Allon Posen

The Cold War Review Terms

Yalta conference: a meeting between the Allied leaders Churchill, Roosevelt, and
Stalin in February 1945 at Yalta, a Crimean port on the Black Sea. The leaders
planned the final stages of World War II and agreed on the subsequent territorial
division of Europe.

United Nations: an international organization of countries set up in 1945, in

succession to the League of Nations, to promote international peace, security, and
cooperation.

Hiroshima: a city in southwestern Japan, on the southern coast of the island of

Honshu; pop. 1,086,000. It was the target of the first atom bomb, which was
dropped by the U.S. on August 6, 1945, and resulted in the deaths of about one third
of the city's population of 300,000. This, with a second attack on Nagasaki three
days later, led to Japan's surrender and to the end of World War II.

“Iron Curtain”: notional barrier that prevents the passage of information or ideas
between political entities, in particular.

Berlin Airlift: (June 27, 1948 to May 12, 1949) The Soviet Union blocked the
Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied control.
Their aim was to force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to start
supplying Berlin with food and fuel, thereby giving the Soviets practical control over
the entire city. In response, the Western Allies organized the Berlin Airlift to carry
supplies to the people in West Berlin by air.  The success of the Berlin Airlift brought
humiliation to the Soviets. The blockade was lifted and resulted in the creation of
two separate German states.

Arms Race: a competition between nations for superiority in the development and
accumulation of weapons, esp. between the U.S. and the former USSR during the
Cold War.

Nuclear Deterrence: During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union
each built a stockpile of nuclear weapons. Soviet policy rested on the conviction that
a nuclear war could be fought and won. The United States adopted nuclear
deterrence, the credible threat of retaliation to forestall enemy attack. To make its
threat convincing, the United States during the 1950s developed and deployed
several types of delivery systems for attacking the Soviet Union with nuclear
weapons.

Sputnik: each of a series of Soviet artificial satellites, the first of which (launched on
October 4, 1957) was the first satellite to be placed in orbit.
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SALT I Treaty: (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks )An agreement signed in 1972 by
U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev after the first
round of Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT I), held from 1969-72. It consisted
of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treatyand an Interim Agreement on the Limitation of
Strategic Offensive Arms.

START 1 Treaty: (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) a bilateral treaty between the

USA and the USSR on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms.

Korean War: the war of 1950–53 between North and South Korea

38th Parallel: Is a circle of latitude that is 38 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial
plane. In 1948, the dividing line became the boundary between the newly
independent countries of North and South Korea. On 25 June 1950, North Korean
forces crossed the parallel and invaded South Korea, sparking the Korean War.

Hungarian revolution: (23 October – 10 November 1956) a spontaneous

nationwide revolt against the government of the People's Republic of Hungary and
its Soviet-imposed policies

Fidel Castro: Cuban statesman; prime minister 1959–76 and president from 1976.
After overthrowing President Batista he set up a communist regime that survived
the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the collapse of the
Soviet bloc.

Ho Chi Minh: Vietnamese communist statesman; president of North Vietnam 1954–

69; born Nguyen That Thanh. He led the Vietminh against the Japanese during World
War II, fought the French until they were defeated in 1954 and Vietnam was divided
into North and South Vietnam, and deployed his forces in the guerrilla struggle that
became the Vietnam War.

Geneva Agreements 1954: An arranged a settlement which brought about an end

to the First Indochina war. The agreement was reached at the end of the Geneva
Conference. A ceasefire was signed and France agreed to withdraw its troops from
the region. French Indochina was split into three countries: Laos, Cambodia,
and Vietnam. 

Vitalization: give strength and energy to

Vietcong: a member of the communist guerrilla movement in Vietnam that fought

the South Vietnamese government forces 1954–75 with the support of the North
Vietnamese army and opposed the South Vietnamese and U.S. forces in the Vietnam
War.
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Kuomintang: a nationalist party founded in China under Sun Yat-sen in 1912, and
led by Chiang Kai-shek from 1925. It held power from 1928 until the Communist
Party took power in October 1949, and it subsequently formed the central
administration of Taiwan.

