Cold War Crises and Nazi Germany Depth Study Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering Cold War origins, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, the Berlin Blockade, and Nazi Germany.

Containment

The foreign policy introduced by US President Harry Truman aimed at stopping the spread of Soviet influence and communism globally.

Syngman Rhee

The anti-communist, non-democratic leader of South Korea supported by the United States following the liberation from Japanese rule in $1945$.

Kim Il-sung

The communist leader of North Korea who established a Soviet-style one-party system after the region was liberated by Soviet troops in $1945$.

UN Resolution 84

A United Nations Security Council resolution passed in the absence of the boycotting USSR (preventing a Soviet veto) authorizing a UN force of $16$ member states—predominantly American—to remove North Korean invaders from the South.

General Douglas MacArthur

Commander of the UN forces in Korea who pushed North Korean troops beyond the 38th parallel to the Chinese border, but was sacked by President Truman in April $1951$ after demanding to invade China using nuclear weapons.

SEATO and CENTO

US-led regional anti-communist military alliances: the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) covering Central Asia and the Middle East.

Warsaw Pact

A military alliance created in $1955$ by the USSR and communist Eastern European countries to enforce Soviet military suppression and counter Western alliances like NATO.

MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction)

A military deterrence theory during the Cold War arms race postulating that if either superpower initiated a nuclear attack, both the USA and USSR would be utterly destroyed.

Fulgencio Batista

The corrupt, anti-communist Cuban dictator and US ally who was overthrown by Fidel Castro in $1959$.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

An April $1961$ failed invasion where US President Kennedy supplied equipment to $1{,}400$ anti-Castro Cuban exiles, who were quickly defeated by $20{,}000$ Cuban troops, humiliating the USA and pushing Cuba closer to the USSR.

October Crisis (1962)

The critical Cold War showdown beginning on $14\text{ October }1962$ when an American U-2 spy plane photographed Soviet nuclear missile sites in Cuba capable of hitting US cities and killing $80\text{ million}$ Americans within $10\text{--}20\text{ minutes}$.

Test Ban Treaty (1963)

A treaty signed by the USA and USSR in $1963$ following the Cuban Missile Crisis to prohibit atmospheric nuclear weapons tests and avoid direct conflict.

Domino Theory

The US geopolitical theory asserting that if Vietnam fell to communism, the rest of South East Asia would inevitably fall like a row of dominos.

Ngo Dinh Diem

The deeply corrupt, Christian, and landlord-aligned South Vietnamese leader backed with $1.6\text{ billion}$ dollars in US aid who showed contempt for peasants and Buddhism until his overthrow in November $1963$.

Viet Cong

The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, established in December $1960$; communist guerrilla fighters led by Ho Chi Minh who fought against the South Vietnamese government and the US army.

Strategic Hamlet Programme

A US-backed South Vietnamese scheme that forcibly moved peasants from Viet Cong areas into secure, government-controlled settlements; it backfired because peasants resented relocation and corrupt officials stole the aid funds.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

A $1964$ congressional resolution passed after North Vietnamese forces attacked US naval ships, granting the US President sweeping power to escalate direct military involvement in Vietnam.

Operation Rolling Thunder

A continuous US aerial bombing campaign begun in $1965$ targeting North Vietnam and supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Military-Industrial Complex

A powerful alliance between the US military and weapons manufacturing companies that profited from war and influenced the President to pursue military escalation.

Tet Offensive

A massive coordinated surprise attack in $1968$ where Viet Cong forces struck over $100$ cities and the US embassy in Saigon; while militarily disastrous for the communists ($10{,}000$ fighters lost), it shattered US domestic confidence and proved the US was not winning.

My Lai Massacre

The incident on $16\text{ March }1968$ where US soldiers from Charlie Company murdered $300\text{--}400$ unarmed South Vietnamese civilians; initially concealed as a military success until soldier Ronald Ridenheuer exposed the atrocities to Congress and the media.

Vietnamisation

President Richard Nixon's policy aimed at transferring primary combat responsibility to South Vietnamese troops while systematically withdrawing American ground forces.

Vietnam Syndrome

The public and political reluctance in the United States to commit troops to foreign interventions after the military, moral, and strategic failures of the Vietnam War.

Morgenthau Plan

An initial US post-WWII proposal to completely de-industrialize Germany, which was subsequently abandoned by Truman in favor of building a strong, rebuilt Germany as an ally against the USSR.

