Chapter 26 Flashcards
Cold War
The state of relations between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies between the end of WOrld War II and 1990; based on creation of political spheres of influence and a nuclear arms race rather than actual warfare
Eastern Bloc
Nations favorable to the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe during the Cold War - particularly Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and East Germany
Harry Truman
American president from 1945 - 1952; less eager for smooth relations with the Soviet Union than Franklin Roosevelt; authorized use of atomic bomb during WWII; architect of American diplomacy that initiated the Cold War
Iron Curtain
Phase coined by Winston Churchill to describe the division between free and communist societies taking shape in Europe after 1946
Marshall Plan
Program of substantial loans initiated by US in 1947; designed to aid Western nations in rebuilding from the war’s devastation; vehicle for American economic dominance
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Created in 1949 under US leadership to group most of the Western European powers plus Canada in a defensive alliance against possible Soviet aggression
Warsaw Pact
Alliance organized by Soviet Union with its E. European satellites to balance formation of NATO by Western powers in 1949
Welfare State
New activism of W. European state in economic policy and welfare issues after World War II; introduced programs to reduce the impact of economic inequality; typically included medical programs and economic planning
Technocrat
New type of bureaucrat; intensely trained in engineering or economics and devoted to the power of national planning; came to fore in offices of governments following World War II
Green movement
Political parties, especially in Europe, focusing on environmental issues and control over economic growth
European Union
Began as the European Economic Community (or Common Market), an alliance of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands to create a single economic entity across national boundaries in 1958; later joined by Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, Finland, and other nations for further European economic integration
New feminism
New wave of women’s rights agitation dating from 1949; emphasized more literal equality that would play down domestic roles and qualities for women; promoted specific reforms and redefinition of what it meant to be female
Berlin Wall
Built in 1961 to halt the flow of immigration from E. Berlin to W. Berlin; immigration was in response to lack of consumer goods and close Soviet control of the economy and politics; torn down at the end of Cold War in 1991
Solidarity
Polish labor movement formed in 1970s under Lech Walesa; challenged U.S.S.R. - dominated government of Poland
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Russian author critical of Soviet regime but also of Western materialism; published trilogy on Siberian prison camps, The Gulag Archipelago (1978)
Nikita Khrushchev
Stalin’s sucesssor as head of U.S.S.R. from 1953 to 1964; attacked Stalinism in 1956 for concentration of power and arbitrary dictatorship; failure of Siberian development program and antagonism of Stalinists led to downfall
