American Yawp Exam 3 Review

23. The Great Depression

1. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR): Democratic president who created the New
Deal to counter the effects of the Great Depression. Elected President of the U.S.
four times: 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944. He is the reason why the 22 nd
Amendment was ratified in 1951, which limited all future presidents to two
elected terms. Fun.
2. The Stock Market Crash: Another leading component to the start of the Great
Depression. The stock market became very popular in the 1920’s, but the
overwhelming majority of Americans had no direct personal stake in Wall Street.
It collapsed in 1929, as its steep downturn caused panicked selling. October 24 th,
1929: stock market prices suddenly plummeted (ten billion disappeared).
October 29th, 1929: Black Tuesday, the stock market began its long precipitous
fall.
3. Tariff policy: made it harder for other nations to sell to the U.S. Encouraged by
Hoover as it would encourage domestic consumption and protect American
farmers from foreign competition. Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930. Most other
countries followed suit; international trade dropped significantly as did American
exports. The tariff only exacerbated the world’s economic collapse.
4. Bank failures: Following the stock market crash, Americans removed their
money from the bank, causing many banks to close that otherwise may have
survived the crisis. Smaller banks lacked sufficient reserves to stay in business,
and had lent large portions of their assets for stock market speculation and were
virtually put out of business overnight… bank over extension, panic withdrawal
of money, denied loans and called in debts. Trading money that wasn’t theirs.
5. Herbert Hoover: Republican candidate who assumed the presidency in March
1929. Promised the American people prosperity and attempted to deal with the
Great Depression by trying to restore public faith in the community
(volunteerism). Proposed “associationalism”, a system where businesses would
voluntarily limit harmful business practices for the greater economic good.
Believed that direct government aid would discourage a healthy work ethic while
associationalism would encourage the self-control and self-initiative that fueled
economic growth… bruh.
6. Charitable Organizations: Group that provides a service for little to no cost, not
run by the government; not operated for profit. Encouraged by POUR (President’s
Organization for Unemployment Relief), but many charitable organizations were
overwhelmed by the growing needs of the ever-increasing unemployed,
underfed, and unhoused Americans.
7. The Bonus Army: Group of WWI veterans that marched to D.C. in 1932 to
demand the immediate payment of their government war bonuses in cash.
Turned violent, with two veterans and one baby killed, and used to turn the
American public against Hoover.
8. Social Consequences of the Great Depression: People lacked the money to buy
food, clothing, and household goods; families unable to pay rent and mortgages;
people relied on savings and help from relatives; many workers “rode the rails”
across Canada in search of work. Captured in popular culture through William
Wellman’s 1933 film Wild Boys of the Road and John Steinbeck’s 1939 book The
Grapes of Wrath. Saw a reversal in the flow of people between rural and urban
areas.
9. The Dust Bowl: region of the Great Plains that experienced a drought in 1930
that lasted for a decade, leaving many farmers without work or substantial
wages. Killed people too. Consequence of the agricultural crisis of the 1920s,
where land was essentially over-farmed (due to long-term effects of the
Homestead Act and the more recent sharecropping) and crop prices were kept
high until they fell post WWI, causing direct harm to the market.
10. The Okies: displaced farm families from the Oklahoma dust bowl who
migrated to California during the 1930s in search of jobs.
11. Mexican Immigrants: Made up the labor force of the Southwest in the late
1800s. Mostly worked on railroads or large farms. Mostly settled in cities in
segregated barrios, but also settled in the countryside, moving around to get a
job. Formed a regional community where people would help each other find
work. Became targets of exclusionary measures during the 1920s and 1930s, led
by officials in the Southwest. The Citizens Committee on Coordination of
Unemployment Relief worked with federal officials in 1931 to conduct
deportation raids. From 1930 to 1940 the Mexican-born population in Arizona,
California, New Mexico, and Texas fell from 616,998 to 377,433.
12. The 1932 Election: Hoover versus FDR. Hoover was blamed for the Great
Depression, so FDR won. FDR also promised a fairer distribution of wealth and
served as a turning point in the way Americans viewed the responsibility of the
federal government.
13. The New Deal: A series of reforms enacted by the FDR administration
between 1933 and 1942 with the goal of ending the Great Depression.
Note: know, like, two different New Deal programs.
14. The First Hundred Days: period of time where President Roosevelt created
many laws and programs to help stabilize the U.S. economy. Refers to the first
100 days of FDR’s presidency.
15. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA): Gave farmers money to reduce crop
size, reduce production, and increase the value of crops. Created in May 1933.
Fell in 1936 after a case revolving around poultry processing resulted in the NRA
being declared unconstitutional, on a day known as Black Monday.
