Chapter 17- The Cold War
Order by
35 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Yalta Conference | A meeting in February 1945 between the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. At this conference they agreed to divide Germany into zones controlled by the Allied military forces. Germany would also have to pay the Soviet Union to make up for its lose of life and property. Stalin agreed to join the war against Japan but the US makes sure to take care of it itself. Stalin also promised that Eastern Europe wold have free elections. |
| United Nations | An international organization originaly made of 50 countries that was formed in June 1945 that was inteted to protect the members against agression. It was to be based in New York. The General Assembly was the large body were each UN member nation could cast its vote on a broad range of issues. An 11 member Security Council had the true power to investiage and settle disputes. Its five permananent members Britian, China, France, the US, and the Soviet union could veto any security council action. this prevented any member of the council from voting as a bloc to override others. |
| iron curtain | the term for Europe's division into the mostly democratic Western Europe and Communist Eastern Europe. |
| containment | a policy adopted by President Truman directed at blocking Soviet influence and stopping the expansion of communism. containment policies included forming alliances and helping weak countries resist Soviet advances |
| Truman Doctrine | A US policy passed by President Truman in 1947 that included giving economic and military aid to free nations threatened by internal or external opponents. this support for countries that rejected communism caused great controversy. Some thought the US shouldn't interfere in other nations affairs and some said US couldn't afford this but Congress pased for more than $400 million in aid to Turkey and Greece. |
| Marshall Plan | a US program of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after World War II. This plan would provide food, machinery, and other materials to rebuild Western Europe. After the Communists took over Czechoslovakia, Congress immediately voted apporval and was a success. |
| Berlin Airlift | When France, Britain, and the US withdrew their forces from Germany and allowed their occupation zones to form one nation. In response to this the Soviet Union held West Berlin hostage. The Soviet Union cutt off highway, water and rail traffic to West Berlin and it faced starvation hoping the Allies would give up hope of reunifying Germany or surrender West Berlin. But American and British officials flew food and supplies into West Berlin for almost 11 months until the Soviet Union admitted defeat and lifted the blockade. |
| Cold War | a struggle over political differences carried on by means short of military action. This happend with the US and Soviet Union after WWII. Starting in 1949, the two countries used spying, propoganda, diplomacy, and secret operations in dealing with each other. The Cold War affected US and Soviet foreign policies as well as world alliances until the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. |
| NATO | The North Atlantic Treaty Organization formed between ten western European Nations along with the US and Canada to form a defensive military alliance. an attack on any NATO member would be met with armed force by all member nations. |
| Warsaw Pact | An alliance formed by the Soviet Union in response to the NATO alliance that was seen as a threat. It included the Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslavkia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. The East Germans put up a wall to seperate East and West Berlin symbolizing the world divided into rival camps. |
| guerilla war | the irregular warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army. Used by the Mao's communist army against Japanese. |
| Nationalist China | The nationalists government set up by Jiang Jeishi on the Island of Taiwan with the help of the United States. Ths government moved from Southern China to Taiwan after Mao took over China. The bad economy led to weak public support and the army was innefective and corrupt. |
| People's Republic of China | Formed in October 1949 when Mao Zedong gained control of the country. This officially made China a communist country and forced Jiang to flee south. The People's Repbublic of China received financial and military support from the also communist Soviet Union. The two countries also pledged to come to each others defense if needed. |
| Great Leap Forward | Mao's plan to expand the success of the first Five-Year Plan under his rule with the use of larger collective farms called communes where the peasants owned nothing and had no incentive to work hard as the state made all the profits. due to poor planning and inefficient home industries hampered growth adn the program eneded after 3 years when crop failures led to a famine killing 20 million |
| communes | large collective farms that the Chinese lived in that housed over 25,000 people and strictly controlled the lives of the people. Peasants slept, ate and raised their children in communal living spaces. and they owned nothing giving them no reason to work hard. |
| Red Guards | millions of high school and college students who responded to Mao's call to "learn revolution by making revolution". they formed this militia unit and smashed anything relating to the non-Maoist way of life and killed Mao's "enemies". They targeted anyone who resisted the regime. |
