Cold War Terms

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1. Occupation Zone the area of central Germany occupied by the Soviet Union from 1945 on, at the end of WWII
2. Superpower a state with a dominant position in the international system which has the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests
3. Cold War state of conflict between nations that does not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, propaganda, acts of espionage or proxy wars waged by surrogates
4. buffer zone any zonal area that serves the purpose of keeping two or more other areas (often, but not necessarily countries) distant from one another, for whatever reason
5. nuclear weapon explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion
6. Yalta Conference February 4-11, 1945, wartime meeting of the heads of government of the US, UK, and the Soviet Union for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization
7. United Nations international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace
8. Universal Declaration of Human Rights declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 in Paris
9. Arms race (original usage) competition between two or more parties for the best armed forces
10. satellite an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor
11. Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989.
12. NATO an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949
13. Warsaw Pact informal name for the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, created the Warsaw Treaty Organization
14. Gross National Product market value of all goods and services produced in one year by labor and property supplied by the residents of a country
15. European Union economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe
16. De-Stalinization the process of eliminating the cult of personality and Stalinist political system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
17. Berlin Wall barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin
18. Solidarity integration, and degree and type of integration, shown by a society or group with people and their neighbors
19. Marshall Plan primary program of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger economic foundation for the countries of Europe
20. Truman Doctrine policy set forth by US President Harry Truman stating that the US would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere
21. Bay of Pigs Invasion unsuccessful attempt by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from US government armed forces to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro
22. Cuban Missile Crisis confrontation between the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War
23. Tiananmen Square large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate
24. Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990
25. Nikita Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War
26. Mikhail Gorbachev reforming Soviet Union Premier in the 1980s
27. Leonid Brezhnev was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982
28. Fidel Castro was a Marxist Cuban leader
29. Apartheid set of racially discriminatory laws on the majority black population of South Africa