Cold War and Decolonization

These flashcards cover key vocabulary terms and definitions from the Cold War and decolonization period.

Marshall Plan

US financial aid to rebuild Europe.

United Nations

Global organization for international cooperation.

EEC

Precursor to the EU; economic integration to prevent war.

Yalta Conferences

WWII meeting to plan post-war division of Europe.

Satellite States

Eastern European nations controlled by the USSR.

NATO

Western military alliance led by the US.

Warsaw Pact

Eastern military alliance led by the USSR.

Proxy War

Indirect fighting between superpowers in a third-party country.

Kim Il Sung

Communist leader of North Korea.

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of North Vietnam.

Vietcong

Communist guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam.

Kennedy

US President during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Five Year Plans

State-directed economic goals for industrial growth.

Great Leap Forward

Mao's failed plan to industrialize; led to the Great Chinese Famine.

Red Guards

Radical students who enforced Mao's Cultural Revolution.

Taiwan

Island where Chinese Nationalists fled after losing the civil war to Mao.

Berlin Wall

Fell in 1989, symbolizing the end of the Cold War.

Perestroika

'Restructuring'—Gorbachev’s plan to allow some capitalism.

Glasnost

'Openness'—Gorbachev’s plan to allow free speech.

Tiananmen Square

Site of a 1989 pro-democracy protest in China that ended in a military massacre.

Sykes-Picot Agreement

Secret WWI plan to divide the Middle East.

Suez Crisis

1956 conflict where Egypt took the canal, ending British/French dominance.

Iranian Revolution

1979 overthrow of the Shah, replacing a monarchy with a Theocracy.

Pan-Arabism

Movement to unify all Arab people in the Middle East.

Islamism

Political movement favoring the government guided by Islamic law.