Restructuring the Post war Ch 17 Vocabulary World History

United Nations: an international peacekeeping organization founded in 1945 to provide security to the nations of the world.

Iron Curtain- During Cold War, the boundary separating the communist nations of Eastern Europe from the mostly democratic nations of Western Europe.

Containment – A U.S. foreign policy adopted by the President Harry Truman in the late 1940’s that aimed to prevent the spread of communism by blocking Soviet influence.

Truman Doctrine – A U.S. policy of giving economic and military aid to free nations threatened by the spread of communism.

Marshall Plan – a U.S. program of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after World War II.

Cold war – The state of diplomatic hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union.

NATO – The North Atlantic Treaty organization – a defensive military alliance formed in 1949 by the U.S., Canada and ten Western European nations to stop the spread of Soviet Power in Europe.

Warsaw Pact – a military alliance formed in 1955 by the Soviet Union and seven Eastern European countries.

Brinkmanship – A policy of threatening to go to war in response to any enemy aggression.

U-2 incident- The shooting down of a U.S. spy plane and capture of its pilot by the Soviet Union in 1960 which resulted in a conflict between the two nations..

Mao Zedong – The communist leader in China who mobilized the Chinese peasants to fight against Japan in WWII. After the war he gainced control of the country.

Jiang Jieshi – Chinese leader of the nationalist party, supported by the U.S. but did not fight effectively against the Japanese. After the war he turned to fighting against the communist and did little to win popular support. He lost and moved to Taiwan.

Commune – In communist China, a collective farm on which a great number of people work.

Red Guards – Militia units formed by young Chinese people in 1966 in response to Mao Zedong.

Cultural Revolution – 1966 -1976 uprising in China, led by the Red Guards, with the goal of establishing a society of peasants and workers in which all were equal.

38th Parallel – Line that divides Korea into North and South Korea.

Douglas MacArthur – The United nations appointed him to lead the forces to push back the North Koreans to the 38th parallel.

Ho Chi Minh - Leader of the struggle against French colonization, then turned to the communists for help in his struggle to bring North and South Vietnam under one government.

Domino theory – the idea that if a nation falls under communist control, nearby nations will also fall under communist control.

Ngo Dinh Diem – Founder of an anti-communist government and unpopular dictator in South Viet Nam

Vietcong – A group of communist guerrillas who, with the help of North Vietnam fought against the South Vietnamese government in the Vietnam War.

Vietnamization – President Richard Nixon’s strategy for ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, involving a gradual withdrawal of American troops and replacement of them with south Vietnamese forces..

Khmer Rouge – a group of communist rebels who seized power in Cambodia in 1975.

Third World – during the Cold War, the developing nations not allied with either the United States or the Soviet Union.

nonaligned nations – the independent countries that remained neutral in the Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Fidel Castro – Leader of the Cuban revolution against the dictator Bautista. He then nationalized the Cuban economy and turned to the Soviet Union for Help.

Anastasio Somoza – Dictator or Nicaragua supported by the U.S. since 1933 until 1979 when he was toppled by the Sandinistas.

Daniel Ortega – Sandinista leader or rebel forces who replaced Somoza as president of Nicaragua but war continued with U.S. supported Contras until the election of 1990.

Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi – After WWII was Iran’s leader who embraced Western governments and wealthy Western Oil Companies. He was removed by nationalists but put back in power by the U.S.

Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini- Iran’s religious leader who saw western culture as a social and moral corruption . In 1978 the Iranian people rebelled and he established an Islamic state.

Nikita Khrushechev – Soviet Leader after Stalin and who faced off with the U.S. in the Cuban Missile crisis

Destalainization – Nikita Khrushchev ‘s policy of eliminating all memory of Joseph Stalin and his programs in the Soviet Union.

Leonid Brezhnev – Became Soviet leader in 1964 and quickly adopted repressive domestic policies.

John F. Kennedy – President in the early 1960’s who faced the Cuban Nuclear crisis and succeeded in convincing the Soviets to turn back.

Lyndon B. Johnson – He assumed the U.S. president after the assassination of Kennedy and escalated U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

détente – a policy of reducing Cold War tensions that was adopted by the United States during the presidency of Richard Nixon.

Richard M. Nixon – U.S. president who started the policy of détente and realpolitik and he was the first president to visit Communist China and the Soviet Union.

SALT – the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks – a series of meetings in the 1970’s in which leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to limit their nation’s stocks of nuclear weapons.

Roland Reagan –Fiercely Anti-Communist U.S. president in 1981 who retreated from détente and announced the Strategic Defense Initiative , a symbol of anti-communist sentiment. He also armed Nicaragua’s Contras.

Star Wars – Was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) proposed to protect to protect America