Module 12 Cold War Vocabulary

Loyalty Review Board

(1947) federal board set up by President Truman that checked up on government workers, and dismissed those found to be communist.

Space Race

A competition of space exploration between the United States and Soviet Union.

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

A congressional committee created to search out disloyal Americans & Communists.

Declaration of Human Rights

A declaration adopted by the United Nations to give rights to every human on the planet. These rights include the right to life, political rights, freedom of religion, and economic rights

Marshall Plan

A plan that the US came up with to revive war-torn economies of Europe. This plan offered $13 billion in aid to western and Southern Europe.

Brinkmanship

A policy of threatening to go to war in response to any enemy aggression.

Communist China

After 1949, Mao Zedong took control of China making the two largest nations in the world under communist control

Armistice

An agreement to stop fighting

United Nations

An international organization formed after WWII to promote international peace, security, and cooperation.

Duck and Cover Drills

Cold War....Students were urged to DUCK under their desks and COVER their heads to protect themselves from the dangerous debris and radiation associated with a nuclear detonation.

Arms Race

Cold war competition between the U.S. and Soviet Union to build up their respective armed forces and weapons

Sputnik

First artificial Earth satellite, it was launched by Moscow in 1957 and sparked U.S. fears of Soviet dominance in technology and outer space. It led to the creation of NASA and the space race.

Rosenberg's Case

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were United States citizens who spied for the Soviet Union and were tried, convicted and executed by the United States government.

38th Parallel

Line that divided Korea - Soviet Union occupied the north and United States occupied the south, during the Cold War.

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization; an alliance made to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country; US, England, France, Canada, Western European countries

Truman Doctrine

President Truman's policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology

Massive Retaliation

The "new look" defense policy of the Eisenhower administration of the 1950's was to threaten "massive retaliation" with nuclear weapons in response to any act of aggression by a potential enemy.

Domino Theory

The US theory that stated, if one country would fall to Communism then they all would.

Containments

The blocking of another nation's attempts to spread its influence

McCarthyism

The term associated with Senator Joseph McCarthy who led the search for communists in America during the early 1950s through his leadership in the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Iron Curtain

Winston Churchill's term for the Cold War division between the Soviet-dominated East and the U.S.-dominated West.

Berlin Airlift

airlift in 1948 that supplied food and fuel to citizens of west Berlin when the Russians closed off land access to Berlin

Flexible Response

the buildup of conventional troops and weapons to allow a nation to fight a limited war without using nuclear weapons

U-2 Incident

the downing of a U.S. spy plane and capture of its pilot by the Soviet Union in 1960

Warsaw Pact

treaty signed in 1945 that formed an alliance of the Eastern European countries behind the Iron Curtain; USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania