AP World History: Modern · Cold War and Decolonization

Flashcard deck · Test Prep · AP World History: Modern · History

Cold War and decolonization flashcards covering Containment, Proxy War, Bandung Conference, Kwame Nkrumah, Glasnost, and Mutual Assured Destruction for AP World History.

Terms in this deck

Nikita Khrushchev: Soviet leader from 1953 to 1964 whose policies of de-Stalinization and confrontations like the Cuban Missile Crisis defined the mid-Cold War era.
Viet Cong: Communist guerrilla force in South Vietnam that fought against the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War.
SEATO: Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, a U.S.-led collective defense alliance formed in 1954 to contain communist expansion in Southeast Asia.
Cultural Revolution: Mao Zedong's 1966–76 radical political movement to purge capitalist elements from Chinese society, causing widespread persecution and social upheaval.
Perestroika: Mikhail Gorbachev's economic restructuring program in the late 1980s aimed at modernizing the Soviet system, contributing to the USSR's eventual collapse.
Berlin Airlift: 1948–49 operation in which Western powers flew supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet Union blockaded land routes, an early Cold War confrontation.
Ho Chi Minh: Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader who led the fight against French colonialism and later the United States, ultimately unifying Vietnam under communist rule.
Great Leap Forward: Mao Zedong's disastrous 1958–62 campaign to rapidly industrialize China through collectivization, resulting in famine and tens of millions of deaths.
McCarthyism: U.S. anti-communist campaign of the late 1940s–50s led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, which promoted fear, suspicion, and political persecution of alleged Soviet sympathizers.
Helsinki Accords: 1975 agreement among 35 nations acknowledging post-WWII European borders and promoting human rights, easing Cold War tensions through diplomacy.
Orange Revolution: 2004 Ukrainian pro-democracy uprising that challenged Russian influence, reflecting post-Cold War tensions between Western integration and Russian sphere-of-influence politics.
Frantz Fanon: Martinique-born intellectual whose works, especially The Wretched of the Earth, provided ideological justification for violent anti-colonial resistance movements.
Suez Crisis: 1956 conflict in which Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, prompting a failed Anglo-French-Israeli invasion and signaling the decline of European imperial power.
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT): 1968 international agreement aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, limiting their possession to five recognized nuclear states.
Structural Adjustment Programs: IMF and World Bank loan conditions requiring developing nations to privatize and cut social spending, criticized as perpetuating economic dependency on wealthy nations.
Dependency Theory: Economic theory arguing that poorer nations remain underdeveloped because global trade structures systematically transfer wealth to richer, industrialized countries.
Tiananmen Square Massacre: 1989 Chinese government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing, killing hundreds and demonstrating communist leadership's determination to retain authoritarian control.
Jawaharlal Nehru: India's first prime minister, who championed non-alignment and helped found the Non-Aligned Movement, rejecting both U.S. and Soviet bloc membership.
Berlin Conference Legacy: The 1884–85 European partition of Africa created arbitrary borders that complicated post-colonial state-building and fueled ethnic conflict after independence.
Bretton Woods System: Post-WWII international monetary framework establishing the IMF and World Bank, giving the U.S. dollar global reserve currency status and shaping Cold War economic power.
Domino Theory: Cold War belief that if one country fell to communism, neighboring countries would follow, used to justify U.S. intervention in Vietnam and elsewhere.
Gandhi's Salt March: 1930 act of civil disobedience in which Gandhi led Indians to the sea to make salt, defying British law and galvanizing India's independence movement.
Korean War Armistice: 1953 ceasefire agreement ending active fighting in Korea, leaving the peninsula divided near the 38th parallel, a lasting Cold War partition.
Kwame Nkrumah: First prime minister and president of Ghana, leading it to independence in 1957 and becoming a prominent voice for pan-Africanism and African unity.
Mao Zedong: Chinese communist revolutionary leader who founded the People's Republic of China in 1949, shifting the global Cold War balance and inspiring independence movements.
Bandung Conference: 1955 gathering of African and Asian nations in Indonesia that laid groundwork for the Non-Aligned Movement by rejecting Cold War alignment.
Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD): Cold War nuclear doctrine holding that a full-scale nuclear exchange would destroy both superpowers, making first-strike attacks irrational and deterring nuclear war.
