1. European Reconstruction Initiative
   Marshall Plan
2. Western European Economic Development Program
   Make Europe Great Again

Although officially named the European Recovery Program (ERP), this economic aid initiative became known as the Marshall Plan after the U.S. Secretary of State who devised it. In an effort to rebuild war-torn Europe, the United States gave over $13 billion in economic assistance. With inflation, that amounts to over $100 billion in today's dollars.

1. Germany and Japan
   United States and the Soviet Union
2. Great Britain and France
   Russia and the United States

In 1945, two powers dominated the world: the United State and the Soviet Union. The two had been allies during WWII but found themselves increasingly at odds in the years following the end of the war. The U.S. had economic and military strength while the Soviet Union utilized Marxist ideology to control its citizens.

1. Germany and Japan
   Great Britain and the Netherlands
2. The Soviet Union and Belgium
   France and Italy

WWII both caused and accelerated change around the world. In France and Italy, women were recognized for their contributions during the war and got the right to vote. Other social changes included the establishment of the welfare state in Britain.

1. 2
   4
2. 6
   3

The Allied powers divided Germany into four zones. Britain occupied the northwest, and France occupied the southwest. The United States took the south while the Soviets controlled the east. As with the country, they also divided the capital, Berlin. Because their occupiers supported such differing ideologies, two Germanies began to take shape.

1. General George Marshall
   General George S. Patton, Jr.
2. General Douglas MacArthur
   General Dwight D. Eisenhower

In the early years of WWII, MacArthur received the Medal of Honor for extreme bravery. Starting in 1945, he presided over the Japanese Unconditional Surrender. He disbanded supporters of the Japanese militarists and implemented a variety of reforms such as democratic constitution.

1. Hamburg
   Berlin
2. Dresden
   Munich

In the aftermath of WWII, much of Europe was divided up among the Allied powers with the purpose of overseeing reconstruction and the formation of new governments. In no place were the battling ideologies of the U.S. and Soviets more evident than Berlin. The two powers joint-occupied Germany, and to create separation, the Soviet Union erected the wall in 1961. It fell in 1989.

1. Breach of mankind
   Inhumane lawlessness
2. Crimes against humanity
   Heinous wartime transgressions

Following the war, special tribunals were held in both Japan and Germany to prosecute individuals responsible for "crimes against humanity." Most famously, senior Nazis stood before Allied judges in Nuremberg.

1. East
   North
2. West
   South

Following WWII, the Allied powers divided not just Germany but also the capital itself. The U.S., Britain and France occupied West Berlin for a time before giving control back to the Germans. The Soviets controlled East Berlin. Their portion of the city and their portion of the country worked to effectively surround West Berlin. The famous Berlin Wall encompassed West Berlin in a Soviet-effort to contain its Western ideologies.

1. New World Order
   Infamy Speech
2. A Plan for the Future
   Four Freedoms

In his Four Freedoms speech, Roosevelt shared his vision for the world after WWII. He talked about freedom of speech, expression and religion as well as freedom from want and fear.

1. United Nations
   World Bank
2. League of Nations
   Peace Corps

Although the League of Nations had failed, world leaders new a similar but much stronger organization was necessary to build and nurture international relations. Thus, they established the United Nations. In April 1945, 50 governments met to draft the initial charter. Since the UN began operating in October 1945, it has worked toward its mission to maintain international peace and achieve global cooperation.

1. Vladimir Lenin
   Mikhail Gorbachev
2. Joseph Stalin
   Nikita Khrushchev

Beginning in 1922, Joseph Stalin led the Soviet Union until his death in 1953. As dictator, he ruled the country using his interpretation of Marxism and Leninism which became known as Stalinism.

1. Iron Curtain
   Frozen Tension
2. Nuclear Arms Race
   Cold War

Despite both belonging to the Allied powers during WWII, the U.S. and Soviet Union had opposing ideologies. Tensions grew, and in 1946, the Cold War began. The term "cold" is used to describe the conflict because no large-scale fighting occurred directly between the two sides. However, both sides engaged in proxy wars as well as the nuclear arms race.

1. Tokyo
   Bangkok
2. Kyoto
   Beijing

Beginning in April 1946 and lasting until November 1948, the International Military Tribune for the Far East indicted, tried and sentenced Japanese leaders for their roles in WWII. These military trials became known as the "Tokyo trials" since they were held in Japan's capital city. Judges from 11 countries, including the United States, handed down sentences that ranged from prison time to death.

1. Herman Göring
   Hans Frank
2. Joachim von Ribbentrop
   Arthur Seyss-Inquart

During the Nuremberg trials, the Allied court prosecuted prominent Nazi leaders for their roles in WWII and the Holocaust. Former leader of German aerial forces and the secret police, Herman Göring was the highest ranking official tried at Nuremberg. He received a death sentence but committed suicide the night before it was to take place.

1. Singapore
   Malaysia
2. Botswana
   India

In exchange for their cooperation and help during WWII, Indian leaders asked for the country's independence following the war. More than two million Indians served in the Allied forces. On Aug. 15, 1947, India became a free nation.

1. United States
   Britain
2. France
   Germany

Even though American General Douglas MacArthur and his staff oversaw and assisted in the creation of Japan's new constitution, the new document was based on British parliamentary rule. In the new constitution, Japan's emperor had only a symbolic rule. Furthermore, it granted women the right to vote. In April 1946, Japan elected its first modern prime minister.

1. Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
   Historical Museum of Krakow
2. National Museum
   Warsaw Rising Museum

Exactly seven years to the day since the first prisoners arrived to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the museum and memorial opened on the same site. In addition to educating visitors about the Holocaust and remembering its victims, the museum also performs Holocaust research.