16. Huey Long: Flamboyant Democratic senator from Louisiana, stark critique of
Roosevelt. Preached his “Share our Wealth” programs, which were a 100% tax on
all annual incomes over $1 million and appropriation of all fortunes in excess of
$5 million. With this money, Long proposed to give every American family a
comfortable money. Extreme distribution of wealth, basically. Was assassinated.
Inspired some twenty-seven thousand Share the Wealth clubs across the nation.
Ultimately convinced Roosevelt to attack the Depression and American inequality
more stridently.
17. The Second New Deal: 1935; a new set of programs in the spring that
included banking reforms, new tax laws, and new relief programs. Examples
include the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which would employ millions of
Americans on public works projects (paved roads, built schools, bridges, post
offices, painted murals, and recorded oral histories).
18. The National Labor Relations Act (The Wagner Act): Passed in 1935 in hopes
of reconstituting some of the protections afforded workers through the NRA. It
offered federal legal protection and allowed workers to organize unions.
Considered revolutionary.
19. The Social Security Act: Signature piece of the Second New Deal, it provided
for old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and economic aid, based on
means, to assist the elderly and dependent children. Roosevelt insisted it be
financed from payroll, not the federal government (thereby distinguishing social
security from the negative perception of “welfare”). Still excluded domestic
workers and farm workers, and also disproportionately affected African
Americans.
20. Race and the New Deal: FDR did little to actually address the difficulties
faced by Black communities. Afraid of provoking southern Democrats and losing
their support for reelection. Several programs of the New Deal exacerbated
issues in the south, as the AAA displaced Black tenants and sharecroppers. By
removing domestic workers and farm laborers from the Social Security Act, many
African Americans were further excluded from the benefits of the “expanding
economic safety net.”
24. World War II
1. The Japanese Empire: emerged as a world power via rapid industrialization,
militarization, and desire to be seen as an equal with the West. Fueled Japanese
expansion: Mukden incident, Manchurian crisis (1931-1933), Rape of Nanjing.
Advanced into the rest of Oceania, controlling what would become Taiwan, Korea,
Micronesia, southern Sakhalin, and several concessions in China. Japan leaves
LoN in 1933.
2. Isolationism: National policy of avoiding involvement in world affairs. Dates
back to George Washington’s farewell address, echoed by FDR following the
outbreak of war in Europe.
3. The Nazis: Fascist government under Adolf Hitler, based on totalitarian ideas
and used to “unite” Germany during the 1930s following economic crisis and
fallout from the Treaty of Versailles. Eugenics and genocide.
4. The War in Europe: September 1st, 1939: Hitler invades Poland. Ignites a
second war in Europe following continent-wide economic problems, technological
advances, Antisemitism, and the dangerous rise of fascism.
5. Pearl Harbor: December 7th, 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, HI as well as
Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, and other American territories in the South
Pacific. Fueled by fallout of the Stimson Doctrine 1932 (U.S. would not recognize
any territorial or administrative changes imposed upon China by Japan,
essentially refusing to recognize the states created as a result of a war of
aggression). Other reasons include the oil embargo the U.S. placed on Japan
following the invasion of French Indochina in 1940. Led to American involvement
in WWII. Japan thought U.S. involvement was inevitable and sought to neutralize
the U.S. and other European powers through a coordinated Pacific offensive that
would give Japan time to complete its conquests and fortify provisions.
6. American entry into World War II: War on two fronts. America declares war on
Japan, Germany and Italy declares war on American a few days later. Isolationism
falls at Pearl Harbor. Began slowly.
7. The Invasion of Europe: Hitler advocated for the unification of Europe’s
German peoples under one nation, expressing the need for a Lebensraum in
Eastern Europe to supply Germans with the land and resources needed for future
prosperity. Genocide of over eleven million civilians, including homosexuals,
Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, communists, and other minorities; including six
million Jews.
8. Combat in the Pacific: absolutely brutal. Bataan Death March: garrison of
American and Filipino soldiers surrendered following the Japanese take-over of
the Philippine archipelago and marched eighty miles to their prisoner-of-war
camp without food, water, or rest. Ten thousand died. Turning point was the
Battle of Midway. Island hopping strategy: attacking island after island, bypassing
the strongest but seizing those capable of holding airfields in order to continue
pushing Japan out of the region. Fueled by racial prejudice. Iwo Jima was an
eight-square-mile island of volcanic rock. 17,000 Japanese against 70,000
Marines, lasted a month and nearly 30,000 Marines were killed. Submarines and
aircraft carriers.
9. Atomic Bombs: The Manhattan Project oversaw the creation of the atomic
bombs, beginning in 1942 after intelligence discovered that Germany was
attempting to create a new weapon of mass destruction. Los Alamos and Robert
Oppenheimer: developed the theoretical and experimental tests that created the
first atomic weapons. Two bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
(August 6 – August 9, 1945), killing an estimated 140,000 and 74,000 people.
