Ethiopia: because of economic situations in Italy, they turned to ultranationalist fascism, and a coping mechanism of the government was to promise territorial expansion, so they attacked, and overpowered Ethiopia.
Spanish Civil War: Britain, pursuing isolation, remained uninvolved, also heightened growing interventionist sentiment in US, because conservatives hailed Franco as strong anticommunist, while the political left renounced growing support for fascism in Europe.
Nazi-Soviet Pact: 1939 Hitler secured Germany's eastern flank by signing a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union. They agreed to cooperate in carving up territory, but they secretly decided to divide up Poland, and the Baltic states.
Panay Incident: end of 1937, Japanese planes sank the American gunboat Panay as it evacuated American officials from Nanjing, but Japan's quick apology that they had "accidently bombed the ship, not knowing it was american," defused a potential crisis. Still, it heightened tensions between US and Japan.
Destroyers for bases deal: September 1940, provided direct aid to Britain by escorting supply ships with destroyers which were shallow and poor targets for submarines, aroused significant domestic opposition, signaled FDR’s growing determination to do what was necessary to save Britain.
Blitzkrieg: "lighting warfare," April 1940 German tactic, in which massed tank formations, motorized infantry and artillery, and air support, swiftly overran Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Shocked Allies, led to Dunkirk retreat, Germans occupied France.
Wendell Willkie: republican nominee for the 1940 presidential election, lawyer and business executive with ties to the party's East Cost, internationalist wing. Wilson crushed him.
Selective Training and Service Act of 1940: Military Training Camps Association lobbied on behalf of act, first peacetime conscription.
America First Committee: organized by General Robert E. Wood, head of Sears, Roebuck, and Co., included Charles Lindbergh, tried to keep US out of war.
Lend-Lease (House Resolution 1776): despite the Neutrality Act, the US would now loan, rather than sell, munitions to the Allies, remaining "isolationist."
Senator Burton K. Wheeler: during the Lend-Lease Act debate, evoked Roosevelt's unpopular destruction of farm surpluses during the early years of the New Deal by charging that the act would "plow under every fourth american boy.
Atlantic Charter: August 1941, eight-point declaration of common principles, disavowed territorial expansion, endorsed free trade, and self determination, and pledged the postwar creation of a new world organization that would ensure "general security."
Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941 Japanese bombing of US fleet in Hawaii, did loads of damage, psychological effects unified US. Directly lead to US involvement in WWII.
Henry Stimson: Roosevelt's secretary of War, warned of Soviet domination of central Europe following war if Allies did not directly attack Germany.
Joseph Stalin: leader of communist Russia at the end of WWII, agreed on apparitions of land after war, pledged to enter war against Japan after Germany surrendered at Tehran conference.
Winson Churchill: prime minister of Britain during WWII, appeased Hitler, then when war began, feared a direct confrontation with Germany, and so led to the attack of North African and Italy. Though, in his defense, he was able to maintain British solidarity, and keep Germany from invading.
Casablanca Conference: January 1943, Roosevelt sided with Churchill over Stalin, in the debate over opening a second European front (ie, invasion of France) versus a front in North Africa.
Unconditional Surrender: to assuage Stalin's fears that Great Britain and the US might sign peace treaties wit Hitler, the two pledged to say in until the point of Germany's unconditional surrender.
Operation TORCH: North African operation, beginning with Anglo-American landings in Morocco and Algeria in Nov 1942, because Churchill wanted some moral boosting victories.
Stalingrad: Soviets turned tied of battle, cut off and destroyed one German army, sent the others retreating. Largely due to German forces being split between Eastern front and TORCH.
Charles DeGaulle: leader of the Free French movement, to get Ally forces to liberate France from occupation, outraged by US deal wiht French Admiral Jean Darlan, to break with the Vichy regime.
Operation Overlord: aka D-Day, the Ally invasion of France at the Normandy beaches, began on June 6, 1944. Tricked Germans, who were caught off-guard.
