats of being soft on Communism
Effects
• Millions of Americans forced to take loyalty oaths, undergo loyalty investigations
• Activism in Labor Unions goes into decline
• People are hesitant to speak out on public issues for fear they will be charged as
Communists
• Anti-Communism continues to drive US foreign policy.

Kent State
• Massive student protest about Vietnam war lead to buring of ROTC
building
• Guards called and fired at crowds
• Wounded 9 people killed 4

League of Nations
• An association of nations established in 1920 to promote international cooperation
and peace
Lend Lease
• A law enacted in 1941 that allowed the United states to ship arms and other
supplies with out immediate payment to nations fighting the Axis

Mao Zedong
• Chinese revolutionary, political theorist and communist leader. He led the
People's Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949 until his death
in 1976.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• political and social protest campaign Montgomery Alabmama
• oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system.. The
• resulted in a crippling financial deficit for the Montgomery public transit system,
• led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and
Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional

Munich Agreement/Pact
• an agreement permitting Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's
Sudetenland.

NATO
• North Atlantic Treaties Organization
• intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty
o attack on one is attack on all
o USA, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

• Regulated banking and investment activities during The
Great Depression