People
After spending 27 years in prison, this anti-apartheid leader became South Africa’s first Black president in 1994.
Who is Nelson Mandela?
Announced in 1947, this U.S. policy aimed to contain communism by providing military and economic aid.
What is the Truman Doctrine?
This theory suggested that if one country fell to communism, others in the region would follow like falling tiles.
What is the Domino Theory?
This founding father of the People’s Republic of China, who led the country from 1949 until his death in 1976, initiated campaigns like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, both of which had devastating consequences.
Who is Mao Zedong?
This Ghanaian leader, the first prime minister and president of independent Ghana, advocated for Pan-Africanism and sought to unite African nations, but his authoritarian rule and economic challenges led to his overthrow in 1966.
Who is Kwame Nkrumah?
This communist leader fought for Vietnamese independence from France and later led North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Who is Ho Chi Minh?
This 1955 military alliance, led by the Soviet Union, was formed in response to NATO.
What is the Warsaw Pact?
The U.S. military used this toxic herbicide during the Vietnam War to destroy jungle cover, but it caused severe health issues for both soldiers and civilians.
What is Agent Orange?
This policy aimed to dismantle feudal landownership structures by redistributing land to peasant populations, but in some cases, it led to violent class struggles and economic instability, as seen in Maoist China and Latin America.
What is Land Reform?
This series of reforms, initiated in 1963 by the Shah of Iran, aimed to modernize and westernize the country, but also led to widespread opposition and unrest, especially from Islamic groups.
What is the White Revolution?
This American civil rights leader delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech and led the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Who is Martin Luther King Jr.?
This 1962 confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, as the Soviet Union secretly placed nuclear missiles in this Caribbean nation.
What is Cuba?
This principle, emphasized by Woodrow Wilson after World War I, supports the right of nations to choose their own government, but was often ignored during the Cold War.
What is Self-Determination?
As part of this disastrous Chinese campaign, Mao Zedong ordered the extermination of sparrows to protect grain, but the ecological imbalance led to insect infestations and famine.
What is the Great Leap Forward?
This founding president of Indonesia, who led the country from 1945 to 1967, championed nationalism and non-alignment during the Cold War but was eventually ousted after his political and economic policies failed to stabilize the nation.
Who is Sukarno?
This Chilean dictator, who came to power in a 1973 coup, oversaw the brutal "Caravan of Death," a military operation that executed political opponents.
Who is Augusto Pinochet?
This Soviet policy, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev, promoted openness and transparency in government and media.
What is Glasnost?
This communist guerrilla group fought against South Vietnam and U.S. forces, using tunnels and surprise attacks to resist American intervention.
Who were the Viet Cong?
This radical communist regime, led by Pol Pot, took control of Cambodia in 1975 and oversaw a genocidal campaign that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.
Who are the Khmer Rouge?
In June 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, capturing territories including the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, drastically altering the Middle Eastern political landscape.
What is the Six-Day War?
As the first president of Tanzania, he promoted African socialism, known as Ujamaa, to build a self-reliant economy.
Who is Julius Nyerere?
Erected in 1961 by East Germany, this wall was a physical representation of the ideological divide between the Eastern Bloc and the West, and its fall in 1989 symbolized the end of the Cold War.
What is the Berlin Wall?
This classified government report, leaked to The New York Times in 1971, exposed decades of U.S. deception in Vietnam and led to a landmark Supreme Court case on press freedom.
What are the Pentagon Papers?
During this chaotic movement led by Mao Zedong, students and workers used "big character posters" to criticize officials and intellectuals, fueling mass purges and Red Guard violence.
What is the Cultural Revolution?
This 1967-1970 conflict in Nigeria, sparked by the secession of the southeastern region of Biafra, witnessed brutal famine and widespread international controversy over humanitarian aid, including the role of figures like Chukwuemeka Ojukwu.
What is the Biafran Civil War?