Dwight Eisenhower: directed D-Day attacks, made decision to allow Soviets to take Berlin.
Jiang Jeishi (Chiang Kai-shek): led incompetent, corrupt, and unpopular Nationalist government, aided by FDR, because he was not communist, though he sucked, continued by Domestic China Lobby.
Gneral Joseph W. Stillwell: had worked with the Chinese armies resisting the Japanese invasion in the late 1930s, undertook the job of turning China into an effective military force. "Vinegar Joe."
Douglas MacArthur: commander of the US army in the South Pacific, favored an offensive lunched from his headquarters in Australia, through New Guinea and the Philippines and on to Japan.
War Produciton Board: most powerful of the new economic agencies created with the enhancement of the federal government, oversaw conversion and expansion of factories, allocated resources, and enforced production priorities and schedules,
General Curtis LeMay: headed replacement operation to Arnold's firebombing of Japan, from Saipan, official position was that the incendiary raids on Japanese cities constituted "precision" rather than area bombing, destroyed industrial capacity by bombing workers, and burning cities, lots of civilian casualties.
Admiral Chester Nimitz: commander of the US forces at Midway Island, who received partially broken codes warning him of the Japanese attack, he was able to preempt their attack.
Tokyo Fire Raid: March 9-10, 1945, beginning of LeMay's stragegy, 276,000 buildings razed, 185,000 casualties.
Manhattan Project: a secret program to build a bomb based on atomic research, enlisted to p scientists, largest and most secretive military project EVER.
Office of Price Administration: regulated rices to control inflation and rationed such scarce commodities as gasoline, rubber, steel, shoes, coffee, sugar, and meat.
Okinawa: Japanese island which provided a "stopping point" along the way to japan for planes to refuel, invaluable, brought US bombers within range of Japan mainland. Illustrated the nearly unbelievable ferocity of the island campaigns.
“pin ups:” service publications often contained "pin-up" sections, with sexual images of women. Signified the changing attitude toward women with the development of the association of manliness with brutality and casual sex.
Kaiser Coorporation: spectacular growth in the 1930s had been spurred by federal dam contracts, turned its attention to building ships, aircraft, and military vehicles such as the "jeep" during WWII.
Frank Capra: movie director, master of nostalgia, became one of the most celebrated and successful of the wartime image makers, shaped inspiring and sentimental representations of the American life-- aka propaganda. Champion of the common man, "Mr. Deeds Comes to Town," and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
Fair Employment Practices Commission: president created by executive order, tried to ban discrimination in hiring
Office of War Information: created by Roosevelt in 1942, in response to the failed Office of Facts and Figures, to coordinate policies related to propaganda and censorship.
Elanor Roosevelt: first lady, repeatedly antagonized southern Democrats and members of her husband's administration by her support for civil rights and her participation in integrated social functions.
A Phillip Randolph: labor leader, promised to lead tens of thousands of frustrated black workers in a march on Washington to demand more defense jobs and integration of the military forces. invited Roosevelt to address the planned gathering with the help of major black organizations and other prestigious African American leaders. Canceled march in return for FEPC.
“zoot suit” riots: 1943 pitted Anglos against Mexican Americans, incidents between young Mexican American men wearing flamboyant outfits that featured over-large suits and pants, and local police. Exemplified racial tensions experienced during the war.
United Nations: fulfilled Woodrow Wilson's vision of an international body to deter aggressor nations. Composed of General Assembly, in which each member would be represented and have one vote, and a Security Council, which would include five permanent members and six rotating members who would have primary responsibility for maintaing peace.
Committeee/Congress on Racial Equality: an organization founded in 1942 by whites and blacks who advocated nonviolent resistance to segregation, devised new strategies during the war. Staged sit-ins to protest inequality.
Yalta Conference: early 1945 three allied powers agreed to divide Germany into four zones of occupation, France being the fourth occupying force, later permanently solidified into a Soviet holding field in the east.
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