USHC 7.5-A Key Terms/Ideas/People/Events & Vocabulary Key Terms/Ideas/People/Events 1. World War II: seminal event of the 20th Century; pitted the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and most other nations (Allies) against Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Empire of Japan (Axis); after a 6 year struggle (4½ years for originally neutral US) the Allies win leading to the next world struggle—the Cold War 2. Totalitarian, communist regime in the Soviet Union – political & economic system of the Soviet Union, Eastern European nations and part of Asia (China, North Korea); contrasts with the democratic & capitalist nations of the west & the United States 3. Democratic, capitalist United States – political & economic system of the United States and much of the western world; contrasts with the un-democratic & communist system of the Soviet Union 4. Buffer zone – an area that lies between two countries or areas; in this case, Eastern European nations controlled by the Soviet Union were the “buffer zone” between the Soviets in the East and Germany and the Western powers in the West; remember, the Russians had been invaded twice by Germany in the past two World Wars and wished to prevent this from happening again 5. Free and fair elections – the type of elections the United States called for in the newly freed Eastern European nations; the belief was that those nations would vote democratic governments for themselves; the Soviet Union installed their own receptive governments and free and fair elections were not held 6. States of Eastern Europe – Eastern European nations controlled by the Soviet Union; referred to as satellite nations; had their own communist governments but answerable to the Soviet Union 7. Greece & Turkey – locations of where the Truman Doctrine was first implemented; financial and military aid and assistance was provided to these two nations to resist the communist-backed rebel forces there; the United States was successful in keeping Greece & Turkey non-communist nations 8. Southeast Asia – fought the Japanese during World War II; area the French attempted to restore to colonial control; the French failed & asked the US to help in order to contain communism 9. Nationalist forces – groups of Southeast Asians (Vietnamese) who fought against the Japanese during World War II for their independence; the United States provided military and financial assistance; the nationalist forces were not necessarily communist, they were nationalists, so when the French tried to take their colonies back, they fought the French; when the French failed and asked the United States to step in, the nationalist forces looked to support from the nations that could help them—the Communist ones 10. Japanese – enemy during World War II; took advantage of the French defeat in Europe by taking their Southeast Asian colonies; fought and ultimately lost control of Vietnam; after World War II, with assistance from the United States, will become a vital ally in the war against communism 11. French – wished to restore their colonial holdings in Southeast Asia (French Indochina or Vietnam); the nationalist forces fought against the Japanese for independence during World War 2 and will fight the French for independence after WW2; the French were not up to the task and asked the United States to involve itself in Vietnam (thanks, France) 12. Winston Churchill – prime minister who led Great Britain through World War II; was staunchly anti-communist and coined the phrase Iron Curtain 13. Iron Curtain – symbolized the ideological conflict and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991; the term was coined by Winston Churchill and symbolized efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its dependent and central European allies off from open contact with the west 14. Policy of containment – policy to stop communism from spreading; does not try to end communism where it exists, but stop it from spreading; provide military and financial assistance and if necessary, troops to stop it from spreading (Korean & Vietnam Wars) 15. President Truman – president of the United States at the close of World War II; made decision to drop the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities; made decision to contain communism in Europe; will desegregate the military 16. Truman Doctrine – Truman’s pledge to contain communism in Europe; first applied to Greece & Turkey; doctrine is not to destroy communism, but stop it from spreading 17. The Marshall Plan – plan to rebuild Europe; millions of dollars in aid were provided to promote the economic rebuilding of Western Europe and prevent the fall of those nations to communism 18. Berlin – city at the center of many Cold War events; city was divided amongst the major Allied powers after Germany surrendered; the city was located inside of the Communist controlled East Germany; the western half belonged to the western Allied powers (US, Great Britain & France) while the eastern half was controlled by the Soviet Union; events included the Berlin Blockade, Berlin Airlift, Berlin Wall, Fall of the Berlin Wall 19. Blockaded Berlin – the first Cold War confrontation between the United States & the Soviet Union; the Soviet Union shut down all road and rail traffic into the West Berlin; only would allow air traffic 20. Berlin Airlift [1948-49] – the US response to the Berlin Blockade; tremendous numbers of aircraft used to supply the city of West Berlin; provided up to 4,700 tons daily for over a year; first Cold War confrontation was a win for the United States 21. Cold War – term given to the confrontations between the United States and the Soviet Union; fortunately, no direct fighting between the two superpowers; the use of surrogates to do the fighting was common; began because of distrust between the two former World War II allies; lasted from 1945 till the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 22. Berlin Wall – symbol of the Cold War and divide between the West and East; built to prevent “brain drain” from the Eastern block nations; came down in 1989 and symbolized the end of the Cold War 23. Eastern block – nations behind the “iron curtain”; nations controlled by Soviet Union and communist governments; some Central and all the Eastern European nations USHC 7.5-A Key Terms/Ideas/People/Events & Vocabulary 24. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – military alliance of Western & Southern European nations and the United States & Canada; formed by the US and aimed at the Soviet Union; brought about by fears from the Cold War and the likelihood of European nations falling to communism one by one 25. Hydrogen bomb – much larger atomic weapon than original Hiroshima & Nagasaki explosion; the US accelerated the development of this weapon after the Soviets tested their own atomic weapon 26. Nuclear arms race – the buildup of nuclear weapons between the Soviet Union and United States 27. Chiang Kai-shek – leader of the Chinese nationalists; fought the Japanese during World War II and the Chinese Communists afterwards; was backed by the United States but ended up losing to the communists and fled to the island of Taiwan; 28. Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong) – leader of Chinese Communists; victorious over the Chinese Nationalists; never overly friendly with their fellow communist nation of the Soviet Union 29. Communist North Korea – country set up at the close of World War II by the Soviet Union; invaded South Korea in 1950 and the US believed the Soviet Union had instigated the invasion and arranged to have the conflict in Korea fought by the United Nations; mainly US forces fighting the North Koreans; as war got closer to China, the Chinese communists invaded making the war much more difficult for the US; still a flashpoint today 30. South Korea – democratically elected country on the Southern part of the Korean peninsula; friend to the United States; ally during the Korean War; 31. United Nations – world-wide organization of countries designed to assist in world peace; the equivalent to the League of Nations but with the United States involved; agreed to stop the North Korea invasion of the South Korea 32. ‘Police action’ – official term to describe the fighting on the Korean peninsula; not technically a war; however, besides the name, it had all the characteristics of a war 33. 38th parallel – the dividing line between North & South Korea before and after the Korean War; the 34. Warsaw Pact – a military alliance of Eastern European nations and the Soviet Union for defense against NATO; organized in 1955 35. Sputnik [1957] – Soviet Union launched this first satellite; started the space race between Soviet Union & United States; Soviets had early advantage, but United States pulled ahead in the 1960s and 1970s 36. National Defense Education Act – law passed in response to the Soviets’ launch of Sputnik and the belief that consumerism had made Americans less competitive and less likely to win the arms race with the Soviet Union; promoted science and math skills to counteract the impact of the Soviet’s head start 37. Bomb shelters – supposedly safe locations built by many people in the United States to live through a nuclear war; the reality of these was they allowed some of the American public a false sense of security; caused by the uncertainty of nuclear war and the arms race; took on a place in pop culture of the 1950s 38. Red Scare – fear of communist takeover of the United States; unlike the earlier Red Scare of the 1920s which took place when the Soviets were weak, this one had a genuine threat, although blown out of proportion; found its way into pop culture such as the movies & television as well as politics 39. Cold War propaganda – permeated the culture in the United States as well as contributed to the climate of fear; media to form American opinion that communism was bad; found in books, movies and television programs 40. Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy – Senator who claimed to have knowledge of communists in government positions; he used the tactic of the Big Lie to portray individuals of being affiliated with communism; some of the individuals he accused of were communists, but many were not; those individuals who were not communist had their reputations and lives destroyed 41. “Soft on communism” – claim against the Democratic Party; meaning the Democratic Party did not take the threat of communism serious enough and weakened American national security 42. Big Lie – tactic where if you repeat an untrue accusation loudly and often enough, people tend to believe it; Senator McCarthy used this in his crusade against communists in government positions; 43. McCarthyism – the accusing of individuals of being affiliated with communism during the 1950s; many diplomats, artists and statesmen had their careers ruined or tarnished because of McCarthy’s accusations; while there were some spies who aided the Soviets, many individuals were innocent of the charges against them 44. Army-McCarthy – Senator McCarthy claimed that communists had infiltrated the US Army; these hearings were made public and showed what a bully McCarthy was; American public turned against McCarthy; this was the end of McCarthy’s “reign of terror” – he besmirched many people’s reputation

Vocabulary  Aggression – hostility  resistance – opposition or defiance  Preserve – sustain or save  tensions – pressures  Ideologies – beliefs  enunciated – pronounced  Conflicting – incompatible  descended – appeared  Priorities – urgencies  formulate – devise  autocratic government – government led by one  dominated – controlled  circumstances – conditions  contain – restrain USHC 7.5-A Key Terms/Ideas/People/Events & Vocabulary  applied – used  simplistic – naïve  confrontation – clash  acquisition – procurement  erected – built  anxiety – worry  accelerate – quickened  permeated – filled  orchestrated – coordinated  Partisan – biased  unanimously – with one voice  Crusade – cause  casualties – losses  Accusation – allegation  promote – stimulate  Affiliation – association  consumerism – buying consumer goods  Bully – tyrant  competitive – driven  Reputations – standings  counteract – offset  Smeared – tarnished 