Cold War Vocabulary
French for "relaxation," is the easing of strained relations or tensions between hostile nations, typically through diplomatic negotiation rather than force. In the Cold War this occurred between 1969-1979.
What is a detente?
(February 4–11, 1945) was a crucial World War II meeting of the "Big Three"—U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin—in the Soviet Crimea to plan the final defeat of Germany and map out the postwar reorganization of Europe.
What was the Yalta Conference?
A person who actively opposes or disagrees with an established government, political party, or authoritative organization. They often challenge the status quo, advocating for reform or change against prevailing policies, particularly in authoritarian states.
Who is a dissident?
A far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, and the forcible suppression of opposition. It subordinates individual interests to the perceived needs of the nation or race, often enforcing strict social and economic regimentation.
What is Fascism?
This is what DRC stands for.
What is the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
An adjective used to describe activities or actions that are flagrantly wicked, immoral, or villainous. It often implies a deliberate breach of moral or lawful standards.
What is nefarious?
Location where Apartheid was the official legal racial segregation of whites, blacks, colored (mixed race), and Indian people in this country. Under these laws white people (people of strictly European ancestry - as far as anyone could tell or knew...) had freedom of movement, better land, better education, better food, better jobs and higher incomes.
What is South Africa?
States or entities that are not formally allied with or against major power blocs, particularly during the Cold War (US/Soviet). It signifies independent foreign policy, neutralism in global conflicts, and refusal to join military alliances. India, Yugoslavia, and Ghana are a few examples.
What were non-aligned countries?
A brutal system of Soviet forced-labor camps operated from the 1930s to the early 1950s, primarily under Joseph Stalin, designed to punish political dissidents and criminals through hard labor.
What were the Gulags?
A Cold War military strategy holding that if two nuclear-armed sides (specifically the US and USSR) engaged in full-scale nuclear war, both would be completely destroyed. It ensured a stalemate, as neither side could win or safely launch a first strike.
What is MAD - mutually assured destruction?
AKA National Socialism (even though socialism is considered to be on the left of the political spectrum), is a far-right, totalitarian ideology developed by Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP in Germany. It is characterized by extreme nationalism, virulently racist and antisemitic policies, a belief in an Aryan "master race," and a dictatorship led by a Führer. Nazism promoted aggressive expansionism to secure "living space" (Lebensraum
What is Naziism?
This small European Kingdom and it's king of this name took control of the Congo under the guise of ending slavery and benevolence and aid for the Congolese people. It was a massive lie.
What was Belgium and King Leopold II?
Being involved with others in a wrongdoing, illegal act, or unethical behavior. It implies shared responsibility—you might not have been the one who directly committed the act, but you knew about it, helped plan it, or allowed it to happen without intervening. For example, corporations owned by people in the UK, France and the United States profited tremendously from the resources of the Congo and the brutal labor practices still seen today. Therefore, they are _______________ in the problem.
What is complicit?
Prior to their independence in 1910, South Africa was part of this massive empire (who fought wars to take it away from the Dutch who claimed it before them).
What was the British Empire?
A Cold War-era, U.S. foreign policy concept suggesting that if one nation fell to communism, neighboring countries would inevitably follow. Coined in the 1950s, this theory was used to justify American military involvement in Southeast Asia, particularly the Vietnam War, to prevent the spread of communist influence.
What was the Domino Theory?
An intergovernmental political and military alliance established in 1949, comprising 32 member states from Europe and North America. Its primary purpose is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through collective defense—treating an attack on one as an attack on all.
What is NATO - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?
The act of spying, involving the secret collection of classified military, political, or industrial information by governments or companies. It often involves infiltrating rivals, stealing trade secrets, or using illegal monitoring devices to gain an advantage. Common examples include government agents stealing defense secrets and cyber espionage to steal corporate data.
What is espionage?
HiJewish nationalist movement that has had as its goal the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine, the ancient homeland of the Jew. It originated in eastern and central Europe in the latter part of the 19th century, it is in many ways a continuation of the ancient attachment of the Jews and of the Jewish religion to the historical region of Palestine, where one of the hills of ancient Jerusalem was called Zion.
What is Zionism?
Six past and present extremely valuable commodities found and extracted from the DRC.
What are rubber, ivory, gold, diamonds, uranium, and coltan?
King Leopold II responded in these methods to the accusations and evidence of journalists, missionaries and official investigations into the horrific abuses in the "Congo Free State".
What was he categorically denied any wrongdoing, he tried to discredit his accusers and their evidence and accounts, and used public relations and pre-arranged interviews with the press to get his message of denial out to the world?
Apartheid had laws against that outlawed relationships and marriage between non-whites and whites. The United States also had these types laws until the mid 1960s in most Southern States.
What were anti-miscegenation laws?
A United States foreign policy strategy adopted in the late 1940s to prevent the spread of communism and Soviet influence abroad.
What was the Containment Policy?
Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance (1955–1991), was a Soviet-led mutual defense alliance comprising seven Eastern European communist satellites. Established in response to West Germany joining NATO, it aimed to solidify Soviet military control and act as a geopolitical counterbalance in Europe during the Cold War.
What was the Warsaw Pact?
A strong, often uncritical supporter of a specific person, group, or cause. In politics, it describes someone who exhibits a biased, emotional allegiance to a political party, prioritizing their party’s platform and interests over compromise or objective facts.
What is partisan?
Leave one's own country in order to settle permanently in another.
What is to emigrate?
Nationalist Congolese leader and first democratically elected president in 1960. He was assassinated through a military coup that was orchestrated by the Belgian and United States governments who made claims that he was a communist. He was not a communist.
Who was Patrice Lumumba?
Much of this type of Congolese artwork was looted in the colonial period and can be found in museums all over the world.
What are masks?
Members of the decolonization movement throughout much of Africa, many of whom were in the ANC (African National Congress) had this happen to them at the hands of colonial authorities, to try to prevent them from gaining more influence and followers. Nelson Mandela did 27 years time.
What was arrested, found guilty in sham trials and put in jail indefinitely?
A difficult situation that is hard to escape, such as a political, financial, or bureaucratic entanglement; for example in the Cold War - the Soviet War in Afghanistan was an unwinnable 10 year war (1979-1989), and later the US War on Terror in Afghanistan became the same for 20 years after 9/11 (2001-2021). Vietnam was also considered for the American military effort that began in the late 1950s and did not end until the mid 1970s with the withdraw of American forces.
What is a quagmire?
Practical, sensible, realistic in the way a problem or situation is dealt with
What is pragmatic?
An individual or organization that is not affiliated with, biased toward, or controlled by any specific political party or ideological group. It emphasizes objectivity, fairness, and fact-based decision-making.
What is non-partisan?
Come to live permanently in a foreign country.
What is immigrate?
Belgian colonial authorities would recruit men from other regions of Africa to serve in this military that carried out the terror on the people of the Congo to meet their rubber quotas.
Who were the Force Publique?
In 1960, when the Belgian king gave a speech on the day of Congolese independence, he credited this individual for actually making it possible for the Congolese people. He made no mention of the massive population decline that occurred during the end of the 19th century due to the brutality of the extraction of resources, particularly rubber.
Who was King Leopold II?
Apartheid did not officially end in South Africa until this year. I was a sophomore in college.
What was 1994?