Berlin Airlift

The allied operation from June $1948$ to May $1949$ that sustained the isolated population of West Berlin entirely with air-delivered supplies after Stalin blocked all land, rail, and canal transit routes.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

An anti-communist military alliance formed in $1949$ by the USA, Canada, and Western European nations to counter the Soviet threat, cementing Europe's division into two armed blocs.

Northeim

A German town that serves as a case study of how the Nazis seized local power by intimidating the council, coordinating organizations, boycotting Jewish businesses, and producing relentless propaganda.

Gestapo

The Nazi secret state police empowered with sweeping authority to tap phones, conduct surveillance, and arrest and imprison individuals in concentration camps without trial.

SS Subdivisions

Specialized branches of Heinrich Himmler's $1\text{ million}$-member SS force, including the SD (internal security), the Death's Head units (concentration camp guards and organizers of mass murder), and the Waffen-SS (armored military regiments).

Nuremberg Rallies

Massive annual summer propaganda spectacles organized by Joseph Goebbels featuring military parades, light shows, and bands to inspire excitement, unity, and devotion to the Nazi regime.

1936 Berlin Olympics

An international sporting event hosted in a $100{,}000$-seat stadium to showcase Aryan racial superiority, which backfired when African American athlete Jesse Owens won $4$ gold medals.

Concordat of 1933

An agreement reached in $1933$ between Hitler and the Catholic Church in which the regime promised to leave Catholic schools and youth organizations alone as long as the Church stayed entirely out of German politics.

Bishop Galen

A prominent German Catholic bishop who delivered outspoken sermons denouncing the Nazi T-4 euthanasia campaign, temporarily halting the regime's systematic gassing of mentally ill and disabled individuals.

T-4 Programme

The Nazi euthanasia initiative designed to eliminate disabled and mentally ill individuals deemed a threat to Aryan genetic purity, resulting in the gassing of roughly $72{,}000$ people.

Nuremberg Laws

Two foundational anti-Semitic laws enacted in $1935$: the 'Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour' (criminalizing marriages and sexual relations between Jews and Aryans) and the 'Reich Citizenship Law' (categorizing citizens into Aryans, Mischlinge, and Non-Aryans).

Kristallnacht

The state-instigated 'Night of Broken Glass' in November $1938$ where SS and SA stormtroopers destroyed Jewish homes and businesses, burned synagogues, killed $91$ Jews, and deported thousands to concentration camps.

Napolas and Adolf Hitler Schools

Elite secondary boarding institutions ($35$ Napolas with $6{,}000$ pupils run by the SS and army; $12$ Adolf Hitler Schools run by the SS and Hitler Youth) created to train obedient, racially selected future Nazi leaders.

Kinder, Küche, Kirche (The 3 Ks)

The conservative Nazi slogan ('Children, Kitchen, Church') taught in schools and youth organizations to restrict women's societal roles strictly to motherhood and domestic domesticity.

Gold Cross

A state award presented to German women who gave birth to $8$ or more children as part of the Nazi financial and social incentives to increase the Aryan population.

Lebensborn

An SS program that encouraged racially pure unmarried women to mate with SS officers, while also abducting children exhibiting Aryan physical traits from occupied countries like Poland for adoption by German families.

Kreisau Circle

An elite anti-Nazi resistance group that included members like Libertas Schulze-Boysen and Mildred Harnack-Fish who opposed Hitler's regime.

National Labour Service (RAD)

A compulsory public works scheme that drafted young German men into construction, land improvement, and municipal rebuilding projects to lower unemployment.

Strength Through Joy (KdF)

A Nazi state leisure organization that offered workers cheap theater tickets, organized sporting events, and subsidized holidays to maintain workplace contentment and loyalty.

Reich Entailed Farm Law

Legislation that protected family farms from debt seizure and guaranteed market prices, while mandating that agricultural land could only be inherited undivided by the eldest child.

Yalta Conference (1945)

The February $1945$ summit where the 'Big Three' (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) agreed to divide post-war Germany into four Allied zones, set up the United Nations, and acknowledge an Eastern European Soviet 'sphere of influence'.

Potsdam Conference (1945)

The July-August $1945$ summit between Stalin, Truman, and Attlee marked by growing mistrust over German reparations, shifting Polish borders, Soviet military occupation of Eastern Europe, and Truman's notification of the US atomic bomb.

Cominform

The Communist Information Bureau set up by Stalin in $1947$ to coordinate the political activities, policies, and loyalty of European communist parties under Moscow's direction.

Marshall Plan

A US economic initiative providing $17\text{ billion}$ dollars in aid to rebuild Western Europe, restore industrial prosperity, create export markets for American goods, and stop impoverished nations from turning to communism.