Key Terms from Chapter 15: Cold War and Civil Rights

Superpowers

a nation stronger than other powerful nations

anti-ballistic missiles (ABMS)

missiles that can shoot down other missiles from hostile countries

Ronald Reagan

During 1980, Ronald was the U.S. President. He launched a program to build a 'Star Wars' missile defense against nuclear attack.

détente

the relaxation of Cold War tensions during the 1970s

Fidel Castro

He organized an armed rebellion against corrupt dictator who ruled Cuba. By 1959, he had led his guerrilla army to victory and set about transforming the country.

John F. Kennedy

In 1961, he was the President of the United States. He supported an invasion attempted by U.S. trained Cuban exiles.

Cuban Missile Crisis

In 1962, Soviet Union sent nuclear missiles to Cuba. President Kennedy responded by imposing a naval blockade that prevented Soviet shipments.

ideology

system of thought and belief; value system on perspective

Nikita Khrushchev

He emerged as the new Soviet leader after Stalin's death in 1953. He publicly denounced Stalin's abuse of power in 1956.

Leonid Brezhnev

He was Khrushchev's successor. He held power from mid-1960s until he died in 1982.

containment

the U.S. Strategy of keeping communism within its existing boundaries and preventing its further expansion

Recession

period of reduced economic activity

suburbanization

the movement to built-up areas outside of central cities

segregation

forced separation by race, sex, religion, ethnicity

discrimination

unequal treatment or barriers

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

He is a gifted preacher who emerged as a leader of the civil rights movement aimed to extend equal rights to all Americans, especially African Americans.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Beginning in 1955, he helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott to protest segregation on the city's buses.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

A protest against segregation on city's buses that began in 1955.

Konrad Adenauer

West Germany's chancellor from 1949 to 1963 who guided the rebuilding of cities, factories, and trade.

Welfare state

A country with a market economy but with increased government responsibility for the social and economic needs of its people.

European Community

An international organization dedicated to establishing free trade among European member nations in all products.

Gross domestic product (GDP)

The total value of all goods and services produced in a nation within a particular year.

Collectivization

The forced joining together of workers and property into collectives, such as rural collectives that absorb peasants and their land.

Great Leap Forward

A Chinese Communist program from 1958 to 1960 to boost farm and industrial output that failed miserably.

Cultural Revolution

A Chinese Communist program in the late 1960s to purge China of non-revolutionary tendencies that caused economic and social damage.

38th parallel

An imaginary line marking 38 degrees of latitude, particularly the line at 38 degrees of latitude north across the Korean Peninsula, dividing Soviet forces to the north and American forces to the south after World War II.

Kim Il Sung

A dictator that ruled North Korea, became a communist ally for the Soviet Union, and emphasized self-reliance which kept North Korea isolated and poor.

Syngman Rhee

The non-communist leader of South Korea who was supported by the United States and led a capitalist market economy.

Pusan Perimeter

A defensive line around the city of Pusan, held by South Korean and United Nations forces in 1950 during the Korean War.

Demilitarized zone

A thin band of territory across the Korean peninsula separating North Korean forces from South Korean forces; established by the Armistice of 1953.

Guerrilla

A soldier in a loosely organized force making surprise raids.

Ho Chi Minh

A nationalist and communist leader in Vietnam who fought the Japanese and the French, and ruled North Vietnam from 1890 to 1969.

Ho Chi Minh

He discovered communism while working abroad and quickly adapted it to his struggle against French rule in Vietnam.

Dienbienphu

Small town and former French base in northern Vietnam; site of the battle that ended in a Vietnamese victory, the French withdrawal from Vietnam, and the securing of North Vietnam's independence.

Domino theory

The belief that a communist victory in South Vietnam would cause noncommunist governments across Southeast Asia to fall to Communism, like a row of dominoes.

Viet Cong

Communist rebels in South Vietnam who sought to overthrow South Vietnam's government and received assistance from North Vietnam.

Tet Offensive

A massive and bloody offensive by communist guerrillas against South Vietnamese and American forces on Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, 1968; helped turn American public opinion against military involvement in Vietnam.

Khmer Rouge

A political movement and a force of Cambodian communist guerrillas that gained power in Cambodia in 1975.

Pol Pot

A brutal dictator who led the Khmer Rouge, unleashed a reign of terror, drove people from the cities, and forced them to work in the fields, destroying all Western influences.

Mujahedin

Muslim religious warriors.

Mikhail Gorbachev

An energetic new leader in 1985 who sought to bring about reforms in the Soviet Union and signed arms control treaties with the U.S.

Glasnost

"Openness" in Russian; a Soviet policy of greater freedom of expression introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s.

Perestroika

"Restructuring" in Russian; a Soviet policy of democratic and free-market reforms introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s.

Solidarity

A Polish labor union and democracy movement that won millions of members and demanded political and economic change.

Lech Walesa

Helped organize Solidarity, became a national hero, and was elected president of Poland, helping transition from a command economy to a market economy.

Václav Havel

A dissident writer and human rights activist who was elected president in Czechoslovakia.

Nicolae Ceausescu

Romania's longtime dictator who refused to step down from his role and was later overthrown and executed.