Glasnost: Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of greater political openness and transparency in the Soviet Union, encouraging free expression and indirectly hastening the Cold War's end.
Gamal Abdel Nasser: Egyptian president who nationalized the Suez Canal, promoted Arab nationalism, and positioned Egypt as a leader of anti-imperialist movements in the Middle East.
Patrice Lumumba: First democratically elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose assassination in 1961 was linked to Cold War interference by Belgium and the CIA.
ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile; long-range nuclear weapon capable of striking targets across continents, central to Cold War strategy.
Containment Policy: U.S. Cold War strategy aimed at preventing the spread of Soviet communism beyond its existing borders.
Truman Doctrine: 1947 U.S. policy pledging support to nations threatened by communist takeover, beginning with Greece and Turkey.
FLN: Front de Libération Nationale, the Algerian nationalist organization that led the armed independence struggle against French colonial rule.
Proxy War: Conflict where competing superpowers support opposing sides rather than fighting each other directly, as in Korea and Vietnam.
Partition of India: 1947 division of British India into independent Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, accompanied by massive violence and displacement of millions.
UN Security Council Veto: The power held by five permanent members of the UN Security Council to block resolutions, often used during the Cold War to protect superpower interests.
Algerian War of Independence: 1954–62 brutal conflict in which Algerian nationalists fought French colonialism, ending in Algerian independence and shaping anti-colonial ideology worldwide.
Détente: Period of relaxed tensions between the U.S. and USSR during the 1970s, marked by diplomacy and arms-control agreements.
Deterrence: Military strategy based on the idea that possessing overwhelming destructive power prevents an enemy from launching an attack.
Reagan Doctrine: U.S. policy under Reagan of actively supporting anti-communist rebels worldwide to roll back Soviet influence.
Mandela's Presidency: Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first Black president in 1994 after apartheid's end, symbolizing the triumph of liberation movements over colonial-era racial systems.
Space Race: Cold War competition between the U.S. and USSR to achieve superiority in space exploration and technology.
Jomo Kenyatta: Kenyan independence leader and first president of Kenya, who led the country to independence from British rule in 1963.
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization; military alliance formed in 1949 among Western nations for collective defense against Soviet aggression.
Marshall Plan: U.S. economic aid program providing over $12 billion to rebuild Western European economies after World War II to resist communism.
ANC: African National Congress, the South African political organization that led the anti-apartheid struggle, eventually bringing Nelson Mandela to the presidency.
Mau Mau Uprising: 1950s Kenyan anti-colonial revolt against British rule, marked by guerrilla warfare and harsh British repression, accelerating Kenyan independence.
SALT Agreements: Strategic Arms Limitation Talks; U.S.-Soviet treaties of 1972 and 1979 placing caps on nuclear weapons stockpiles.
Rwandan Genocide: 1994 mass killing of approximately 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu people in Rwanda, exposing the failure of international institutions to prevent atrocities.
Iron Curtain: Term coined by Churchill describing the ideological and physical division separating Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe from the democratic West after World War II.
Warsaw Pact: Soviet-led military alliance of Eastern European communist states formed in 1955 as a counter to NATO.
Hydrogen Bomb: Thermonuclear weapon far more powerful than atomic bombs, developed by both superpowers in the early 1950s.
SDI (Star Wars): Reagan's proposed space-based missile defense system that alarmed the Soviets and strained their resources trying to compete.
Mujahideen: Afghan Islamic fighters who resisted the Soviet invasion with CIA support, contributing to Soviet military exhaustion.
Arms Race: Cold War competition between the U.S. and USSR to build ever-larger stockpiles of nuclear and conventional weapons.
Apartheid: South Africa's institutionalized system of racial segregation enforced from 1948 to 1994, widely condemned internationally and opposed by liberation movements.
Soviet-Afghan War: 1979–1989 conflict in which the USSR invaded Afghanistan and faced U.S.-backed mujahideen resistance, draining Soviet resources.
Sputnik: First artificial satellite launched by the USSR in 1957, shocking the West and intensifying the space and arms races.
Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962 standoff when the USSR placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, bringing the superpowers to the brink of nuclear war.
Dissolution of the USSR: 1991 formal breakup of the Soviet Union into 15 independent republics, ending the Cold War era.
Third World: Cold War term for developing nations outside the capitalist West and communist East, many of which were formerly colonized.
