Chapter 10 Key Terms and Assessments
Key Terms
apartheid a South African policy of racial segregation that ended in 1991
Berlin Airlift an operation carried out by Great Britain and the United States to supply West Berlin from the air during the Soviet Union’s blockade of West Berlin
Brexit term used to refer to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union in January 2020
bloc a group of countries united for a common purpose
Cold War a contest for ideological, social, economic, technological, and military supremacy between the United States and the Soviet Union
containment the West’s Cold War policy goal of confining communism to the Soviet Union and the nations of Eastern Europe
Cuban Missile Crisis the 1962 confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba
détente the relaxation of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1970s
domino theory the belief that the neighbors of a communist country were likely to become communist themselves
glasnost a Soviet policy encouraging openness, which allowed those who were angry to be critical of the government
Eisenhower Doctrine a doctrine issued in 1957 in which a country could request American economic assistance and/or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression from another state. Eisenhower singled out the Soviet threat in his doctrine by authorizing the commitment of U.S. forces “to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political independence of such nations, requesting such aid against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by international communism.”
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution the 1964 resolution that gave President Lyndon Johnson permission to retaliate against North Vietnamese attacks and to act first to defend US lives
Marshall Plan a plan extending financial assistance to European nations to help them rebuild after World War II
Maastricht Treaty created the European Union in 1992 signed by 12 member states of the European Community
Non-Aligned Movement a movement of nations that sought to remain outside the sphere of influence of both the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) a military alliance among the United States, Canada, and the countries of Western Europe
perestroika the restructuring of the Soviet state and economy under Mikhail Gorbachev
proxy wars wars fought by allies of the Soviet Union and the United States to avoid risking a direct conflict between the two superpowers during the Cold War
satellite state a country controlled by another nation
Truman Doctrine the promise of US assistance to any country in danger of being overthrown by communism
Warsaw Pact a military and political alliance among the communist nations of Eastern Europe
Assessments
Review Questions
1. What did the Truman Doctrine promise the United States would do?
a. assist countries whose governments were in danger of being overthrown by communist forces
b. work to eliminate the stockpiling of nuclear weapons
c. contribute funds to help Europe rebuild following World War II
d. destroy the Soviet Union
2. What best describes the primary goal of US foreign policy at the beginning of the Cold War?
a. maintain an isolationist position and ignore what was happening in the rest of the world
b. continue to work with the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union to maintain world peace
c. prevent the Soviet Union from spreading communism outside Eastern Europe
d. assist European colonies in Asia and Africa to gain their independence
3. Where did the United States first find itself in conflict with the Soviet Union during the Cold War?
a. China
b. Berlin
c. North Korea
d. Cuba
4. Why was NATO created?
a. to protect the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe from Western aggression
b. to rebuild Japan after World War II
c. to limit the testing of nuclear weapons
d. to protect Western countries from Soviet aggression
5. How did the Korean War begin?
a. South Korea invaded North Korea.
b. North Korea invaded South Korea.
c. China invaded South Korea.
d. The United States bombed China.
6. What caused the First Indochina War?
a. South Vietnam invaded North Vietnam.
b. France tried to reclaim Vietnam as a colony.
c. China encouraged North Vietnam to attack South Vietnam.
d. The Soviet Union placed a communist government in power in North Vietnam.
7. All of the following are reasons Yugoslavia did not become part of the Eastern Bloc except
a. Tito believed the Soviet Union should treat Yugoslavia as an equal.
b. Tito supported the civil war in Greece, which Stalin did not.
c. Tito did not want Yugoslavia to be a communist country.
d. Tito wanted to incorporate other countries into Yugoslavia, which Stalin opposed.
8. Which of the following best describes the goal of members of the Non-Aligned Movement?
a. to become the industrial equals of the United States and the Soviet Union
b. to avoid becoming satellites of either the Western or the Eastern Bloc
c. to avoid becoming communist nations
d. to establish Western-style forms of democratic government
9. Why did France, Israel, and the United Kingdom attack Egypt in 1956?
a. Egypt launched an air attack on Israel.
b. Egypt defaulted on loans it owed to France and the United Kingdom.
c. Egypt was undergoing a communist revolution.
d. Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and closed it to Israel.
10. In which European satellite country did the Soviet Union stage an armed intervention in the 1950s?
a. Hungary
b. Romania
c. Bulgaria
d. East Germany
11. What was the purpose of the Bay of Pigs invasion?
a. to prevent a communist revolution in Cuba
b. to remove nuclear missiles from Turkey
c. to kill Gamal Abdel Nasser
d. to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro
12. Why did President Kennedy begin a naval blockade of Cuba in 1962?
a. to force Fidel Castro from power
b. to prevent the Soviet Union from installing missiles aimed at the United States
c. to provide assistance to the government of Fulgencio Batista
d. to prevent Cuba from using its submarines to mine US harbors
13. Which country did the Mau Mau try to liberate?
a. Ethiopia
b. Ghana
c. Kenya
d. Angola
14. The expense of fighting a war in Afghanistan contributed to
a. Ronald Reagan’s loss of the 1984 presidential election
b. the overthrow of the Shah of Iran
c. successful revolts in the central Asian Soviet republics
d. the collapse of the Soviet Union
15. Which Serbian leader led an ethnic cleansing campaign against Albanians in Kosovo?
a. Josip Broz Tito
b. Mikhail Gorbachev
c. Slobodan Milošević
d. Boris Yeltsin
Check Your Understanding Questions
- Why did the United States create the Marshall Plan?
- What strategies did the United States use against the Soviet Union during the Cold War?
- What was the result of the First Indochina War?
- Why did the United States become involved in the wars in Indochina?
- What immediate effect did the founding of Israel have on Egypt?
- Why did both the Soviet Union and the United States want Indonesia as an ally?
- Why did the Soviet Union intervene in Eastern European countries in the 1950s and 1960s?
- How did Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization efforts affect Soviet relations with China?
- What was the government’s response to popular protests in Poland in the 1980s?
Application and Reflection Questions
- Should the Cold War have been fought? Did the United States have to prevent the expansion of communism? Why or why not?
- In your opinion, which side had more responsibility for starting the Cold War, the United States or the Soviet Union? Why?
- Which of the many different strategies used to fight the Cold War seems most effective? Which seems least effective? Why?
- In what ways is the relationship between the United States and Russia today similar to the relationship between the two countries during the Cold War? In what ways is it different? Why?
- Should the United States have supported France or Ho Chi Minh in the First Indochina War? Why? Why did Ho Chi Minh believe the United States would support him?
- How successful were the countries that wished to remain nonaligned with either the United States or the Soviet Union? What explains their results?
- What were the causes of the Arab-Israeli conflict? In what way was this conflict part of the Cold War? What could the UN have done to prevent this conflict?
- What were the causes of the Sino-Soviet split?
- What were the main goals of the Mau Mau? Why did the group see violence as necessary to achieve those goals?
- Why did the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc collapse?
- Could a communist economic system have been maintained in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe while allowing greater political freedom? Why or why not?
- Do economic freedom and political freedom go together? Do capitalist countries develop democratic forms of government? Why or why not?