Tehran Conference
Meeting between Big Three held in Iran where plans were made for the future of WWII. Resulted in Soviet focusing on Eastern Europe while Britain and US focused on Western. Also offered Soviet union some Polish land to balance Polish getting land from Germany
Yalta Conference
Conference held by the Big Three where Franklin Roosevelt wanted free democratic state elections in Eastern Europe. Instead the Soviet Union declared that they should control these regions heightening tensions.
U.S. - Soviet Rivalry
While US was set to be more economically successful, Soviet Union tried to rival their military might in this Rivalry.
Military-industrial complex
The creation of informal alliances between governments and large defense contractors. President Eisenhower warned against this concept due to the potential to reach MAD.
The Potsdam Conference
The final Conference held by the Big Three where Roosevelt’s’ wants for free Eastern European elections was repeated by Truman and rejected again by Stalin. This a breaking point for tensions
Technologies developing during WWII
Spread of Penicillin, Refrigeration of food, stronger plywood, and pressurization in Airplane cabins.
Failures of the League of Nations
This organization lacked the support of powerful nations (US and Soviets)
This organization didn’t have the mechanisms to prevent a small conflict from escalating
The “Iron Curtain”
Winston Churchill’s philosophy about a metaphorical split of Eastern and Western Europe.
Similarities and differences between Soviets and US
Differences: Capitalism vs Communism; Democracy vs Authoritarianism; US attacked Soviet’s conservation of freedoms while Soviets attacked US’s discrimination against African Americans and women, and lack of economic aid for the impoverished.
Similarities: Large economic decisions were in the hands of powerful groups (government or corporate shareholders) and both acted out of fear for each other.
Truman Doctrine
A declaration that the US would support all democratic countries under threat from external or internal Communist/authoritarian forces
Marshall Plan
An economic plan made by the US which provided financial aid to European nations damaged by WWII based on the prenotion that a communist revolution could happen in unstable countries.
Council for Mutual Economic Assistence (COMECON)
A Communist Alternative to the Marshall plan providing trade and credit agreements to participating countries.
Sputnik
The first satellite made by the Soviet Union setting off the space race.
Bandung Conference
Conference where countries passed resolutions condemning Colonialism. This led countries to start the Non-Aligned Movement.
Berlin Blockade
Soviet Union’s attempt to prevent supplies from reaching Western Berlin. Countered by the Berlin Airlift where relief supplies were airdropped for over a year.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Treaty made by Western nations to coordinate defenses in case of conflict with Soviets.
Warsaw Pact
Treaty made in response to NATO by Soviet Union, Nations in pact were referred to as the Communist bloc.
General Douglas MacArthur
Person who commanded The US’s troops in South Korea
Domino Theory
The idea that if one country in a region became Communist, other countries would soon follow. Lyndon Johnson believed this theory.
Angola Civil War
When this Portuguese colony got independence through war, ethnic divisions prompted a civil war. USSR backed Mbuntu tribe, US backed Bankongo tribe, South Africa backed the Ovimbundu tribe.
Contra War
In Nicaragua 1979, after the Somoza family was killed by Sandinistas, this war broke out where the US backed Contras fought against the Sandinistas.
The Bay of Pigs Crisis
John F. Kennedy’s attempted coup in Cuba to overthrow Fidel Castro. Ultimately failed and cemented Soviet-Cuba alliance.
Nikita Khrushev
Soviet Leader after Stalin who placed Nuclear Missiles in Cuba initiating Cuban Missile Crisis.
Hot Line
Direct telegraph between the US and Soviet Union developed after the Cuban Missile Crisis
Antinuclear Weapon Movement
Movement caused due to the fear of nuclear weapons. This encouraged the creation of the Test-Ban Treaty banning nuclear tests above ground. later the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was also made to prevent the spread of nuclear technology to non-nuclear countries.
Great Leap Forward
Chinese movement made by Mao Zedong organizing land into communes (state owned agricultural communities. Didn’t work and caused food shortages, but Mao Still exported grain to Africa and Cuba to convince others that it was working. After 20 million dead it was abandoned
Cultural Revolution
Chinese movement which silenced critics of Mao using the Red Guards (Revolutionary students) to round up opposing officials to send them to “reeducation” camps
Mohammad Mosaddegh and the White Revolution
Prime Minister of Iran who replaced Muhammad Reza Pahlavi. Instituted progressive policies recognizing women’s rights, making a social welfare system, and funding literacy programs. Also had failed plan to distribute land among peasants.
