Notes, Spring 2001, Foreign Policy (H) REVISED, MARCH 4, 2003

 

 

World War II

 

Countries that were part of the Allies, including mainly the U.S., Great Britain, Soviet Union, China, and France.  Among the wartime leaders of the Allies were U.S. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman (succeeding FDR after his death in 1945) and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union.

 

Countries that were part of the Axis powers included mainly the countries of Germany, Italy, and Japan.  Among the wartime leaders of the Axis Powers were Adolf Hitler of Germany and Benito Mussolini of Italy.

 

MIDDLE EAST

Israel is the country that signed a peace treaty with Egypt at Camp David, Maryland during the Carter Administration.

 

Egypt is the country that signed a peace treaty with Israel at Camp David, Maryland during the Carter Administration.

 

Iraq was the country U.N. nations fought during the Persian Gulf War.  Saddam Hussein is the president of Iraq.

 

Iran is the country where American hostages were held for over a year.

 

Kuwait is the country that was invaded by Iraq during the Persian Gulf War under the first President Bush

 

PLO stands for Palestine Liberation Organization.  Its current leader is Yasser Arafat.

 

Lebanon is the country located just north of Israel.  President Reagan ordered American forces to bomb it.

 

 

EUROPE

Yugoslavia

    Serbia is the largest republic in Yugoslavia.

    Bosnia became an independent country from Yugoslavia in 1991.

    Kosovo is part of the republic of Serbia that is heavily populated by Islamic peoples.

 

Macedonia is a country currently engaged in a conflict in Kosovo.

 

France is the country in which President Woodrow Wilson sent American troops in World War I.  America entered the war in 1917.

 

NATO stands for the North American Treaty Organization.

 

Warsaw Pact was the alliance of the Soviet Union and its communist satellite nations.

 

Berlin Wall is the wall that was built by the communists.  The Wall fell in 1989.  Three Baltic countries, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia declared their independence from the Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union was the name of the communist country, which is called Russia today.  The Soviet Union ceased to exist soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, ending the Cold War.

 

 

CENTRAL AMERICA

The Contras of Nicaragua received the profits made during the Iran-Contra affair under President Reagan.

 

El Salvador’s central government received military aid from the U.S. under the Reagan Administration.

 

Cuba is the only communist country in the Western Hemisphere.

 

 

ASIA

People’s Republic of China is a communist country founded by Mao Tse-tung.

 

Republic of China is a country founded by Chiang Kai-shek.  The Chinese nationalists led by Chiang fled to the island of Formosa or Taiwan.  The Republic of China is not a communist country.

 

Vietnam is the country where American troops fought under the Nixon and Johnson administrations.

 

Korea is a divided country.  The 38th Parallel divides North Korea and South Korea.  Along the 38th Parallel is the DMZ or Demilitarized Zone between Communist North Korea and anti-Communist South Korea.

 

 

UNITED NATIONS

 

President Harry Truman helped in the creation of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945.  The current location of the U.N.O. headquarters is New York City.  The countries that have the most power with permanent seats on the Security Council are the U.S., Great Britain, France, Russia, and China.  Note that China’s Nationalist Party as well as its Communist Party fought on the side of the World War II Allies against the Axis Powers.