click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Cold War
Review terms/people/events of the Cold War
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Cold War | Competition between the United States and the Soviet Union for power and influence in the world between 1945-1991. |
Truman Doctrine | US foreign policy that said the US would provide military support to countries that were fighting communism |
Foreign Policy | A strategy for how one country deals with another country |
Marshall Plan | US foreign policy that said the US would provide money support to countries that were fighting communism |
Space Race | Competition between the US and USSR to see who could get to the moon first |
Arms Race | Competition between the US and the USSR to see who could have the most nuclear weapons |
Berlin Airlift | US operation to give food and supplies to the people of West Berlin after the Soviets blockaded the city |
Berlin Wall | Constructed by Russia to stop people from leaving communist East Germany and East Berlin |
Jacob Arbenz | Leader of Guatemala who wanted to improve working conditions and reduce US influence but was removed by the US CIA in a secret operation |
Fidel Castro | Takes over Cuba after a communist revolution |
Cuban Missile Crisis | After the failure of the US to overthrow Fidel Castro, the Soviet Union sent nuclear weapons to Cuba and the US blockaded the shipment |
Korean War | Conflict in which a communist north invaded the democratic south in order to reunify; the US and other countries were wanted and got involved to stop the spread of communism. |
Mao Zedong | Communist leader of China and totalitarian dictator |
Cultural Revolution | Mao Zedong's propaganda campaign to "brainwash" citizens into believing he was the best leader ever |
Great Leap Forward | Mao Zedong's program to rapidly industrialize China; poorly planned and many people died |
Ho Chi Minh | Communist leader of North Vietnam; wanted to reunify Vietnam and get foreign influence out |
Vietnam War | Conflict in which a communist north invaded the south in order to reunify; the US got involved even though it was not wanted because the US wanted to stop the spread of communism |
Agent Orange | Chemical used in the Vietnam War |
Draft | Forced service in the military |
Collectivization | Mao Zedong's program to create large collections of farms and tell people what to grow on them; resulted in starvation and deaths |
Domino Theory | Belief that the US had to get involved in Vietnam because all of Asia would fall to communism if Vietnam became Communist |
Nikita Khruschev | Leader of the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s who wanted to move away from Stalin's brutal policies and negotiated with the US during the Cuban Missile Crisis |
Gulf of Tonkin Incident | Event in which US navy ships were fired upon (not sure who really did it); US uses this as an excuse to get more involved in Vietnam |
Mikhail Gorbachev | Leader of the Soviet Union in the 1980s who allowed more democratic and capitalist policies to be implemented to help the Russian economy |
Glasnost | Openness of Russian government; allowed freedom of speech and press = more democratic |
Perestroika | Restructuring of the Russian economy; allowed people to have choices and go into business = more capitalist |