Glossary

Good Neighbor Policy

Republican presidents during the 1920s rejected gunboat diplomacy and tried to develop better relations with Latin America. This diplomatic effort toward reconciliation came to fruition with the announcement of the Good Neighbor Policy by Roosevelt in 1933.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

Negotiated by French foreign minister Aristide Briand and United States Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg, this pact renounced war as an instrument for resolving international disputes and symbolized the post-World War I disillusionment with naked force. Lacking enforcement mechanisms, it failed to prevent World War II.

neutrality laws

Hoping to avoid the mistakes that had led the United States to enter World War I, Congress passed three separate neutrality laws between 1935 and 1937. They symbolized American isolationist sentiment during the 1930s.

OPA

The Office of Price Administration was created in 1942 to control price inflation that endangered the American economy. The success of price controls depended on ten major rationing programs.

OSRD

The Office of Scientific Research and Development was established by the federal government in 1942 to counter Germany's scientific and technological superiority. As a result, research, supported by government grants, developed into a major industry during World War II. The OSRD's most ambitious project was the atomic bomb.

Pearl Harbor

Executing the most daring surprise attack in military history, the Japanese won an impressive but costly victory at Pearl Harbor. The attack failed to destroy America's aircraft carriers, however. The attack united the American public, opposition to Roosevelt's foreign policy evaporated, and the United States entered World War II.

Stimson Doctrine

Hoover responded to Japanese aggression by adopting the Stimson Doctrine, which revived the Wilsonian policy of refusing to recognize governments based on force. It convinced the Japanese that the United States would not use military force to oppose further acquisitions in the Far East.

War Relocation Authority

Created by Roosevelt, this government agency was responsible for the resettlement of 100,000 Japanese Americans in ten camps scattered across seven states.

Yalta

Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta in February 1945 to settle the shape of the postwar world. They agreed on the partition of Germany but disagreed on the issues of German reparations and the dismemberment of the German state.

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