the cold war

• Cold War


  The power struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II
• Containment


  A U.S. foreign policy adopted by President Harry Truman in the late 1940s, in which the United States tried to stop the spread of communism
• NATO


  A security alliance including America as a method to resist a Soviet attack and to contain communism, a mutual defense agreement where each nation pledges to help the other if it is attacked
• Marshall Plan


  A United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe (1948-1952). American loans to rebuild Europe after WW2
• Truman Doctrine


  1947 - Stated that the U.S. would support any nation threatened by Communism
• Harry Truman


  33rd President of the United States. Led the U.S. to victory in WWII making the ultimate decision to use atomic weapons for the first time. Shaped U.S. foreign policy regarding the Soviet Union after the war
• Warsaw Pact


  (1955) An alliance between Russia and Eastern communist countries against Western capitalist countries; equivalent to NATO
• Berlin Airlift


  1948 Joint effort by the US and Britian to fly food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet blocked off all ground routes into the city
• Korean War


  The conflict between Communist North Korea and Non-Communist South Korea. The United Nations (led by the United States) helped South Korea
• Berlin Wall


  A wall separating East and West Berlin built by East Germany in 1961 to keep citizens from escaping to the West; came down in 1989
• Cuban Missile Crisis


  1962 crisis that arose between the United States and the Soviet Union over a Soviet attempt to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba. The closest the two powers ever came to nuclear war. Ended with a quarantine of Cuba and the removal of the missiles
• McCarthyism


  Unscrupulously accusing people of disloyalty (as by saying they were Communists)
• HUAC


  (House Un-American Activities Committee) a congressional committee that investigated communist influence in the US in government agencies and the Hollywood movie industry the 1940s and 1950s
• Space Race


  A competition of space exploration between the United States and Soviet Union
• Division of Germany


  1947 Germany got divided into 4 zones controlled by the U.S., Great Britian, France and Russia
• Eisenhower Doctrine


  US would intervene in Middle East if any government threatened by a communist takeover asked for help
• Hydrogen Bomb (H-Bomb)


  1,000 times more powerful than an atomic bomb; First tested in 1952 by the U.S.