APUSH Period 8 Vocab

1945-1980

cold war

conflict between Communist soviet union and western democracy United States from 1945 to 1991 (the collapse of the Soviet union) although theres no specific start date, where they fought not directly but through diplomacy and military conflict with allies and this almost lead to nuclear war several times

soviet union

leading Communist world power post ww2 and during the cold war against the us

Joseph Stalin

communist dictator of USSR at start of cold war and during ww2 how was very disliked by Truman because of his distrustfulness from his nonaggression pact with Germany pre ww2 until hitlor violated it and invaded USSR and they became allies with us

United Nations

international peacekeeping organization made in 1945 where representatives of all nations have a voice and there is a security council of 15 members five of which were permanent and get vetoes (US, USSR, GB, F, China) (USSR rejected Baruch plan to eliminate atomic weapons in 1945 which increased public distrust against soviets)

Satellites

buffer States around Russian in the USSR yo protect against invasions from the west (like Hitler did) started to be used 1946-1948 wen Russia rigged elections making Communist dictators in in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, hungry, Albania, and checoslovakia

Winston Churchill

former prime minister of great Britain (during ww2) and man who gave iron curtain speech march 1946

Iron curtain

metaphor in speech given by Churchill explaining the division in Europe between US and allies and west and soviets and it calls for western democracies to band together to stop expansion of communism

containment policy

1947 Truman government policy to prevent Soviet expansion without war through long term firm and vhilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies liked by George marshal and two others, criticized by some saying its too ambitious, as the firmness grew it turned into the marshal plan and Berlin airlift and joining of nato

George Marshall

secretary of state to Truman and helped lead the containment policy and creator of marshall plan

Truman doctrine

name for Trumans request to Congress for $400 mill in economic and military aid to assist the free people of turkey and Greece (Russia attempted to take over turkey waterways land strip and start a Communist revolution in Greece) against totalitarian governments (Russia) in March 1947, this gained bipartisan support as a continuation of the containment policy.

Marshall plan

program made by George Marshall June 1947 approved in 1948 giving 12 billion dollars in aid for distribution to western European countries suffering economically from ww2 over a 4 yr Period (the original plan was to give $17 billion called European Recobvery Program) it was also offered to USSR and its satallites but was declined because they didn’t want to rely on the US, it was seen as working very well decreasing Communist threat in France and Italy that arose from bad economic situations there post ww2 however it did increase the divide between the west and east

Berlin airlift

june 1948 to may 1949 USSR had an 11 month blockade over the east part of Berlin so Truman decided to fly us planes overhead to drop food and supplies for months and then he sent 60 bombers capable of carrying atomic bombc to a bse in London inc ase eventually Stalin backed off of the blockade in Berlin and public opinion of Truman increased helping his re-election in 1948

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

military defense alliance formed in 1949 of 10 western European nations plu sthe US and Canda, the=he us put troops inw western Europe toprotect against the USSR, increase commitment abroad from containment policy, the Senate and Truman approved of this, led by Eisenhower, led to USSR creating Warsaw pact.

Warsaw Pact

military alliance for defense of Communist ststaes made in 1955 by the USSR as a reaction to the creation of NATO.

National Security Act 1917

1947 law that made centralized department of defense (army and navy and airforce, ect), replacin te war department,made natiional security council for forein policy, and made te cIA to et info on oter countries

arms race

intense competition between te us and ussr in 1945 after and durin te cold war to develop superior weapon sustems, te us ad only abomb from 1945 to 1949 ten te USSR made one and in 1952 te US made te first Hydroen bomb

Doulgas McCarthur

general who took charge of reconstruction in Japan pst ww2 and they made teh new constitutiion may 1947 making a parlimenatary democracy, renouncing war as a nationalpolicy, and limiting the military, he also helped lead us troops in the korean war against the soviets and was fired april 1951 for wanting to bomb china and speaking about this behind trumans back and orders

Mao Zedong

leader of communst party in china in civil war against Chiang Kai Shek and tha nationalist party by appealing to ppoor landless farmers amist widespread corruption and inflation, he established teh peoples republic of china in 1949, signed sino soviet pact with stalin in 1950

Peoples republic of china

china post ww2 and civil war led by Mao Zedong established as a communist nation, not offically recognized by the un or the us until 1979 by the US

38th parallel

¨line¨ of division between north (communist with svietinfluence) and south (nationalist with US infleucne) post WW2 and the wthdrawl of Us and USSR troops in 1949, during the korean war the US sought to push north korea back behind this line after they had crossed it into south korea

Korean War

bushfire war between north and south korea but also china and teh soviets versus the us and the un when north korea invaded south korea june 1950 to try to unite korea as one communist nation, stalemate ordered in july 1951, republicans said the democrats were too soft on communism for not wianning, mccarthur was fired for wanting to bomb china aginst trumans whishes during the korean war

John Foster Dulles

secretary of state to Eisenhower shaping his foreighn policy of the 1950s, ideology was brinkmanship and massive retaliation

