Key Events and Figures of the Cold War Era

knowt version

San Francisco Conference

UN formed

UN

Security council, 5 veto members. US, USSR, Br., Fr., Ch.

Potsdam Conference

Post WWII European remapping

Nuremburg Trials

Trials of German leaders (3 acquitted, 12 death, 7 prison)

Truman Doctrine

Kennan's idea of containment for Comm

Marshall Plan

$13 bil from US to 16 European nations

Treaty of Brussels

Benelux + GB + Fr economic cooperative

Comecon

Council of mutual economic assistance. USSR response to Brussels

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (defensive against soviets)

ROK

Republic of Korea (South) led by Syngman Rhee (Capitalistic)

PROK

People's Republic of Korea (North) led by Kim Il-Sung (Commie)

Korean War

B/n ROK and PROK, DMZ at 38th

The Meatgrinder

Gen Ridgeway's slow pushback of PROK

Warsaw Pact

USSR response to NATO (7 USSR satellites)

Secret Speech

Anti-Stalin delivered by Khrushchev

U-2

Plane US used to spy on Russia from 70,000 ft

Testicles of the West

Khrushchev's name for Berlin

Prague Spring

Dubyek's Commie reforms vs Brezhnev, 'Socialism with a human face'

MAD

Mutually Assured Destruction

SALT I

(Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty): limited Antiballistic, intercontinental, and submarine ballistic missile production

Helsinki Accords

UN recognizes Mao China and Soviet's extended boarders

SALT II

Banned new nukes and MIRVs … Congress says no

SDI

Strategic Defense Initiative. US can destroy ICBMs in atmosphere. 'Star Wars'

Great Leap Forward

China's attempt for agrarian communism (45 mil die)

Cultural Revolution

Youth movement by Mao to remake ideas, habits, customs, culture

Party Plenum

China's 'Re-education phase' calling for perpetual rev

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

France then pulls out of Vietnam

SEATO

South East Asia Treaty Organization

PROC

People's Republic of China

DRV

Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Attlee

British leader after Churchill. 'Sheep in sheep's clothing'

Josip 'Tito' Broz

Yugoslav leader who defied USSR draw

Kennan

Proposed idea of commie containment

Jan Mazaryk

Czechoslovakian who 'falls out of window' before election

Mao Zedong

Chinese Communist revolutionary and leader

Syngman Rhee

Leader of ROK

Kim Il Sung

Leader of PROK

Walker

Gave 'Stand or die' order in Korea (dies in jeep accident)

Macarthur

Head general in Korea, fired later by Truman

Nikita Khrushchev

Uneducated, becomes USSR first secretary after Stalin dies

Gomulka

Polish leader who gets away with Communist reforms

Imre Nagy

Hungarian Leader who demanded out of Warsaw pact…went poorly

Abdel Nasser

Egyptian leader who cut of oil for Western nations

Fulgencio Battista

Leader of Cuba before Castro

Fidel Castro

Communist revolutionary who takes over Cuba

Francis Gary Powers

Pilot of the U-2

Leonid Brezhnev

Becomes 1st secretary after Khrushchev is ousted

Alexander Dubyek

Czech-Slov commie who stood against Brezhnev with Prague Spring

Herbert Marcuse

Encouraged youth socialism (we are otherwise slaves)

Ho Chi Minh

Commie leader of N Vietnam

Ngo Dinh Diem

Capitalist leader of S Vietnam, later taken out by CIA

Pusan Perimeter

Small perimeter ROK was driven to before US involvement

Seoul

Capital of ROK taken by both sides

Wake island

Meeting held here during Korean war deciding China was not a threat (MacA, Tr)

Cuba

Crisis when USSR missiles were found here