Effectively ended WWII following Japanese surrender.
10. Soldiers’ Experiences: Almost eighteen million men served in WWII. Pearl
Harbor sparked millions to volunteer, but over ten million were drafted.
Volunteers could express their preference for assignment, so many preempted
the draft by volunteering. PTSD.
11. The End of the Great Depression: War boosts the economy. War production
(weapons, automobiles), consumer choice was foreclosed, housing industry shut
down, but war bonds and promotions to save earnings prevented inflation.
12. The Bracero Program: Between 1942 and 1964, the U.S. contracted
thousands of Mexican nationals to work in American agriculture and railroads in
order to fill the American labor force.
13. Women in the workforce: More and more positions went unfilled as more and
more men joined the military, so women stepped in en masse. Over a million
administrative jobs were transferred from men to women for the duration of the
war, and women worked in munitions factories and other factory jobs. Rosie the
Riveter. Government jobs.
14. Women in the military: Over 350,000 women served in the military, including
in the Army and Navy Nurse Corps Reserves, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps,
the Navy’s Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, the Coast Guard’s
SPARs, and Marine Corps. Women also worked as translators or operated radio
transmissions.
15. African American servicemembers: More than one million African Americans
served, but were kept in segregated, noncombat units led by white officers.
Women who enlisted/served were similarly discriminated against, and only the
Army Auxiliary Corps and the Nurse Corps Reserved accepted Black women for
active service.
16. Segregation in the military: Military strictly segregated white and African
American troops, and discrimination was still an issue when they came home.
Tuskegee Airmen: 1,000 Black pilots trained at a segregated air base in Alabama
and flew hundreds of patrol and attack missions before being reassigned to
escort heavy bombers and airplanes. They were famous and often requested,
with one of the lowest loss records of any escort fighter group. Executive Order
Number 8802: Fair Employment Practice in Defense Industries Act, intended to
end discrimination against people of color in the federal government and defense
industries.
17. Japanese Internment: Executive Order 9066, February 19 th, 1942. Interned
110,000 persons of Japanese ancestry and 70,000 American citizens. Japanese
and Japanese-Americans from the West Coast were forced to relocate to other
parts of the country or were sent to hastily constructed camps in remote portions
of the nation. A formal apology was extended in 1988. Fueled by American
prejudice and fears of disloyalty. Alien Enemy Act.
18. America’s approach to the Holocaust: America failed to express any concern
for Nazi persecutions, which began as early as the 1930s. America did relatively
little to aid European Jews, only publicly speaking out following Kristallnacht. The
U.S. continued to turn away countless Jewish refugees who requested asylum.
1939, St. Louis: German ship carrying over 900 Jewish refugees, turned away by
every country (including the U.S.) and was forced to return to Europe, where
hundreds would perish in the Holocaust. Wagner-Rogers Bill was debated by
Congress in 1938 and 1939, which would allow 20,000 German-Jewish children
into America. Endorsed by First lady Eleanor Roosevelt but opposed by roughly
2/3rds of the American public and ultimately defeated.
19. The United Nations: Fifty nations signed the UN charter on June 26 th, 1945.
Began in 1941 following Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms (speech, worship, from want,
from fear), reinforced by Churchill, then at the Tehran Conference in 1943. In
August 1944, there was an agreement to have a Security Council which would
consult on how best to keep the peace and when to deploy the military power of
the assembled nations. Continued motion of “collective security” that did not fail.
Would include a General Assembly made up of all nations, as well as an
International Court of Justice and a council for economic and social matters.
20. The G.I. Bill: Passed in 1944 to help returning veterans to buy homes and pay
for higher education. Helped spur major growth in higher education and
suburbanization with the boom in new home building, thought its benefits
notably were of limited assistance to women and people of color.
 25. The Cold War
1. The Long Telegram: February 22nd, 1945: George Kennan sends a literal
lengthy telegram to the State Department denouncing the Soviet Union. Advised
Truman to contain Communist expansion and that Communism could be beaten
without going to war.
2. The Cold War: Emerged following the failure to achieve a durable settlement
among leaders from the “Big Three” Allies. The conflict was between the U.S. and
Soviet Union and was never directly “hot” despite proxy wars and conflicts. Was
ultimately a global and ideological struggle between capitalism and communism
between the two remaining world powers.
3. The Truman Doctrine: 1947, was Truman’s policy of providing economic and
military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology.
Was proposed in order to help Greece and Turkey. American officials worried that
Europe’s impoverished masses were increasingly vulnerable to Soviet
propaganda/ideology. Viewed by the communists as an open declaration of the
Cold War. “Prevent the spread of communism by helping the economy.”