Hungarian Revolution: 1956 Hungarian uprising against Soviet rule that was crushed by Soviet tanks, demonstrating the limits of Eastern Bloc autonomy.
Vietnam War: Proxy conflict in which communist North Vietnam fought U.S.-backed South Vietnam, ending in 1975 with communist unification.
Domino Effect: Cold War fear that if one country fell to communism, neighboring nations would follow in a chain reaction.
CENTO: Central Treaty Organization; U.S.-backed alliance linking Middle Eastern nations to contain Soviet influence in that region.
Vietnamization: Nixon's policy of gradually withdrawing U.S. troops while training South Vietnamese forces to take over combat.
George Kennan: U.S. diplomat who authored the Long Telegram and X Article, providing the intellectual foundation for the containment strategy against Soviet expansion.
Prague Spring: 1968 Czechoslovak reform movement crushed by Soviet-led invasion, reinforcing Soviet dominance over Eastern Europe.
Tet Offensive: 1968 massive coordinated North Vietnamese attack that shifted U.S. public opinion against the Vietnam War.
38th Parallel: Latitude line dividing North and South Korea, restored as the border after the Korean War armistice.
Solidarity Movement: Polish trade union led by Lech Walesa that challenged communist rule in the 1980s and helped end Soviet control in Poland.
Yalta Conference: 1945 meeting where Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin negotiated postwar Europe's shape, sowing seeds of Cold War disagreement over Eastern Europe's future.
NSC-68: 1950 U.S. security document calling for massive military spending to counter Soviet power, dramatically escalating Cold War defense budgets.
Berlin Wall: Concrete barrier built by East Germany in 1961 dividing Berlin, symbolizing the Iron Curtain and ideological division of the Cold War.
Brezhnev Doctrine: Soviet policy asserting the right to intervene in any socialist country where communism was threatened.
First Strike Capability: The ability to launch a nuclear attack that destroys an enemy's weapons before they can retaliate, a feared Cold War scenario.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: 1964 U.S. congressional authorization that gave President Johnson broad power to escalate military involvement in Vietnam.
Nikita Khrushchev's De-Stalinization: Khrushchev's 1956 denunciation of Stalin's cult of personality and crimes, beginning a partial political thaw in the USSR.
Mikhail Gorbachev: Last Soviet leader whose reform policies of glasnost and perestroika unintentionally accelerated the USSR's collapse.
Non-Aligned Movement: Coalition of states that refused to align with either the U.S. or USSR during the Cold War, asserting independent foreign policy.
COMECON: Soviet-led Council for Mutual Economic Assistance that integrated Eastern Bloc economies and countered Western economic alliances.
Berlin Blockade: 1948–1949 Soviet attempt to cut off Western access to West Berlin, countered by the massive Western Berlin Airlift.
Nuclear Triad: Three-part U.S. and Soviet deterrence system combining land-based missiles, submarine-launched missiles, and strategic bombers.
Korean War: 1950–1953 conflict in which U.S.-led UN forces fought North Korean and Chinese forces, ending in a divided peninsula.
Checkpoint Charlie: Famous crossing point between East and West Berlin, representing Cold War tension and the division of Germany.
Atomic Bomb (Hiroshima/Nagasaki): U.S. nuclear weapons dropped on Japan in 1945, demonstrating devastating new power and launching the nuclear age that defined Cold War rivalry.
Lech Walesa: Polish electrician and activist who led the Solidarity movement and became Poland's first post-communist president.
Fall of the Berlin Wall: 1989 event symbolizing the collapse of communist Eastern Europe as Germans tore down the barrier dividing Berlin.
Potsdam Conference: 1945 summit finalizing Germany's division and occupation zones; growing Allied tensions there foreshadowed the Cold War split.
Mountbatten Plan: British blueprint for Indian independence in 1947 that created the separate states of India and Pakistan through territorial partition.
Limited Test Ban Treaty: 1963 agreement banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, underwater, and in space, a first step toward nuclear arms control.
Operation Condor: U.S.-supported network of South American military dictatorships that suppressed leftist movements during the Cold War, a key proxy intervention.
New International Economic Order: 1970s developing-world demand for fairer global trade rules, debt relief, and technology transfer to reduce economic inequality between nations.
G77: Coalition of developing nations formed in 1964 to promote members' collective economic interests and greater voice in global trade negotiations.
