Final Exam Terms Flashcards
(37 cards)
Welfare Chauvinism
Welfare benefits should be restricted to certain groups, particularly to the natives of a country, rather than to immigrants
Velvet Revolution
- Occurred in 1989
- Began when riot police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Prague
- The response by the country’s citizens was a peaceful defiance
- A movement started by Vaclav Havel (Civil Forum), helped unify the dissident forces in Czechoslovakia and overthrew the Communist Regimes.
- Increase in protestors, the communist government was forced to resign
Glasnost
- Gorbachev issued this new policy
- This means “openness”
- Reform that promoted free speech and a more transparent government
Perestroika
- Gorbachev also issued this new policy
- This means “restructuring”
- Reform that aimed to transform the Soviet economy via productivity and investment
Prague Spring: Year of Protest (January-August ‘68)
- Change of Soviets (liberators to oppressors)
- When new first Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia–Alexander Dubcek started to reform the government, the Soviet Union invaded Prague
The Impact of The Year of Protest
- The Soviets and other communist states returned to the days of persecution of ordinary citizens as a method of social control
- Increase in propaganda, promoting communism, and criticizing the capitalist west, flourished
- Central and Eastern Europe experienced a brain-drain to the West
External Factors for the Fall of Communism
- Arab countries working together to quadruple the price of their oil
- Prices rose, unemployment and interest rates too
- Western countries could no longer afford products from the East
- To counter-act the downfall, countries were forced to reform
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (August 1964)
- This happened after the attack of two US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin from North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats.
- As a result the resolution appeared, and it gave President Johnson authorization to use conventional military force in Southeast Asia
- This meant that the president was given the power to do anything necessary in Vietnam without the declaration of war by Congress
My Lai Massacre (March 1968)
- One of the most horrific incidents of violence against civilians during the Vietnam War; a company of American soldiers brutally killed majority of innocent lives in a small village of My Lai
- The brutality of the My Lai killings and the extent of the cover-up exacerbated growing antiwar sentiment on the home front in the United States and further divided the nation over the continuing American presence in Vietnam.
Aftermath of the Massacre of 1968
- Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jr, played a major role in ending the massacre by intervening
- Lt. Williams Laws Calley, Jr was found guilty of murdering 22 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians but was later pardoned for his actions
- Seymour Hersh received the Pulitzer Prize for exposing the massacre to the public
Viet Cong: Vietnam War ( 1955-1975)
- Was the National Liberation Front supported by the communist North
- Waged a guerrilla campaign to overthrow South Vietnam
- Since 1954, the US has only provided support and training to the South Vietnam
- As the Viet Cong grew in strength, as so did American presence
Ho Chi Minh (North Vietnam Leader)
- French Indochina (1887-1954): led by Ho Chi Minh/Viet Minh, of 1941 led a revolt against the Japanese; they declared independence in August 1945
- First Indochina War (1946-1954): a conflict between French forces and the Viet Minh
- -The US and the Soviet Union supplied weapons to either side
- During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu the Viet Minh defeated French forces
- Vietnam was divided: the north secured by communists, while the south was run by a pro-western government
Battle of Old Baldy
- From July 1951 to July 1953, a war waged in throughout Korea (“a war of the hills”)
- Stats show that 45% of American causalities occurred during the “war of the hills”, likewise 234,000 communists were killed
- Old Baldy is the embodiment of a stalemated war
Warsaw Pact
- Communist Conference held in May 11, 1955 in Warsaw Poland
- Soviet Union and the 7 European satellites signed a treaty established the Warsaw Pact–a mutual defense organization that puts the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states
- The treaty called on the member states to come to the defense of any member attacked by outside force, and it set up a unified military command under the Soviet Union
Marshall Plan (1948-1952)
- Also commonly known as the European Recovery Program (ERP) was an American initiative to aid Europe
- Gave the US $13 billion in economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of WWII
- The plan promoted European economic integration and federalism, and created a mixture of public organization of the private economy similar to that in the domestic economy of the United States. This reorganization of the European economy provided a more congenial environment for American investment.
- The Marshall Plan, according to revisionists, allowed the United States to remake the European economy in the image of the American economy.
Commonwealth of Nations
- Formerly constituted in 1949
- It emerged with the decolonization of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories
Mandatory Palestine
-Was a geopolitical entity under the British administration from 1920 to 1948
Pan-Africanism
- Calls for African unity
- Historical and cultural awareness (Ethnocentrism)
Balfour Declaration
- Named after a letter written by Arthur James Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary
- It stipulated that Britain would support the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East
Nationalist Congress Party
- Political party in India
- Opponents of British rule and military directives
- Wanted what was promised at the end of the war: full independence from Britain
Atlantic Charter
- In February 1941, President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met to discuss the postwar world
- Document discussing certain common principles between them for hope in the future
- One of the provisions of the charter was introduced by Roosevelt: autonomy of imperial colonies
Decolonization
- The withdrawal from its colonies of colonial power; the acquisition of political or economic independence by such colonies
- Can be traced back to the 18th century, most mark the start of decolonization after WWII
Kamikaze
- Suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels
- Happened often in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of WWII
- Designed to destroy warships more effectively at war than conventional warfare
Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942-February 1943)
- One of the most bloodiest battles between the Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union
- By the winter of 1943, the Germans had lost the battle
- Tide of the war had finally turned in the direction of the Allies