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Chp. 29
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Nuremberg trials | trials at an Allied military court that brought several Nazi military leaders to justice for crimes committed during WWII |
Cold War | a ppst-WWII era of open hostility and high tension between the United States and the Soviet Union |
iron curtain | Winston Churchill's term for division of Europe created by Soviet Union |
Truman Doctrine | U.S pledge to provide economic and military aid to oppose the spread of communism |
Marshall Plan | a massive program of U.S. economic aid to help Western Europe make a rapid recovery from the war and remain politically stable |
containment | a policy of resisting Soviet aggression to contain the spread of communism |
Berlin airlift | a massive effort to supply West Berlin by air after the Soviets blockaded it |
NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance between the United States, Canada, and Western Europe designed counter Soviet power in Europe |
Warsaw Pact | an alliance formed between the Soviet Union and the communist nations of Eastern Europe |
Hydrogen bomb | an immensely destructive weapon powered by nuclear fission |
deterrence | the development of or maintenance of military power to deter an attack |
arms race | a struggle between nations to gain an advantage in weapons |
Sputnick | the world's first satellite, a human-made objects launched in 1957 by the Soviet Union that flies in orbit around the Earth |
Bay of Pigs invasion | unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by a secretly trained force, which U.S. leaders believed would result in a massive uprising to overthrow Fidel Castro |
Cuban missile crisis | a tense standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union that occurred after the Soviets installed nuclear missiles in Cuba |
nonaligned nations | countries that refused to support the United States and the Soviet Union that occurred after the Soviets installed nuclear missiles in Cuba |
detente | reduced tension between the superpowers |
Martin Luther King Jr | leader of a civil rights campaign that exposed racial injustice and won reforms |
counter culture | a youth movement that rebelled against mainstream American society |
Solidarity | a movement of Polish workers who united to protest against the the Communist government and Soviet control |
Mikhail Gorbachev | Soviet leader who came to power in 1985 and made charges in the nation's economy and government |
glasnost | "openness", a willingness to discuss the problems of the Soviet Union |
perestroika | "restructuring", a concept for the reform of the Soviet economic and political system |
Velvet Revolution | a peaceful revolution that removed Communists from power in Czechoslovakia |
Boris Yeltsin | leader of the republic of Russia who favored more radical change than Gorbachev did |
ethnic cleansing | elimination of an ethnic group through killing or forced emigration |
Internet | a system of networks that connects computers around the world |
Saddam Hussein | dictator of Iraq who invaded neighboring Kuwait in August 1990 |
Persian Gulf War | war in which a UN-authorized multinational force led the United States forced the Iraqi military to leave Kuwait |
al Qaeda | Islamist terrorist organization that launched a series of attacks against U.S. targets |
Osama bin Laden | al Qaeda leader who aims to unite Muslims and destroy the United States |
Taliban | Islamist government of Afghanistan that supported and protected members of al Qaeda |