Cultural revolution: political upheaval in China 1966–68 intended to bring about a

return to revolutionary Maoist beliefs. Largely carried forward by the Red Guard, it
resulted in attacks on intellectuals, a large-scale purge in party posts, and the
appearance of a personality cult around Mao Zedong. It led to considerable
economic dislocation and was gradually brought to a halt by premier Zhou Enlai.

Cominform: (Communist Information Bureau) was the first official forum of the
international communist movement since the dissolution of the Comintern.
A Soviet-dominated organization of Communist parties founded in
September 1947 at a conference of Communist party leaders in Poland. Joseph
Stalin called the conference in response to divergences among eastern European
governments on whether or not to attend the Paris Conference on Marshall Aid in
July 1947.

Prague Spring: a brief period of liberalization in Czechoslovakia, ending in August

1968, during which a program of political, economic, and cultural reform was
initiated.

Détente: the easing of hostility or strained relations, esp. between countries

Glasnost: he policy or practice of more open consultative government and wider

dissemination of information, initiated by leader Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985.

Star Wars: Created by U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1983 to use ground and
space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by
strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. 

Strategic defense initiative: See Star Wars, simply another name for the same
program.

Potsdam conference: a meeting held in Potsdam in the summer of 1945 among

U.S., Soviet, and British leaders that established principles for the Allied occupation
of Germany following the end of World War II.

Security council: a permanent body of the United Nations seeking to maintain

peace and security. It consists of fifteen members, of which five (China, France,
Russia, the UK, and the U.S.) are permanent and have the power of veto. The other
members are elected for two-year terms
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Nagasaki: a city and port in southwestern Japan, on the western coast of Kyushu
island; pop. 445,000. On August 9, 1945, it became the target of the second atom
bomb dropped by the U.S

Truman doctrine: the principle that the U.S. should give support to countries or
peoples threatened by Soviet forces or communist insurrection. First expressed in
1947 by U.S. 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

Hydrogen bomb: an immensely powerful bomb whose destructive power comes

from the rapid release of energy during the nuclear fusion of isotopes of hydrogen
(deuterium and tritium), using an atom bomb as a trigger

NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization: an association of European and North

American countries, formed in 1949 for the defense of Europe and the North
Atlantic against the perceived threat of Soviet aggression. By 2005, the alliance
consisted of 26 countries, including several eastern European nations. NATO's
purpose is to safeguard member countries by political and military means.

M.A.D policy: (Mutually assured destruction) a doctrine of

military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear
weapons by two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both
the attacker and the defender.

ABM: antiballistic missile: a missile designed for intercepting and destroying a

ballistic missile while in flight

Chinese ‘volunteer army’: Was the armed forces deployed by the People's Republic
of China during the Korean War. Although all units in the Chinese People’s Volunteer
Army belonged to the People's Liberation Army (the official name of the Chinese
armed forces), the People's Volunteer Army was separately constituted in order to
prevent an official war with the United States. The People’s Volunteer Army
entered Korea on October 19, 1950

General MacArthur: U.S. general. Commander of U.S. (later Allied) forces in the
southwestern Pacific during World War II, he accepted Japan's surrender in 1945
and administered the ensuing Allied occupation. He was in charge of UN forces in
Korea 1950–51, before being forced to relinquish command by President Truman

Francis Gary Powers: Was an American pilot whose CIA U-2 spy plane was shot

down while flying a reconnaissance mission over Soviet Union airspace, causing
the 1960 U-2 incident.
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‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion: The Bay of Pigs is the location of a failed attempt in 1961 by
U.S.-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow the government of Fidel
Castro, resulting in considerable embarrassment for the administration of President
John F. Kennedy.

Viet Minh: Founder of the Indochina Communist Party (1930) and president from
1945 to 1969 of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). The
organization led the struggle for Vietnamese independence from French rule and
fought the USA during the Vietnam War.

