April 22, 2013
POST WORLD WAR II

1945

• United Nations established
• Following WWII, the eastern European countries occupied by the U.S.S.R. during the war continue to be occupied by the USSR
• US/Soviet conflict over Iran (oil and access to the Middle East were issues)

1946

• March, Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech

1947

• George F. Kennan introduces the word "CONTAINMENT" which becomes the key approach to the US foreign policy toward the spread of communism.  The US wants to "contain" it; i.e., not let it spread.
• March, TRUMAN DOCTRINE:  US policy "to support free peoples who were resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressure":  This was adopted by the US as a result of the need to protect Greece and Turkey from communism.  COLD WAR begins.
• COLD WAR:  the political tension that developed between the United States and the Soviet Union after WWII.  Due largely to Joseph Stalin's failing to keep promises to withdraw Soviet forces from eastern European countries.
• June: MARSHALL PLAN adopted by US toward European countries following WWII; it was an economic plan to reconstruct European countries following WWII; the Soviet Union refused to allow it in those eastern European countries that it continued to control.
• United Nations recommends that Palenstine be divided into a Jewish state and an Arab state;  the Arabs reject this.

1948

• June:  Berlin Airlift due to actions taken by the Soviet Union in regard to the divided Germany.
• Nation of Israel created in May; war breaks out between teh Arabs and the Jews; war lasts until 1949
• HARRY TRUMAN ELECTED PRESIDENT

1949

• May:  US, GB, and France create German Federal Republic; Soviets create German Democratic Republic in October and is under Soviet control
• April:  NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) created (1955: Soviets create their version called the WARSAW PACT)
• October:  People's Republic of China created; Chiang Kai-shek flees to Formosa (Taiwan).

1950

• North Korea invades South Korea; starts the Korean War (Conflict); lasts until 1953 when an armistice signed; still in effect today.

1952

• DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER ELECTED PRESIDENT

1953

• Stalin died; internal struggle for power; last until 1955 when Nikita Khrushchev emerges as leader of USSR

1956

• Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy announced; Hungarian revolution against communism; Suez Crisis
• EISENHOWER RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT
• US supplies the South Vietnamese army in its civil war against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese army

1957

• USSR puts Sputnik into orbit
• US begins strong focus on math and science in public schools

1958

• US launches Explorer I

1960

• JOHN F. KENNEDY ELECTED PRESIDENT; LYNDON JOHNSON VICE-PRESIDENT

1961

• BERLIN WALL built by Soviets
• Kennedy increases military aid to South Vietnam and sent 10,000 military advisors to help
• April:  Bay of Pigs incident

1962

• CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS between the US and USSR due to the Soviets putting missles in Cuba

1963

• Diem of South Vietnam overthrown and assassinated by South Vietnamese generals
• President Kennedy assassinated; Johnson beccomes President

1964

• GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION by Congress;  gives President Johnson authority to introduce combat troops in South Viet Nam

1965

• US begins bombing NVN; NVN army troops enter SVN
• March:  first US Marines in a combat role in SVN

550,000 US troops will be invovled in Vietnam at the height of US involvement there.

1968

• President Johnson will not seek re-election; growing opposition to the war in the US and growing Civil Rights tension affects his decision.
• RICHARD NIXON ELECTED PRESIDENT; Nixon announces the transferral of combat operations to South Vietnamese army; means the gradual phasing out of U.S. troops but US airpower would support SV troops

1973

• PARIS PEACE ACCORDS;  NV troops could remain in SVN;  NLF recognized as a legitimate political group in SVN; US could continue to supply SVN militarily; US combat troops to leave.

EFFECTS OF VIETNAM WAR

• 58,000 U.S. troops died
• 300,000 wounded
• $150 billion spent
• Was longest war to that time

ADDITIONAL TERMS

• Montgomery Bus Boycott
• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
• Joseph McCarthy
• Civil Rights Act of 1964: outlaws discrimination in public accomodations and by employers.  It also adid the federal government in desegregation of schools and in the protection of voting rights.

April 15, 2013

In the 1930s, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) had attempted to establish better relations with the Soviet Union (USSR) by formally recognizing it in 1933.  He had also established the "Good Neighbor Policy" with Latin America and showed his seriousness when he withdrew troops from Haiti in 1934.  He also renounced the Platt Amendment with Cuba and would not interfere in Mexico when Mexico nationalized U.S. oil companies in 1937. 

In 1934, the Nye Commission had reported that American bankers who had loaned money to the Allies in World War I and also sold them munitions had conspired with President Wilson to go to war.  This added to the continuing disillusionment that resulted after World War I.  Over the next several years, the U.S. Congress passed several neutrality acts that prevented the United States from selling munitions to countries at war.  One of these acts prevented American ships from sailing into war zones and prevented loans to belligerents and prevented Americans from sailing on belligerent ships.  There was also an embargo on oil, steel, and rubber to these nations.  A Cash and Carry policy was adopted in regard to selling to these products to belligerents (those nations fighting).  It meant that those nations could pay cash for their supplies and carry transport them in their own ships.  Most Americans did not want to become involved in the war; there was a strong isolationist view in the United States.

