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Tehran Conference

1943 meeting where the 'Big Three' (U.S., UK, USSR) planned the invasion of Nazi-occupied France (D-Day).

Yalta Conference

1945 meeting where the Big Three discussed the postwar division of Germany and Stalin promised (but later denied) free elections in Eastern Europe.

Iron Curtain

The ideological and physical divide between democratic Western Europe and the communist Soviet bloc in the East.

Satellite Countries

Eastern European nations that were technically independent but remained under the heavy political and economic control of the Soviet Union.

Truman Doctrine

The U.S. policy of containment, providing military and economic aid to nations (like Greece and Turkey) to stop the spread of communism.

Marshall Plan

A U.S. economic aid program that gave billions to rebuild Western Europe, aiming to make capitalism stable and communism less attractive.

World Revolution

The communist belief that the working class should rise up globally to overthrow capitalism in every nation.

Space Race

A competition for technological prestige between the U.S. and USSR to achieve milestones like satellite launches and moon landings.

Non-Aligned Movement

A group of developing nations (led by India, Egypt, and Indonesia) that refused to pick a side in the Cold War.

NATO

A Western military alliance based on collective defense against Soviet aggression.

Warsaw Pact

The Soviet-led military alliance of Eastern European satellite states, formed to counter NATO.

Bay of Pigs Crisis

A failed 1961 U.S.-backed attempt by Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro, which pushed Cuba closer to the USSR.

Domino Theory

The U.S. fear that if one country in a region fell to communism, the surrounding countries would inevitably follow.

Great Leap Forward

Mao Zedong's failed attempt to rapidly industrialize China through forced collectivization, resulting in a massive famine.

Cultural Revolution

Mao's movement to purge 'capitalist' elements from China and reassert his authority using the youth-led Red Guards.

White Revolution

The Shah of Iran's 1963 program of top-down modernization and land reform, which angered traditional religious leaders.

Muslim League

The political organization that led the movement for the creation of Pakistan during the decolonization of British India.

Quiet Revolution

A period of rapid secularization and social change in Quebec, Canada, that fueled French-Canadian nationalism.

Détente

A period in the 1970s marked by a temporary 'thawing' or loosening of tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Proxy War

A conflict where major powers (U.S./USSR) support opposite sides in a third-party country to avoid direct war with each other.