Cold War Key Terms
Brinkmanship
A term coined during the Cold War to describe the tactic of seeming to approach the verge of war in order to persuade one's opposition to retreat. It was an effect tactic because neither side of a conflict could contemplate mutually assured destruction in a nuclear warm acting as a nuclear deterrence for both the side threatening to pose damage and the country on the receiving end. This ultimately worsened the relationship between the USSR and the US
Capitalism
An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit. This was what about half of the war was about. Some countries wanted to be Capitalist, but other people and Countries disagreed and wanted to be Communist.
Mutual Assured Destruction
Began to emerge at the end of the Kennedy administration. MAD reflects the idea that one's population could best be protected by leaving it vulnerable so long as the other side faced comparable vulnerabilities. In short: Whoever shoots first, dies second. In the old cold war Americans had enjoyed superior nuclear force, an unchallenged economy, strong alliances, and a trusted Imperial President to direct his incredible power against the Soviets. In the new cold war, however, Russian forces achieved nuclear equality. Each side could destroy the other many times
Arms Race
Denotes rapid increase in the quality or quantity of instruments of military power by rival states in peace time. The build up of arms was a characteristic of the cold war between The US and the Soviet Union, though the development of nuclear weapons changed the stakes of the par
Stagnation
Economic stagnation or economic immobilism, often called simply stagnation or immobilism, is a prolonged period of slow economic growth (traditionally measured in terms of the GDP growth), usually accompanied by high unemployment. Under some definitions, "slow" means significantly slower than potential growth as estimated by macroeconomists. Under other definitions, growth less than 2-3% per year is a sign of stagnation
Tienanmen Square
In May 1989, nearly a million Chinese, mostly young students, crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive. For nearly three weeks, the protesters kept up daily vigils, and marched and chanted. Western reporters captured much of the drama for television and newspaper audiences in the United States and Europe. On June 4, 1989, however, Chinese troops and security police stormed through Tiananmen Square, firing indiscriminately into the crowds of protesters. Turmoil ensued, as tens of thousands of the young students tried to escape the rampaging Chinese forces. Other protesters fought back, stoning the attacking troops and overturning and setting fire to military vehicles. Reporters and Western diplomats on the scene estimated that at least 300, and perhaps thousands, of the protesters had been killed and as many as 10,000 were arrested.
SEATO
In September of 1954, the United States, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization The Cold War was in full swing, as the Soviet Union was rising to power, capturing satellite countries. Using their strong dynamic forces, the Soviet Union captured surrounding countries first to help protect them from any invasion. This tactic was used to imprison civilians and force them to join the Soviet military. In response to this, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed. NATO is a formal alliance between the territories of North American and Europe. From its inception, its main purpose was to defend each other from the possibility of communist Soviet Union taking control of their nation. Many powerful countries joined NATO by the signing of the official document in 1949: Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, Iceland, Luxembourg, United States, Canada, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Portugal.
Peaceful Coexistence
Peaceful coexistence was a theory developed and applied by the Soviet Union at various points during the Cold War in the context of primarily Marxist-Leninist foreign policy and was adopted by Soviet-influenced "Socialist states" that they could peacefully coexist with the capitalist bloc
Great Leap Foward
People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign by the Communist Party of China (CPC) from 1958 to 1961. The campaign was led by Mao Zedong and aimed to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a socialist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization. However it is widely considered to have caused the Great Chinese Famine.
Glasnost
Russian: "openness". Soviet policy of open discussion of political and social issues. It was instituted by Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s and began the democratization of the Soviet Union. Ultimately, fundamental changes to the political structure of the Soviet Union occurred: the power of the Communist Party was reduced, and multi candidate elections took place. Glasnost also permitted criticism of government officials and allowed the media freer dissemination of news and information.
Socialism
Socialism is a political ideology and movement which has proposed a set of social and economic measures, policies and systems characterised by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production
Soviet satellite
Soviet satellite states refers to Communist satellite states of the Soviet Union, in the Eastern bloc. he political term satellite state designates a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbiting a larger object, such as smaller moons revolving around larger planets, and is used mainly to refer to Central and Eastern European countries[1] of the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War or to Mongolia between 1924 and 1990
Marshall Plan
The European Recovery Program, is usually remembered for the economic support provided by the United States for the rehabilitation of European countries ravaged by the Second World War. But the US was motivated by more than just economics and today a far more important role is accredited to it. By way of example, Andreas Enderlin points to two influential works dealing with it and its implications for the Cold War. The publications were published in 1995 and 2005, the ten-year gap alone promising two differential points of view on the motives that lay behind the it. And was also offered to those countries of Eastern Europe that were under Soviet influence, including the Soviet Union itself.
Iron Curtian
The Iron Curtain was the 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 1991. The term symbolized efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the west and non-Soviet-controlled areas. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union. On either side of the Iron Curtain, states developed their own international economic and military alliances: Member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact, with the Soviet Union as the leading state Member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and with the United States as the leading country
Collectivization
The Soviet Union enforced this of its agricultural sector between 1926 and 1940 under Stalin. The policy aimed to consolidate individual landholdings and labor into collective farms: mainly kolkhozy and sovkhozy. They expected that the replacement of individual farm into collectives ones would automatically increase the food supply.