Fidel Castro: Cuban revolutionary who established a communist government 90 miles from the U.S., making Cuba a major Cold War flashpoint.
Sandinistas: Nicaraguan revolutionary movement that overthrew a U.S.-backed dictator in 1979, sparking Cold War proxy conflict with U.S.-supported Contras.
Oppenheimer Hearings: 1954 U.S. security proceedings stripping physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer of his clearance, reflecting Cold War paranoia about scientists.
Khmer Rouge: Cambodian communist movement that seized power in 1975 and carried out a devastating genocide, a product of Cold War regional destabilization.
NATO Nuclear Sharing: Arrangement allowing non-nuclear NATO members to participate in nuclear planning, strengthening alliance deterrence against the Soviet Union.
Nehru's Socialist Economy: India's early postcolonial model combining state planning with private enterprise, aiming to develop a modern economy free from foreign dependence.
MPLA vs. UNITA: Cold War Angolan civil war where Soviet-backed MPLA and U.S.-backed UNITA fought a prolonged proxy conflict after independence.
Second Strike Capability: Guaranteed ability to retaliate with nuclear weapons even after absorbing a first attack, the foundation of Cold War deterrence logic.
Iran Contra Affair: Scandal revealing that the Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran and used proceeds to fund Nicaraguan Contras, bypassing Congress.
Bay of Pigs Invasion: Failed 1961 CIA-backed attempt by Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro, embarrassing the Kennedy administration and pushing Cuba closer to the USSR.
Geneva Accords 1954: Agreement ending the First Indochina War that temporarily divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel and called for unification elections that never occurred.
Ho Chi Minh Trail: Supply network running through Laos and Cambodia that North Vietnam used to send troops and materials to fight in South Vietnam.
Cominform: Soviet-led organization coordinating communist parties across Europe, used to enforce ideological conformity within the Eastern Bloc.
Nikita Khrushchev's Shoe Incident: Khrushchev's dramatic 1960 UN outburst symbolizing Cold War tensions and Soviet frustration with Western policies.
Nehru's Third Way: Jawaharlal Nehru's vision of India pursuing independent foreign policy, neither fully aligned with the U.S. nor the Soviet Union.
Rollback Policy: Republican strategy advocating actively pushing communism back from existing territories rather than merely containing its spread.
Dien Bien Phu: 1954 battle where Vietnamese forces defeated French colonizers, ending French Indochina and leading to Vietnam's temporary partition at the 17th parallel.
Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence: Framework agreed by India and China in 1954 promoting mutual respect, non-aggression, and non-interference as bases for international relations.
Josip Broz Tito: Yugoslav leader who broke from Stalin in 1948 and maintained independence from Soviet control, embodying non-aligned communist governance.
Radio Free Europe: U.S.-funded radio network broadcasting into communist Eastern Europe, aiming to undermine Soviet authority with uncensored information.
Indian National Congress: Political party that led India's independence movement against British rule and governed the nation through its early postcolonial decades.
Eisenhower Doctrine: 1957 U.S. policy offering military and economic aid to Middle Eastern countries resisting communist influence, extending containment to that region.
Green Revolution: Mid-20th-century agricultural transformation using new crop varieties and technology that boosted food production in Asia and Latin America.
Voice of America: U.S. government broadcasting service that transmitted news and American culture behind the Iron Curtain as a Cold War propaganda tool.
Allende and Chile: Salvador Allende's elected socialist government in Chile was overthrown in a 1973 U.S.-backed coup, illustrating superpower proxy interference.
Nasser's Nationalization: Egypt's 1956 seizure of the Suez Canal from British and French control, asserting economic sovereignty and triggering the Suez Crisis.
Satellite States: Countries in Eastern Europe dominated and controlled by the Soviet Union after World War II, serving as a buffer zone against the West.
White Minority Rule: Governance systems in southern Africa where white settlers held political and economic power over much larger Black African populations.
Lebanese Civil War: A 1975–1990 conflict driven by religious factionalism and superpower proxy involvement, illustrating the Cold War's destructive reach into the Middle East.
Kennan's Long Telegram: A 1946 diplomatic cable from George Kennan analyzing Soviet behavior and urging a firm U.S. policy of containment against Soviet expansion.
Dean Acheson: U.S. Secretary of State who helped shape early Cold War policy, including support for NATO and the Truman Doctrine's global application.
