Cold War
Zoe Vega Ponton
Vocabulary
- Arms Race - contest in which nations compete to build more powerful weapons
- Fallout Shelters - a civil defense measure intended to reduce cassualties in a nuclear war
- House Un-American Activities Committee - congressional committee that investigated possible subversive activities within the US
- Alger Hiss - accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury
- Rosenberg Case - federal court trial executed for conspiracy to commit espionage, related to giving away information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union
- Joseph McCarthy - Senator of the state of Wisconsin
- Hollywood Blacklist -practice of denying employment to screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians and other US entertainment professionals because of their suspected political beliefs
- Space Race - competition between the US and USSR to develop the technology to successfully land on the moon
- NASA - government agency that coordinates US efforts in space
- Iron Curtain - termed coined by Winston Churchill to describe the border between Soviet satellites states and Western Europe
- Berlin Airlift - program in which US and British pilots flew supplies to West Berlin during a Soviet blockade
- Truman Doctrine - President's Truman promise to help nations struggling against communist movements
- Containment - policy of keeping communism contained within existing borders
- Marshall Plan - foreign policy that offered economic aid to Western Europe countries after WWII
- 38th Parallel - line that divided Korea into two after WWII
- Douglas MacArthur - general that had a bold plan to drive the invaders from South Korea
- Suez Canal Crisis 1956 - attempt by France and Great Britain to seize control of the Suez Canal in 1956
- Geneva Accords - international agreement governing the humane treatment of wounded soldiers and prisoners of war
- 17th Parallel - provisional military demarcation line established in Vietnam by the Geneva Accords
- John Foster Dulles - experienced diplomat who helped organize the United Nations after WWII
- Massive Retaliation - policy of threatening to use massive force in response of aggression
- Central Intelligence Agency - US intelligence-gathering organization
- NATO - provided the military alliance to counter Soviet expansion
- Warsaw Pact - military alliance of the Soviet Union and its satellite states
- SEATO - defensive alliance aimed at preventing the spread of communism
- U-2 Incident - US spy plane shot down while in Soviet airspace
- Fidel Castro - Cuban leader who established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere
- Bay of Pigs - 1961 invasion of Cuba by a CIA-led force of Cuban exiles
- Cuban Missile Crisis - 1962 conflict between the US and the Soviet Union resulting from the Soviet installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba
- Brinkmanship - belief that only by going to the brink of war could the US protect itself against communist aggression