AP®︎ US History: Topic 8.2 Flashcards

Post-1945 U.S.–Soviet ideological and geopolitical rivalry fought through alliances, arms races, pressure, and proxy wars rather than sustained direct war

February 1945 Allied meeting that arranged Germany’s occupation and discussed the United Nations and elections in liberated Europe

July–August 1945 Allied meeting where disputes over Germany and Eastern Europe revealed worsening U.S.–Soviet relations

Soviet-dominated communist states of Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned with Moscow

Churchill’s phrase for the political and ideological division between Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe and the Western democracies

Former British prime minister whose 1946 Fulton speech declared that an iron curtain had descended across Europe

American diplomat who developed containment as sustained political and economic pressure against cautious Soviet expansion

System in which nations cooperate and treat aggression against one member as a concern or attack against all

International organization founded in 1945 for diplomacy and collective security, with vetoes for five permanent Security Council members

Postwar agreements establishing the IMF and World Bank to promote monetary stability, reconstruction, and an open global economy

Bretton Woods institution created to promote currency stability and international monetary cooperation

Bretton Woods institution created to finance postwar reconstruction and economic development

1947 international agreement that encouraged reductions in tariffs and other trade barriers

President who publicly established containment, backed European reconstruction and NATO, and committed U.S. forces in Korea

1947 policy pledging aid to free peoples resisting armed minorities or outside pressure, first applied to Greece and Turkey

Secretary of state who proposed the large-scale American program for rebuilding Europe after World War II.

1948–1952 U.S. aid program that helped restore Western Europe, reduced communist appeal, and tied recipients more closely to the United States

1949 U.S.-led alliance declaring that an armed attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all

Soviet-led military alliance formed with Eastern European communist states in 1955 in response to NATO and West German membership

Chinese communist leader who defeated Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists and established the People’s Republic of China in 1949

Mao’s 1949 victory on the mainland, which drove Chiang’s Nationalists to Taiwan and intensified American fears of communist expansion

1950 policy document portraying a global Soviet drive for domination and recommending major military expansion and defense spending

1950–1953 limited war in which U.S.-led UN forces preserved South Korea after a North Korean invasion but failed to reunify Korea

UN commander in Korea whom Truman removed after he publicly pressed to expand the limited war into China

A conflict fought with restricted goals and methods to avoid escalation into a wider or nuclear war, as in Korea

U.S.–Soviet competition to build larger, more survivable nuclear arsenals and improved bomber, missile, and submarine delivery systems

Preventing attack by maintaining the credible ability to inflict unacceptable nuclear destruction in retaliation

President whose New Look policy relied heavily on nuclear deterrence to contain communism at lower conventional cost

Eisenhower defense policy emphasizing nuclear weapons and deterrence rather than permanently maintaining Korean War–sized conventional forces

Eisenhower’s secretary of state who promoted massive retaliation and brinkmanship as methods of containing communism

Doctrine of deterring aggression by threatening an overwhelming, potentially nuclear response at places and with means of U.S. choosing

Willingness to approach the edge of war, including nuclear war, to pressure an adversary into retreating

Condition in which each superpower had a survivable nuclear arsenal capable of devastating retaliation after a first strike

First artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, that intensified U.S. fears about Soviet missile capabilities

1960 Soviet downing of Francis Gary Powers’s American spy plane, exposing U.S. surveillance and disrupting a planned summit

Kennedy strategy expanding conventional and special forces so the United States could answer aggression without immediately using nuclear weapons

Barrier built by East Germany in 1961 to stop escapes through Berlin, becoming the leading symbol of divided Europe

President who adopted flexible response and confronted Cold War crises at Berlin, the Bay of Pigs, and Cuba

Cuban revolutionary who overthrew Batista in 1959 and aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union after conflict with the United States

Failed 1961 landing by CIA-trained Cuban exiles that strengthened Castro and pushed Cuba toward greater Soviet protection

Soviet leader who backed the Berlin Wall and placed nuclear missiles in Cuba before negotiating their removal with Kennedy

Thirteen-day 1962 confrontation ended by Soviet missile removal, a U.S. no-invasion pledge, and secret removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey

1963 U.S.–Soviet agreement prohibiting nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater

Deliberate relaxation of Cold War tensions through diplomacy and arms control without ending ideological competition or containment

President who pursued détente, opened relations with communist China, and negotiated SALT I and the ABM Treaty

Nixon’s national security adviser and secretary of state who promoted realpolitik, triangular diplomacy, and détente

Foreign policy based on practical strategic interests and balances of power rather than rigid ideological judgments

Ideological and strategic rivalry between communist China and the Soviet Union that disproved the idea of a unified communist bloc

Nixon’s 1972 visit began improved U.S.–Chinese relations and gave the United States leverage against the Soviet Union

Using separate relationships among the United States, China, and Soviet Union to gain leverage and preserve a favorable balance of power

1972 treaty limiting missile-defense systems to preserve mutual vulnerability and discourage a nuclear first strike

1975 agreements accepting European boundaries, encouraging cooperation, and establishing human-rights commitments later used by Eastern-bloc dissidents

President who emphasized human rights, signed SALT II, and returned to confrontation after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

1979 U.S.–Soviet agreement setting further limits on strategic delivery systems, signed but never ratified by the Senate

1979 Soviet intervention to support Afghanistan’s communist government that prompted U.S. sanctions, rearmament, and support for Afghan resistance

1980 declaration that the United States would use force if necessary to prevent an outside power from controlling the Persian Gulf

U.S. policy of preventing further expansion of communist power and Soviet influence through economic, diplomatic, and military measures

Policy of attempting to remove communist governments already in power rather than merely preventing further expansion

Kennan’s 1946 analysis arguing that the Soviet Union was hostile but cautious and could be contained through firm, sustained pressure

Kennan’s 1947 public article arguing that sustained resistance at strategically important points could contain Soviet expansion

Soviet cutoff of land and water access to West Berlin in 1948–1949 intended to pressure the Western powers to abandon the city

U.S. and British operation that supplied West Berlin by air until the Soviet Union ended its 1948–1949 blockade

Soviet leader who sought a protective Eastern European buffer and established Soviet-aligned communist governments there after World War II.

Leader of China’s Nationalists who lost the mainland to Mao’s communists in 1949 and retreated to Taiwan

1972 agreement temporarily limiting certain U.S. and Soviet strategic missile launchers without substantially reducing their arsenals