WW2 Flashcards
(47 cards)
Containment
the action of keeping something harmful under control or within limits.
Cold-War
a state of political hostility between countries characterized by threats, propaganda, and other measures short of open warfare, in particular.
Truman Doctrine
the principle that the US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or communist insurrection. First expressed in 1947 by US President Truman in a speech to Congress seeking aid for Greece and Turkey, the doctrine was seen by the communists as an open declaration of the Cold War.
Marshall Plan
A program by which the United States gave large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after the devastation of World War II.
NATO
is a military alliance of European and North American democracies founded after World War II to strengthen international ties between member states—especially the United States and Europe—and to serve as a counter-balance to the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.
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.
Cuneiform
denoting or relating to the wedge-shaped characters used in the ancient writing systems of Mesopotamia, Persia, and Ugarit, surviving mainly impressed on clay tablets.
Berlin Wall
Fortified concrete and wire barrier that separated East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989. It was built by the government of what was then East Germany to keep East Berliners from defecting to the West.
Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War.
Mau Zedong
Mao Zedong or Mao Tse-tung, also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary and founding father of the People’s Republic of China, which he governed as the Chairman of the Communist
Cuban missile crisis
A confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962 over the presence of missile sites in Cuba; one of the “hottest” periods of the cold war.
Arms race
a competition between nations for superiority in the development and accumulation of weapons, especially between the US and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Satellites states
is a political term that refers to a country that is formally independent, but under heavy influence or control by another country. Term
Domino theory
the theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries, like a falling domino causing an entire row of upended dominoes to fall.
East germany
Former nation in north-central Europe, officially known as the German Democratic Republic from 1949 to 1990, when East and West Germany were reunited. Its capital and largest city was East Berlin.
West germany
is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland or BRD; French: République fédérale d’Allemagne or RFA) in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990.
The people’s republic of China
China is a populous nation in East Asia whose vast landscape encompasses grassland, desert, mountains, lakes, rivers and more than 14,000km of coastline. Capital Beijing mixes modern architecture with historic sites such as the Forbidden City palace complex and Tiananmen Square.
The Great Leap Forward
of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign by the Communist Party of China (CPC) from 1958 to 1962.
The cultural revolution
The Cultural Revolution was a chaotic mass movement in the People’s Republic of China. Mao Zedong launched it in 1966, claiming that elitists were undermining the government and Chinese society.
The gang of four
was a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes.
The reed gaurds
any of various radical or socialist groups, in particular a militant youth movement in China (1966–76) that carried out attacks on intellectuals and other disfavored groups as part of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.
Bay of pigs
On April 17, 1961, 1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Space race
the competition between nations regarding achievements in the field of space exploration.
The iron curtain
the notional barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West prior to the decline of communism that followed the political events in eastern Europe in 1989.
