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Flashcards by Daniel Schmidt, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Daniel Schmidt
about 8 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| 38th Parallel | Division line of North and South Korea. Pre and post Korean War |
| Austrian State treaty 1955 | An example of successful Cold War diplomacy that re-established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed by the Allied occupying powers (France, UK, US, and USSR) and the Austrian government. |
| Bay of Pigs invasion | On April 17, 1961, 1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs coast of Cuba in order to overthrow Fidel Castro. It failed spectacularly and embarrassed President Kennedy and convinced Khrushchev he needed to protect the Communist revolution in Cuba. |
| Berlin Blockade | First major international event of the Cold War - blocking of access and public transport to West Berlin. 24 June 1948 |
| Berlin Crisis (1958-1961) | In Nov 1958, Soviet Premier Khrushchev issued an ultimatum giving the Western powers six months to agree to withdraw from Berlin and make it a free, demilitarised city. The United States, United Kingdom, and France replied to this ultimatum by firmly asserting their determination to remain in West Berlin and to maintain their legal right of free access to that city. A second ultimatum to leave in 1961 was similarly ignored. Leading to the Berlin Wall and Cuban Missile Crisis (linkage). |
| Berlin Wall (1961-1989) | Constructed by the GDR under Walter Ulbricht, restricted East Berliners from fleeing to West Germany 1961 to 1989. The 4.5 million East Germans that had left by 1961 totalled approximately 20% of the entire East German population. |
| Bizonia | The combination of the American and the British occupation zones in 1947 during the occupation of Germany. Technically a violation of the Potsdam agreement it antagonised the USSR. |
| Brinkmanship | The practice of trying to achieve an advantageous outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink of active conflict. Championed by John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State under the Eisenhower administration during the 1950's. |
| Cold War Origin Interpretations | Ideological: (orthodox, revisionist), Traditional Great Power Rivalry, Responsibility of the Leaders, Post-Revisionist (misunderstandings and misinterpretations) |
| Comecon | Short for Council for Economic Cooperation established in 1949 as a formal organisation for trade and cooperation among communist countries in Eastern Europe |
| Cominform | Soviet-dominated organization of Communist parties founded in September 1947. Officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties. Had power to oversee and enforce orthodoxy in Eastern Bloc. Tito (Yugoslavia) removed in June 1948. |
| Council of Foreign Ministers | Organisation agreed at Potsdam - UK, USSR, USA, China and France. Soviets walked out of meeting in 1946 after suspicions of Western Powers uniting Germany's regions. Fell apart in 1946 when Soviet coalition walked out of meetings due to reports of Western Powers uniting their sections of Germany. |
| Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) | 3-day (October 16–28) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning Soviet ballistic missiles deployment in Cuba. Along with being televised worldwide, it was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. |
| DDR | Deutsche Demokratic Republic - East Germany. Formed in 1946 in response to the FRG. |
| Destalinsation | The act of disposing of all Stalin's influence throughout USSR -spearheaded by Khrushchev in 1956. |
| Domino Theory | Championed by President Eisenhower it guided U.S. foreign policy in the 1950s, held that a communist victory in one nation would quickly lead to a chain reaction of communist takeovers in neighboring states. In Southeast Asia, the United States government used the domino theory to justify its support of a non-communist regime in South Vietnam against the communist government of North Vietnam. |
| economic imperialism | Idea that a state can use its economic power to ensure that an economically weaker state becomes dependant upon it. USSR accused US of as part of the Marshall Plan. |
| Fidel Castro | A Cuban politician and revolutionary who governed the Republic of Cuba as its Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976. Overthrew the Batista dictatorship in 1959 in the Cuban Revolution. Formed alliance with the USSR after the US became hostile to land reforms. |
| flexible response strategy | A defense strategy implemented by John F. Kennedy in 1961 to address the Kennedy administration's skepticism of Dwight Eisenhower's New Look and its policy of Massive Retaliation. Flexible response gives the US the capability to respond to aggression using conventional weapons, not limited only to nuclear arms. |
| FRG | Federal Republic of Germany / West Germany 1949-1900 |
