Chapter 32- Western Society And Eastern Europe In The Decades Of The Cold War Flashcards
Harry Truman
American president from 1945 to 1952; less eager for smooth relations with the Soviet Union than Franklin Roosevelt; authorized use of atomic bomb during World War II; architect of American diplomacy that initiated the cold war
Eastern bloc
Nations favorable to the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe during the Cold War-particularly Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and East Germany
Iron curtain
Phrase coined by Winston Churchhill to describe the division between free and communist societies taking shape in Europe after 1946
Marshall Plan
Program of substantial loans initiated by the United States 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 United States 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 Eastern European satellites to balance formation of NATO by Western powers in 1949
Welfare state
New activism of the western European state in economic policy and welfare issues after World War II; introduced programs to reduce the impact of economical 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 European Economic Community (or Common Market), and 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 woman’s rights agitation dating from 1949; empathized more literal equality that would play down domestic roles and qualities for women; promoted specific reforms and redefinition of what is meant to be female
Berlin Wall
Built in 1961 to halt the flow of immigration from East Berlin to West Berlin; immigration was in response to lack of consumer goods and close Soviet control of economy and politics; torn down at end of cold war in 1991
Solidarity
Polish labor movement formed in 1970s under Lech Walesa; challenged USSR-dominated government of Poland
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Russian author critical of the Soviet
regime but also of Western materialism; published trilogy on the Siberian prison camps, The Gulag Archipelago
Nikita Khrushchev
Stalin’s successor as head of USSR; attacked Stalinism in 1956 for concentration of power in arbitrary dictatorship; failure of Siberian development program and antagonism of Stalinists led to downfall
