Cold War Era
Cold War A war of words between countries. There is no actual fighting.
Iron Curtain The term Winston Churchill used to describe the communist countries in Europe
Yalta Conference a conference held in Yalta in February 1945 where Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill planned the final stages of World War II and agreed to the territorial division of Europe
Satellite Country These were nations that were siding with but also under the influence of the Soviet Union. The satellite nations of the Cold War were Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and East Germany.
Josef Stalin The Communist dictator of the Soviet Union till 1953
Winston Churchill Prime Minister of Great Britain during WW II.
Harry S. Truman President of the US from April 1945, after FDR s death to January 1953
Truman Doctrine the belief that the US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or communist insurrection.
Containment US foreign policy to keep Communist countries from spreading their communist influence to other countries.
Marshall Plan The US gave $13 billion (nearly $110 billion in 2016 US dollars) in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II.
Berlin Airlift A military operation in the late 1940s that brought food and other needed goods into West Berlin by air after the government of East Germany, which at that time surrounded West Berlin, had cut off its supply routes.
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization- an alliance of democratic country joined together to fight communism.
Warsaw Pact An alliance of communist countries formed to counter the NATO alliance.
stalemate Neither side advances, a draw
Demilitarized Zone An area of land free from military and political control.
Arms Race competition between countries to achieve superiority in quantity and quality of military arms.
Fidel Castro Communist dictator of Cuba from 1959-2008.
Raul Castro Brother of Fidel Castro and leader of Cuba from 2011 to April 2018
Nikita Khrushchev Communist dictator of Soviet Union from 1953-1964
Berlin Wall A concrete wall that separated East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989. It was built by the government of what was then East Germany to keep East Berliners from defecting to the West. It became the symbol of the Cold Wall.
Ho Chi Minh The Communist leader of North Vietnam. He led the revolution to reunite Vietnam into one country.
Domino Theory The US foreign policy that if one country became communist, countries around it will fall to communism
Guerrillas A form of combat in which non military, mostly civilians are used to fight in a war.
Counterculture A protest movement that arose in the late 1960s and faded during the late 1970s. According to some, people of the US they were forming a culture of their own, opposed to the culture of Middle America.
Conscientious Objector a person who refuses to serve in the armed forces or bear arms on moral or religious grounds.
Richard Nixon He was President of the US from January 1969 to August 9,1974. He was forced to resign from office during the Watergate scandal.
Detente It is the easing of tension between the Soviet Union and United States during the Cold War
Watergate A scandal during the Nixon administration, in which the National Democratic Headquarters was broken into to steal information on democrats during the campaign.
Ronald Reagan US President from 1981-1989, he had a tough stance on communism.
Mikhail Gorbachev Soviet Union leader from 1985-1991, he is responsible for ending the Cold War
perestroka Perestroika literally means 'restructuring.' Another of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms,perestroika refers to the restructuring of Soviet political and economic systems, in which a free market economy was introduced.
Glanost the policy or practice of more open consultative government and wider dissemination of information, initiated by leader Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985.