4. West Berlin: June 1948, U.S., British, and French officials introduced a new
currency, the USSR initiated a ground blockade, cutting off rail and road access
to West Berlin to gain control over the entire city. Germany was split into
mandates following WWII, with the USSR having East Berlin/East Germany.
5. The Marshall Plan: Designed to rebuild Western Europe, open markets, and win
European support for capitalist democracies. Part of containment. The U.S.
invested huge sums of money ($13 billion) towards reconstruction while
simultaneously loosening trade barriers.
6. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): Established in 1949. An alliance
of nations that agreed to band together in the event of war and to support and
protect each other; collective security/defense against communism (the USSR).
The communist version was the Warsaw Pact.
7. NSC-68: National Security Memorandum 68, passed in April of 1950. A national
defense memo that warned of increasingly terrifying weapons of mass
destruction that serve as a reminder of the ever-present possibility of
annihilation. Identified the leaders of the USSR as an enemy to America that
must be stopped by any means. Called for offensive and a gross increase in
defense spending, which ultimately determined U.S. foreign policy for the next
20-30 years.
8. The Korean War: Fighting erupted in Korea between USSR/China-backed
communists in the north and American-backed anti-communists in the south.
North Koreans launched a successful surprise attack and took Seoul in June of
1950. The UN demanded they withdraw to the thirty-eighth parallel and
mobilized troops under MacArthur, retaking Seoul in September. ROK/UN forces
continued to push until they met Chinese troops at the traditional Korea-China
border. The war reached a stalement, MacArthur wanted to use nukes, Truman
dismissed him, and on June 23rd, 1951 the Soviet ambassador to the UN
suggested a cease-fire. Over 30,000 Americans died and over 100,000 were
wounded.
9. French Rule in Vietnam: France were colonists and lost it to Japan in WWII.
Nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh was backed by the U.S. during his anti-Japanese
insurgency and created the Independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam. France
wanted its colony back, the U.S. sacrificed Vietnamese self-determination for
France, so Ho Chi Minh turned to the USSR for aid against the French colonizers.
France was defeated in May 1954, and the U.S. brokered a temporary settlement
that split Vietnam in two: Soviet/Chinese-backed state in the north and an
America-backed state in the south.
10. The Nuclear Arms Race: Cold War competition between U.S. and USSR to
develop the most advanced nuclear weapons. Kicked off because the USSR
developed it pretty rapidly following WWII, having the first one constructed in
1949.
11. The Space Race: Competition of space exploration. The US were losing until
they weren’t.
12. Joseph McCarthy: Incited the second red scare, was a republican senator from
Wisconsin. Fueled fears that communism was rampant and growing.
13. McCarthyism: campaign against alleged communists in the US government
and other institutions carried out under McCarthy. Many of the accused were
blacklisted or lost their jobs, although most did not in fact belong to the
Communist Party.
14. Alger Hiss: Former State Department official who was accused of being a
Communist spy and was convicted of perjury. The case was prosecuted by
Richard Nixon.
15. The Rosenbergs: Husband and wife tried and executed for treason under
suspicion of communist influence and trading atomic bomb secrets with the
USSR.
16. Anti-Communism: A movement to stop the spread of communist ideas.
17. Cold War Christianity: Changes to the Pledge of Allegiance, new national
motto (In God We Trust). Sparked by McCarthy’s 1950 Wheeling speech, which
called an “all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity.” Cold
warriors in the US routinely referred to a fundamental incompatibility between
“godless communism” and God-fearing Americanism. Shift away from solely
Christianity, more accepting of Catholicism, Protestants, boo atheists. Billy
Graham (Baptist). Return to more conservative values and beliefs and
prosecution of “deviant” behavior. Lavender scare homosexuality now became
dangerous.
18. The Military Industrial Complex: The close association of the federal
government, the military, and defense industries. Related to domestic
connections and U.S. interests abroad. Foreign policy needed to secure foreign
markets and protect favorable terms for American trade across the globe. From
this POV, the Cold War was just a byproduct of America’s new role as the
remaining Western superpower, which has dominated American policy since
WWII. Coined by Eisenhower, who was fearful that the combined lobbying efforts
of the armed services and industries that contracted with the military would lead
to excessive Congressional spending.
19. Global Independence Movements: Independence movements erupted across
the postwar world. More than eighty countries achieved independence, primarily
from European control.
20. Decolonization: action of changing from colonial to independent status.
American view: successful decolonization could demonstrate the superiority of
democracy and capitalism against competing Soviet models. The goal was to
develop an informal system of world power based on consent (hegemony) rather
than coercion (empire). Not to mention, pretty much all the colonial empires
collapsed between 1947 and 1962. Practically all the formal colonies in Asia and
Africa gained independence.