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42 Cards in this Set
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Adlai Stevenson
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An American politician, noted for his intellectual demeanor, eloquent oratory, and promotion of liberal causes in the Democratic Party. He served as the 31st Governor of Illinois, and received the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 1952 and 1956; both times he was defeated by Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination for a third time in the election of 1960, but was defeated by Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. After his election, President Kennedy appointed Stevenson as the Ambassador to the United Nations; he served from 1961 to 1965
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CIA
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It is the successor of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formed during World War II to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for the branches of the United States military. The National Security Act of 1947 established the CIA, affording it "no police or law enforcement functions, either at home or abroad". One year later, this mandate was expanded to include "sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition and evacuation measures...subversion and assistance to underground resistance movements, guerrillas and refugee liberation movements, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world
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Francis Gary Powers
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An American pilot whose CIA U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission over Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 incident
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ICBM’s
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A ballistic missile with a long range typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more nuclear warheads). Due to their great range and firepower, in an all-out nuclear war, land-based and submarine-based ballistic missiles would carry most of the destructive force, with nuclear-armed bombers having the remainder.
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Bernard Baruch
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Was an American financier, stock-market speculator, statesman, and political consultant. After his success in business, he devoted his time toward advising U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters
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George Marshall
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An American military leader, Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense. Once noted as the "organizer of victory" by Winston Churchill for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II, Marshall served as the United States Army Chief of Staff during the war and as the chief military adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As Secretary of State, his name was given to the Marshall Plan
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Dean Acheson
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As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War. Acheson helped design the Marshall Plan and played a central role in the development of the Truman Doctrine and creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
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George Kennan
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"the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War. He later wrote standard histories of the relations between Russia and the Western powers. In the late 1940s, his writings inspired the Truman Doctrine and the U.S. foreign policy of "containing" the Soviet Union, thrusting him into a lifelong role as a leading authority on the Cold War. His "Long Telegram" from Moscow in 1946, and the subsequent 1947 article "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" argued that the Soviet regime was inherently expansionist and that its influence had to be "contained" in areas of vital strategic importance to the United States. These texts quickly emerged as foundational texts of the Cold War, expressing the Truman administration's new anti-Soviet Union policy. Kennan also played a leading role in the development of definitive Cold War programs and institutions, most notably the Marshall Plan
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Andrei Gromyko
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He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR from 1957 to 1985, and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, from 1985 to 1987. Gromyko was responsible for many top decisions on Soviet foreign policy. He retired in 1987
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Chiang Kai-Sheik
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Chiang's Nationalists engaged in a long standing civil war with the Communist Party of China (CPC). After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Chiang attempted to eradicate the Communists. Ultimately, with support from the Soviet Union, the CPC defeated the Nationalists, forcing the Nationalist government to retreat to Taiwan, where martial law was continued while the government still tried to take back mainland China. Chiang ruled the island with an iron fist as the President of the Republic of China
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Mao Tse-Tung
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led the People's Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. His theoretical contribution to Marxism-Leninism, military strategies, and his brand of Communist policies are now collectively known as Maoism.
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Ho Chi Minh
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a Vietnamese Marxist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He formed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and led the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War until his death.
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Vietminh
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a national independence movement founded in South China on May 19, 1941. The Viet Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. When the Japanese occupation began, the Viet Minh opposed Japan with support from the United States and the Republic of China. After the Second World War, the Viet Minh opposed the re-occupation of Vietnam by France and later opposed the United States in the Vietnam War.
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Nikita Khrushchev
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led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier
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National Security Council
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an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a national security advisor and staffed with senior-level officials from military, diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement and other governmental bodies. The functions and responsibilities of an NSC at the strategic state level are different from those of the United Nations Security Council, which is more of a diplomatic forum.
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Gamal Nasser
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Nasser is seen as one of the most important political figures in both modern Arab history, and Developing World politics in the 20th century. Under his leadership, Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal, and came to play a central role in anti-imperialist efforts in the Arab World, and Africa. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the international Non-Aligned Movement. He is well-known for his nationalist policies and version of pan-Arabism, also referred to as Nasserism, which won a great following in the Arab World during the 1950s and 1960s.
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Alger Hiss
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in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and UN official. Hiss was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950
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Kim Il-Sung
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A Korean communist politician who led North Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994. During his tenure as leader of North Korea, he ruled the nation with autocratic power and established an all-pervasive cult of personality. From the mid-1960s, he promoted his self-developed Juche variant of communist national organisation
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38th Parallel
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The 38th parallel was first suggested as a dividing line for Korea in 1896. Russia was attempting to pull Korea under its control, while Japan had just secured recognition of its rights in Korea from the British. In an attempt to prevent any conflict, Japan proposed to Russia that the two sides split Korea into separate spheres of influence along the 38th parallel. However, no formal agreement was ever reached, and Japan later took full control of Korea
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Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
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Were American communists who were executed in 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage. The charges related to passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. This was the first execution of civilians for espionage in United States history
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Klaus Fuchs
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A German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who in 1950 was convicted of supplying information from the American, British and Canadian atomic bomb research (the Manhattan Project) to the USSR during and shortly after World War II. While at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Fuchs was responsible for many significant theoretical calculations relating to the first fission weapons and later, the early models of the hydrogen bomb, the first fusion weapon
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Election of 1952
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Took place in an era when Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was escalating rapidly. In the United States Senate, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin had become a national figure after chairing congressional investigations into the issue of Communist spies within the U.S. government. McCarthy's so-called "witch hunt", combined with national tension and weariness after two years of bloody stalemate in the Korean War and the early 1950s recession, set the stage for a hotly-fought presidential contest.
