IB History HL Paper 3 Topic #16 - The Cold War in the Americas

containment

US foreign policy developed in the 1940s to prevent the further spread of Soviet expansionism and communism

Salami tactics

also called a piecemeal strategy, it is the elimination of opposition by slicing away all of its strengths; it was used by the Soviet Union in Poland, the Berlin Blockade, and the exploding of atomic bombs

NSC-162/2

National Security Document issued in October 1953 which addressed the Soviet nuclear threat and US determination to maintain nuclear superiority

brinkmanship

practice of allowing events to escalate to dangerous levels in the hope that the opposition will back down, fearful of the consequences; during the Cold War this meant pushing events to the edge of direct conflict between the US and USSR

plausible deniability

practice of withholding information from government officials to protect them from being implicated in possibly illegal actions; during the Cold War, it allowed the President to arrange for certain actions but conceal the links so that he could later deny knowledge of them

domino theory

idea that if one country in a region became communist the others would inevitably follow suit

Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI)

economic policy which encouraged domestic production of goods that are usually imported to create a favorable balance of trade and stimulate domestic industry

Kennan's Long Telegram

sent by George Kennan from the United States Embassy in Moscow to Washington in 1946; outlined Soviet belief and practice and proposed the policy of containment

Organization of American States

founded in 1948 at the Ninth Pan-American Conference, it now consists of 32 nations of Central and South America and the US; its formation was a strategy used by the US to discourage communism in the Western hemisphere

Dollar Diplomacy

originally a pre-FDR policy, it is a method by which the US achieved its foreign policy aims in the Americas, East Asia, and the Pacific through loans and economic assistance to foreign countries

"Good Neighbor" policy

FDR's foreign policy for South American countries; main idea was that instead of interfering in South American countries' affairs directly through the US military, the US would use its economic might to influence the countries and not interfere directly in the countries' internal affairs

Mutual Security Act of 1951

US policy that provided $38 million dollars of military assistance to Latin America; showed USA was continuing to ignore calls for economic assistance

Joseph McCarthy

US senator who publicly crusaded against communism and sought out communists in the various areas of the USA, particularly in the government and in Hollywood

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

led by Republican Party representatives in US Congress, its activity escalated during the Cold War; some argue its investigations were an attempt by the GOP to weaken Democrats before the 1948 election

Alger Hiss

US State Department worker who was accused by Whitaker Chambers of providing classified government documents to Moscow during the 1930s; the "pumpkin files" were on microchips hidden inside of Chambers' garden and he was charged with perjury; example of HUAC investigations during the Cold War

Smith Act

US law passed in 1940 that required the fingerprinting and regulating of all aliens in the US; made it a crime to teach or advocate the violent overthrow of the government; it became the basis of later prosecutions of members of the Communist and Socialist Workers parties

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

obscure communist couple from New York whom the federal government claimed had passed American atomic secrets to the Russians; the case against them rested on the testimony of David Greenglass, Ethel's brother who had worked on the Manhattan Project; they were convicted and sentenced to death for conspiring to commit espionage

Federal Civil Defense Administration

created in 1951 to assure Americans that steps could be taken to survive nuclear war

Duck and Cover

famous instructional video created in the US in which a turtle named Bert taught students to crawl under their desks and cover their heads in "drop drills;" displays the culture of "survivability" during the Cold War

38th parallel

dividing line between North and South Korea, across which the fighting between communists and United Nations forces ebbed and flowed during the Korean War

Executive Order 9981

ordered by President Truman, it racially desegregated the armed forces; the Korean War marked the first time American forces fought in integrated units

Douglas MacArthur

commander of the overwhelmingly American UN operations in Korea who, under President Truman, aimed to create "a unified, independent and democratic Korea;" he was relieved of command after publicly opposing Truman in a letter; he held wide public support

Truman Doctrine

policy drawn from the ideas of influential American diplomat George F. Kennan, it aimed "to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures;" it provided $400 million to aid Greece and Turkey; established a basis for American foreign policy that would survive for more than forty years

McCarran Internal Security Act

passed in 1950, it required the registration of all communist groups with the US federal government and said that internal documents were not private

John Foster Dulles

Secretary of State under Eisenhower who called for more radical measures to roll back communism where it had already spread; felt that containment was too cautious and helped to outline the "New Look" policy

"New Look"

Eisenhower policy that emphasized reliance on strategic nuclear weapons to deter potential threats, both conventional and nuclear, from the Eastern Bloc of nations headed by the Soviet Union; included the ideas of "massive retaliation" and brinkmanship

Mutual Assured Destruction

theory that massive retaliation from one side would produce the same on the other

Central Intelligence Agency

created by Congress in 1947, it functions under the direction of the National Security Council and was used during the Cold War to conduct covert operations

Jacobo Arbenz

democratically elected president in Guatemala from 1951 to 1954; he was a center-leftist who pledged social and economic reforms for the country; he passed the Decree 900 which allowed the Guatemalan government to expropriate uncultivated lands from large plantations, angering the UFCO and the US government leading to a coup directed by the CIA

United Fruit Company

US company that controlled half the land in Guatemala; when the government of Guatemala wanted to take the land, the US intervened and overthrew the government; John Foster Dulles and his brother (CIA director Allan Dulles) had previously worked for the company's law firm

