APWH Unit 8 Vocabulary

Big Three

Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt (leaders of the Allied Powers of World War II)

Tehran Conference

Meeting among leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union in 1943; agreed to the opening of a new front in France

Yalta Conference

Meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin; Russia agreed to declare war on Japan after the surrender of Germany and in return FDR and Churchill promised the USSR concession in Manchuria and the territories that it had lost in the Russo-Japanese War

Potsdam Conference

The final wartime meeting of the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union was held outside Berlin, in July, 1945; Truman, Churchill, and Stalin discussed the future of Europe but their failure to reach meaningful agreements (including the division of Germany) soon led to the onset of the Cold War

Harry Truman

Became president when FDR died; gave the order to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan

Cold War

A conflict between the US and the Soviet Union; never directly confronted each other on the battlefield but deadly threats went on for years

Dwight Eisenhower

United States general who supervised the invasion of Normandy and the defeat of Nazi Germany; as president warned about nuclear build-up of US and Soviet Union

Self-determination

Concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves

Hydrogen bomb

A thermonuclear bomb which uses the fusion of isotopes of hydrogen; far more powerful than an atomic bomb

Military-industrial complex

Eisenhower first coined this phrase when he warned American against it in his last State of the Union address; he feared that the combined lobbying efforts of the armed services and industries that contracted with the military would lead to excessive Congressional spending

United Nations

An international organization formed after WWII to promote international peace, security, and cooperation

Iron Curtain

A political barrier that isolated the peoples of Eastern Europe after WWII, restricting their ability to travel outside the region

Satellite countries

Eastern European countries that remained under the control of the Soviet Union during the Cold War era; most were drawn together militarily by the Warsaw Pact; later attempted political or cultural rebellion, such as Hungary in 1956 or Czechoslovakia in 1968, faced invasion by Soviet forces

World revolution

Extreme leftist belief that communist values should be spread to all countries of the world to free the workers and poor from control by the capitalist systems and must be overthrown; unfair traditional governments should be replaced by unions and workers cooperatives

Containment

American policy of resisting further expansion of communism around the world

Truman Doctrine

A policy that stated the U.S. would support any nation threatened by Communism

Non-Aligned Movement

The group of nations that didn't side with either the US or the USSR during the Cold War

Mutual assured destruction

Idea that both the US and the Soviet would face certain destruction in a nuclear war

Sputnik

First artificial satellite; launched by Moscow in 1957 and sparked U.S. fears of Soviet dominance in technology and outer space; led to the creation of NASA and the Space Race

Marshall Plan

A United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe; had stipulation of anti-communist pledge for nations who used the loans

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON)

An economic organization of Communist states meant to help rebuild Eastern Bloc countries from World War II destruction under Soviet auspices

Proxy War

A conflict in which the feuding powers use third parties as substitutes instead of fighting each other directly

Berlin Airlift

Joint effort by the US and Britain to fly food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet blocked off all ground routes into the city

Berlin Wall

Barrier set up in 1961 to separate East and West Berlin; the physical separation of capitalist and communist ideologies in Germany

Korean War

Conflict that began with North Korea's invasion of South Korea and came to involve the United Nations (primarily the United States) allying with South Korea and the People's Republic of China allying with North Korea

Vietnam War

A prolonged war (1954-1975) between the communist armies of North Vietnam who were supported by the Chinese and the non-communist armies of South Vietnam who were supported by the United States

Domino Theory

A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control

Bay of Pigs

An unsuccessful invasion of Cuba in 1961 sponsored by the United States; its purpose was to overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro

Cuban Missile Crisis

1962 crisis that arose between the United States and the Soviet Union over a Soviet attempt to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba

Angola

A former colony of Portugal; at independence, ethnic fighting resulted in the US and the Soviet Union throwing their support behind different forces and fighting a proxy war.

