Chapter 31 - Cold War and Decolonization

Question 1

Iron Curtain

Answer 1

Winston Churchill’s term for the Cold War division between the Soviet-dominated East and the U.S.-dominated West.

Question 2

Cold War

Answer 2

The ideological struggle between communism (Soviet Union) and capitalism (United States) for world influence. The Cold War came to an end when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.

Question 3

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Answer 3

Organization formed in 1949 as a military alliance of western European and North American states against the Soviet Union and its east European allies.

Question 4

Warsaw Pact

Answer 4

The 1955 treaty binding the Soviet Union and countries of eastern Europe in an alliance against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Question 5

United Nations

Answer 5

International organization founded in 1945 to promote world peace and cooperation. It replaced the League of Nations.

Question 6

World Bank

Answer 6

A specialized agency of the United Nations that makes loans to countries for economic development, trade promotion, and debt consolidation. Its formal name is the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Question 7

Marshall Plan

Answer 7

U.S. program to support the reconstruction of western Europe after World War II. By 1961 more than $20 billion in economic aid had been dispersed.

Question 8

European Economic Community (Common Market)

Answer 8

An organization promoting economic unity in Europe, formed in 1957 by consolidation of earlier, more limited, agreements. With the addition of many new nations it became the European Union (EU) in 1993.

Question 9

Korean War

Answer 9

Conflict that began with North Korea’s invasion of South Korea and that came to involve the United Nations (primarily the United States) allying with South Korea and the People’s Republic of China allying with North Korea.

Question 10

Vietnam War

Answer 10

Conflict pitting North Vietnam and South Vietnamese communist guerrillas against the South Vietnamese government, aided after 1961 by the United States.

Question 11

Cuban Missile Crisis

Answer 11

Brink-of-war confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the latter’s placement of nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba.

Question 12

Helsinki Accords

Answer 12

Political and human rights agreement signed in Helsinki, Finland, by the Soviet Union and western European countries.

Question 13

Nonaligned Nations

Answer 13

Developing countries that announced their neutrality in the Cold War.

Question 14

Third World

Answer 14

Term applied to a group of developing countries who professed nonalignment during the Cold War.

Question 15

Cultural Revolution (China)

Answer 15

Campaign in China ordered by Mao Zedong to purge the Communist Party of his opponents and instill revolutionary values in the younger generation.

Question 16

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

Answer 16

Organization formed in 1960 by oil-producing states to promote their collective interest in generating revenue from oil.