AP Euro: Chapter 28- The Cold War

Decolonizing China

After Japan withdrew from China in 1945, civil war broke out between the authoritarian Guomindang (Kuimintang, National People's Party), led by Jiang Jieshi, and the Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong and supported by the peasants and Soviets. The Communists forced the Guomindang to withdraw to Taiwan in 1949. Mao and the communists United China into a strong centralized state a built a new society around Marxism. The new government promoted land reform, extended education and health-care programs to the peasantry, and introduced 5 year plans to boost industrial production. It also brought Stalinist repression, mass arrests, forced labor camps, and propaganda campaigns.

COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance)

COMECON was an economic organization of Communist states intended to rebuild the East Bloc independently of the West. COMECON was formed in 1949 in response to the formation of the Committee of European Economic Cooperation in western Europe in 1948. Between 1949 and 1953, however, Comecon's activities were restricted chiefly to the registration of bilateral trade and credit agreements among member countries. After 1953, the Soviet Union and Comecon began to promote industrial specialization among the member countries.

Dr. Zhivago

Doctor Zhivago was written by Boris Pasternak in 1957. It didn't appear in the Soviet Union until 1988. The book challenges communism and tells the story of a poet who rejects the violence band brutality of the October Revolution of 1917 and the Stalinist years. Communist critics denounced Pasternak and his book was published in secret. However, Pasternak was never arrested or shot.

Détente

Détente is the period of improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union that began in 1971. Richard Nixon became the first US president to visit Moscow in 1972. He and Brezhnev signed seven agreements covering the prevention of accidental military clashes; arms control, as recommended by the recent Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (salt); cooperative research in a variety of areas, including space exploration; and expanded commerce.

Imre Nagy

Imre Nagy was the prime minister of Hungary in 1956. He was a Communist reformer and proposed that Hungary be democratized. He demanded multiparty elections, the relaxation of political repression, and other reforms. Nagy later announced that Hungary would leave the Warsaw Pact and asked the United Nations to protect the country's neutrality. The Red Army crushed the revolution and Hungary received no aid from the United Nations. A new, more conservative Communist regime executed Nagy and other protest leaders.

Decolonizing India

In India, Mohandas Gandhi built a mass movement preaching peaceful noncooperation. In 1935, Gandhi got a new, liberal constitution from the British. World War II temporarily halted the Indian independence movement, but India gained independence when the Labour Party came to power in Britain in 1945. India was then divided into India with a Hindu majority and Pakistan with a Muslim majority.

Council of Europe, 1949

In order to receive Marshall Plan aid, European states were required by the Americans to cooperate with one another. This lead to the creation of the Council of Europe in 1948. It promoted commerce and cooperation among European countries.

Nikita Khrushchev

Khrushchev became the Soviet premier in 1955. In 1956, Khrushchev gave his "secret speech" which criticized Stalin. During his time in power, Khrushchev began to de-Stalinize by ending gulags, placing less emphasis on industry, and allowing people to criticize Stalin. Khrushchev's actions led to an increase in the standards of living in the USSR. After failures and the humiliating Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), Khrushchev was replaced in a bloodless coup in 1964 by Leonid Brezhnev.

Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev succeeded Khrushchev in 1964 as leader of the Soviet Union. He re-Stalinized the USSR and downplayed Stalin's crimes. Brezhnev stopped reform Communism. He also launched a massive nuclear arms buildup in order to ensure that the Soviets never faced humiliation in the face of American nuclear superiority like Khrushchev did. However, he still proceeded cautiously and avoided direct confrontation with the United States.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

NATO was formed by the United States in 1949 and was an anti-Soviet military alliance of Western governments. It was designed "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." West Germany joined in 1955, and was allowed to rebuild its military to join in defense of Western Europe against a possible Soviet attack. This prompted the Soviets to create the Warsaw Pact.

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) was written by Alexdandr Solzhenitsyn. It portrays life in a Stalinist concentration camp, a life which Solzhenitsyn had experienced himself. It was a damning indictment of the Stalinist past.

