Key Terms, Definitions And Concepts

Question 1

What is a flashpoint?

Answer 1

a place, event, or time at which violence or hostility flares up

Question 2

What was meant by a buffer zone?

Answer 2

Stalin’s concept of area around main USSR state of Russia composed of loyal nations

Question 3

What was the Brezhnev Doctrine?

Answer 3

Justification of actions in Czechoslovakia (‘68), citing duty of USSR to protect interests of Communism if threatened

Question 4

What is Capitalism?

Answer 4

An economic system based on private ownership of capital, with freedom of speech and regular, cross-party elections

Question 5

What is Communism?

Answer 5

The idea that society should be based on common ownership and communal control of property, where censorship is enforced and freedoms restricted

Question 6

What is meant by containment?

Answer 6

An American policy of resisting further expansion of communism around the world

Question 7

What was the Détente?

Answer 7

Policy to decrease tensions between the superpowers in the 1970’s

Question 8

What was the policy of Destalinization?

Answer 8

Khrushchev’s move as Premier to renounce actions and policies connected to Stalin, as well as overseeing the removal of statues etc. honouring him

Question 9

What was the Soviet policy of Glasnost

Answer 9

meaning “openness”

This policy refers to a new era of media freedom under Mikhail Gorbachev

Question 10

What was the Iron Curtain?

Answer 10

The term popularised by Churchill describing the Eastern Bloc nations’ division from Western Europe

Made up of:

• Poland
• East Germany
• Czechoslovakia
• Hungary
• Yugoslavia
• Romania
• Bulgaria
• Albania
• USSR

Question 11

What was the Marshall Plan?

Answer 11

A US program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe (1948-52)

Offering a proposed $13.3bn investment across the continent

Question 12

What is meant by ‘Perestroika’

Answer 12

Meaning “restructuring”

A policy of reform of the corrupt government bureaucracy in the Soviet Union begun by Mikhail Gorbachev

and

implementing more Westernised economic tactics

Question 13

What is a bureaucracy?

Answer 13

a system of government in which most of the important decisions are taken by state officials rather than by elected representatives

Question 14

What was the Truman Doctrine?

Answer 14

A US policy of giving aid to countries threatened by communism

E.g.

$400m investment in Greece

Question 15

What were Satellite States?

Answer 15

• Eastern European states
• under the control of the Soviet Union during the Cold War,
• with puppet governments

Question 16

What is a Puppet Government?

Answer 16

A government whose actions and appointments are controlled by an outside country

Question 17

What is meant by the Bamboo Curtain?

Answer 17

A term for the partition of Korea along the 38th parallel in the late 40’s

Question 18

What is meant by Domino Theory?

Answer 18

The US theory that stated, if one country would fall to Communism the they all would

Visible as poverty was rife

Question 19

What was significant about the 17th paralllel?

Answer 19

A line along which Vietnam was separated after French and USA defeated at Dien Bien Phu

Question 20

What was Vietnamisation?

Answer 20

Withdrawal of US troops to end involvement in Vietnam with minimal damage to pride (under Richard Nixon)

Question 21

What is censorship?

Answer 21

Restriction on access to ideas and information

Question 22

What was the Yalta Conference?

Answer 22

A 1945 strategy meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin

Question 23

What was the Berlin Blockade?

Answer 23

Soviet blocking of Berlin from allies citing “technical difficulties” - Causing the Berlin Airlift

Question 24

What was the ”secret speech”?

Answer 24

Khrushchev’s renouncing of Stalin and urging the need of Peaceful Coexistence with the West

Question 25

What was the Prague Spring?

Answer 25

The term for the attempted liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1968

Question 26

What was the Warsaw Pact?

Answer 26

A military alliance created by the Soviet Union in response to NATO, effectively binding the satellite states of the USSR in allegiance to it.

Question 27

What is Napalm?

Answer 27

A highly flammable chemical dropped from US planes in firebombing attacks during the Vietnam War.

Question 28

What was significant about the Bay Of Pigs?

Answer 28

This was the site of landing of 1961 attempt by USA in collusion with Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro but resulting in failure and humiliation

Question 29

What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Answer 29

The 1962 confrontation between US and the Soviet Union over Soviet missiles in Cuba

Question 30

What is meant by the term “Brinkmanship”

Answer 30

Willingness on the part of the superpower to go to the edge of war in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome.

Question 31

What was Operation Rolling Thunder?

Answer 31

1965 Bombing campaign over North Vietnam, supposed to weaken enemy’s ability and will to fight

Question 32

What was the My Lai Massacre?

Answer 32

1968 killing of 300 civilians by the US MIlitary in Vietnam, sparking mass uproar in USA

Question 33

What was the Tet Offensive?

Answer 33

1968 attack by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces throughout South Vietnam and on US bases.

Question 34

What was the Tonkin Gulf Resolution?

Answer 34

L.B Johnson’s resolution to use any means deemed necessary to ensure success of Containment and secure strength of Capitalism in Vietnam