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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.