Benjamin Spock
Physician who provided advice on child rearing to baby-boomers' parents after WW II
Hermann Goering
Top Nazi official who committed suicide after being convicted in war-crimes trials
Joseph Stalin
Tough leader whose violation of agreements in Eastern Europe and Germany helped launch the Cold War
Berlin
Territory deep inside the Soviet zone of Germany that was itself divided into four zones of occupation
Iran
Oil-rich Middle Eastern nation that became an early focal point of Soviet-American conflict
George F. Kennan
Brilliant U.S. specialist on the Soviet Union and originator of the theory that U.S. policy should be to "contain" the Soviet Union
Greece
Southern European nation whose threatened fall to communism in 1947 precipitated the Truman Doctrine
George C. Marshall
Originator of a massive program for the economic relief and recovery of devastated Europe
Japan
Nation that was effectively converted from dictatorship to democracy by the strong leadership of General Douglas MacArthur
Nuremberg
Site of a series of controversial war-crimes trials that led to the execution of twelve Nazi leaders
Richard Nixon
Young California congressman whose investigation of Alger Hiss spurred fears of communist influence in America
Joseph McCarthy
Wisconsin senator whose charges of communist infiltration of the U.S. government deepened the anti-red atmosphere of the early 1950s
Henry A. Wallace
Former vice president of the U.S. whose 1948 campaign as a pro-Soviet liberal split the Democratic party
Srom Thrumond
Southern segregationist who led "Dixiecrat" presidential campaign against Truman in 1948
Douglas MacArthur
American military commander in Korea fired by President Harry Truman
G. I. Bill
Popular name for the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, which provided assistance to former soldiers
Sunbelt
Shorthand name for the southern and western regions of the U.S. that experienced the highest rates of growth after WWII
Levittown
New York suburb where postwar builders pioneered the techniques of mass home construction
Baby Boom
Term for the dramatic rise in U.S. births that began immediately after WWII
Yalta Conference
Big Three wartime conference that later became the focus of charges that Roosevelt had "sold out" Eastern Europe to the Soviet communists
Cold War
The extended post-WWII confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that stopped just short of a shooting war
United Nations Conference (or maybe Bretton Woods NH conference)
Meeting of Western Allies during WWII that established the economic structures to promote recovery and enhance FDR's vision of an "open world
Iron Curtain
Term for the barrier that Stalin erected to block off Soviet-dominated nations of Eastern Europe from the West
Marshall Plan
American sponsored effort that provided funds for the economic relief and recovery of Western Europe
NATO
The new anti-Soviet organization of Western nations that ended the long-time American tradition of not joining permanent military alliances
Chinese Nationalists
Jiang Jieshi's (Chiang Kai-shek's) pro-American forces, which lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zeong's (Mao Tse-tung's) communists in 1949
Truman Doctrine
Key U.S. government memorandum that militarized American foreign policy and indicated national faith in the economy's capacity to sustain large military expenditures
Committee on un-American Activities
U.S. House of Rep. committee that took the lead in investigating alleged pro-communist agents such as Alger Hiss
38th Parallel
The dividing line between North and South Korea, across which the fighting between communists and United Nations forces ebbed and flowed during the Korean War
United Nations
New international organization that experienced some early successes in diplomatic and cultural areas but failed in area like atomic arm control