Solidarity
The formation of the independent trade union ' Solidarity' was in response to the actions of the Communist government in raising prices for basic goods. The emblem (above) is arguably one of the most recognizable symbols of a political movement in recent times. Poland became a communist state as a result of agreements reached at the Yalta Conference. By the mid 1960's, Poland was experiencing increasing economic and political difficulties. The government had secured a large loan from the West and the resulting economic boom led to a rise in living standards and expectations. This began to falter in 1973 because of the oil crisis
Mujahedeen
The rebellion of the Muslim rebels, (literally, "strugglers"). In the history of Afghanistan, the internal conflict between anti-Communist Muslim guerrillas and the Afghan communist government (aided from 1979 to 1989 by Soviet troops). The roots of the war lay in the overthrow of the centrist Afghanistan government in April 1978 by left-wing military officers, who then handed power over to two Marxist-Leninist political parties, the Khalq ("Masses") and Parcham ("Flag"), who together had formed the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. Having little popular support, the new government forged close ties with the Soviet Union, launched ruthless purges of all domestic opposition, and began extensive land and social reforms that were bitterly resented by the devoutly Muslim and largely anti-Communist population.
Detente
a French word meaning release from tension is the name given to a period of improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union that began tentatively in 1971 and took decisive form when President Richard M. Nixon visited the secretary-general of the Soviet Communist party, Leonid I. Brezhnev, in Moscow, May 1972.
Containment
a military strategy to stop the expansion of an enemy. Containment was a United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge its communist sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. It represented a middle-ground position between détente and rollback.
Cult of Personality
arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized, heroic, and at times worshipful, image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Joseph Stalin's became a prominent part of Soviet culture in December 1929, after a lavish celebration for Stalin's 50th birthday. For the rest of Stalin's rule, the Soviet press presented Stalin as an all-powerful, all-knowing leader, and Stalin's name and image became omnipresent. From 1936 the Soviet journalism started to refer to Joseph Stalin as the Father of Nations.
Warsaw Pact
formally, the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance, sometimes, informally WarPac, akin in format to NATO)[1] was a collective defense treaty among Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon), the regional economic organization for the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955 per the Paris Pacts of 1954, but it is also considered to have been motivated by Soviet desires to maintain control over military forces in Central and Eastern Europe
Communism
is a social, political, and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society, which is a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money, and the state. The Soviet Union was for communism while the US was was not. This brought about the red scare.
Special Economic Zone
is commonly used as a generic term to refer to only one modern economic zone. In these zones business and trades laws differ from the rest of the country. Broadly, SEZs are located within a country's national borders. The aims of the zones include: increased trade, increased investment, job creation and effective administration. To encourage businesses to set up in the zone, financially libertarian policies are introduced. These policies typically regard investing, taxation, trading, quotas, customs and labour regulations. Additionally, companies may be offered tax holidays.
Politburo
is the executive committee for a number of (usually communist) political parties. The very first was created in Russia by the Bolshevik Party in 1917 to provide strong and continuous leadership during the Russian Revolution occurring during the same year. The first Politburo had seven members: Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Stalin, Sokolnikov and Bubnov. During the 20th century, nations that had a politburo included the USSR, East Germany, Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia and China, among others. Today, there are five countries that have a communist politburo system (China, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam and Cuba)
Samizdat
was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader. This grassroots practice to evade officially imposed censorship was fraught with danger, as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials. Vladimir Bukovsky summarized it as, "I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and get imprisoned for it."
Gang of Four
was a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang's leading figure was Mao Zedong's last wife Jiang Qing. The other members were Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen. The Gang of Four controlled the power organs of the Communist Party of China through the later stages of the Cultural Revolution, although it remains unclear which major decisions were made by Mao Zedong and carried out by the Gang, and which were the result of the Gang of Four's own planning.
Perestroika
was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s, widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (meaning "openness") policy reform. The literal meaning is "restructuring", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system.
Truman Doctrine
was an American foreign policy to stop Soviet imperialism during the Cold War. It was announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947 when he pledged to contain Soviet threats to Greece and Turkey. No American military force was involved; instead Congress appropriated a free gift of financial aid to support the economies and the militaries of Greece and Turkey. More generally, it implied American support for other nations threatened by Soviet communism. The Truman Doctrine became the foundation of American foreign policy, and led, in 1949, to the formation of NATO: a full-fledged military alliance that is in effect to this day. Historians often use Truman's speech to date the start of the Cold War.
Sino-Soviet Split
was the deterioration of political and ideological relations between the neighboring states of People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War. In the 1960s, China and the Soviet Union were the two largest communist states in the world. The doctrinal divergence derived from Chinese and Russian national interests, and from the regimes' different interpretations of Marxism-Leninism.