WHAP Unit 8 Vocab

95 vocabulary words for unit 8 in AP world history

38th Parallel:

the line that separated Soviet occupied North Korea and US occupied South Korea

Ahmed Ben Bella:

an Algerian socialist soldier and revolutionary who was the first President of Algeria from 1963 to 1965

Agent Orange:

an herbicide that was originally created to defoliate (remove the foliage of) trees. It was mainly used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War

Alexander Dubcek:

Slovak politician and, briefly, leader of Czechoslovakia, attempted to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring

Alger Hiss:

a State Department official who was accused of passing secrets to the Soviet Union during the 1930s; was never charged because of the statute of limitations

Algerian Civil War:

war between the Algerian government and Islamist rebel groups which took place from December 1991 to February 2002

Algerian War for Independence:

war fought from 1954-1962 for Algerian independence from France

Al-Qaeda:

originally founded to fight off the Soviet Union, which supported the communist Afghan government

African National Congress (ANC):

the Republic of South Africa's governing social Democratic Party

Angolan Civil War:

a major civil war in Angola which began after Angola achieved independence that started in 1975 and ended in 2002

Augusto Pinochet:

deposed Salvador Allende in a coup and became president of Chile; nationalized industries and banks

Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA):

organization founded in 1959 which wanted independence for the Basque region in northern Spain

Benazir Bhutto:

first female leader of a majority Muslim country; elected as prime minister of Pakistan in 1988

Berlin Airlift:

the effort by the United States and Britain to ship by air 2.3 million tons of supplies to the residents of the Western-controlled sectors of Berlin as a response to a Soviet blockade

Berlin Wall:

wall built in 1961 to keep people in East Germany from fleeing to West Germany

Biafran Civil War:

Nigerian civil war that began in 1967 when the Igbos tried to secede from the northern-dominated government

Big Three:

Great Britain, United States, and the Soviet Union

Brezhnev Doctrine:

stated that the Soviet Union and its allies would intervene if an action by one member threatened other socialist countries

Brinkmanship:

a policy of responding to enemy aggression with the threat of war

Camp David Accords:

a peace agreement between Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt that was rejected the Palestinians and several Arab states in 1979

Charles de Gaulle:

French president who expanded presidential power and went straight to the people of France and Algeria for approval of his plan for Algerian independence

Cold War:

a conflict that does not involve any direct military confrontation between two or more rival states

Communes:

a group of people living together and sharing possessions and respons

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance:

the Soviet plan to rebuild Eastern Europe; developed because the Soviets did not want to participate in the Marshall Plan

Containment:

a policy of not allowing communism to spread

Cuban Missile Crisis:

a 13-day confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States that occurred after Soviet missiles were discovered in Cuba

Cultural Revolution:

Mao's attempt to reinvigorate China's commitment to communism in 1966

Détente:

a relaxation of strained relations by verbal communication

Domino Theory:

the notion that one nation falling to communist rule will result in neighboring nations falling to communist rule

Douglas MacArthur:

US commander of UN military forces that supported South Korea during the Korean War

Gamal Abdel Nasser:

general who overthrew the king and established the Republic of Egypt

Fatah Faction:

one of two factions into which Palestinians were split that controlled the West Bank

Glasnost:

the policy of opening up Soviet society and the political process by granting more

Great Leap Forward:

the economic policy of Mao Zedong introduced in 1958 which proposed small-scale industrialization projects integrated into peasant communities and resulted in economic disaster; ended in 1960

Hamas Faction:

one of two factions into which Palestinians were split that controlled Gaza

Ho Chi Minh:

communist leader of North Vietnam who opposed the French occupation of South Vietnam after World War II

Hydrogen Bomb:

developed by both the US and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and was more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Japan in World War II

Imre Naov:

declared Hungary's freedom from Soviet control and vowed to support free elections; was executed by the Soviets after they invaded Budapest in 1950

Indian National Congress:

a movement and political party founded in 1885 to demand greater Indian participation in government

Indira Gandhi:

the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, who became the leader in 1966 after the death of her father

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF):

a 1987 treaty between the US and the Soviet Union which restricted intermediate-range nuclear weapons

Irish Republican Army (IRA):

established in 1919 to halt British rule in Northern Ireland using armed forces; Catholics fought as part of this group when the Catholic-Protestant conflict in Northern Ireland became more violent in the 1960s

Iron Curtain:

a political barrier that isolated the peoples of Eastern Europe after World War II, restricting their ability to travel outside the region

Julius Nyerere:

first president of the United Republic of Tanzania who instituted African socialist political and economic ideas

Kashmir:

a border region which caused tension between India and Pakistan

Kent State University:

site of a US anti-war demonstration on May 4, 1970 in which four unarmed students were killed by the Ohio National Guard

Khmer Rouge:

a communist guerilla organization led by Pol Pot that overthrew the right-wing government in Cambodia and imposed a ruthless form of communism

Korean War:

