| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Berlin Airlift | Western nations' effort to fly in supplies to W. Berlin to preserve its autonomy in the Soviet sphere |
| Containment | US policy aimed at stopping the spread of communism throughout the world |
| Big Three | Major allied nations following WWII; USA, USSR & Britain |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | standoff between the US & USSR over the construction of missiles in Cuba |
| Destalinization | Khrushchev's policy of eliminating Stalin's cult of personality in the post-Stalin era |
| Détente | a lessening of tensions; a thaw in the Cold War |
| Domino Theory | theory that nations would fall one after another to communism |
| Eastern Bloc | communist nations in E. Europe; Soviet satellite nations |
| Ethnic cleansing | term used to refer to the targeted genocide of certain ethnic groups; specifically in Yugoslavia |
| General Assembly | International Senate; all member nations have representation |
| Glasnost | openness, honesty; process of opening the USSR to ideas & culture of the West |
| Helmut Kohl | W. German leader who oversaw reunification of E & W Germany |
| Ho Chi Minh | nationalist leader of the communists in Vietnam |
| Iron Curtain | term describing the division between communist nations in E. Europe and democracies in W. Europe |
| Korean War | 1950-53 conflict in Korea between the communist north and the democratic south |
| Lech Walesa | leader of Solidarity in Poland; led protests to Soviet & communist repression in Poland |
| Marshall Plan | US plan to offer financial aid to any European nation that needed to rebuild after WWII |
| Mikhail Gorbachev | leader of the USSR in the 1980s; helped end the cold war with his policies of glasnost & perestroika |
| NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Defensive military alliance between western democratic nations |
| Nicolae Ceausescu | brutal Romanian dictator who was overthrown & executed on Christmas 1989. |
| Nikita Khrushchev | leader of the USSR following the death of Stalin; pursued policy of destalinization |
| Non-aligned nations | nations that pursued an independent course; did not join eastern or western bloc |
| Nuclear Proliferation | the spread and increase in the number of nuclear weapons around the world |
| Perestroika | restructuring; policy of restructuring the economy to become more capitalistic |
| Potsdam conference | post WWII conference; falling out between the USA & USSR; Cold War begins |
| SALT | Strategic Arms Limitation Talks; designed to limit US & Soviet nuclear arsenals |
| Secretariat | Administrative head of the United Nations |
| Security Council | Branch of the UN that investigates international situations that threaten the peace; can send troops |
| Solidarity | Polish labor union; represented resistance to Soviet and communist repression |
| Soviet Satellites | E. European nations with communist puppet governments; policies were loosely controlled by the USSR |
| Sputnik | first satellite in space, launched by the Soviets |
| Star Wars | Strategic Defense Initiative pursued by Reagan in the 1980s; involved satellite defense against missiles |
| Truman Doctrine | plan to give aid to any nation resisting communist pressure |
| United Nations | international peace organization formed after World War II |
| Vietcong | military wing of the Vietnamese communists |
| Viet Minh | group formed to seek Vietnamese independence from the French |
| Vietnam War | 1964-73 conflict in Vietnam between the communist north and the democratic south |
| Vladimir Putin | Russian President 2000-2008; powerful conservative force, very anti-American; remains Prime Minister |
| Warsaw Pact | Defensive military alliance among communist E. European nations |
| Western Bloc | democratic nations of W. Europe |
| Yalta conference | Big three met to discuss vision for post war world |
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