Contra War

Covert (secret) military operation against anti-Western Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua; the stated goal was to stop flow of arms through El Salvador; the US heavily backed the Contras while the Soviets backed the Sandinistas

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

A group of 28 countries that has agreed to protect each other in case of attack by communist forces; founded in 1949

Warsaw Pact

An alliance between the Soviet Union and other Eastern European nations in response to the NATO

Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO)

An alliance of the U.S. and other countries similar to NATO, but in Southeast Asia; felt obligated to protect South Vietnam from communist aggression

Central Treaty Organization (CENTO)

Members were the U.S., Great Britain, Turkey, Iran and West Pakistan; treaty to improve U.S. relations and cooperation with Latin and South America

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

1963 nuclear-weapons agreement, which banned aboveground nuclear tests

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

An international treaty, signed in 1968, that aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons

Hot Line

Direct telephone line between the White House and the Kremlin set up after the Cuban Missile Crisis

Antinuclear Weapons Movement

Consists of more than 80 anti-nuclear groups that oppose nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and/or uranium mining

Douglas MacArthur

American general, who commanded allied troops in the Pacific during World War II; led the US and UN-backed South Korean troops in the Korean War

Lyndon B. Johnson

US President during Vietnam who extended troops into Vietnam; believed in the domino theory

John F. Kennedy

President of the US during the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis

Nikita Khrushchev

A Soviet leader during the Cuban Missile Crisis; famous for denouncing Stalin and allowed criticism of Stalin within Russia

Land reform

Breakup of large agricultural holdings for redistribution among peasants

Commune

A collective farming community; in the context of communism peasants are assigned to work on large government-owned farms

Theocracy

A government controlled by religious leaders; Iran after the 1979 Revolution is a prime example

Mao Zedong

Chinese Communist leader from 1949 to 1976

Great Leap Forward

Started by Mao Zedong; combined collective farms into People's Communes, failed because there was no incentive to work harder, ended after 2 years; disastrous famines followed

Red Guards

Radical youth of the Cultural Revolution in China starting in 1966; often wore red armbands and carried Mao's Little Red Book

White Revolution

The term used by the Shah to describe reforms in Iran between the end of World War II and the downfall of his regime in 1979

Muhammad Reza Pahlavi

Dictator-ruler of Iran from 1941 to 1979; was supported by the United States throughout most of the Cold War due to his anti-communist stance; overthrown during the Iranian Revolution in 1979

Mohammed Mossadegh

Prime Minister of Iran before being overthrown in CIA coup, accused of treason, and convicted as a Communist

Haile Selassie

Emperor of Ethiopia and symbol of African independence; fought the Italian invasion of his country in 1935; aligned with Western powers during the Cold War; later his people distrusted his close relationship with the US

Mengistu Haile Mariam

Member of a military and civilian group who opposed Selassie in 1974 and overthrew him in Ethiopia; declaring the country socialist and began to align with the Soviet Union; resigned and fled to Zimbabwe in 1991

Kwame Nkrumah

Founder of Ghana's independence movement and Ghana's first president

Charles de Gaulle

French general and statesman who became very popular during World War II as the leader of the Free French forces in exile; brought a referendum to the people of France and Algeria to settle the question of Algerian independence

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnamese communist statesman who fought the Japanese in World War II and the French until 1954 and South Vietnam's Western-friendly government during the Vietnam War until 1975

Gamal Abdel Nasser

He led the coup which toppled the monarchy of King Farouk and started a new period of modernization and socialist reform in Egypt; nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956

One-party state

A political system in which one party controls the government and actively seeks to prevent other parties from contesting for power; a prime example is Ghana under Nkrumah

Algerian Civil War

Violence that began in reaction to one-party rule in Algeria that lasted from 1991-2002

Algerian War for Independence

Began in 1954 with Algerians campaigning for independence from France; France initially resisted this movement out of concern for the many French settlers in the colony

Suez Crisis

July 26, 1956, Nasser (leader of Egypt) nationalized the Suez Canal, Oct. 29, British, French and Israeli forces attacked Egypt; UN forced British to withdraw; made it clear Britain was no longer a world power

Biafran Civil War

1967-1970; a movement by the Igbo to fight for their independence from the new country of Nigeria; created more violence and ethnic-based conflict

Quiet Revolution

A period of intense social, political, and economic change in Quebec; Quebecois began to assert their rights and affirm and promote their language and culture (1960-1966)

Muslim League

An organization formed in 1906 to protect the interests of India's Muslims, which later proposed that India be divided into separate Muslim and Hindu nations

Organization of African Unity (OAU)

An organization started in 1963 by thirty-two newly independent African states and designed to prevent conflict that would lead to intervention by former colonial powers

Viet Cong

A communist-led army and guerrilla force in South Vietnam that fought its government and was supported by North Vietnam

