cold war terms test

tehran

tehran conference, first wwii conference of the big three, discussed opening the second front, 1943

yalta

soviet town where the yalta conference was held, the US, UK and USSR met to discuss postwar peace. decided the boundaries of the four German occupation zones and poland into two and agreed soviet entry into the war against japan

roosevelt

president of the us during the yalta conference, it has been argued he could have negotiated a better deal when it came to the future of the polish government and the role the soviets would have

josef stalin

leader of the ussr during the yalta conference until about the end of the korean war, cold war tensions eased after his death

winston churchill

british pm during the yalta conference and wwii, less confrontational and focused on negotiations, gave the iron curtain speech that pretty much started the cold war,

potsdam

conference in berlin basically that divided germany along the lines agreed at yalta, recognized the lublin government of poland which promised free elections as soon as possible

truman

president after roosevelt, used the atomic bomb and attended potsdam, policy of containment through the marshall plan and truman doctrine

james byrnes

secretary of state under truman, noted the change of american policy towards patience against soviet expansion

curzon line

temporary soviet-polish border that ended up being relatively permanent, agreed upon at yalta conference

lublin government

(provisional government of national unity), communist government backed by the USSR from 1945-1947, agreed upon at the potsdam conference

poland

led by the lublin government after the potsdam conference, which was communist. split along the curzon line, soviet satellite state

clement attlee

british pm after churchill (1945), foreign policy included decolonisation, social reforms including the NHS, supported the marshall plan and NATO, feared soviet expansion and its threat to national security,

long telegram

telegram detailing how the soviet union was irrevocably hostile to the west, that they would continue to be expansionist and threaten the security of the US, shaped US foreign policy

george kennan

writer of the long telegram, the state department's leading expert on russia

nikolai novikov

soviet representative in cairo during wwii, ambassador of the soviet union to the US, wrote a telegram that was highly critical of george kennan

iron curtain speech

churchill's speech in missouri that declared an iron curtain had descended between east and west europe, separating communism and capitalism

marshall plan

European Recovery Program, give $12 billion to western european nations for economic recovery, helped check the growth of communist influence

molotov

premier before stalin, minister of foreign affairs under stalin, led to the soviet occupation of poland alongside germany in wwii, dismissed during khruschev's rule because of his staunch support for stalin

truman doctrine

commitment to supporting other countries fighting communism, $400 million to greece and turkey

eastern bloc

the eastern european countries under Soviet influence; the communist bloc, also includes communist countries in asia and latin america

cominform

an alliance/group of communist governments in eastern europe/communist bloc to coordinate between them,

national security act

created the national security council, helped to discuss national security issues, also established the cia

josip broz tito

yugoslavia's communist leader, who supported the greek communist uprising, the only communist government that came to power independent of the soviets, first to split from the soviets, popular in yugoslavia

czechoslovakia coup

successful communist party rebellion with soviet backing in 1948, led by gottwald

trizonal fusion

the fusion of the western (france, britain, us) zones of germany and berlin

berlin airlift/blockade

the soviets blocked all overland and river traffic to berlin to weaken west germany's ties to the west, in response the US airlifted everything into berlin. Stalin lifted the blockade after 11 months because he didn't want to risk war. 13000 lbs per day for 324 days

nato

north atlantic treaty organization, resulted from the berlin blockade, "an attack against one shall be considered an attack against them all"

comecon

communist economic treaty response to the marshall plan, formed through stalin's desire to strengthen relationships

george marshall

truman's secretary of defense (also secretary of state before that), advocated for economic commitment to european post-war recovery, created the marshall plan

dean acheson

truman's secretary of state, disagreed with nsc-68, sought detente, supported the truman doctrine

socialist unity party

founding party of the german democratic republic (GDR, East Germany), communist, supported by the Soviet Union

lucius clay

administrator of American-occupied Germany after WWII, military governor until 1949, orchestrated the berlin airlift and resigned just before west germany was established

mao defeats chiang

end of the chinese civil war, mao (CCP) drives chiang (ROC) to taiwan

nsc-68

national security council document detailing US cold war policy, painted soviets as expansionist villains who were fanatics to sought to impose absolute authority, moved from containment to confrontation

mccarthy

senator from wisconsin who declared that there were lots of secret communists in the state department, increased the red scare and created mccarthyism, increased fear of communism

red scare

fear of communism/left wing ideologies, after world wars, especially of communism in the government

korean war

north korean invaded the south in july 1950, ultimately a conflict between communism and capitalism. US supported south, soviets supported north, eventually ended right where they started, fuelled anticommunism in america but eventually became one of the most opposed conflicts amongst the american people, led to the decision to remilitarize west germany

