Cold War Study Guide

Deficit: Government spending and tax cuts greatly increased the national deficit or the gap between what a government spends and what it takes in through taxes and other sources. 

Dissident: Brezhnev rigorously suppressed dissidents or Someone who speaks out against the government. Critics faced arrest and imprisonment. 

Glasnost: At home, Gorbachev launched a two pronged effort at reform. First he called a glasnost or A policy of openness instituted by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s. 

Welfare State: A major goal of the Leftist parties was to extend the welfare state. Under this system, a government keeps more features of a capitalist economy but takes greater responsibility for the social and economic needs of its people. 

Leonid Brezhnez: In 1964, he took over the Soviet Union, holding power until his death in 1982. Brezhnev rigorously suppressed dissidents. 

Charles de Gaulle: Amid the deepening crisis, voters turned to General Charles de Gaulle, who had let the Free French during the war. In 1958, de Gaulle set up the fifth republic. Its constitution gave him, as president, great power. 

Martin Luther King Jr: By 1956, a gifted preacher, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., emerged as a leader of the civil rights movement. Inspires by Gandhi's campaign of civil disobedience in India, King organized boycotts and led peaceful marches throughout the 1960s to end segregation in the US. 

Joseph Mc Carthy: Between 1950 and 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy charged many Americans with harboring communist sympathies. Government probes, however, produced little evidence of subversion. 

Margaret Thatcher: Many British leaders such as Margaret Thatcher, opposed increased links with Europe. Thatcher privatized government run industries. She curbed the power of labor unions, reduced the size of the government bureaucracy, and cut back welfare services. The conservative party was led by Margaret Thatcher. 

Perestroika: Second he urged The reconstructing of the Soviet government and economy in the 1980s or the Perestroika

Service Industry: A service industry is one that provides a service rather than a product. Service industries include health care, finance, sales, education, and recreation. 

Welfare State: A major goal of the Leftist parties was to extend the welfare state. Under this system, a government keeps more features of a capitalist economy but takes greater responsibility for the social and economic needs of its people. 

Mikhail Gorbachev: The new soviet leader in the 1990s, loosened the Soviet grip on Eastern Europe. One after another, communist governments collapsed, setting the stage for the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union itself. 

Helmut Kohl: West chancellor Helmut Kohl was the architect of unity. He assured both the soviet union and the west that a united Germany would pose no threat to peace. In 1990, he became chancellor of Germany. 

Nikita Krrushev: Soviet Leader. In 1956, he shocked top communist party members when he publicly denounced Stalin's abuse of power. He then pursued a policy of de-Stalinization.