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38th Parallel
Line of latitude which divided North and South Korea after World War II.
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Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini
Iranian religious leader of the Shiites; when Shah Pahlavi's regime fell Khomeini established a new constitution giving himself supreme powers (1900-1989).
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Berlin Airlift
1948-49. When the Soviet Union blocked land access to Berlin in order to drive the Allies out of the German city. The U.S. responded by flying in supplies around the clock until the Soviets lifted the blockade.
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Boris Yeltsin
First democratically elected Russian president (1990s)
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Brinkmanship
The willingness to go the edge of war.
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Chechnya
Declared its independence from the USSR in 1991. Russian troops invaded in late 1994, and fighting stopped in 1996 with the withdrawal of Russian troops, but it resumed in 1999.
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Cold War
1945-1991. Period of U.S. - U.S.S.R rivalry and suspicion, marked by spying, hostile propaganda, an arms race and a race in space.
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Containment
A policy directed at blocking Soviet influence and preventing the expansion of communism.
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Daniel Ortega
Nicaraguan revolutionary leader and politician. He helped establish the Government of National Reconstruction after the overthrow of the Somoza regime (1979) and later served as president (1984-1990).
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domino theory
The idea that countries bordering communist countries were in more danger of falling to communism unless the United States and other western nations worked to prevent it.
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Douglas MacArthur
The General in command of the international force to stop the North Korean invasion of South Korea.
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Ethnic Cleansing
Purging of an ethnic group from a society, a synonym for genocide.
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Fidel Castro
Cuban revolutionary and political leader: prime minister 1959?76 and Cuban president since 1976.
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glasnost
Gorbachev's policy of openness in the Soviet Union during the 1980s.
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Ho Chi Minh
(1890-1969) Vietnamese leader who is responsible for ousting first the French, then the United States from his country. Supported by both communist China and the Soviet Union, he guided Vietnam through decades long warfare to emerge as a communist nation.
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Iron Curtain
A term used by Winston Churchill to describe the military, political, and ideological barrier established between the Soviet bloc and western Europe from 1945 to 1990. It is not an actual physical wall it is an ideological barrier.
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John F. Kennedy
President 1961-1963. Cuban Missile Crisis happened during his term. Assassinated by L.H. Oswald
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Lech Walesa
Nobel Peace Prize winner from Poland; leader of Solidarity labor union; opposed communist dicatorship; first democratically elected leader of his country.
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Leonid Brezhnev
Leader of the Soviet Union who enforced laws to limit human rights and arrested any who spoke against his policies.
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Lyndon B. Johnson
Kennedy's Vice President who went on to become President (1963-1969). Was president at the beginning of the Vietnam War.
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Marshall Plan
A large-scale plan enacted in 1947 to help Europe rebuild its economy and prevent the further spread of communism following WWII. Provided $12 billion in aid to Western Europe.
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Mikhail Gorbachev
Soviet leader in late 1980s; policies of glasnost and peristroika led to the end of the USSR.
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Ngo Dinh Diem
The leader of South Korea who was backed by the United States and France.
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Nikita Khrushchev
Leader of the Soviet Union who instituted a policy of destalinization. Was the leader of the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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Non Alligned Nations
A force of independent countries that were able to maintain their neutrality during the Cold War.
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North Atlantic Treaty Organization -NATO
Ten western nations joined with the United States and Canada to form a defensive military alliance in 1949.
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perestroika
Gorbachev's policy of economic restructuring in the Soviet Union during the 1980s.
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Ronald Reagan
Pres. 1981-1989 Increaded military spending. He took a strong position against communism.
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Satellite Nations
A country that is dominated politically and economically by another nation. The USSR built a wall of these to act as a buffer zone to protect Russia from invasion.
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Shock Therapy
An abrupt shift from a communist economy to a free market economy.
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Solidarity
Polish labor union that opposed Soviet control of the Polish government and demanded more workers rights in the 1980s.
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Sputnik
The first successful unmanned satellite launched on October 4, 1957 that orbited the earth every 96 minutes. .
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Third World
The group of developing nations, esp. of Asia and Africa, that do not align themselves with the policies of either the U.S. or the former Soviet Union.
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Truman Doctrine
Issued in 1947. The United States pledged to help nations threatened by communist expansion, especially Greece and Turkey.
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Vietcong
A Communist-led army and guerrilla force in South Vietnam that fought its government and was supported by North Vietnam.
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Vietnamization
President Nixon's U.S. policy during the Vietnam War of giving the South Vietnamese government responsibility for carrying on the war, so as to allow for the withdrawal of American troops.
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Vladimir Putin
Russian statesman chosen as president of the Russian Federation in 2000.
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Warsaw Pact
This military alliance formed in 1955 included the Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania
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