yalu river

river between north korea and china, where chinese troops entered to support the north korean military, ultimately resulting in the pushback of UN forces to the 38th parallel

inchon

port city near seoul, where macarthur launched a sea invasion, turning the tide of the war in the south's favor and expanding their land further out from pusan and all the way to the yalu river

pusan

southern korean coastal city, where UN forces were initally pushed all the way to by north korean forces before the landing at inchon

ethel and julius rosenberg

couple convicted of spying for the soviet union about technological advances including in the space race and nuclear weapons

eisenhower

president of the united states after truman, former general during wwii, praised for his moderation and restraint, kept the peace mostly, hosted khruschev in the US

new look policy

policy that reduced the defense budget by $10 million by relying on nuclear weapons for containment. the US would threaten the USSR with nuclear war to stop their aggression (brinkmanship, going to the brink of war)

john foster dulles

eisenhower's secretary of state, advocate for brinkmanship and anti-communism, pushed aggressively against communism, massive retaliation,

kim il-sung

president of north korea during the korean war, invaded the south to start the war. communist dictator

syngman rhee

president of south korea during the korean war, defended against the north and was supported by UN and US forces, not a communist

38th parallel

the line between north and south korea both before and after the korean war, dividing soviet and US occupation zones after japanese occupation ended

Malenkov

succeeded stalin as premier of the soviet union, but was quickly removed in favor of nikita khrushchev

khrushchev

leader of the soviet union after stalin and a brief power struggle amongst leadership, denounced stalin for a bunch of crimes, eventually removed from power. helped establish a hotline between the kremlin and the white house, but did little else to help relieve tensions, wanted to focus less on the cold war and more on the development of the soviet union domestically, really wanted the US to leave west berlin and gave ultimatums, started the cuban missile crisis and boasted a lot about soviet missile capabilities

iran

prime minister mohammed mossadegh nationalized a british-owned oil company, cia restored the shah to power who had more western views, eventually turned on the US after the shah was deposed

cia

central intelligence agency, used inthe cold war to intervene in third world countries to steer away from communism in covert ops

covert action

secret projects for american intervention in third world countries against communism, very controversial (guatemala and iran)

guatemala

covert op by the cia because the legally elected president arbenz nationalized US-owned fruit land and distributed it to peasants

jacobo arbenz

communist guatemalan president (legally elected) who nationalized us land

dien bien phu

battle in vietnam that the french lost, leading to the geneva accords

vietnam

country in southeast asia also having a power struggle between soviet-trained ho chi minh and the vietminh and the french and US. most of the foreign powers wanted out to focus on other interests elsewhere in the world

ho chi minh

leader of communist north vietnam, soviet-trained and backed, supported the viet cong in south vietnam

viet minh

communist side of the vietnam war

geneva conference

resulted in the geneva accords, called for the french to leave vietnam and temporarily divided vietnam into north (communist) and south (french) pending elections, the vietminh did not like the accords because they believed it denied their victory and dienbienphu

matsu

island off the chinese coast, formosa straits crisis between china and taiwan that brinkmanship led to

quemoy

island off the chinese coast, formosa straits crisis between china and taiwan that brinkmanship led to

baghdad pact

central treaty organization, CENTO, military alliance between iran, iraq, pakistan, turkey and the uk, initially pressured by the US who could not join because of lack of congressional approval

warsaw pact

nato rival between the soviet bloc countries, military alliance, invasion of czechoslovakia to stop the prague spring liberal policies by dubcek

secret speech

khruschev's secret speech to the congress of the communist party of the soviet union, denouncing stalin for a bunch of crimes. ignited hope in poland that led to riots and the hungarian revolution

aswan dam

dam that nasser wanted to build in the nile to provide hydroelectricity and irrigation water

gamal nasser

nationalist leader of egypt that siezed the suez canal from the british in order to build the aswan dam and become the leader of the arab world, sponsored terrorist attacks on israel, called for arab unity, authoritarian dictator, anti-imperialist

non-aligned movement

group of countries that are not aligned with any power bloc, specifically in the cold war, today is nearly 2/3rds of the UN

suez crisis

britain, france and israel launched an attack on egypt in response to nasser's seizure of the suez canal, infuriating both the US and USSR (US because NATO did stuff without their consent, USSR because they didn't like western imperialism

hungarian uprising

revolution sparked by khruschev's secret speech, where they tried to resign from the warsaw pact and become a neutral nation in the cold war, the soviets won

imre nagy

reformist leadership in the hungarian revolution that declared neutrality in the cold war, promised reforms, ultimately lost