‘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

Richard Nixon: 37th president of the U.S. 1969–74. The Vietnam War
overshadowed his period of office. A Republican, he restored Sino-American
diplomatic relations by his visit to China in 1972 and successfully ended the
Vietnam War when peace negotiations were concluded by his secretary of state,
Henry Kissinger, in 1973. Although he was reelected in 1972, he became the first
president to resign from office, owing to his involvement in the Watergate scandal.

Tet Offensive: (in the Vietnam War) an offensive launched in January–February

1968 by the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese army. Timed to coincide with the
first day of the Tet (Vietnamese New Year), it was a surprise attack on South
Vietnamese cities, notably Saigon. Although repulsed after initial successes, the
attack shook U.S. confidence and hastened the withdrawal of its forces.

Chiang Kai-shek: Chinese statesman and general; president of China 1928–31 and
1943–49 and of Taiwan 1950–75. He tried to unite China by military means in the
1930s but was defeated by the Communists. Forced to abandon Mainland China in
1949, he set up a separate Nationalist Chinese State in Taiwan

Four modernizations: Were goals set forth by Zhou Enlai in 1963. The
Four Modernizations were in the fields of: agriculture, industry, national defense,
science and technology. The Four Modernizations were designed to make China a
great economic power by the early 21st century. These reforms essentially stressed
economic self-reliance. 

CIA: Central Intelligence Agency: a U.S. federal agency responsible for coordinating
government intelligence activities

Brezhnev Doctrine: a Soviet Union foreign policy that announced to retroactively

justify the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 that ended the Prague
Spring. In practice, the policy meant that limited independence of communist parties
was allowed. However, no country would be allowed to leave the Warsaw Pact.
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Brezhnev: Soviet statesman; general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union 1966–82; president 1977–82. His administration was marked by intensified
persecution of dissidents at home and by attempted détente followed by renewed
Cold War in 1968; he was largely responsible for the invasion of Czechoslovakia 196

Perestroika: (in the former Soviet Union) the policy or practice of restructuring or
reforming the economic and political system. First proposed by Leonid Brezhnev in
1979 and actively promoted by Mikhail Gorbachev, perestroika originally referred
to increased automation and labor efficiency, but came to entail greater awareness
of economic markets and the ending of central planning

San Francisco Conference: This treaty served to officially end World War II, to
formally end Japan's position as an imperial power, and to allocate compensation to
Allied civilians and former POWs who had suffered Japanese war crimes. This treaty
made extensive use of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights to enunciate the Allies' goals.

Atomic Bomb: a bomb that derives its destructive power from the rapid release of
nuclear energy by fission of heavy atomic nuclei, causing damage through heat,
blast, and radioactivity

Manhattan Project: the code name for the American project set up in 1942 to
develop an atom bomb. The project culminated in 1945 with the detonation of the
first nuclear weapon, at White Sands in New Mexico

Marshall plan: a program of financial aid and other initiatives, sponsored by the
U.S., designed to boost the economies of western European countries after World
War II. It was originally advocated by Secretary of State George C. Marshall and
passed by Congress in 1948

Berlin wall: a fortified and heavily guarded wall built on the boundary between
East and West Berlin in 1961 by the communist authorities, chiefly to curb the flow
of East Germans to the West. It was opened in November 1989 after the collapse of
the communist regime in East Germany and subsequently was dismantled

Warsaw Pact: a treaty of mutual defense and military aid signed at Warsaw on May
14, 1955, by communist states of Europe under Soviet influence, in response to the
admission of West Germany to NATO. The pact was dissolved in 1991.

Missile Gap: term used in the United States for the perceived disparity between the
number and power of the weapons in the USSR and US ballistic
missile arsenals during the Cold War. 