Iranian Revolution
Revolution removing Mohammad Mosaddegh due to his secular policies. Resulting government was a theocracy opposing Westernism in Middle East and was opposed to Israel.
Jacob Arbenz
Leader overthrown by the Guatemalan Coup sparked by the United Fruit Company’s imperialist interests and the Red Scare
Mengistu Haile Mariam
An Ethiopian co-leader who declared Ethiopia Socialist and received aid from the Soviet Union after replacing Haile Selassie.
1946 Royal Indian Navy Revolt
An Indian Mutiny in the navy which led Britain to realize that it couldn’t control India anymore. This partially led to the partitioning of India.
Kwame Nkruah
Leader of Ghana who made Nationalist policies and assumed dictatorial powers adopting a one-party state. He advocated Pan-Africanism and founded the Organization of African Unity (OAU)
Algerian War for Independence
Nationalist war after WWII with the French claimed that Algeria was a part of France because the population of French people in the country. While France was winning the war, the brutality of it resulted in French President Charles de Gaulle giving them independence.
Algerian Civil War
When Algerian ruler claimed a one party rule, it made Islamic Salvation Front assassinate the president causing a civil war.
The Suez Crisis
A crisis that occurred due to the French still leasing the Suez Canal reflecting colonialism to Egyptians. This resulted in Gamal Nasser seizing the canal causing the British, France, and Israel to invade Egypt. The US and USSR disapproved of their actions so Canal was given to Egypt for public use.
Biafran Civil War
Civil war fought in Nigeria due to Igbo peoples attempting to secede from the state because Islamic groups targeting them. Didn’t end up working.
Quiet Revolution
Quebec Revolt between Catholic France and Protestant Britain. This was an attempt to make Quebec an independent nation, but didn’t work due to a referendum voting to keep Quebec a part of Canada.
Balfour Declaration
British declaration granting Zionists Palestine as a national home for Jewish People directly conflicting with the Lawrence of Arabia by Lawrence.
Camp David Accords
Peace Agreement between Israel and Egypt mandated by the US. Other Palestinians rejected this policy and established the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)
Khmer Rouge
A Communist guerrilla organization led by Pol Pot in Cambodia who persecuted educated people in the Cambodian Genocide. Ended with Vietnamese taking over country.
Kashmir Conflict
tension between India and Pakistan over this Muslim majority region which became more tense after these nations developed Nuclear Weapons. Consequence of the partitioning of India.
Indira Gandhi
A female ruler of India following Jawaharlal Nehru who was effective at handling the economy of India for a period shown by her 20-point economic program, alleviating inflation, reforming corrupt laws, and increasing national production.
Metropole
A large city of a former colonial ruler. An example is London which drew many people from newly independent countries into it.
Julius Nyerere
President of Tanzania who campaigned modernization campaigns, ultimately couldn’t get Tanzania out of poverty due to economic hardships.
Nelson Mandela
South African who led the resistance against Apartheid eventually succeeding.
The Prague Spring of 1968
Alexander Dubcek the president of Czechoslovakia granted the people more freedoms and made government more democratic
Brezhnev Doctrine
When Soviet Union leaders were scared of Prague Spring and sent armies to crush it, this document was made proclaiming that the Soviet Union could intervene if an action by one member of the Warsaw Pact threatened other socialist countries.
Peru’s Shining Path
A terrorist organization made by Abimael Guzman which drew on ideas from Khmer Rouge and Mao Zedong attempting to replace government with a Communist one.
Idi Amin
Ugandan leader who was at once a member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights who brutally instituted a dictatorship killing hundreds of thousands.
Detente
Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the two superpowers relaxed during this period.
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)
Treaty between US and Soviet Union during detente which limited the amount of intercontinental ballistic missiles each power could keep.
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF)
Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union banning intermediate-range nuclear weapons marking the end of the Cold War.
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
A defense system made by US which claimed to be able to shoot down any Soviet Warhead coming to US or allied countries