Decolonizing Egypt

The Arab defeat in 1948 at the hands of Israel triggered nationalist revolution in Egypt in 1952, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. The revolutionaries drove out a pro-Western king and in 1954, Nasser became president of an Egyptian republic. Nasser advocates nonalignment and secured loans from the United States while also purchasing Soviet arms. In 1956, Nasser nationalized the foreign-owned Suez Canal which angered the British and French who planned a secret invasion of Egypt with Israel. The Americans then joined the Soviets go force France, Britain, and Israel to back down.

Creation of Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 as a response to the flood of East Germans fleeing to the West. Khrushchev had the wall built to seal off West Berlin. U.S. president John F. Kennedy did little to prevent its construction, secretly hoping that the walk would lessen Cold War tensions by easing hostilities in Berlin.

Common Market

The Common Market (European Economic Community) was formed in 1957. Its first goal was the gradual reduction of tariffs among the member states in order to create a single market almost as large as that of the United States. It also wanted the free movement of capital and labor, and common economic policies and institutions. The Common Market encourages trade among European states, promoted global exports, and helped build shared resources for modernization of national industries.

Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan was an American Plan to provide economic aid to Western Europe to help it rebuild after World War II. It was one of the most successful foreign aid programs in history. When it ended in 1951, Europe's economy was well on its way to recovery. The Marshall Plan aid was initially offered to the East Bloc too, but they rejected the offer.

Potsdam Conference 1945

The Potsdam Conference was the last meeting of the Big Three- Truman (succeeded Roosevelt), Churchill, and Stalin- during World War II. The talks established a Council of Foreign Ministers and a central Allied Control Council for administration of Germany. The leaders arrived at various agreements on the German economy, punishment for war criminals, land boundaries and reparations. At the conference, the leaders also demanded unconditional surrender from Japan.

Tehran Conference 1943

The Tehran Conference was a meeting of the Big Three (Stalin, FDR, Churchill) during World War II. The Big Three discussed ways to defeat Nazi Germany and agreed upon an invasion of Normandy, codenamed Operation Overlord, which was launched in June 1944. In return for America's help in defeating Germany on the eastern front, Stalin promised to help the United States win its war against Japan

Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine (1947) was America's policy geared toward containing communism. It aimed to contain communism to areas already under Communist governments, a policy first advocated by US diplomat George Kennan in 1946. President Truman promised to use diplomatic, economic, and even military means to resist the expansion of communism anywhere in the globe.

Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact (1955) was the Soviet counter to NATO. It was a military alliance among the USSR and its Communist satellites. The Warsaw Pact included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria as members, and called on the member states to come to the defense of any member attacked by an outside force, and it set up a unified military command under Marshal Ivan S. Konev of the Soviet Union.

Yalta Conference

The Yalta Conference was the second meeting of the Big Three. They agreed to demand Germany's unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world. Stalin also agreed to permit free elections in Eastern Europe and to enter the Asian war against Japan. The leaders also agreed to set up four zones of occupation in Germany to be run by their three countries and France. They also agreed to have another meeting in San Francisco to set up the United Nations. Stalin later broke his promise of free elections in Eastern Europe and instead set up Soviet dominated governments there.

economic miracle

The economic miracle was the name used to describe the rapid economic growth in Western Europe after World War II. The American aide from the Marshall Plan (1948) and the outbreak of the Korean War (1950) helped stimulate economic activity. Economic growth was also a basic objective of all Western European governments because leaders were determined to avoid returning to the demoralizing stagnation of the 1930s.

Iron Curtain

The iron curtain refers to the division between the Soviet-supported, Communist Eastern Bloc and the Western-style, US-supported Western Bloc in Europe. In 1946, Winston Churchill gave a speech informing Americans that an "iron curtain" had fallen across the continent, dividing Europe into two antagonistic camps. The iron curtain characterized the bitter hostility of the Cold War.