The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance was created under the leadership of the Soviet Union in 1949 and included all the countries of the Warsaw Pact and communist and member states around the world. It may have been created in response to the Marshall Plan in Western Europe, certainly it can be understood as the Soviet equivalent of the Marshall Plan as it aimed to provide aid and economic assistance to potential communist nations around the world.

All of these countries were original members of the Warsaw Pact - an alliance of communist nations under the leadership of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe- except Turkey. Turkey is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and was an important capitalist ally of the United States of America during the Cold War.

The League of Nations failed for a number of reasons - not least of all the refusal of the United States’ Congress to participate. But, the biggest reason why the League of Nations failed is that it had no army of its own and could therefore not enforce any of its ultimatums or sanctions. This meant that when a country contravened the rules of the League there were absolutely no consequences.

India is a sub-continent and considered a region unto itself in Asia, despite being to the south and east of most of Asia. Despite gaining its independence around the same time as the concept of Southeast Asia developing, the British influence on its development lead to it being a Western ally.

For the countries in Southeast Asia, although many are far from mainland Asia and next to the countries now considered Oceania, their classification reflected the political conflicts of the time.

The United States played no role in the League of Nations. Although the League was the brainchild of American President Woodrow Wilson, Congress refused to ratify the treaty, which would have led to American participation.

The Truman Doctrine was first directed towards preventing the spread of communism in Greece and Turkey in 1948. It involved significant financial aid being given to these two countries by the United States’ government.

The European Economic Community was founded in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome. It may be understood as one of a few precursor organizations to the later European Union. All of these countries were founding members except Great Britain.

The Geneva Conference took place in 1954. Its primary goal was to find a way to resolve the conflicts between the forces of communism and capitalism in Korea and Vietnam and mediate the French withdrawal from French Indochina.

The phrase “iron curtain” was first used by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill when he was giving a speech in America in 1946. It refers to the division between capitalist Western Europe and communist Eastern Europe.

The phrase mutually assured destruction refers to nuclear deterrence. It essentially states that it would be suicide for one nuclear power to launch a nuclear missile at another nuclear power. This is because the enemy would surely retaliate and catastrophic levels of devastation would be felt equally on both sides. It rose to prominence during the Cold War when the United States and the Soviet Union came close to obliterating one another on multiple occasions.