Period 8 Key Terms

​ Taft-Hartley Act: A 1947 US federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions,
including outlawing closed shops.
​ Closed Shop: A workplace where all employees are required to be members of a labor union as
a condition of employment.
​ Sunbelt: A region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and
Southwest, experiencing substantial population and economic growth in the post-World War II
era.
​ Rustbelt: A region in the northeastern and midwestern United States characterized by declining
industrialization, particularly in manufacturing.
​ Fair Deal: President Truman's domestic agenda, which aimed to expand New Deal programs and
enact reforms in areas such as housing, employment, and social security.
​ United Nations (UN): An international organization established in 1945 with the goal of
maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, and
promoting social progress.
​ Security Council: One of the principal organs of the UN, responsible for maintaining
international peace and security. It has five permanent members with veto power: the US, Britain,
the USSR (later Russia), France, and China.
​ General Assembly: The main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN,
composed of all member states.
​ Nuremberg Trials: A series of military tribunals held by the Allied forces after World War II in
Nuremberg, Germany, to prosecute prominent members of the political, military, and economic
leadership of Nazi Germany.
​ National Security Act of 1947: A major restructuring of the United States government's military
and intelligence agencies, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council
(NSC), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
​ National Security Council (NSC): A body in the executive branch of the US government that
advises the president on national security and foreign policy matters.
​ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA): A civilian foreign intelligence service of the US government,
responsible for gathering, analyzing, and disseminating national security information from around
the world.
​ Iron Curtain Speech: A speech delivered by Winston Churchill in 1946, warning of the Soviet
Union's growing influence and control over Eastern European countries, which he described as
being behind an "iron curtain."
​ Satellite States: Countries in Eastern Europe that were under the political and economic
influence of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
​ Containment: A US foreign policy strategy during the Cold War aimed at preventing the
expansion of communism.
​ Marshall Plan: An American initiative passed in 1948 to provide economic assistance to Western
and Southern Europe to help them rebuild after the devastation of World War II.
​ Berlin Blockade: A Soviet Union blockade of West Berlin from 1948 to 1949, cutting off all land
and water routes for supplies.
​ Berlin Airlift: A massive US-led effort to airlift food, fuel, and other essential supplies to West
Berlin during the Soviet blockade.
​ NSC-68: A top-secret policy paper issued by the US National Security Council in 1950 that
advocated for a significant expansion of American military spending and a more assertive foreign
policy to contain communism.
​ Loyalty Review Board: Established by President Truman in 1947 to investigate federal
employees and determine their loyalty to the US government, reflecting Cold War fears of
communist infiltration.
​ McCarran Internal Security Bill (1950): A US federal law that required Communist
organizations to register with the government and imposed restrictions on their activities,
reflecting growing anti-communist sentiment.
​ Dynamic Conservatism: President Eisenhower's political philosophy, described as being
"conservative when it comes to money, liberal when it comes to human beings," suggesting a
moderate approach that preserved some New Deal programs while maintaining fiscal
responsibility.
​ Interstate Highway Act: A landmark 1956 act that authorized the construction of a vast network
of interstate highways across the United States, with rationales including defense and economic
development.
​ Operation Wetback: A US Immigration and Naturalization Service program in 1954 that resulted
in the deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, primarily of Mexican descent.
​ NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration): A US government agency
established in 1958 for space exploration and research, created in response to the Soviet Union's
launch of Sputnik.
​ Eisenhower Doctrine: A foreign policy statement by President Eisenhower in 1957, pledging US
military and economic aid to Middle Eastern nations threatened by communist aggression.
​ Students for a Democratic Society (SDS): A student activist movement in the United States
that was one of the main representations of the New Left in the 1960s, advocating for social
justice and participatory democracy.
​ Weather Underground (Weathermen): A radical left-wing organization that emerged from SDS,
known for its anti-government and revolutionary actions.
​ Woodstock: A large music and art festival held in Bethel, New York, in August 1969, symbolizing
the counterculture movement of the 1960s.
​ Kent State Massacre: An incident on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, in which
Ohio National Guard members shot and killed four unarmed college students protesting the
Vietnam War and the Cambodian Campaign.
​ Civil Rights Act of 1964: A landmark US federal law that outlawed discrimination based on race,
color, religion, sex, or national origin.
​ Voting Rights Act of 1965: A US federal law that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.
​ Civil Rights Act of 1968: A US federal law that prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental, and
financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, or sex.