Untitled Flashcards Set

Dien Bien Phu

Site where Viet Communists under Ho Chi Minh defeated French colonial forces in 1954.

Geneva Accords

Agreement that divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel into North and South Vietnam.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

1964 Congressional resolution granting President Johnson the authority to use military force in Vietnam.

Tet Offensive

Surprise attacks by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces across South Vietnam on January 30, 1968.

Vietnamization

Nixon's strategy to withdraw US forces from Vietnam and assign responsibility to South Vietnam.

Paris Peace Accords

1973 agreement establishing a ceasefire in Vietnam.

Brezhnev Doctrine

Policy stating that the Soviet Union would intervene whenever a communist country was threatened.

Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)

Reagan's proposed missile defense system using space-based technology.

Perestroika

Economic reform policy initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union.

Glasnost

Policy that allowed greater freedom of expression and openness in the Soviet Union.

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF)

1987 treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear weapons signed by Reagan and Gorbachev.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

Event on November 9, 1989, marking the fall of the wall that divided East and West Berlin.

German Unification

The process in 1990 when East and West Germany united as a federal republic.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

The formal end of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991.

Vietnam War

A protracted military conflict (1955-1975) that pitted communist North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States.

Cold War

A series of events and confrontations from the mid-1940s to the late 1980s. The tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was characterized by political, military, and ideological rivalry, but without direct military conflict between the two superpowers.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

1949 military alliance of Western nations committed to defending each other against Soviet aggression

Warsaw Pact

Soviet-led political and military alliance founded in 1955. It included Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe and aimed to counter NATO.

Proxy War

A war in which opposing sides use third parties as substitutes instead of fighting each other directly.

Cold War

The state of hostility, without actual armed conflict, that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union from the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union

Containment

Policy of the United States to prevent the spread of communism abroad.

Arms Race

Competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to develop superior weapons technology.

MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction)

The principle that mutual assured destruction would prevent the United States and the Soviet Union from using nuclear weapons against each other.

An international organization founded in 1945 after World War II by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and