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Vocab test

Terms in this set (36)

United Nations
An international peacekeeping organization founded in 1945 to provide security for the world
Iron Curtain
The boundary separating communist nations of Eastern Europe from democratic nations of Western Europe
containment
US Goal to stop the spread of communism by creating alliances and helping weak countries resist Soviets
Truman doctrine
US policy of giving economic aid to free nations threatened by internal or external opponents
Marshall plan
US program of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after WWII
Cold War
The state of diplomatic hostility between the US and the Soviet Union in the decades following. WWII
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a defensive military alliance formed by ten W. European nations, US, and Canada
Warsaw pact
Military alliance formed in 1955 by the Soviet Union and seven Eastern European contries
Brinkmanship
A policy of threatening to go to war in response to any enemy aggression
Mao Zedong
First leader of the People's Republic of China
Jiang Jieshi
Leader of Chinese nationalists who fled to Taiwan after defeat by communists
Commune
A collective farm on which a great number of people work and live together
Red Guards
Militia units formed by young people in 1966 in response to Mao Zedong's call for a social and cultural revolution
Cultural Revolution
1966-76 uprising led by the red guards, with the goal of establishing an equal society of peasants and workers
38th parallel
Latitude line that divided North and South Korea at the end of WWII
Douglas MacArther
commander of UN military forces during the Korean war
Ho Chi Minh
Vietnamese nationalist and communist who fought against the French and became leader of North Vietnam
Domino Theory
Idea that if a nation falls under communist control, nearby nations will also fall into communist control
Ngo Dinh Diem
Leader of anti-communist government in South Vietnam
Vietcong
A group of communist guerrillas who, fought against the South Vietnamese government in the Vietnam war
Vietnamization
Nixon's strategy for ending the US involvement in the Vietnam war by withdrawing US troops and replacing them with South Vietnamese forces
Khmer Rouge
Group of communist rebels who seized power in Cambodia
Third world
Developing nations not allied with either the US or the Soviet Union
Nonaligned nationa
Independent countries that remained neutral in the Cold War competition between the US and the Soviet Union
Fidel Castro
Communist revolutionary and dictator of Cuba for over 40 years
Anastasio Somoza
US-supported dictator of Nicaragua
Daniel Ortega
Leader of the communist Sandinistas in Nicaragua and later president of Nicaragua
Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini
Conservative Muslim leader who overthrew US backed shah of Iran and Established an Islamic state in Iran
Nikita Khrushchev
Soviet leader who replaced Stalin in 1956 and began policy of destalinization
Leonid Brezhnev
Leader of the Soviet Union after Khrushchev who established repressive domestic policies
John F. Kennedy
US president during the Cuban missile crisis
Lyndon Johnson
US president who escalated US involvement in Vietnam
Detente
Policy of reducing Cold War tensions adopted by the US during Nixon Presidency
Richard M. Nixon
US president dedicated to reducing Cold War tensions
SALT
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks- a series of meetings in the 1970's in which leaders of the IS and USSR agreed to limit stocks of nuclear weapons
Ronald Reagan
Fiercely anti-communist US president who moved away from detente
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