Global History II - Regents Review Topic 11 & 12 Vocab

Cold War

an ongoing political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies

Iron Curtain

the political barrier made by the Soviet Union after WW2 to seal off itself from open contact with the West

Satellite Nation

a nation that is aligned or under the influence of another nation

Truman Doctrine

to establish that the United States would support a democratic nation under threat from an internal or external authoritarian force

Marshall Plan

proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe

Containment

the United States approach to containing, or preventing, the spread of Communism after World War II

NATO

created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union

Warsaw Pact

a military alliance between Communist countries in East Europe to counter the threat of Capitalism in Europe

Detente

period of the easing of Cold War tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1979

Mikhail Gorbachev

a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991

Ronald Reagan

an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989

Glasnost

increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union

Perestroika

means restructuring or change; allowed some private enterprise and profit-making USSR after 1985

Berlin Wall

fortified concrete and wire barrier that separated East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989

Lech Walesa

a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995

Solidarity Movement

Polish trade union created in 1980 to protest working conditions and political repression

Cuban Missile Crisis

a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War

East and West Germany

East Germany was a communist dictatorship controlled by the Soviet Union

Fidel Castro

a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba

Afghanistan

both the US and the Soviet Union sought to gain position in ________, first through infrastructure investments and then military intervention

Vladimir Putin

a Russian politician and former intelligence officer, serving as the current president of Russia

Ethnic Cleansing

an attempt to eliminate members of an unwanted ethnic group within an area

Yugoslavia

created at the end of World War I when Croat, Slovenian, and Bosnian territories that had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire united with the Serbian Kingdom

Slobodan Milosevic

a president of Serbia (a republic, or member state, of Yugoslavia) from 1989 to 1997 and president of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000

War Crimes

an action carried out during the conduct of a war that violates accepted international rules of war

Argentina

richest nation in Latin America, the Great Depression devastated the country in the 1930s

Juan Peron

a populist and authoritarian president of Argentina and founder of the Peronist movement

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

mothers of young people who had been victims of enforced disappearance

OAS

Organization of American States, the oldest regional international organization in the world

NAFTA

created a free trade zone for Mexico, Canada, and the United States

Mohandas Gandhi

an Indian revolutionary and religious leader who used his religious power for political and social reform

Jawaharlal Nehru

the first prime minister of independent India

India

a country in South Asia whose name comes from the Indus River

Pakistan

the land of the Paks, the spiritually pure and clean

Kashmir

a territorial conflict over the ______ region, primarily between India and Pakistan, and also between China and India in the northeastern portion of the region

Nonalignment

an organization of States that did not seek to formally align themselves with either the United States or the Soviet Union, but sought to remain independent or neutral

Sikhism

a 15th Century religion founded by a Hindu guru

Mixed Economy

a system that combines aspects of both capitalism and socialism

Ho Chi Minh

president of North Vietnam from 1945 to 1969, supported communism

Ngo Din Diem

president of South Vietnam, with dictatorial powers, of what was then South Vietnam, from 1955 until his assassination, opposed communism

Vietnam

a long, costly, and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States

Domino Theory

the theory that one country falling to communism could cause its surrounding countries to be threatened by communist expansion

Khmer Rouge

a brutal regime that ruled Cambodia, under the leadership of Marxist dictator Pol Pot, from 1975 to 1979

Pol Pot

a political leader whose communist Khmer Rouge government led Cambodia

Cambodia

country on the Indochinese mainland of Southeast Asia

Japan after WW2

a devastated country at the time of its surrender in August 1945

China after WW2

in the mid-twentieth century, the Communist Party of China won a brutal civil war

Mao Zedong

leader of the Communist Party in China that overthrew Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalists

Cultural Revolution

goal was to purge Chinese society of any traditional and capitalist elements and preserve communism

Red Guard

a mass, student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong

Deng Xiaoping

a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China

Four Modernizations

were goals first set forth by Deng Xiaoping to strengthen the fields of agriculture, industry, defense, and science and technology in China

Tiananmen Square

site in Beijing where Chinese students and workers gathered to demand greater political openness in 1989

Hong Kong

city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta in South China

Xi Jinping

the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, since 2012

North Korea

a highly secretive and authoritarian state with a centralized economy and a one-party system

South Korea

an East Asian nation of some 51 million people located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula

Korean War

conflict between North Korea and South Korea, lasting from 1950-1953, in which the United States along with other UN countries

Kim Jong-un

a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea