IB History Regional Study 11: the Cold War in Asia Key Definitions

Agent Orange was a herbicide and defoliant used by the US military during the Vietnam War to destroy jungle cover and crops. It was sprayed over approximately 10% of South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 under Operation Ranch Hand. Agent Orange contained dioxin, a highly toxic chemical compound linked to cancer, birth defects, and other severe health conditions in both Vietnamese civilians and US veterans exposed to it.

A mutual defence treaty signed in September 1951 between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The Korean War accelerated its negotiation: Australia and New Zealand sought a formal US security guarantee in the Pacific in exchange for their participation in the Korean conflict and their acceptance of a lenient peace treaty with Japan.

A regional organisation founded in 1967 by Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. ASEAN was partly a response to the instability created by the Vietnam War and communist insurgencies across the region. Its founding members sought to promote economic cooperation and political stability among non-communist Southeast Asian states.

The force of Chinese troops that intervened in the Korean War in October–November 1950, officially described as "volunteers" to avoid a formal declaration of war against the United States. The CPVA numbered around 300,000 in its initial intervention and eventually exceeded 1 million troops, transforming the military balance in Korea.

A North Korean mass mobilisation campaign launched in 1958, named after a mythical winged horse capable of flying a thousand ri (roughly 400 km) per day. The Chollima Movement was modelled on Soviet Stakhanovite campaigns and called on workers to exceed production targets through ideological commitment and collective effort. It drove the rapid reconstruction of North Korea's heavy industry after the Korean War but also reinforced the pattern of state-directed overreporting of production figures.

The deliberate destruction of forest and agricultural vegetation using chemical agents, primarily for military purposes. During the Vietnam War, the US military sprayed approximately 77 million litres of defoliants across South Vietnam under Operation Ranch Hand (1962–1971) to deny the Viet Cong jungle cover and destroy food supplies. The most widely used defoliant was Agent Orange.

A strip of land from which military forces have been withdrawn. The Korean DMZ is a 4 km-wide buffer zone running roughly along the 38th parallel, separating North and South Korea. It was established by the 1953 armistice and remains one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world.

The official name of North Korea, established on 9 September 1948 under Kim Il Sung with Soviet backing. The DPRK also claimed sovereignty over the entire peninsula, making both Korean states rival governments from the moment of their founding.

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (March-May 1954) was the decisive engagement of the First Indochina War, in which Viet Minh forces under General Vo Nguyen Giap surrounded and defeated a French fortified position in northwestern Vietnam. The French surrender on 7 May 1954 ended French military power in Indochina and led directly to the Geneva Accords of 1954.

A term for the approximately 10 million Koreans who were separated from relatives across the ceasefire line by the Korean War and its aftermath. With no postal service, phone calls, or travel permitted between North and South Korea, separated families had no contact for decades. South Korea and North Korea have held limited reunion programs since the 1980s, but the overwhelming majority of separated family members died without ever seeing their relatives again.

The collapse of the Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah in April 1992, when mujahideen factions captured Kabul following the defection of Uzbek militia commander Abdul Rashid Dostum. Najibullah had held power for three years after the Soviet withdrawal by exploiting factional divisions and maintaining a degree of Soviet financial support, which ended when the USSR dissolved in December 1991. His fall plunged Afghanistan into civil war as mujahideen factions fought each other for control of the country.

The conflict between France and the Viet Minh independence movement led by Ho Chi Minh. France sought to reassert colonial control over Vietnam after World War II; the Viet Minh fought a guerrilla campaign that culminated in France's decisive defeat at Dien Bien Phu (May 1954). The war ended with the Geneva Accords, which temporarily divided Vietnam at the 17th Parallel.

US Army general who commanded UN forces in Korea from 1950 to April 1951. He planned the Inchon landing (September 1950) that reversed the North Korean advance. Truman dismissed him after he publicly demanded the right to strike Chinese territory and use nuclear weapons, violating the policy of limited war.

The Geneva Accords of April 1988 were agreements between Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States, and the Soviet Union that set the terms for Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. They included a timetable for the withdrawal of Soviet forces, to be completed by February 1989. The accords did not end the civil war in Afghanistan, as neither the Mujahideen nor the Afghan communist government signed them, and fighting continued after the Soviet withdrawal.

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed by the US Congress on 7 August 1964, authorising President Johnson to use military force in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war. It was triggered by reported attacks on US destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin on 2 and 4 August 1964. The 4 August incident was later found to be highly doubtful or fabricated.

An ethnic group indigenous to the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, comprising roughly 9–10% of the Afghan population. Predominantly Shia Muslim in a majority-Sunni country, the Hazara faced systematic persecution and marginalisation under various Afghan governments and, most severely, under the Taliban (1996–2001), which carried out massacres of Hazara communities. Their persecution has continued into the 21st century.

The two main factions of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Khalq ("Masses") was led by Nur Muhammad Taraki and later Hafizullah Amin; it was predominantly Pashtun, rural, and radical, pushing for rapid collectivisation and anti-religious reforms. Parcham ("Banner") was led by Babrak Karmal; it was more moderate, urban, and Persian-speaking. The factions violently purged each other after the 1978 Saur Revolution, destabilising the regime and alarming Moscow.

The Communist Party of Kampuchea, led by Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and attempted to create an agrarian utopia through forced collectivisation, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people.

Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) was the communist leader of North Korea from 1948 until his death. Backed by the Soviet Union, he built a one-party state modelled on Stalinist lines and led the June 1950 invasion of South Korea that started the Korean War. After the armistice of 1953, he ruled North Korea as a personal dictatorship and established the Juche ideology of self-reliance.

An estimated 10 million landmines were laid across Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War and subsequent civil war, making it one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. The UN estimated that by the early 1990s, mines were killing or maiming an average of 150–300 Afghans per month. Landmine clearance programs began in the late 1980s but the problem remained a major humanitarian issue decades after the conflict ended.

The ceasefire line established by the Korean Armistice Agreement of July 1953, running roughly along the 38th Parallel with minor variations reflecting the front lines at the time of the armistice. The MDL became the de facto border between North and South Korea, flanked by a 4km-wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on each side.

Mohammad Najibullah was the last Soviet-backed leader of Afghanistan, serving as General Secretary and then President from 1986 to 1992. After Soviet troops withdrew in 1989, his government survived longer than most analysts predicted, but collapsed in April 1992 when mujahideen factions captured Kabul. Najibullah took refuge in a UN compound in Kabul, where he remained until the Taliban seized the city in 1996 and publicly executed him.

Operation Cyclone was a CIA programme that provided covert financial, military, and logistical support to Afghan Mujahideen fighting Soviet forces from 1979 to 1992. It was one of the largest covert operations in CIA history, eventually channelling approximately $3 billion through Pakistan's ISI to Mujahideen factions. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia provided matching funds. The programme supplied Stinger anti-aircraft missiles from 1986, which significantly reduced Soviet air effectiveness.

The Paris Peace Accords, signed on 27 January 1973, ended direct US military involvement in the Vietnam War. The agreement called for a ceasefire, withdrawal of US forces, and the release of prisoners of war. It did not reunify Vietnam. Fighting between North and South Vietnam continued after the US withdrawal, ending with North Vietnamese forces capturing Saigon on 30 April 1975.