Chapter 25 & 26 Cold War Terms

Levvitown

Nice cookie-cutter homes built in suburbs of America

Nato

North Atlantic Treaty Organization also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949.

SEATO

South-East Asia Treaty Organization

HUAC

The House Un-American Activities Committee, was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. It was originally created in 1938 in order to uncover citizens with Nazi ties inside the United States, and it expanded its efforts, also investigating possible Communist Party infiltration.

Eisenhower Doctrine

The belief that the US would keep communism from spreading into the Middle East

Mutally Assured Destruction

The idea that 2 countries could surely annihilate each other through nuclear warfare

Iron Curtain

The imaginary boundary line dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991.

McCarthyism

The practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. For example, unfair allegations and investigations may take place in order for largespread political criticism happen.

Brinkmanship

going to the edge or brink of war without going to war itself

Interstate Highway System

linked the country together; created a quicker way to travel from state to state; also provided escape routes in case of a nuclear incident.

U2 Spy Plane Incident

tense moment of 1960 when Gary Powers' spy plane was shot down while taking pictures above Russia

ICBMs

Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles: they could travel cross continents and deliver nuclear weapons.

Sputnik

1st satellite to be launched into space; created by the USSR

Inchon

A battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations. The operation involved some 75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels, and led to the recapture of the South Korean capital of Seoul two weeks later

Warsaw Pact

A collective defense treaty among Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance for the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe.

Hydrogen Bomb

A fission bomb capable of delivering upwards of a megaton of explosives

Containment/Domino Theory

A theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s, that speculated that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. In response to this, the United Nations swore to fight off and contain communism to keep its existence to a minimum.

Capitalism

Capitalism is structured in the way that an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

CIA

Central Intelligence Agency created in 1947

Communism

Communism is a way of organizing a society in which the government owns the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) and there is no privately owned property.

Truman Doctrine

An American foreign policy created to counter Soviet geopolitical dominance during the Cold War. Announced on on March 12, 1947 and further developed on July 12, 1948 when Truman pledged to contain Soviet threats to Greece and Turkey.

Marshall Plan

An American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave $13 billion (approximately $130 billion in current dollar value as of March 2016) in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War 2.

Berlin Airlift

An aid in which reinforcements were scattered the end of the Second World War. U.S., British, and Soviet military forces divided and occupied Germany. Also divided into occupation zones, Berlin was located far inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany

Military Industrial Complex

An obsession for building weapons about which President Eisenhower issued a stern caution.