| Geneva Conference 1954 | Conference whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to settle outstanding issues in the Korean peninsula and restoring peace in Indochina. Resulted in the partition of Vietnam into North (Communist) and South (Capitalist) along the 17th parallel with the agreement of free elections in 2 years. |
| Gaither Report 1957 | Deterrence and Survival in the Nuclear Age - Report for Eisenhower in 1957 which recommended significant strengthening of U.S. strategic offensive and defensive military capabilities. The rationale for this can be found in their assumption that the Soviet Union, with its expedient development of military technology, had already exceeded the technical achievements made by the U.S. in ICBM research. |
| Geneva Summit (1955) | Cold War meeting between 'Big Four' - UK, USA, USSR and France. Little progress made but first international summit since Potsdam. Eisenhower's Open Skies monitoring proposal rejected. |
| globalism | Opposite of isolationism defines a foreign policy based on having the power to influence events on a global scale in order to enable states to function as world powers |
| Grand Alliance | Alliance made during World War II, which joined together the USA, the USSR and Britain. Also called an alliance of convenience. |
| Greek Civil War | From 1946 to 1949 between the Greek army, backed by GB until 1946 and then the US, against an organic communist uprising which Stalin refused to support. Led to Truman Doctrine and $400 million in support from US for Greece and Turkey. |
| Ho Chi Minh | A Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader and president (1945 |
| Hotline (Moscow | A system that allows direct communication between the leaders of the United States and the Russian Federation. This hotline was established in 1963 after the Cuban Missile Crisis and links the Pentagon with the Kremlin. |
| Hydrogen Bomb | From 1946 to 1949 between the Greek army, backed by GB until 1946 and then the US, against an organic communist uprising which Stalin refused to support. Led to Truman Doctrine and $400 million in support from US for Greece and Turkey. |
| HUAC | Investigated allegations of communist activity in the U.S. during McCarthyism. This intimidating atmosphere often produced dramatic but questionable revelations about Communists infiltrating American institutions and subversive actions by well-known citizens. HUAC |
| ICBM | Thermonuclear weapon with many times more explosive force. Measured in Megatons instead of kilotons of TNT. First tested by US in 1952 - beat USSR. |
| Indochina | a geographical entity used when collectively referring to Cambodia, Laos, North and South Vietnam; all of these had been French colonies prior to the Geneva Agreement of 1954 |
| Iran Crisis | Stemmed from the Soviet Union's refusal to relinquish occupied Iranian territory after, despite repeated assurances. Finally left under pressure in 1946 convincing the USA of the USSR's territorial ambitions. |
| Iron Curtain Speech | Winston Churchill in 1946 in Fulton Missouri - openly criticised Stalin and his Tsarist regime and called on USA to meet the Communist threat. Very influential on Truman (was there) and American public perception. |
| Isolationism | Idea that nations profit if remained free from foreign entanglements. US foreign policy before the end of WWII. |
| John F. Kennedy | 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (LTBT), developments in the Space Race, the building of the Berlin Wall, all took place during his presidency. Kennedy also avoided any significant increase in the American presence in Vietnam, refusing to commit combat troops and keeping the level of others, mostly military advisors, to only 16,000, compared to the 536,000 troops committed by his successor, Lyndon Johnson, by 1968. |
| Joseph Stalin | Communist leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Characterised by Stalinism which is Communism with totalitarian dictatorship. |
| Khrushchev's secret speech | On the Cult of Personality, 1956. - denounced stalinism and the personality cult of Joseph Stalin. Shocked USSR and angered PRC (Mao) who preferred the Stalin model. |
| Korean War (1950-1953) | North invaded South - North supported by the USSR and PRC. South defended by United Nations 'police action' led by United States. Ended in stalemate at 38th parallel after Stalin died. |
| Long Telegram (Feb 1946) | Telegram by George Kennan, Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States to the USSR, outlining his opinions and views of the Soviets: - The USSR perceived itself at perpetual war with capitalism; - The USSR would use controllable Marxists in the capitalist world as allies; - Soviet aggression was rooted in historic Russian nationalism and neurosis; - The Soviet government's structure inhibited accurate pictures of internal and external reality.. - Heavily influenced Truman and lead to Truman Doctrine in 1947 |
| M.A.D. | Mutually Assured Destruction |
| Marshall Plan (1948) | European Recovery Program (ERP) - $13 billion initiative to aid European recovery. Cominform prohibited Eastern Bloc states from accepting. |
