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Tehran Conference

First major meeting between the Big Three (United States, Britain, Russia) at which they planned the 1944 assault on France and agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation after the war

Yalta Conference


Potsdam Conference

Conference where Truman, Atlee and Stalin complete post-war agreements. Trinity test is successful during this time, Stalin refused free elections

Iron Curtain speech

Given by the former Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill, in Missouri, in which he talks about the dangers of communism engulfing Europe.

West Germany (Frederal Republic of Germany)

became independent country when US, France, and Britain gave back each of their zones

East Germany (German Democratic Republic)

formally established GDR by Walter Ulbricht

Truman Doctrine



Us pledged to prevent the further spread of communism

Marshall Plan

a United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe (1948-1952), prevent spread of communism

Berlin Airlift 1948-9

Soviets attempt to remove Allies from Berline


North Atlantic Treaty Organization; collective security organization consisted of the democracies in Europe, US, and Canada to prevent against Soviet expansion in Europe

Warsaw Pact


hydrogen bomb

US in 1952 adn USSR in 1953

"massive retaliation"

US policy; Eisenhower, shiftd to helping E Europe countries remove communism

Eastern Bloc

Nations favorable to the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe during the cold war-particularly Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary, and East Germany

Joseph Stalin



harsh Soviet labor camps often located in Siberia

Josip Broz Tito

Marxist Leninist communist who hated stalin. Soviet forces never allowed to come in and liberate Yugoslavia. He creates his own communist authoritarian regime. Not under stalin's control.

Nikita Khrushchev

USSR leader, power struggle ensued after Stalin died, Khrushchev emerged as the leader a few years later


Khrushchev changes the system, remove Stalin's influence

20th Party Congress Speech

Speech given by Kruschev to the members of the 20th party congress were he denounced and proclaimed his anti salin views.


Soviet central economic planning agency: heavy industry and consumer goods and agriculture

Boris Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago

intellect who rejects brutality of Bolshevik revolution and Stalinism, and its ultimately destroyed

Aleksandr Solzenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

portrays in grim detail life in a Stalinist gulag (where he had been a prisoner)

Hungarian Uprising 1956

students and workers installed a liberal Communist reformer, ask for US help but US refuses and many die

"Peaceful Coexistance"

the two sides in the Cold War decide to cooperate in such areas as space, trade, education, and science

Austraian independence

USSR agreed in '55 to real independence for a neutral Austria after 10 years of Allied occupation

Geneva Conference, 1955



Russian satellite was sent into orbit on a rocket and was brought back safely to USST, freaks US

"space race"

US was horrified that the Soviets had eclipsed US technology in this area

U-2 incident

American U-2 spy plane shot down over USSR

Berlin Wall

2 million E Germans escaped to W Berlin between 49-61

Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuba becomes Communist under Fidel Castro; US demanded Soviets remove their newly installed nuclear missiles from Cuba

Leonid Brezhnev

became new General Secretary

"Prague Spring"

1968 invasion of Czech was the crucial event of teh Brezhnev era

"socialsim with a human face"

sought greater democracy and freedom of speech

Alexander Dubcek

elected leader: ushered new period of thaw and rebirth in famous "Prague Spring"

Brezhnez Doctrine

issued in response to Prague Spring, then the Soviets and allies had the right to intervene in any socialist country whenever they saw the need

Willy Brandt

W German chancellor, began to improve relations with E Europe though his "eastern initiative"


improve relations with East


relaxation of tensions

Salt I

placed limitaions on future arms (nuclear) build up

Helsinki Conference

Final act: officially ended WWII by legitimizing Soviet-dictated boundries of Poland etc

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

led to US refusal to ratify SALT II treaty (reducing nuclear armaments) and led to President Carter's boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow


in Poland, popular movement of working people who organized a massive union

Pope John Paul II

Polish cardinal, elected in '79 traveled through Poland preaching love of Christ and country and "inalienable rights of man"

Lech Walesa

led Solidarity movement union

Atlantic Alliance

revitalized itself in the 80s under the leadership of Ronald Reagan in US

Margaret Thatcher

UK in Atlantic Alliance

Helmut Kohl


Ronald Reagan

took hard-line stance against the Soviets during the first term of his presidency

Mikhail Gorbachev

young, brilliant, new leader, reeduction of Cold War tensions


aimed to open Soviet society by introducing free speech and some politcal liberty, while ending party censorship, more sucessful


"resttructing" of economy-aimed to revive sagging Soviet economy by adopting many of the free-market practices of the W

INF Treaty 1987

signed by Gorbachev and Reagan in Washington DC 1987

START Treaty 1990

treaty signed in 90 between Gorbachev and President Bush

Revolutions of 1989

ended communist control of easten Europe

German reunification

came down in Nov and E German gov fell as a result

Vaclav Havel, "Velvet Revolution"

fall of Berlin Wall inspired reformers to break away from Soviet influence; playwrite, became pres

Romania, Nicolai Ceaucescu

overthrown and assassinated in 89

fall of Soviet Union

15 republics are now free

Boris Yeltsin

pres of Russia defied Soviet tanks and became a national hero


one of the biggest issues of 90s and early 2000s was the insurgency in the predominantly Muslim Russian republic of Chechnya

Vladimir Putin

KGB colonel


European powers experienced the disintegration of their empires after WWII

India, Gandhi

played key role in de-colonizationa and decline of imperialism, after WWI he led the independence movement through the principle of passive resistance (civil disobedience)

Dien Bien Phu

French forces defeated, Vietnam


Arab defeat in 1948 by Israel triggered a sucessful nationalist revolution in Egypt in 52 that effectively ended British control of Egypt


50s Algeria becomes independent of France and quickly fled

British Commonwealth of Nations

beginning in 1957, Britain's colonies achieved independence with little or no bloodshed

Mao Mao

Kenyan group of terrorists/freedom fighters who fought to end English control of Kenya


a mountainous republic in southeastern Europe

Slobodan Milosevic

sought a Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia


declared independence and each fought Serbia sucessfully


declared independence and each fought Serbia sucessfully


declared its independence in March 22 and civil war spread there

ethinic cleansing

Bosnian Serbs tried to liquidate or remove Muslims by shelling cities, confiscating or destroying or houses, gang rape, expulsion, and murder

Dayton Agreements

agree to divide Bosnia between Muslims and Serbs


Milosevic attempted to ethnically cleanse Kosovo (province of Serbia) of ethnic-Albanians

Irish Republican Army (IRA)

terrorized English cities demanding that Northern Ireland be returned to Ireland

Basques, ETA

ethnic group that has lived in spain for the longest time

"guest workers"

became a major source of tension among right-wing nationalits

Jean-Marie Le Pen

most outspoken opponent of both immigration and French intergration into the European Union

Jorge Haider

led right-wing Austrian Freedom Party that was staunchly opposed to immigration

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