Postwar US Foreign Policy

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established in 1949 to provide collective security against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The Iran Hostage Crisis began in 1979 and lasted for 444 days, ending with the release of the American hostages on the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.

George H.W. Bush famously promised 'Read my lips: No new taxes' during his 1988 presidential campaign, a pledge he later broke, which affected his 1992 reelection bid.

The Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) was initiated by a U.S.-led coalition to liberate Kuwait after it was invaded by Iraq.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that created a trilateral trade bloc in North America.

The Marshall Plan was a U.S. program providing aid to Western Europe following the devastation of World War II to rebuild economies and prevent the spread of communism.

The Iran-Contra affair was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration, involving the secret sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua.

The Iran-Contra affair involved the secret sale of weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages held in Lebanon, with the proceeds illegally funneled to the Contras in Nicaragua.

The Korean War (1950-1953) was a major early conflict of the Cold War, representing the first military clash between the U.S.-led forces and communist forces, significantly increasing global tensions.

The Domino Theory was the belief that if one country in a region fell to communism, the surrounding countries would inevitably follow, justifying U.S. intervention in Vietnam.

The Truman Doctrine, established in 1947, provided political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces, specifically communism. It was a cornerstone of U.S. Cold War containment policy.

Both the League of Nations and the United Nations were created as international organizations following major global conflicts (WWI and WWII, respectively) with the primary goal of maintaining peace and preventing future wars through collective security.

The Open Door Policy was a U.S. foreign policy initiative intended to ensure that all nations had equal trading rights in China, preventing any one power from dominating the market.

The Schuman Plan led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which pooled the coal and steel resources of France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

• Mikhail Gorbachev introduced ‘perestroika’ meaning restructuring, so that the Soviet government would no longer control all the economy and industry.
• With the introduction of ‘glasnost’ which meant openness, it became easier to speak out without fear of arrest in the Soviet Union.