AP World Unit 8

Iron Curtain

Metaphor for the division between Communist East and Capitalist West.

Containment

US policy to stop the spread of communism.

Truman Doctrine

US promise to help any country fighting a communist takeover.

NATO

A military alliance of Western nations (US, Canada, Europe)

Warsaw Pact

Military alliance of Communist nations (USSR and Eastern Europe)

Berlin Wall

Symbol of the Cold War; built to keep East Germans from fleeing West.

Cuban Missile Crisis

1962 standoff over Soviet nukes in Cuba; closest to nuclear war.

Korean War

Proxy war that ended in a stalemate at the 38th parallel.

Vietnam War

Proxy war where North Vietnam (Communist) untied the country.

Domino Theory

Belief that if one country fell to communism, its neighbors would too.

Nuclear Proliferation

The spread of nuclear weapons to more countries.

Space Race

Competition between US and USSR for space exploration dominance.

Indian Independence

Achieve in 1947 through non-violence (Gandhi)

Partition of India

Split into India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim); caused mass violence.

Kwame Nkrumah

Leader of independence in Ghana; promoted Pan-Africanism.

Algerian War

Violent struggle for independence from French rule.

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of Vietnamese independence

Zionism

Movement for a Jewish homeland; led to the creation of Israel (1948)

Apartheid

System of legal racial segregation in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela

Leader of the anti-apartheid movement; first Black president of South Africa.

Great Leap Forward

Mao Zedong’s failed attempt to rapidly industrialize China (mass famine)

Cultural Revolution

Mao’s movement to purge “capitalist” elements from China.

White Revolution

Shah of Iran’s attempt to modernize and westernize Iran.

Detente

Period of relaxing Cold War tensions in the 1970s.

Glassnost & Perestroika

Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms that led to the collapse of the USSR.

1989

The year the Berline Wall fell and communism collapsed in Eastern Europe