| Cultural Revolution | the uprising caused by the Red Guards whose goal was to establsih a society of peasants and workers in which all were equal. Red Guards shut down colleges and schools and targeted those who resisted the regime. Mao ordered them to be stopped after they had caused to much chaos and their actions had the potential to cause a civil war. |
| 38th parallel | A line that crosses Korea at 38 degrees north latitude. Divides North and South Korea. |
| Kim Il Sung | the Communist dictator in Northeran Korea starting in the 1950s and ruling until his death in 1994. He established collective farms, developed heavy industry and built up the military. |
| Kim Jong Il | song of Kim Il Sung who took over rule of North Korea in 1994. Under his rule the communist North Korea developed nuclear weapons but had serious economic problems. |
| Ho Chi Minh | a young vietamese nationalist who turned to the communist for help in his struggle against the French. He and his communist party led revolts against the French. His army and the vietamese nationalist party army fought against the Frnech Army and defeated the French. He governed northern Korea and supported South Korea in its fight against the South Korean Government/United States. After the US retreat North Korea took over South Korea. |
| Third World | one of the three "world" political groups that consisted of developing nations, often newly independent, who were not aligned with either the first world industrialized capitalist nations nor the the second world Communists nations led by the Soviet Union. this made them another arena for competition between Cold War superpowers. located in Latin America, Asia and Africa and economically poor and politically unstable. |
| KGB | Soviet secret police agency charged with domestic and foreign intelligence |
| nonaligned nations | a "third force" of independent countries made up of countries from Asia and Africa. some were able to remain neutral while others took sides eventually. |
| Fidel Castro | young lawyer who led the Cuban Revolution and became dictator in 1959. despite brining social reforms and improving the economy at first, he was a harsh dictator. he suspended elections, jailed or killed his opponents, and tightly controlled the press. he took ove US owed mills and refineries nand Eisenhower prohibited trade with Cuba. causing Cuba tlo allign with the Soviet Union and then later become a part of the Cold War with the Cuban Missile Crisis. |
| Anastasio Somoza | the Nicaraguan dictator that the US supported/funded(along with his family) since 1933.In 1979 Communists Sandinista rebels toppled Somoza's son and took power. |
| Sandinistas | Communist rebels who toppled Somoza's son and received aid from the US and Soviet Union. led by Daniel Ortega, htey started to give assistance to other Marxist rebels in nearby El Salvador. To help El Salvadoran government fight these rebels, the US supported the Nicaraguan contras. |
| Contras | "contrarevolucionarios" who were Nicaraguan anti-Communistf forces that the US supported in order to help the El Salvadoran governmnet fight those rebels. |
| Muhammed Mossadeq | prime minister of Iran wh united Iranian nationalists who resented foreign alliances with Western nations. they nationalized a British owned oil company and forced hte sha to flee in 1953. |
| Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini | the leader of the religious opposition who opposed western influences. Iranian's rioted in every city until Khomeini returned to establish an Islamic state and to export Iran's militant form of Islam. Strict adherence to Islam ruled Khomeini's policies but hate for the US was at hte heart of his foreign policy. He encouraged Muslim radicals everywhere to overthrow their secular governmenments and had a rival with Iraq and its secular leader Saddam Hussein. |
| Iran-Iraq War | war that broke out between territorial rivals: secular stated Iraq and Islamic governed Iran in 1980.the US aided both sides as it didn't want the balance of power to be shifted while the Soviet Union supported Iraq. A million Iranians and Iraqis died before the UN negotiated a ceasefire. |
| Nikita Kruschev | the dominant Soviet leader after Stalin died.. He denounced Stalin for jailing and killing loyal Soviet citizens. his speech signaled the start of destalinization or the purging of Stalin's memory. he called for "peaceful competition" with capitalist states. He showed his power in Hungary hlost prestige after the Cuban Missile Crisis and was removed from powre in 1964. |
| Leonid Brezhnev | Kruschev's replacement elected in 1964 who quickly adopted regressive domestic policies. his policies limited basic human rights like freedom of speech and worship. he did not tolerate dissent in Eastern Europe by invading Czechoslovakia. |
| detente | a policy of lessening Cold War tensions that replaced brinkmanship under President Richard Nixon's rule. the move to detente grew out of relapolitik philoshpy that meant dealing with other nations in a reasonable and flexible meanor. the US still tried to contain the spread of communism but the two superpowers agreed to pursee detente and to reduce tensions. |
| SALT | A series of meetings called the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks were Nixon and Brezhnev signed a treaty limiting the number of intercontintential ballistic and submarine launched missiles each country could have. |
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