| Massive Retaliation Policy | Part of Eisenhower and Dulles 'New Look' Policy - any use of nuclear weapons would see a nonproportional response of entire US nuclear arsenal. Intended to promote peace by deterrence. |
| Mao Zedong | principal Chinese Marxist theorist, soldier, and statesman who led his country |
| missile gap | the difference between nuclear delivery systems numbers; the greater the number of nuclear missiles one state had compared to any other represented the missile gap between them. Fears arose of a US missile gap in the late 1950's during the space race. |
| McCarthyism | An aggressive campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950 |
| New Look policy | The national security policy of the US under Eisenhower. Intended to balance Cold War commitments of containment with lowering financial burden of military. Saw a reduction of conventional forces in increase in nuclear capabilities. Closely related to 'massive retaliation' and 'brinkmanship'. |
| Nikita Khrushchev | Soviet premier after Stalin - focused on destalinisation and 'peaceful coexistence' + led to C.B.M. Removed from power by party colleagues in 1964. |
| Ngo Dinh Diem | The Catholic, authoritarian, corrupt, nepotistic and pro-Western President of South Vietnam. The US delegation proposed Diem's name as the new ruler of South Vietnam during the Geneva Conference of 1954. They saw Diem as the best opportunity to keep South Vietnam from falling under the control of communism. He was assassinated with US support in Nov 1963 after the Buddhist Crisis. |
| Novikov Telegram (Sept 1946) | Reaction to Kennan's 'Long Telegram. Novikov cautions the Soviet leadership that the Truman administration is bent on imposing US political, military and economic domination around the world. |
| NSC 68 | 58 page 'top-secret' policy paper by the National Security Council - presented to Truman in 1950. Advocated a large expansion in the military budget of the US, the development of a hydrogen bomb, and increased military aid to allies of the United States. It made the containment of global Communist expansion a high priority and rejected the alternative policies of friendly d |
| Nuclear Arms Race | Competition for supremacy in the Cold War when it came to Nuclear Weapons - mainly US v USSR |
| Operation Mongoose / Cuban Project | a covert operation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed during the first year of President John F. Kennedy's administration. On November 30, 1961, aggressive covert operations against Fidel Castro's government in Cuba went into effect after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. |
| Operation Anadyr (1962) | The code name used by the Soviet Union for its secret operation of deploying ballistic missiles, medium-range bombers, and a division of mechanized infantry to Cuba to create an army group that would be able to prevent an invasion of the island by United States forces. The plan, involving approximately 60,000 personnel in support of the main missile force, was foiled when the United States discovered the plan, prompting the Cuban Missile Crisis. |
| Paris Summit (1961) | Intended to tackle issues such as Berlin but collapsed after Khrushchev walked out due to the shooting down of U2 spy plane in Soviet territory and Eisenhower's denial. |
| Politburo | the central policy making and governing body of the Soviet Communist Party. |
| Potsdam Conference (July 17 to August 2, 1945) | The Big Three met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II to continue the discussions that had begun at Yalta. Churchill replaced by Attlee and Truman was hostile towards Stalin. Agreed on - German demilitarisation - De-Nazification - German political division ratified - German freedom of speech, press and religion - Germany to become a single economic unit - USSR to receive reparations from its own zone and 25% from the western zones - Poland pushed westward Oder-Neisse line |
| Pravda | Soviet Newspaper - mouthpiece for Politburo and propaganda medium for the Communist state |
| People's Republic of China (1949) | A one-party governed by the Communist Party of China and led by Mao Zedong. Signed the Treaty of Friendship with the USSR in 1950 and would fight against the US during the Korean War. Would later grow hostile to the USSR after Khrushchev after his denunciation of Stalinism during the Secret Speech in 1956. |
| SEATO (1954) | Southeast Asia Treaty Organization - international organization for collective defense in Southeast Asia formed after the Korean War. Intended to be an Asian NATO but dissolved in 1977. |
| SED | The evolving hostilities between the USSR and China after Treaty of Friendship in 1949. Enhanced by Khrushchev's secret speech and promoted Sino-American detente in the 1970's. |
| Sino-Soviet Split | The evolving hostilities between the USSR and China after Treaty of Friendship in 1949. Enhanced by Khrushchev's secret speech and promoted Sino-American detente in the 1970's. |
| Soviet influence in Eastern Europe | Spread of communist governments across Eastern Bloc states: Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania. Fully complete by 1949 via slow 'salami tactics' the included arrests, rigging elections and deportation. |
