| A | B |
|---|
| United Nations | Based in New York,An international peacekeeping organization founded in 1945 to provide security to the nations of the world |
| Iron Curtain | During the Cold War, the boundary created by the Soviet Union separating the Communist nations of Eastern Europe from the mostly democratic nations of Western Europe making Eastern Europe a buffer zone for the Soviet Union |
| Containment | U.S. foreign policy adopted by President Harry Truman in the late 1940s, in which the United States tried to stop the spread of communism by creating alliances and helping weak countries to resist Soviet advances; basis of U.S. fighting in the Korean and Vietnam Wars |
| Truman Doctrine | A U.S. policy of giving economic and military aid to communist-rejecting, free nations threatened by internal or external opponents, announced by President Harry Truman in 1947 |
| Marshall Plan | A U.S. program of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after World War II; proposed by Secretary of State George Marshall |
| Cold War | The state of diplomatic hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union in the decades following World War II; resulted in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and included the Cuban Missile Crisis |
| NATO | The North Atlantic Treaty Organization - a defensive military alliance formed in 1949 by ten Western European nations, the United States, and Canada in which these nations promised to defend one another |
| Warsaw Pact | A military alliance formed in 1955 by the Soviet Union and seven Eastern European countries in response to NATO |
| Brinkmanship | A policy of threatening to go to war in response to any enemy aggression believing that the other side would not risk nuclear war |
| U-2 incident | The shooting down of a U.S. spy plane and capture of its pilot by the Soviet Union in 1960 leading to greater Cold War tensions |
| Commune | In Communist China, a collective farm on which a great number of people work and live together; owned by the government |
| Red Guards | Militia units formed by young Chinese people in 1966 in response to Mao Zedong's call for a social and cultural revolution |
| Cultural Revolution | A 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; led to persecution of professors, government oficials, and even parents and resulted in the closing down of educational institutions and businesses |
| Mao Zedong | Communist leader in China, supported by peasants, ruled as both chairman of the Communist party and head of state until 1959, determined to reshape China's economy based on Marxist socialism; promoted Chinese cultural revolution |
| Jiang Jieshi | Leader of the Nationalist forces in China, formerly spelled Chiang Kai-shek, retreated to the island of Taiwan after Mao Zedong gained control of the mainland; supported by the U.S. |
| 38th Parallel | Divides North Korea and South Korea; ending World War II, Japan surrendered to the Soviets north of the line and to the U.S. south of the line |
| Domino Theory | The idea that if a nation falls under Communist control, nearby nations will also fall under Communist control; primarily applied to Southeast Asia |
| 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; killing about 1/4 of the population in an attempt to make Cambodia a rural society led by Pol Pot |
| Douglas MacArthur | U.S. General who led an international U.N. force in Korea, sent to help South Korea resist the aggression of communist North Korea; was dismissed by Truman for his opposition to Truman's policies including Truman's refusal to attack North Korea with a nuclear weapons |
| Ho Chi Minh | Vietnamese nationalist and communist, ruled North Vietnam by crushing all opposition from 1954 to 1969 |
| Ngo Dinh Diem | Unpopular, corrupt leader of anti-Communist government set up by the U.S. and France in South Vietnam; was later assassinated |
| Third World | During the Cold War, the developing nations not allied with either the United States or the Soviet Union; were often newly independent |
| Nonaligned Nations | The independent countries that remained neutral in the Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union |
| Fidel Castro | Dictator of Cuba after he led a revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista, nationalized the Cuban economy and suppressed opposition, staunch Soviet ally |
| Anastasio Somoza | Dictator of Nicaragua initially supported by the U.S., Communist Sandinista rebels toppled the dictatorship of Somoza's son with U.S. and Soviet help; was previously the dictator in Nicaragua |
| Daniel Ortega | Leader of the Sandinistas that toppled the government in Nicaragua, became president and agreed to free elections in 1990 when he was defeated |
| Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi | Leader of Iran who embraced Western governments and wealthy oil companies after World War II, Iranian nationalists resented these alliances and forced the shah to flee but he was later restored to power by the U.S., westernized country and limited the role of Islamic leaders during his oppressive leadership |
| Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini | Leader of religious opposition to the shah, after the shah fled in 1979 Khomeini established an Islamic state banning Western influences and reinstating traditional Muslim values; encouraged hatred of the West and the U.S. in particular |
| Destalinization | Nikita Khrushchev's policy of eliminating all memory of Joseph Stalin and his programs in the Soviet Union |
| Detente | A policy of reducing Cold War tensions through diplomacy that was adopted by the United States during the presidency of Richard Nixon |
| SALT | The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks - a series of meetings in the 1970s, in which leaders of the United States (Nixon) and the Soviet Union (Brezhnev) agreed to limit their nations' stocks of nuclear weapons |
| Star Wars | A high-tech program to protect the United States against attack by enemy missiles, proposed in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan but never implemented - formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative |
| Nikita Khrushchev | Soviet leader after Stalin, began policy of destalinization and "peaceful competition" with the capitalist states, lost prestige as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis, removed from power in 1964 |
| Leonid Brezhnev | Replaced Khrushchev as Soviet leader in 1964, adopted repressive domestic policies which were strictly enforced by the Communist party, did not tolerate dissent in Eastern European countries |
| John F. Kennedy | U.S. president in the early 1960s when the Cuban missile crisis made the superpowers' use of nuclear weapons a very real possibility; assassinated in 1963 |
| Lyndon Johnson | Assumed the U.S. presidency in 1963 after the assassination of John F. Kennedy; escalated war in Vietnam |
| Richard M. Nixon | As president, Nixon moved toward detente lessening the tensions of the Cold War, new policies represented a dramatic political shift for the country, became first American president to visit Communist China after World War II |
| Ronald Reagan | Fiercely anti-Communist, became president in 1981, retreated from policy of detente, announced a program called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to protect America against enemy missiles but it was never put into effect |