gomulka

new leader of poland that the soviets used to calm riots after the secret speech, communist who had been imprisoned under stalin

eisenhower doctrine

commitment to use military force if necessary to contain communism in the middle east

sputnik

first artificial satellite, by the soviet union, demonstration of the USSR's progress in developing long range rockets, marked the beginning of the space race and accelerated the arms race

arms race

race between USSR and US to develop more advanced weapons and missiles, race to see who could be ahead and better than the other in order to have superior threat over each other

gaither report

us government report of strategy to prepare against the threat of soviet nuclear attack, wanted the strengthening of the military and increase in military spending, presented to eisenhower and generally said his actions were inadequate, but he mostly ignored it even though it was leaked to the press

icbm

intercontinental ballistic missiles, key part of the arms race because it would allow nuclear weapons to be fired between the US and USSR without needing a closer third country to the target (launched right across the ocean)

u2 incident

soviets shot down a u2 spy plane, cancelled a summit meeting in paris where eisenhower refused to apologize and khruschev stormed out. khruschev then made an embarrasing speech attacking the UN and its general secretary and interrupting speeches at the UN

gary powers

pilot of the u2 plane that was shot down, originally sentenced to 10 years but released after 21 months in a prisoner swap

missile gap

perceived superiority of USSR missiles in comparison to the US, (which didn't actually exist), used by kennedy to put down the eisenhower administration

khruschev's ultimatum

1958 khruschev demanded the US withdraw from berlin, threatened to make east germany an independent state to force the allies to withdraw and give the USSR sole control over berlin, allies refused

peaceful co-existence

khruschev's policy, the two superpowers would only compete politically and economically short of war, also raised tensions as well as lowering them, brought to the cuban missile crisis

common market, european economic community

european economic community (EEC, ECM), aimed to foster economic integration, eventually became part of the EU, allowed for the free movement of goods and trade amongst its members

western alliance

capitalist countries, counterpart to the eastern bloc, unofficial, aligned with the US, included NATO and other countries

konrad adenauer

first chancellor of west germany, founding father of the EU, worked to restore the economy after WWII to stable and democratic, anticommunist

fulgencio batista

dictator in cuba that was overthrown by castro, universally hated in the country, supported by the US and revoked many rights in Cuba

fidel castro

communist leader of cuba, nationalized lots of US land so the US didn't really like him, kind of allied with the USSR but the USSR had like other problems too so not like 100% backed

bay of pigs

US backed and CIA trained cuban exiles to invade and overthrow Castro, expecting the people to help. Kennedy inherited Eisenhower's plan so kind of just went along with it but withdrew air support for the rebel force so basically it was a death mission, most of them were captured or died and it was super embarrassing for the US and Kennedy and an awful defeat

cuba

communist country in the carribbean, part of the cuban missile crisis

alan dulles

WWII spy and brother to the secretary of state, head of the CIA in the 1950s

monroe doctrine

foreign policy opposing foreign influence in the western hemisphere, by president james monroe

dean rusk

secretary of state under kennedy and johnson, one of the strongest supporters of the vietnam war,

alliance for progress

10 year plan by kennedy to establish economic cooperation between the US and latin america, aimed for democracy, expected development in latin american countries through income distribution, literacy, taxes, and economic planning with monetary support from the US

latin america

countries in central and south america, often very involved with the US

john f kennedy

president after eisenhower, super young and charismatic (and therefore popular), failed at the bay of pigs, criticized the eisenhower administration's reliance on nuclear weapons and argued that few crisies warranted their use

berlin crisis

1958, 1961 renewed at the vienne summit, temporarily resulting in tanks facing each other over checkpoint charlie

checkpoint charlie

best-known berlin wall crossing, became a symbol of the cold war and the separation of east and west, where tanks faced each other during the berlin crisis

walter ulbricht

leader of east germany, advocated for the building of the berlin wall, suppression of political and civil rights, communist dictator that caused the massive emigration of people to west berlin

robert f. mcnamara

kennedy and johnson's secretary of defense, strategy of flexible response (both military and nonmilitary), feared that the fall of vietnam to communism would threaten southeast asia,

robert kennedy

us attorney general under jfk and johnson, mostly involved in Cuba and in encouraging the blockade instead of nuclear war, helped end the cuban missile crisis by meeting with the soviet ambassador and agreeing the removal of missiles in cuba in exchange for a US promise not to invade cuba and to remove missiles from turkey

strategic hamlet

program in south vietnam backed by the US to combat communist insurgency, created protected hamlets in order to strengthen ties of rural peasants with the government and create loyalty