topic 16

was a leader of the communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) from 1924–1953. His efforts to transform the Soviet Union into an industrial power and form state-run collective farms caused extreme hardship and millions of deaths. A partner with Germany in 1939, Stalin later joined the Allies in World War II. After the war, Stalin became an aggressive participant in the Cold War.

• Josef Stalin

• Iron Curtain

• Containment policy

a term coined by Winston Churchill to describe the border between the Soviet satellite states and Western Europe

• Iron Curtain

• Josef Stalin

• Containment policy

policy of keeping communism contained within its existing borders

• Containment policy

• Iron Curtain

was President of the United States from 1945–1953. Truman took office after Franklin Roosevelt’s death and led the nation during the final months of World War II, making the decision to use atomic weapons against Japan. In the early years of the Cold War, Truman worked to rebuild Europe and to oppose the spread of communism. When communist North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, beginning the Korean War, Truman sent American troops into the conflict.

• Harry S Truman

• Josef Stalin

President Truman’s promise to help nations struggling against communist movements

• Truman Doctrine

• Marshall Plan

foreign policy that offered economic aid to Western Europe after World War II

• Marshall Plan

• Truman Doctrine

military alliance formed to counter Soviet aggression 

• NATO

• Warsaw Pact

military alliance of the Soviet Union and its satellite states

• Warsaw Pact

• NATO

was a Chinese leader who successfully led a communist revolution in mainland China. He was chairman of the communist People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1959, and chairman of the country’s Communist Party until 1976.

• Mao Zedong

• Red China

Territories held by Communists during the Chinese Civil War

• red china

• 38th Parallel