World History 1500 to
Present
Unit 5 Vocabulary: WWII, 20th century
genocides, Cold War, major Cold War
conflicts and detente
SOLs: WHII 10 c; 11 a,b,c; 12 a,b,c
General Hideki Tojo
 This
person was the prime
minister of Japan from 1941 to
1944.
Emperor Hirohito
 After
the second nuclear
explosion in his land, this ruler
ordered his military leaders to
do the unthinkable: surrender.
Appeasement
 This
term means giving in to
the demands of an aggressor in
order to maintain peace.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
 This
person was president of the
United States during World War
II and one third of “The Big
Three.”
Winston Churchill
 This
person was the prime
minister of Great Britain during
World War II and one third of
“The Big Three.”
Erwin Rommel
 This
person was the German
tank commander of the Afrika
Korps and was nicknamed, “the
Desert Fox.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 This
US general led Operation
Torch in North Africa and was later
named supreme commander of the
Allied forces in Europe. He was
well liked by the troops and would
later become president of the
United States.
D-Day
 This
amphibious Allied invasion
happened on June 6, 1944 near
Normandy, France.
About 6,603 US Soldiers
died of the approx. 10,000
Allied casualties there
sanctions
 This
term refers to some kind of
official penalty, most often an
economic one.
Nuremberg Trials
 These
were held to try Nazi
leaders as war criminals after
World War II and establish the
concept that “following orders”
is not an excuse for committing
atrocities against humanity.
Bataan Death March
 This
infamous war crime
involved the forcible transfer of
Allied prisoners of war by the
Japanese. The abuse and
mistreatment of the POWs
resulted in high fatalities in the
Philippines in 1942.
Rape of Nanjing
 This
infamous war crime happened
in China after the Japanese invaded
and occupied the city. The
Japanese committed rape, arson,
looting, and widespread executions
of men, women, and children in
addition to enemy combatants.
Geneva Convention
 This
international agreement
laid out the rules of engagement
in war and established a code of
ethics regarding treatment of
prisoners of war.
Iron Curtain
 This
term refers to the
imaginary boundary between
the mostly democratic west and
the communist east that became
a symbol of the Cold War.
General Douglas MacArthur
 This
US general oversaw the
occupation of Japan and the
American program of destroying
Japanese militarism and
ensuring a democratic
government.
NATO
 This
military alliance formed
between western nations who
agreed to protect one another if
one was attacked.
Warsaw Pact
 This
military alliance was headed
by the Soviet Union and was used
mainly to keep their satellite states
in Eastern Europe in line.
Marshall Plan
 This
massive financial aid package
from the United States was
designed to assist war torn
European nations in recovering
quickly and resisting communist
expansion.
Truman Doctrine
 This
describes the foreign
policy of the United States that
aimed to provide aid to
countries trying to resist the
threat of communist expansion.
Breshnev Doctrine
 This
describes the foreign
policy of the Soviet Union that
justified military intervention to
prevent satellite nations from
rejecting communism.
Cultural Revolution
 This
was Mao Zedong’s attempt to
purge China of non-revolutionary
tendencies in society by closing
schools and by persecuting the
educated, affluent, and intelligent.
This program forced thousands
from their jobs and onto farms
where they would be “reeducated.”
Ho Chi Minh
This Vietnamese nationalist
led communists to resist
Western imperialism in
Vietnam.
Pol Pot
 This
person pursued an aggressive
policy of relocating people to work
in countryside fields in an attempt
to purify Cambodia as a step
toward a communist future. He is
regarded as one of the foremost
mass murderers in human history.
Khmer Rouge
 This
is the name given to the
Cambodian communist guerillas
that overthrew the Cambodian
government and unleashed a reign
of terror to destroy all Western
influences in Cambodia. They
killed over 2 million people and
forced thousands more to work in
fields.
Nikita Krushchev

This leader of the USSR after Stalin
surprised the Kremlin by denouncing
Stalin’s rule. He later would smash
Hungarian freedom fighters, bring the
world to the brink of nuclear war in the
Cuban Missile Crisis, and bang his own
shoe at a United Nations session while
declaring to America: “We will bury
you!”
Ayatollah Khomeini
 This
fundamentalist Shia cleric
from Iran took over the Shah’s
government and restored strict
Islamic law to guide all areas of
Iranian life.
Imre Nagy
 This
communist reformer was a
strong Hungarian nationalist
who led freedom fighters in an
unsuccessful rebellion against
the USSR. He was executed for
his actions.
Alexander Dubcek
 This
reform minded
Czechoslovakian communist was
expelled from the party in 1970,
only to later regain influence and
prominence when communists
agreed to share power in a coalition
government.
1989
The
tragic
car
accident
in
September
During this Prague
1992, after we
which
Spring,….what
needDubcek succumbed
heavy
injuries two months later,
toto
create
is “socialism
shrouded in mystery,
withremains
a human face”
although the Slovak police closed the
case two years ago, saying it really
was an accident. But Dubcek will
always be remembered as a man who
made Czechoslovak history.
Detente

This term refers to the
relaxation of tensions between
the USA and the USSR. It
improved relations between
both superpowers.
Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks (SALT)
This was a 5 year treaty to limit
the number of missiles to 1972
levels between the USA and the
USSR.