1. Employment Act
   Foreign Assistance Act
2. National Security Act
   Displaced Persons Act

In June 1948, President Truman signed the Displaced Persons Act which allowed more than 200,000 European refugees to establish permanent residency in the United States. Truman had several objections to the Act, most notably its discrimination against Jewish displaced persons. In 1950, the Act was amended, and the Displaced Persons Act of 1950 rectifies this exclusion.

1. Japan
   India
2. China
   South Korea

In 1949, the Communist Party of China established the People's Republic of China. The Communist Party had been fighting with Nationalist Party of China since 1927. The two sides put the conflict on hold in 1937 to come together in face of the invading Imperial Japanese Army. Although all major military activity had ended by 1950, neither side ever signed an official peace agreement.

1. Indonesia
   Thailand
2. Vietnam
   Singapore

Although the United States and the Soviet Union never engaged in direct hostilities, the two powers took opposing sides in the Vietnam War. The USSR, along with China and other communist allies, supported the North Vietnamese army. The United States and its anti-communist allies supported the government of South Vietnam.

1. China
   Japan
2. South Korea
   Thailand

Following WWII, the Allied forces took control of Korea from Japan and agreed to split the country into two parts. The United States occupied the southern part of the country while the USSR occupied the northern portion. In June 1950, the Korean War began when the army of Communist North Korea crossed the 38th parallel and marched on Seoul.

1. Marie and Klaus Fuchs
   Margaret and Richard Sorge
2. Anna and Oleg Gordievsky
   Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Implicated by Ethel's own brother, David Greenglass, the Rosenbergs were executed in New York's Sing Sing Prison on June 19, 1953. Julius had been a Russian agent since 1953 and recruited other Americans including his brother-in-law. Julius and Greenglass gave top-secret information to the Russians. Years after their execution, Greenglass admitted he'd fabricated his sister's involvement in order to save himself.

1. Iron curtain
   Wall between worlds
2. Great divide
   European partition

In the aftermath of WWII, competing ideologies split Europe in two parts. In the west, capitalism reigned with the support of the United States. In the east, communism ruled backed by the USSR. Churchill called the divide the "iron curtain" in reference to the Soviet Union's effort isolate itself from the West.

1. Atomic bomb
   Machine guns
2. Grenades
   Rocket launcher

Relying heavily on knowledge the Soviets gained about the U.S's Manhattan Project, the USSR conducted its first successful nuclear weapons test in Kazakhstan. They named the project "First Lightning."

1. Anti-Communism Military Alliance (ACMA)
   North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
2. American European Agreement (AEA)
   Western Power Pact (WPP)

Led by the United States, Western allies signed a military alliance on April 4, 1949. Nearly 30 North American and European countries signed the treaty promising to come together in the event of necessary armed action against Communism.

1. Nuclear energy research centers
   U.S. borders
2. Internment camps
   Overseas military bases

Beginning in 1942, the U.S. government began operating internment camps in the American West. Officially known as "relocation centers," the U.S. incarcerated approximately 120,000 Japanese-Americans. President Roosevelt ordered the detention in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

1. Yoshida Shigeru
   Nobusuke Kishi
2. Michinomiya Hirohito
   Tojo Hideki

After Japan passed its new constitution, the country elected its first modern prime minister: Yoshida Shigeru. The country still had an emperor but with significantly reduced power. Emperor Hirohito said his country would never again "be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government."

1. Aldous Huxley
   Ernest Hemingway
2. Ray Bradbury
   George Orwell

In 1945, George Orwell wrote an article in which he predicted the Cold War. He said there would be a stalemate between “two or three monstrous super-states, each possessed of a weapon by which millions of people can be wiped out in a few seconds.” Presidential adviser Bernard Baruch used the term again several years later in a speech.

1. Warsaw Pact
   Eastern Europe Agreement
2. Moscow Treaty
   Communist Alliance

In May 1955, Soviet-bloc countries signed the Warsaw Treaty in response to the United States and other western powers signing the Paris agreement. The treaty established a mutual-defense organization. In addition to the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania also signed.

1. Caribbean Bomb Scare
   Havana Standoff
2. Cuban Missile Crisis
   Struggle for Cuba

The Soviet Union had promised to defend communist Cuba and began missile shipments to the island in 1962. When President Kennedy learned the missiles had the potential to strike the U.S., he ordered a blockade to prevent the shipments from reaching Cuba. After tense discussions, the Soviets agreed to stop their work on the missile sites in exchange for the U.S.'s promise to never invade Cuba.

1. Spread of communism
   Above-ground nuclear weapons testing
2. Capitalism in the USSR
   Direct military confrontation

In the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was evident neither side wanted to engage in nuclear warfare for the fear of mutual destruction. The U.S. and Soviet Union signed the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty of 1963, which forbade above-ground nuclear weapons testing.

1. Turkey
   Afghanistan
2. Israel
   Iran

In support of the Afghan communist government, the USSR sent troops to fight the anti-communist Muslim guerrillas as part of the Afghan War. The Soviets occupied the country until February 1989.

1. Mikhail Gorbachev
   Joseph Stalin
2. Nikita Khrushchev
   Leonid Brezhnev

After years of building up arms and competing for world influence, Mikhail Gorbachev and his administration began to ease the tensions of the Cold War as they dismantled the totalitarian practices of the Soviet Union. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed.

1. 7
   22
2. 15
   3

When the Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991, 15 new countries gained their independence. Among those countries was Russia, which went onto democratically elect an anticommunist leader. The fall of the Soviet Union marked the end of the Cold War.

1. 1987
   1991
2. 1985
   1989

As part of Eastern Europe's democratization, East Germany's Soviet-backed communist leadership lost power in October 1989. Less than a month later, the government began allowing free travel between East and West Germany.