1950-1953; began when North Korea invaded South Korea in an attempt to reunite the country under its leadership

Kwame Nkrumah:

first president of an independent Ghana who took office in 1960

Land Reform:

a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership

Mao Zedong:

declared the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and supported the Chinese peasantry throughout his life

Marshall Plan:

offered $12 billion in aid to European countries to modernize industry, reduce trade barriers, and rebuild infrastructure

Martin Luther King Jr.:

the most prominent of African American civil rights leaders in the US in the 1950s and 1960s

Mengistu Haile Mariam:

Ethiopian army officer and head of state (1974-91), who helped overthrow the centuries-old monarchy and attempted to mold Ethiopia into a communist state

Metropole:

large city of a former colonial ruler

Mikhail Gorbachev:

Soviet statesman whose foreign policy brought an end to the Cold War and whose domestic policy introduced major reforms

Military-industrial Complex:

informal alliance between a government and big defense contractors

Muslim League:

a political organization founded in India in 1906 and led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah to defend the interests of India's Muslim minority; advocated for a separate nation for Indian Muslims

Nelson Mandela:

socialist lawyer who led the black resistance to apartheid in South Africa

Nikita Khrushchev:

led the de-Stalinization of Russia and argued for major innovations

Non-Aligned Movement:

created in the Bandung Conference, this was a group of countries which vowed to stay neutral in the Cold War

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO):

an alliance between the US, England, France, Canada, and Western European countries made to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country

0ne-party State:

a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government

Organization of African Unity (OAU):

founded in 1963 by Nkrumah to protect African sovereignty

Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO):

a political movement formed in 1964 uniting Palestinian Arabs in an effort to create an independent state of Palestine

Perestroika:

attempts to restructure the Soviet economy to allow elements of free enterprise

Potsdam Conference:

final wartime meeting of the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union was held at Potsdam in July, 1945. Truman, Churchill, and Stalin discussed the future of Europe but their failure to reach meaningful agreements soon led to the onset of the Cold War

Prague Spring:

period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia

Proxy War:

a war in which a major power helps bring about conflict between other nations but does not always fight directly

Quiet Revolution:

a period of intense socio-political and socio-cultural change in the Canadian province of Quebec after the election of 1960

Red Guards:

groups of revolutionary students that Mao ordered to seize government officials, teachers, and others to be sent to reeducation camps

Ronald Reagan:

US president during the Cold War era

Salvador Allende:

president of Chile who was overthrown in 1973 by revolt of Chilean military with the support of the United States

Sandinista-Contras Conflict:

a proxy conflict in Nicaragua in which the Contras were US-backed and the Sandinistas were Soviet-backed

Satellite Countries: small states that are economically or politically dependent on a larger more powerful state

Self-determination: the idea that every country should choose its own form of government and leaders

Shining Path: a revolutionary organization founded by Abimael Guzman in the 1970s that was based on the ideas of Mao Zedong and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge; this organization was responsible for decades of bombings in Peru

Sirimavo Bandaranaike: became Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1960 after the assassination of her husband; was the world's first female prime minister

Six-Day War:

Israeli-Palestinian war in 1967 in which Israel gained the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan heights from Syria

Space Race:

a competition of space exploration between the United States and Soviet Union

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT):

negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union that were aimed at curtailing the manufacture of strategic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI):

dubbed "Star Wars," this was a missile defense system that was supposed to be able to destroy any Soviet nuclear missiles that targeted the US or its allies

Suez Crisis:

military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel in 1956 after Egypt seized the Suez Canal from British administration

Sukarno:

the leader of Indonesia's struggle for independence from the Netherlands

Tehran Conference:

meeting in 1943 in Iran between the Big Three (United States, Britain, Russia) at which they planned the 1944 assault on France and agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation after the war

Truman Doctrine:

a 1947 speech by US president Harry Truman that outlined what the US needed to do to stop the spread of communism, specifically in Turkey and Greece

Ulster Defense Association:

Protestant group fighting against the Irish Republican Army in the Catholic-Protestant conflict in Northern Ireland in the 1960s

United Nations:

established in 1945 to promote world peace and cooperation; replaced the League of Nations

Viet Cong:

the name given to the communist guerrilla movement in southern Vietnam

World Revolution:

the belief that organized workers would overthrow capitalism in every country

Warsaw Pact:

the Soviet response to NATO in 1955 which included an alliance between eight countries of Eastern Europe

White Revolution:

a far-reaching series of reforms resulting in aggressive modernization in Iran from 1960 to 1963

Wladyslaw Gomulka:

secretary of the Polish Communist Party who came to power in Poland amid demonstrations against Soviet domination; pursued independent domestic policy but was still loyal to the Soviet Union

Yalta Conference:

meeting in 1945 between the Big Three to make final war plans, arrange the post-war fate of Germany, and discuss the proposal for creation of the United Nations as a successor to the League of Nations

Yom Kippur War:

a surprise invasion by Egypt and Syria which was repelled by Israel in 1973