MIRV: Multiple Independently targeted Re-entry Vehicles: a type of intercontinental

nuclear missile carrying several independent warheads.
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INF Treaty: intermediate-range nuclear force

Peace Dividend: a sum of public money that becomes available for other purposes
when spending on defense is reduced

Kim Il-Sung: Korean communist statesman; first premier of North Korea 1948–72
and president 1972–94; born Kim Song Ju. He precipitated the Korean War 1950–53.
He maintained a one-party state and created a personality cult around himself and
his family.

Panmunjom: a village in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. It
was here that the armistice ending the Korean War was signed on July 27, 1953

Cuban Missile Crisis: an international crisis in October 1962, the closest approach
to nuclear war at any time between the U.S. and the USSR. When the U.S. discovered
Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba, President John F. Kennedy demanded their removal
and announced a naval blockade of the island; the Soviet leader Khrushchev acceded
to the U.S. demands a week later

Vietnam War: a war between communist North Vietnam and U.S.-backed South
Vietnam.
After the partition of Vietnam in 1954, the communist North attempted to unite the
country as a communist state, fueling U.S. concern over the possible spread of
communism in Southeast Asia. After two U.S. destroyers were reportedly fired on in
the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, U.S. Army forces were sent to Vietnam, supported by
contingents from South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand, while U.S.
aircraft bombed North Vietnamese forces and areas of Cambodia. The Tet Offensive
of 1968 damaged U.S. confidence and U.S. forces began to be withdrawn, finally
leaving in 1973. The North Vietnamese captured the southern capital Saigon to end
the war in 1975.

Dien Bien Phu: a village in northwestern Vietnam. It was the site of a French
military post that was captured by the Vietminh after a 55-day siege in 1954.

Ngo Dinh Diem: as the first President of South Vietnam (1955–1963). In the wake
of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords,
Diem led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Supported by the U.S. due to
his Anti-Communist beliefs.

Tonkin Resolution: A joint resolution which the United States Congress passed on

August 7, 1964 in response to a sea battle between the North Vietnamese Navy's
Torpedo Squadron and the destroyer USS Maddox on August 2.

Mao Zedong: Chinese statesman; chairman of the Communist Party of the Chinese
People's Republic 1949–76; head of state 1949–59. A cofounder of the Chinese
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Communist Party in 1921 and its effective leader from the time of the Long March
(1934–35), he eventually defeated both the occupying Japanese and rival
Kuomintang nationalist forces to create the People's Republic of China in 1949

Great Leap Forward: an unsuccessful attempt made under Mao Zedong in China
1958–60 to hasten the process of industrialization and improve agricultural
production by reorganizing the population into large rural collectives and adopting
labor-intensive industrial methods.

Tiananmen Square: a square in the center of Beijing adjacent to the Forbidden City,
the largest public open space in the world. In spring 1989, government troops
opened fire there on unarmed pro-democracy protesters, killing over 2,000

KGB: the state security police (1954–91) of the former USSR with responsibility for
external espionage, internal counterintelligence, and internal “crimes against the
stat

Afghanistan (Soviet Invasion 27 December 1979 – 15 February 1989): a nine-

yearconflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting theMarxist-Leninist government
of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan at their own request against
the Mujahideen Resistance when on December 27, 1979, 700 Soviet troops dressed
in Afghan uniforms, including KGB and GRU special force officers from the Alpha
Group and Zenith Group, occupied major governmental, military and media
buildings in Kabul, including their primary target—the Tajbeg Presidential Palace.
The mujahideen found other support from a variety of sources including the United
States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and otherMuslim nations
through the context of the Cold War.

Mikhail Gorbachev: Gorbachev, Mikhail (Sergeevich) (1931– ), Soviet statesman,

general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1985–91 and
president 1988–91. His foreign policy helped bring about an end to the Cold War,
while within the Soviet Union he introduced major reforms ( glasnost and
perestoika), both in the economy and in freedom of information. He resigned
following an attempted coup and at a time of the Soviet republics' desire for
autonomy. Nobel Peace Prize (1990)

Solidarity (Poland): an independent trade union movement in Poland that

developed into a mass campaign for political change and inspired popular
opposition to communist regimes across eastern Europe during the 1980s.