Massive relatiation

also called mutual extinction and the result of brinm,anship with threat of nuclear war and conflict in the cold war turning into bushfire wars between alloies and pawn countries in asia, africa, and the middle east

Korean armistice

end of korean war july 1953 with no winner, stayed around the 38th parallel, return prisoners, caused by death of stalin and threat of nuclear war

Nikita Khrushchev

new leader of the soviet Union who gave speech in 1956 saying he wasnt a fan of stalin and wanted peaceful coexistance with the Us which increased hope in the west for pereace

Sputnik

the first stalatite launched by the soviets in 1957 menaing the Us was no longer leading in tech which embarassed the US as they raced to catch up leaidng two several failed launched satalities. so the US made 1958 national defense and educatoion act so incerase funding for math and science in schools and also NASA, overall thsi increased fear and worry during the cold war

NASA (national aeronautics space administration)

made to increase us efforts to build missiles and explore space to compete with the USSR in the arms race in 1958 and was a direct response to Sputnik.

U-2 incident

US spy plane flying to spy on the Soviet missile program was shot down in 1960 over the USSR after Krushchev said no to open skies polcy in 1955, Eisenhower lied about the plane at first making Krushchev denounce the US and be much angrier

Fidel Castro

overthrew Cuban dictator in 1959 to make his own markist and totalitarian and communistcuba backed by the soviets, very much disliked by us because it was way too close to home to have communism

military industrial complex

Esienhower warned against this ideology that he believed was getting stronger in his farewell address describing the negative impact of the cold war on the US possibly becoming a military state.

bay of pigs invasion

plan set up by Eisenhower to train anticommunist Cubans, invade the beaches of Cuba, and get support from the subans and US air force to help overthrow Castro and communism in Cuba. Kennedy agreed to carry out such plan by after Castro stopped the beach invasion he redacted thee air force which was a major fumble lowering is popularity greatly at the start of his presidency

berlin wall

khrushchev threatened us and said to remove troops from Berlin but Kennedy said no so the USSR built this around Germany to stop anyone from escaping to the US side to leave the city/country, Kennedy said that it was wrong but really didn’t do anything to stop it and it was torn down by German rebells in 1989.

cuban missile crisis

October 1962 USSR and Cuba put missiles in Cuba and the US repsonded with a naval blockade of Cuba to which if the USSR responded, there could be nuclear war, they backed off and removed missiles but only if US didn’t invade Subaru and eventually removed their missiles from turkcey. this lead to a hotline between the countries and a test ban treaty of nuclear weapons.

nuclear test ban treaty

international law signed in 1963 by the US and USSR among 100 others to end testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.

flexible response policy

kennedy policy increasing spending on conventional no nuclear qarms and mobile military forces to decrease global escalation towards destruction but the outcome also lead to increased elite special forces over the globe

non proliferation treaty

treaty between the US, USSR, and GB July 1968 to agree to not help other countries make or get nuclear weapons

Henry Kissinger

national security advisor and then secretary of state to Nixon together they lowered cold war tension and ended the Vietnam war

Detente

the deliberate reduction of cold war tension that nixon and Kissinger policies got closer to achieving through the rivalry of the USSR and China as two communist powers.

antiballistic missles

nuclear technology that would expand the arms race and was limited in number in the SALT 1 law.

Strategic arms Limitation Talks

teh first one got the USSR to agree to freeze the number of antiballistic missles capable of carrying nucs that they had which decreased cold war tensions and got closer to detente but the second one in 1979 was never ratified by the US senate

Loyalty review board

group under Truman 1947-1951 that investigated the background of 3 million federal employees leading to the firing or resengation of thousands of jobs because of the red scare

Smith Act

1940 law that made it illegal to advocate or teach overthrowing the government by force or be part of an organization with this goal. it was upheld in Dennis et al v US 1951

Dennis et al v US

1951 supreme court case upholding the constitutionality of the Smith Act

McCarran internal securities Act

1950 law made by overruling truman’s veto making it illegal to support totalitarian governments and decreasing travel and employment for people in community organizations and saying that the government can make detention centers for suspected or convicted communists

HUAC, House unamerican activities commitee

gov agency made in 1939 to find nazies and reignited later to find communists in government positions, boy scouts, Hollywood, ect, and blacklisting those who refused to testify

Alger Hiss

man who worked in the state department but was convicted of perjury as a “communist spy” in 1950 even though he denied it, this increased the fear of spies in the federal government

Julius and Ethel Rosenburg

soviet spies who helped soviets get the atomic bomb and had a trial in 1951, civil rights groups said they were convicted because too much anticommuinist hysteria in the US but they were convicted and executed in 1953 regardless

McCarthyism

the witch hunt of communists that got its name from the powerful and loved politician of the 5os Joesph McCarthy whoo accused others of being communists left and right but was exposed in 1954 as a bully and fraud making false accusations when he attempted to accuse people in the military