Download A meeting in Ukraine on the Black Sea in February 1945. Roosevelt

Yalta
Conference
A meeting in Ukraine on the Black Sea in
February 1945. Roosevelt, Churchill, and
Stalin (the Big Three) discussed the
treatment of Germany and the creation of
the United Nations. The fates of the
nations of Eastern Europe divided the
leaders, as Stalin insisted that Russian
national security depended on pro-Soviet
governments in Eastern Europe.
United
Nations
An international body agreed upon at
the Yalta in 1945. It consisted of a
General Assembly, in which all nations
are represented, and a Security Council
of the five major Allied powers—the
United States, Britain, France, China,
and the Soviet Union—and seven other
nations elected on a rotating basis.
containment
The basic U.S. policy of the Cold War,
which sought to keep communism
within its existing geographic
boundaries. Initially, it focused on the
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, but in
the 1950s, the policy included China,
North Korea, and other parts of the
developing world.
Truman
Doctrine
President Truman’s commitment to
“support free peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by armed
minorities or outside pressures.” First
applied to Greece and Turkey in 1947, it
became the justification for U.S.
intervention into several countries
during the Cold War.
Marshall Plan
Aid program proposed in 1947 and
begun in 1948 to help European
economies recover from World War II.
Although originally contested by many
in Congress, the $13 billion in aid over
the next 4 years was beneficial in
reducing the appeal of Communism in
the West.
North Atlantic
Treaty
Organization
Military alliance formed in 1949
among the United States, Canada,
and Western European nations to
counter any possible Soviet threat.
Warsaw Pact
A military alliance established in
Eastern Europe in 1955 to counter
the NATO alliance. It included
Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,
East Germany, Hungary, Poland,
Romania, and the Soviet Union.
NSC-68
Top-secret government report of
April 1950 warning that national
survival in the face of Soviet
communism required a massive
military buildup.
LoyaltySecurity
Program
A program created in 1947 by
President Truman that permitted
officials to investigate any
employee of the federal
government for “subversive”
activities.
HUAC
Congressional committee especially
prominent during the early years of the
Cold War that investigated Americans
who might be disloyal to the
government or might have associated
with communists or other radicals.
(House Un-American Activities
Committee.)
Domino
Theory
President Eisenhower’s theory of
containment, which warned that
the fall of a noncommunist
government to communism in
Southeast Asia, would trigger the
spread of communism to
neighboring countries.
Bay of Pigs
A 1961 failed U.S.-sponsored
invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro
forces who planned to overthrow
Fidel Castro’s government.
Cuban Missile
Crisis
The 1962 nuclear standoff between the
Soviet Union and the United States.
President Kennedy ordered a
“quarantine” of Cuba to prevent Soviet
ships from approaching. The event
came extremely close to sparking
nuclear war between the U.S. and the
Soviet Union.
Peace Corps
Program launched by President
Kennedy in 1961 through which
young American volunteers helped
with education, health, and other
projects in developing countries
around the world.
George
Kennan
American diplomat in Moscow who
wrote a secret 8000 word “Long
Telegram” in 1946 arguing that the
Soviet system was unstable and would
eventually collapse if met with “longterm, patient but firm and vigilant
containment of Russian expansive
tendencies.”
Joseph
McCarthy
Senator from Wisconsin who claimed
that members of the Communist Party
were secretly working in the State
Department, launching a “witch hunt”
for Communists from 1950 to 1954. He
was finally discredited when he
attacked high ranking U.S. Army
personnel.
Nikita
Khrushchev
He became the successor to Stalin
in 1956, surprising Americans by
calling for “peaceful coexistence”
with the West. However, he did
not hesitate to crush rebellions
against Moscow rule in the East.
Fidel Castro
Cuban revolutionary who overthrew the rightwing dictator Batista in 1959. Politically
a Marxist-Leninist, he served as the First
Secretary of the Communist Party of
Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his
administration, Cuba became a oneparty socialist state; industry and business
were nationalized, and state socialist reforms
were implemented throughout society.
Ho Chi Minh
Leader of the nationalist Vietminh
rebels who resisted French (before
1940) and then Japanese (after WWII)
control of Vietnam. Because he was also
a Communist, America sided with the
French colonists, refusing to allow
Vietnamese self-determination and a
unified nation.