Carlos Castillo Armas

military general in charge of the CIA-backed Guatemalan coup d'êtat; he was later installed in Guatemala by the US government after the ousting of Arbenz

National Defense Education Act

law passed in 1958 by US Congress that significantly expanded federal aid to education by funding programs in math, foreign languages, and the sciences

Intra-American Development Bank

established in 1959 by Eisenhower to provide money for social and economic programs in Latin America; not very effective due to inability to implement finances to specific areas; Nixon persuaded Eisenhower to create this after he was attacked in Lima and Caracas in 1957

Ho Chi Minh

alternative to Ngo Dinh Diem, he called for Vietnamese unification; he led the nationalist forces against the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu

Ngo Dinh Diem

aristocratic Catholic from central Vietnam, he was the nationalist leader of South Vietnam during the war; he waged an effective campaign against some of the powerful religious sects and the South Vietnamese mafia; despite early success, he was assassinated in 1963 by South Vietnamese generals due to his instability

Viet Cong

name used by many Americans in reference to the National Liberation Front (NLF), it was an organization closely allied with the North Vietnamese government; it was committed to overthrowing the "puppet regime" of Diem and reuniting the nation

Viet Minh

created in 1941 and led by Ho Chi Minh, it was the political party that declared Vietnam an independent nation and established a nationalist government in 1945 after the collapse of Japan

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

battle occurring when French troops became surrounded in a disastrous siege in North Vietnam; opposition came from nationalists led by communist leader Ho Chi Minh; the French were defeated, and Eisenhower refused to permit direct military intervention

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

authorized the president to "take all necessary measures" to protect American forces and "prevent further aggression" in southeast Asia; in Johnson's view, the resolution became an open-ended legal authorization for escalation of the conflict in Vietnam

"Operation Rolling Thunder"

US air campaign which aimed to bomb North Vietnam into submission

Tet Offensive

turning point in the Vietnam War in January 1968; involved heavy losses on both sides and was televised in the US, causing Middle America to question US involvement in the war; in reality, it was a success for the US military and the North Vietnamese army was significantly weakened, but this proved less important than the propaganda that resulted in the USA

Vietnamization

Nixon policy of replacing American military forces with those of South Vietnam in the war

Kent State

in which anti-Vietnam War protestors at a university were dispersed with tear gas and later fired at by guards; nine students were wounded and four were killed; threw the USA into civil unrest

Paris Accords

armistice between the United States and the North Vietnamese negotiated by US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger in January 1973

War Powers Act

passed by US Congress in 1973, it states that the president must inform Congress within 48 hours if US forces are sent into a hostile area without declaration of war

Agent Orange

chemical that removes the leaves from plants; supplied to the US by Canada during the Vietnam War

détente

Nixon policy that called for a relaxation of tensions between the US and the communist world; example of this policy in action: Nixon's visit to China in 1972

Alliance for Progress

foreign policy of the 1960s, initiated by JFK; aimed to provide economic and technical assistance to Latin America; ultimately failed

Kennedy Doctrine

warned Soviet Union to stay out of the Americas and pledged to reverse any Soviet incursions into the region that had occurred

Bay of Pigs

first foreign policy venture of the Kennedy administration, it was a disastrous assault on the Castro government in Cuba; armed U.S. exiles expected American air support and the help of revolting Cubans, but received neither; well-armed Castro forces easily crushed the invaders and the mission collapsed

Cuban Missile Crisis

most dangerous and dramatic crisis of the Cold War, occurring on October 14th, 1962, when aerial reconnaissance photos produced clear evidence that the Soviets were constructing sites in Cuba for offensive nuclear weapons; Kennedy and the American people saw this as an act of aggression, and Kennedy ordered a naval and air blockade of Cuba; ended when Khrushchev agreed to remove the missile bases and Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba

Mann Doctrine

written by Alliance for Progress administrator under Johnson, it attempted to resolve the conflicting US interests in Latin America; stated US policies should focus on economic growth, protection of US private investments, opposition to communism, and non-intervention

NORAD

created in 1957, it was an agreement between the US and Canada that provided defense of North American airspace against Soviet nuclear weapons

Gouzenko affair

in which a Soviet embassy employee in Canada smuggled documents and presented them to various national organizations; the documents showed evidence of a Soviet spy ring in Canada that had infiltrated the Canadian Civil Service and the military; it led to a series of arrests and caused a Red Scare in Canada

SALT I

treaty between the USA and the USSR which limited the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched missiles (SLBMs) each superpower could have in its arsenal

stagflation

combination of rising inflation and rising unemployment experienced by the American economy during the Carter administration

Camp David Accords

peace agreement reached between Egypt and Israel at the US presidential retreat in Maryland in the summer of 1978

Torrijos-Carter Treaties

signed in September 1977 by US President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian President Omar Torrijos; returned land and the canal to Panama; Panama would take control on 31 December 1999 with joint protection in the interim period; canal would remain neutral in times of peace and war; to gain acceptance with opposition, a clause was added stating USA would maintain military presence in Panama but not intervene in internal affairs