Cold war

• Berlin Airlift: a mission where planes brought food, fuel, and supplies to West Berlin from 1948-1949 after the Soviet Union blocked the city’s land routes.
• NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization and alliance made to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country ( U.S, England, France, Canada, Western European countries), a military alliance similar to Warsaw Pact led by S.U. Created because fearful of Soviet power
• Warsaw Pact: an alliance between Soviet Union and other Eastern European nations. This was a response to NATO.
• Marshall plan: United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe after WW2. Receive US money but have to use on US inventory for profit
• Molotov Plan: Soviet Unions economic plan in Eastern Europe after WW2- their response to Marshall Plan
• Truman doctrine: president Truman’s policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism. Congress set aside 400 million. Grese and Turkey were the first to rececive
• Iron curtain: a (imaginary) political barrier that divided Eastern and Western influence (Capitalism vs Communism)
• Detente: a period of improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1970’s. Marked by efforts to reduce tensions and engage in diplomacy
• Glasnost: ”openness“ a policy of the Soviet government allowing more freedom of speech and press and greater transparency of government
• Perestroika: a policy initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev that involved restructuring of the social and economic systems in communist Russia towards a market based economy and society
• Korean War: conflict between communist North Korea and anti-communist South Korea
• Vietnam war: a prolonged war (1954-1975) between the communist armies of the North and the anti-communist armies of South Vietnam
• Great Leap Forward: Mao Zedong’s attempt to transform China from an agricultural economy to and industrial economy. Failed and led to famine. The goals were to increase education efforts across the country, the creation of communities where people would work and live together, and an increase of infrastructure like road, railways, canals, mines, etc.. The consequences were that the industrial output increased but the farming suffered which led to famine killing tens of millions of people
• Cultural revolution: the movement led by Mao Zedong in China during 1960’s aimed at purging “revolutionaries and promoting communist ideology, resulting in widespread social and political change. Goals: In 1966 Mao started the cultural revolution to rid China’s population of the “four odds” ( old ideas, culture, habits, customs) aim to eliminate capitalism and foreign influence in China. The consequences were they lost control of the red guard and there was a lot of violence causing 34,000 deaths between 1966 and 1969.
• Soviet-Afghan war: Soviet war to preserve communist rule in Afghanistan, opposed by US-funded Mujahideen
• Proxy war: a conflict in which superpowers would aid a third party conflict instead of fighting each other directly , such as Korea and Vietnam
• Containment: the plan to keep communism within its geographical boundaries and prevent further aggressive moves
• Bay of Pigs: an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba in 1961, sponsored by the U.S.. Purpose to overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro
• Berlin Wall: built in 1961 to separate East Berlin (communist) from West Berlin (capitalist)
• Nuclear arms race: competition between the USA and USSR to develop nuclear weapons
• Cuban Missile Crisis: In October 1962, the USA discovered that the USSR had installed missiles on Cuba. The crisis was resolved when Khrushchev agreed to remove them if JFK promised not to invade Cuba.
• Berlin Blockade: Soviet Union stopped all transportation to West Berlin in 1948, trying to force the Western Allies out of the city
• Mutually Assured Destruction: (MAD) a belief that if both sides had nuclear weapons, they would be so afraid they won’t use them
• Cold War started after WW2 when the Soviet Union wanted to spread communist polices and the United States wanted to spread capitalism
• Chinese communist revolution: The movement in China to overthrow the nationalist government of Chiang Kai Shek in 1949
• Mao Zedong was the communist party leader and dictator of China from 1949 to 1976
• The Chinese communist party wins the Chinese communist revolution in 1949 led by Mao Zedong
• During the Chinese communist revolution, the Sino Soviet relationship in a 1950s called for increased industrialization and working together. In the 1960s China became more independence and refused to go in the Warsaw pact.
• The Yalta and Potsdam conferences set the stage for the Cold War because those were meetings discussing after Europe, World War II between the USSR, USA and Great Britain
• The competition for power led to the creation of collective security and military alliances is being scared of Soviet power, which was from the NATO perspective. The Warsaw Pact was created because of fear and intimidation from NATO from the Warsaw perspective.
• Cold War was an ideological conflict that began at the end of WW2 and ended around 1989-1991
• West Germany and Berlin occupied by France, United Kingdom, and United States after World War II
• East Germany and Berlin occupied by the Soviet Union after World War 2
• Kim il sung the communist dictator of North Korea
• syngman rhee the anti-communist dictator of south Korea
• the 38th parallel: divided Korea after World War II; in 1950, attempts to reunify the country, both forces attempt to do invade opposing sides; failure to reunify led to current split at the dividing line
• Fidel Castro, the communist dictator Cuba
• Ho Chi Minh the communist leader in Vietnam, who is a dictator
• Ngo dinh Diem the anti-communist dictator in South Korea
• Vietnamese war for independence: the Vietnamese success against the French imperialism (1945 to 1954) led to the split of the country at the 17th parallel