Six Day War

(1967) short conflict between Egypt and Arab allies against Israel; won by Israel; took over the Golan Heights , the West Bank of the Jordan River; and the Sinai Peninsula

Yom Kippur War

Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in October 1973 (on Yom Kippur); Israel managed to repel the attack

Camp David Accords

A peace treaty between Israel and Egypt where Egypt agreed to recognize the nation state of Israel; in return Egypt got the Sinai Peninsula back

Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)

This organization formed in 1964 with the purpose of creating a homeland for Palestinians in Israel

Fatah

A Palestinian political and military organization founded by Yasser Arafat in 1958 to work toward the creation of a Palestinian state

Hamas

A militant Islamic fundamentalist political movement that opposes peace with Israel and uses terrorism as a weapon

Khmer Rouge

A group of Communist rebels who seized power in Cambodia in 1975 under the leadership of Pol Pot

Kashmir

A region of northern India and Pakistan over which several destructive wars have been fought

Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Sri Lankan leader (and world's first female Prime Minister); ran for office after her husband was assassinated; continued his socialist economic policies

Indira Gandhi

Daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru (India's first Prime Minister); became prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977; moved to strengthen India's economy and manufacturing; resisted Sikh separatist movements and was assassinated in 1984

Benazir Bhutto

Twice prime minister of Pakistan in the 1980s and 1990s; first ran for office to avenge her father's execution by the military clique then in power; struggled to right Pakistan's downturned economy; assassinated in 2007

Julius Nyerere

President of Tanzania who advocated an African form of socialism based on cooperative agriculture, literacy campaigns, and free education

Metropole

A large city of a former colonial ruler that attracts immigrants from all over their former colonies (examples: London, Paris, many cities of the US)

Wladyslaw Gomulka

Communist leader who attempted to make Poland less dependent on the Soviet Union

Imre Nagy

Hungarian Communist Party leader who attempted to end association with the USSR which lead to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

Prague Spring

In 1968, Czechoslovakia, under Alexander Dubcek, began a program of reform; promised civil liberties, democratic political reforms, and a more independent political system; Soviet Union invaded the country and put down the short-lived period of freedom

Alexander Dubcek

Communist Party Secretary of Czechoslovakia; loosened strict rule, permitted criticism of government, made the government more democratic (Prague Spring)

Brezhnev Doctrine

Soviet Union and its allies had the right to intervene in any socialist country whenever they saw the need

Irish Republican Army (IRA)

A militant organization of Irish nationalists who used terrorism and guerrilla warfare in an effort to drive British forces from Northern Ireland and achieve a united independent Ireland

Ulster Defense Association

A protestant organization in Northern Ireland that fought against the IRA

Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA)

A revolutionary group of northern Spain who used terrorist attacks to force the government to grant territorial independence

Abimael Guzman

Known as "Presidente Gonzalo" Founder of the Shining Path in Peru; was a philosophy professor who spread his ideas to his students; believed in popular justice and rejected human rights

Shining Path

A terrorist group formed in Peru in the late 1960s as a splinter group from the communist party of Peru

Martin Luther King Jr.

U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader; noted orator; opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations; assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee; Nobel Peace Prize winner (1964)

Nelson Mandela

ANC leader imprisoned by Afrikaner regime in South Africa for nonviolent antiapartheid movement; released in 1990 and elected as president of South Africa in 1994

Kent State University

An Ohio university where the National Guard opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam War on May 4, 1970, wounding nine and killing four

Ronald Reagan

US President who referred to the Soviet Union as the "evil empire" and caused tensions to flare between the superpowers; created a missile defense program to counter Soviet nuclear missiles attacks

Mikhail Gorbachev

Soviet statesman who initially fanned tensions with the US before correcting his foreign policy, bringing about an end to the Cold War and whose domestic policy introduced major reforms (glasnost and perestroika)

Détente

A policy of reducing Cold War tensions

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)

A series of meetings in the 70s, in which leaders of the US and the Soviet Union agreed to limit their nations' stocks of nuclear weapons

Perestroika

A policy initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev that involved restructuring of the social and economic status quo in communist Russia towards a market based economy and society

Glasnost

A policy initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev which called for more openness with the nations of West, and a relaxing of restraints on Soviet citizenry

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF)

Nuclear arms reduction treaty signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987