SSUSH20 -- The Truman and Eisenhower Years

After WWII, the US implemented what was known as the Marshall Plan. The purpose of this plan was to:

• Supply West Berlin with much needed supplies despite the Soviets' decision to block access to the city.

• Provide European nations with the money they needed to rebuild after WWII in order to prevent the spread of communist ideas.

• Prevent Communists from taking over countries in Southeast Asia.

• Provide returning US soldiers with jobs, homes, and educational opportunities as they returned home from the war.

This was the basis for many U.S. foreign policy decisions during the Cold War and refers to the determination to stop the spread of communism.

• containment

• compressment

• subjugation

• conformity

Stated that the United States would supply any nation with economic and military aid to prevent its falling under the Soviet sphere of influence.

• G.I. Bill

• National Interstate and Defense Highways Act

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• Truman Doctrine

Created by the Soviet Union; an alliance of the communist nations it controlled in Eastern Europe.

• Warsaw Pact

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

• OPEC

• NAFTA

A war of democracy versus communism which ended in a stalemate, with neither side declaring victory.

• World War I

• World War II

• Vietnam War

• Korean War

A series of "Red Scares" highlighted by statements about alleged communist infiltration of the U.S. government and the U.S. Army, which led to civil rights violations of those who were communists, were suspected of being communists, or were suspected of knowing someone who might be a communist.

• McCarthyism

• Trumanism

• Marshallism

• Indoctrinism

A US army soldier returning home after WWII to find that he could get a loan and buy an affordable new home in the suburbs would most likely owe a debt of gratitude to:

• HUAC and Joseph McCarthy

• "Reaganomics"

• The New Deal

• The GI Bill

Congress passed this, which authorized the construction of a national network of highways to connect every major city in America. The new system replaced the railroad network as the principal way of transporting goods and boosted economic development.

• G.I. Bill

• Truman Doctrine

• National Interstate and Defense Highway Act

• Marshall Plan

Sputnik concerned leaders in the United States because:

• It was an agreement between the USSR and Cuba that placed nuclear missiles within 90 miles of the U.S.

• It was a Soviet satellite that signaled that the US was far behind the Soviets in education.

• It was a submarine that U.S. ships were defenseless against.

• It was a bomb ten times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Japan.

"I HAVE TODAY signed into law H.R. 13247, the National Defense Education Act. This Act, which is an emergency undertaking to be terminated after four years, will in that time do much to strengthen our American system of education so that it can meet the broad and increasing demands imposed upon it by considerations of basic national security."

--statement by President Eisenhower, upon signing the National Defense Education Act, September 2, 1958.

Which TWO factors MOST LIKELY spurred the passing of the legislation mentioned above?

• the ending of World War II

• the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor

• the successful launch of Sputnik into space

• the increase of consumerism in the United States

• the fear that public education was not as successful as in other countries.