Dulles and Massive Retaliation: A Cold War strategy under Secretary Dulles threatening overwhelming nuclear response to any Soviet aggression, intended to deter attack cheaply.
Négritude's Influence on Decolonization: Negritude provided an intellectual foundation for African independence leaders, inspiring pride in African identity and rejection of European cultural dominance.
Six-Day War: The 1967 conflict in which Israel rapidly defeated Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, reshaping Middle Eastern borders and deepening superpower rivalries.
PLO: The Palestine Liberation Organization, founded in 1964 to represent Palestinian interests and resist Israeli occupation through political and armed struggle.
Negritude Movement: A literary and intellectual movement by African and Caribbean thinkers asserting the value of Black African culture as resistance to colonial racism.
Yom Kippur War: The 1973 Arab-Israeli war that triggered an oil embargo by Arab states, demonstrating the developing world's power to challenge superpower interests.
Arab Nationalism: A political movement seeking unity and independence for Arab peoples, opposing Western colonialism and Israeli statehood throughout the twentieth century.
Shah of Iran: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the U.S.-backed Iranian monarch whose authoritarian rule and Westernization programs fueled the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
OPEC: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, formed to coordinate oil production and prices, giving resource-rich developing nations collective economic leverage.
Balfour Declaration: A 1917 British statement supporting a Jewish homeland in Palestine, laying groundwork for later conflict between Jewish and Arab communities there.
Mosaddegh: Iran's democratically elected prime minister who nationalized oil in 1951 but was overthrown in a Western-backed coup in 1953.
Josip Broz Tito's Break with Stalin: Yugoslavia's 1948 split from Soviet control, demonstrating that communist states could pursue independent foreign policies outside Moscow's direction.
Pan-Africanism: An ideology advocating solidarity and unity among African peoples worldwide, influencing decolonization leaders like Nkrumah to seek African political liberation.
Able Archer 83: A 1983 NATO military exercise so realistic that Soviet leaders feared it was cover for an actual nuclear first strike, nearly triggering war.
Nonalignment: A foreign policy stance adopted by many newly independent nations refusing to formally ally with either the U.S. or Soviet Union during the Cold War.
George Marshall: U.S. Secretary of State who proposed the Marshall Plan to rebuild postwar Europe and prevent communist expansion through economic aid.
Nuclear Fallout Shelters: Underground structures built during the Cold War for civilians to survive nuclear blasts, reflecting widespread public fear of atomic warfare.
Oil Embargo 1973: Arab OPEC members halted oil exports to the U.S. and allies supporting Israel, causing an energy crisis and demonstrating petro-political power.
Sukarno: Indonesia's first president who was a founding leader of the Non-Aligned Movement and championed Asian-African solidarity at Bandung.
Iranian Revolution: The 1979 overthrow of the U.S.-backed Shah by Islamist forces under Ayatollah Khomeini, establishing an anti-Western Islamic republic in Iran.
Atoms for Peace: Eisenhower's 1953 UN proposal to share nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, aiming to reduce Cold War tensions around atomic weapons.
Operation Ajax: A 1953 CIA and British intelligence operation that overthrew Iran's elected Prime Minister Mosaddegh to protect Western oil interests.
Ayatollah Khomeini: The Shia cleric who led Iran's 1979 revolution, establishing an Islamic theocracy and opposing both American and Soviet superpower influence.
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF): A 1987 U.S.-Soviet agreement eliminating an entire class of nuclear missiles, marking a major step toward ending Cold War arms competition.
Tanzania's Ujamaa: Julius Nyerere's African socialist policy of collective village farming in Tanzania, aimed at self-reliance but ultimately limiting economic growth.
Mobutu Sese Seko: The U.S.-backed dictator of Zaire who ruled corruptly for decades after CIA involvement helped remove Patrice Lumumba from power.
Julius Nyerere: Tanzania's first president who promoted African socialism and pan-African unity while keeping his country non-aligned during the Cold War.
Congo Crisis: A period of political turmoil after Belgian Congo's 1960 independence, involving superpower intervention, Lumumba's assassination, and the rise of Mobutu's dictatorship.
Mugabe and Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980 but later became an authoritarian leader whose land reforms caused economic collapse.
Lancaster House Agreement: The 1979 peace deal ending Zimbabwe's civil war, leading to majority-rule elections and independence from white-minority Rhodesian rule.

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