<span>He definitely wasn't a failure: he captained what became arguably the most famous voyage in the history of seafaring. True, he wasn't the first European to visit America (the Vikings were), but his journey opened up the East and the West and ushered in the modern era. That isn't something a failure could do.
But he certainly wasn't a hero, either. He was a ruthless and cruel man who inflicted unspeakable tortures upon innocent natives after he arrived in America.
He was neither a failure, nor a hero. He was a very succesful man who was also a horrible person.</span>
The "Terrorist" organization in Ireland that you're referring to is the IRA, or "Irish Republican Army" which fought for a united Ireland. They would constantly launch terrorist attacks against English in Northern Ireland. The reason they have declined is because the violent IRA disbanded in 2005. The IRA now claims to want to take back Northern Ireland and make peace through political and diplomatic means.
Answer: The Soviets refused to allow elections in Eastern European nations.
Explanation: When Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, leaders of the World War II Allied nations, met at Yalta in 1945, there was a big push for Stalin to allow free elections to take place in the nations of Europe after the war. At that time Stalin agreed, but there was a strong feeling by the other leaders that he might renege on that promise. The Soviets never did allow those free elections to occur. Later, Winston Churchill wrote, "Our hopeful assumptions were soon to be falsified." Stalin and the Soviets felt they needed the Eastern European nations as satellites to protect their interests.