Unpopular incumbent President Harry S. Truman decided not to run, so the Democratic Party instead nominated Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois; The Republican Party countered with popular war hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower and won in a landslide, ending 20 consecutive years of Democratic control of the White House |
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Council of Economic Advisers
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A group of three economists who advise the President of the United States on economic policy. It is a part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and provides much of the economic policy of the White House. The council prepares the annual Economic Report of the President
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John Foster Dulles
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Served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world. He advocated support of the French in their war against the Viet Minh in Indochina and it is widely believed that he refused to shake the hand of Zhou Enlai at the Geneva Conference in 1954. He also played a major role in the Central Intelligence Agency operation to overthrow the democratic Mossadegh government of Iran
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Potsdam Conference
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The final wartime meeting of the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union was held at Potsdam, outside Berlin, in July 1945. Truman, Churchill and Stalin discussed the futer of Europe but their failure to reach meaningful agreements soon led to the onset of the Cold War
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NATO
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In 1948, the United States, Canada, and ten European nations formed this military mutual-defense pact. In 1955, the Soviet Union countered NATO with the formation of the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance among those nations within its own sphere of influence
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Iron Curtain
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British Prime Minister Winston Churchill coined the phrase "Iron Curtain" to refer to the boundary in Europe that divided Soviet-dominated eastern and central Europe from western Europe, which was free from Soviet control
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Sputnik
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IN October 1957, the Soviet Union surprised the world by launching Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth. The resulting outcry in the U.S., especially fears that the Soviets were ahead in both space exploration and military missiles, forced the Eisenhower administration to increase defense spending and accelerate America's space program
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Taft Hartley Act
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This 1947 anti-union legislation outlawed the closed shop and secondary boycotts. It also authorized the president to seek injunctions to prevent strikes that posed a threat to national security.
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Containment
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First proposed by George Kennan in 1947, containment became the basic strategy of the United States throughout the Cold War. Kennan argued that firm American resistance to Soviet expansion would eventually compel Moscow to adopt more peaceful policies
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Suez Crisis
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Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956 when the United States withdrew promised aid to build the Aswan Dam on the Nile. Britain and France, dependent on Middle East oil that was transported through the Suez Canal, launched an armed attack to regain control. President Eisenhower preotested the use of force and persuaded Britain and France to withdraw their troops
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National Security Act
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Congress passed the National Security Act in 1947 in response to percieved threats from the Soviet Union after WWII. It established the Department of Defense and created the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Council
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Marshall Plan
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In 1947, secretary of State George Marshall proposed a massive economic aid program to rebuild the war-torn economies of western European nations. The plan was motivated by both humanitarian concern for the conditions of those nations' economies and fear that economic dislocation would promote communism in western Europe
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Truman Doctrine
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In 1947, President Truman asked Congress for money to aid the Greek and Turkish governments that were then threatened by communist rebels. Arguing for the appropriations, Truman asserted his doctrine that the U.S. was committed to support free people everywhere who were resisting subjugation by communist attack or rebellion
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Berlin Airlift
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In 1948, in response to a Soviet land blockade of Berlin, the United States carried out a massive effort to supply the two million Berlin citizens with food, fuel and other goods by air for more than six months. The airlift forced the Soviets to end the blockade in 1949
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Military Industrial Complex
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In his farewell address in January 1961, President Eisenhower used the phrase "military-industral complex" to warn about the danger of massive defense spending and the close relationship between the armed forces and industrial corporations that supplied their weapons
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McCarthyism
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In 1950, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, Republican from Wisconsin, began a sensational campaign against communists in government that led to more than four years of charges and counter-charges, ending when the Senate censured him in 1954. McCarthyism became the contemporary name for the Red Scare fo the 1950's.
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NCS-68
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National Security council planning paper No. 68 redefined America's national defense policy. Adopted in 1950, it committed the United States to a massive military buildup to meet the challenge posed by the Soviet Union.
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Lend Lease Aid
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of the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material between 1941 and 1945.
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Self Determination
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the principle in international law, that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference. Insisting the people in each country should freely choose their postwar rulers.
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Douglas MacArthur
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In charge of Japanese occupation. He surpervised the transistion of the Japanese government into a constitutional democracy, shaped along Western lines, in which communists were barred from all governement posts.
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1948 Election.
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President Truman's political fortunes reached their lowest ebb in early 1948. Former vice president Henry A. Wallace, claiming to represent the New Deal, announced his third-party (Progressive) candidacy in the presidential contest that year. Worried Democratic party leaders sought to persuade Truman to step aside and allow Gerneral Dwight D. Eisnehower to become the Democratic candidate. When Eisenhower turned down bids from both parties, the Democrats reluctantly nominated Truman. His prospects for victory in fall, however, looked very dim- especially after disgruntled Southeners bolted the Democratic party in protest over a progressive civil rights platform. With nothing to lose, Truman barnstormed around the country denouncing the "do-nothing" Republican Eightieth Congress. The president's "give-em hell" tactics reminded voters how much they owed the Democrats for helping them survive the Great Depression. To the amazement of the pollsters, Truman won a narrow but decisive victory in November
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