KEY INTERNATIONAL EVENTS OF THE 1930S:

• 1931:  Japan seized Manchuria
• 1933:  Hitler became Chancellor of Germany
• 1935:  Mussolini of Italy invades Ethiopia
• 1936:  Hitler rearms the Rhineland in Germany in violation of the Treaty of Versailles
• 1937:  Japan invaded China
• March, 1938: Anschluss (Annexation of Austria); the musical, "The Sound of Music" is based upon this event.
• September, 1938: Appeasement of Hitler with the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia (Munich Conference)
• 1939:  Hitler takes all of Czechoslovakia, Mussolini takes Albania, Germany and Soviet Union sign a nonaggression treaty with each other and SEPTEMBER 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland from the West and the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the East.  Hitler's invasion STARTS WORLD WAR II.  Britain and France declare war on Germany.
• 1940:  France fell, Battle of Britain begins, JAPAN SEIZES BASES IN INDOCHINA(U.S. cuts off steel and scrap metal to Japan), Japan signs the TRIPARTITE PACT with Germany and Italy.  Congress passed the DESTROYER DEAL, allowing the U.S. to sell older U.S. destroyers to Britain; FDR commits to supply the Allies.  Congress authorizes the first peacetime draft.  FDR re-elected for third term.
• 1941:  Congress passes the LEND-LEASE ACT, allowing the U.S. to lend or lease supplies to the British. 
• America First Committee organized to oppose FDR's policies (some members were Charles Lindbergh, William Howard Taft, and Norman Thomas).
• June: Japan takes all of French Indochina/U.S. cuts off oil to Japan and the U.S. demands Japanese withdrawal; Japan decides to go to war with the United States. 
• August:  ATLANTIC CHARTER (8-point statement of war aims) signed between FDR and Winston Churchill (Look it up in your text).
• Several incidents occurred between the United States Navy and Germany and Japan during this period (USS Kearny and USS Ruben James).  Neutrality Acts repealed.
• DECEMBER 7, 1941:  JAPAN ATTACKED THE UNITED STATES AT PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII.
• December 8, 1941:  United States declares war on Japan; December 11:  Germany and Italy declare war on the United States
• FDR now had to begin coordinating the war with Churchill and Joseph Stalin.
• The United States' conversion to a wartime economy was amazing.  (READ ABOUT IT IN YOUR TEXT).

KEY EVENTS IN THE WAR IN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA:  It will be your responsibility to read and identify the events/terms that I do not identify.

• June, 1941:  Hitler invades the Soviet Union.  This ends their non-aggression pact with each other.
• April, 1942:  DOOLITTLE RAID:  U.S. attacks Japan from aircraft carriers in the Pacific, but the immediate focus will be in Europe.
• November, 1942:  Operation Torch, the U.S. invades North Africa
• Invasion of Sicily and Italy following victory in North Africa
• Stalin wants a SECOND FRONT opened in western Europe to take pressure off of the Soviet Union in the east. 
• OPERATION OVERLORD, June 6, 1944, also known as the NORMANDY INVASION, the invasion of western Europe by the Allies (United States, Great Britain, Free French, Canada).  This is the second front that Stalin had long wanted and will be the beginning of the end for Germany.  This is the largest amphibious invasion in history.  It took place at French beaches code named Omaha, Utah, Sword, and Juno.
• November, 1944:  FDR re-elected to 4th term as President.
• The Battle of the Bulge
• April 12, 1945:  FDR died
• May 7, 1945:  Germany surrenders
• May 8, 1945:  V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day)

KEY POLITICAL LEADERS IN WORLD WAR II

• President Franklin Roosevelt
• Prime Minister Winston Churchill
• Adolph Hitler
• Benito Mussolini
• Joseph Stalin
• Emperor Hirohito
• Hideki Tojo
• President Harry Truman

KEY AMERICAN MILITARY LEADERS

• General Dwight D. Eisenhower
• General George C. Patton
• General Omar Bradley
• General George C. Marshall
• Admiral Chester Nimitz
• General Douglas MacArthur

MAJOR PACIFIC BATTLES OF WWII

• Battle of Guadalcanal
• Battle of Coral Sea
• Battle of Midway
• Battle of Saipan
• Battle of Iwo Jima
• Battle of Okinawa

OTHER SIGNIFICANT EVENTS OF THE PACIFIC WAR

• Flight of the Enola Gay
• August 6, 1945:  Dropping of first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan
• August 9, 1945:  Dropping of second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan
• August 14, 1945:  Japan surrenders
• August 15, 1945: V-J Day (Victory over Japan Day)
• September 2, 1945:  Official Japanese surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan

MANHATTAN PROJECT

KEY WARTIME CONFERENCES

• Casablanca Conference
• Teheran Conference
• YALTA CONFERENCE
• POTSDAM CONFERENCE

OTHER NOTES WILL FOLLOW