| Space Race | 1950's competition between USSR and US, for supremacy in spaceflight capability. Led to ICBM development and fears of a missile gap in the US. |
| Sputnik (1957) | Soviet Union satellite led to massive fears of USSR dominance in technological capabilities. One consequence of the Sputnik shock was the perception of a "missile gap". This was to become a dominant issue in the 1960 Presidential campaign of JFK vs. Nixon. |
| Strategic Hamlets Program | 1962 failed program that was an attempt to prevent NLF/VC influence in South Vietnamese villages, US and ARVN forces moved peasants into new villages in areas under the control of the South Vietnamese army. This increased the hostility of the peasants towards the Ngo Dinh Diem government as they were forced to leave their ancestral lands. |
| Stuttgart Speech (1946) | James F. Byrnes, the United States Secretary of State, also known as the "Speech of hope". Set the tone of future US policy as economic reconstruction gave the Germans hope for the future. Intended to convince the Soviet Union to give up any hope of gaining influence over West Germany |
| Syngman Rhee | This strategy failed dismally and some observers claimed that it actually increased the number of peasants joining the NLF. As one pointed out: "Peasants resented working without pay to dig moats, implant bamboo stakes, and erect fences against an enemy that did not threaten them but directed its sights against government officials." |
| The Manhattan Project | 1943-45 secret US research and development project to built the first nuclear weapon. - $2 BILLION spent |
| Theodore Roosevelt | US President after WW2 - part of the original 'Big Three'. Accused of being soft on Communism for working to negotiate and not antagonise Stalin at Yalta. Died before Potsdam conference and replaced by VP Truman. |
| Truman Doctrine (1947) | US foreign policy to counter perceived Soviet Expansion by supporting Greece and Turkey. Directly led to the Marshall plan in 1948 and the policy of containment although the word containment never used: - US compelled to assist |
| Turkish Straits Crisis (1945-6) | Fierce disagreements over control of the Turkish Straits as USSR demanded unrestricted access to the Mediterranean though the Black Sea but were denied. USSR felt antagonised and threatened and USA felt that Soviets were being expansionist. |
| USA + UK 'special relationship' | Emphasised by Churchill - close economic and military relationship between two countries through history |
| West Germany joins NATO (1955) | West Germany formally joins NATO and rearmament begins prompting the establishment of the Warsaw Pact. |
| U-2 incident 1960 | The 1960 U-2 incident happened during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the premiership of Nikita Khrushchev, when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet airspace. Initially the United States government tried to cover up the plane's purpose and mission, but was forced to admit its military nature when the Soviet government came forward with the U-2's intact remains and captured pilot as well as photos of military bases in Russia taken by the aircraft. Marked deterioration in its relations with the Soviet Union and caused the collapse of the Four Power Paris Summit when Eisenhower refused to apologise. |
| US dominance in the UN | United Nations was formed in 1945 and 20 of the 50 original members were from capitalist South American nations. Many others from the Middle East were pro Western (Iraq, Egypt, Iran). China's entrance was blocked in 1949 in favour of nationalist regime in Taiwan. Poland was the only Eastern European state to join giving the UN a decidedly pro-Western and capitalist balance. The UN was also used to support US globalism with a US-led UN intervention in the Korean War |
| Viet Cong (National Liberation Front) | name used by President Diem to describe the National Liberation Front which was the guerilla army of the North Vietnamese operating in South Vietnam |
| Vyacheslav Molotov | USSR Minister of Foreign Affairs 1939-49 |
| Warsaw Pact | A military alliance of communist nations in eastern Europe. Organized in 1955 in answer to NATO, the Warsaw Pact included Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. |
| West Germany joins NATO (1955) | West Germany formally joins NATO and rearmament begins prompting the establishment of the Warsaw Pact. |
| Yalta Conference | Meeting of British PM Winston Churchill, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt early in as World War II was winding down to discuss post war issues: - Discussion of the division of Germany into four zones - Discussion of the division of Berlin into four zones - Formal ratification of the United Nations Organisation (UNO) - USSR gained land from Poland to create a buffer zone - Poland expanded west and north into formerly German territory - Declaration on Liberated Europe (Pledged the big three to support democracy, free elections and representative government in any European liberated states) |
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