Superpower Confrontation
What was the Cold War?
the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union called the “Cold War.” It is these dynamics, together with the newly independent countries, which dominated the years of 1945–1962.
What is the Truman Doctrine?
the United States announced its support of all “free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”
When was NATO formed?
1949
When and who was the worlds first cosmonaut?
Russian scientists sent the world’s first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968), into space.
What is Existentialism?
A form of thought built on the premise that modern scientific–industrial society is without intrinsic meaning unless an answer to the question of what constitutes authentic existence is found.
What is the United Nations (UN)?
The foundations of a new world organization the United Nations (UN) to overcome the excesses of nationalist supremacism were being laid.
What is the Marshall Plan?
to aid to Europe for the recovery of the continent from the ruins of the war.
When was the Hot War in Korea?
June 1950
What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
US spy planes discovered the presence of missile launching pads as well as missiles in Cuba
What is NATO?
the United States formed a defensive alliance known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949.
What happened during the first stages of the Cold War?
During the first phase of the Cold War the Soviet Union continued to pursue Stalin’s pre-war policy of “socialism in one country,” which in his definition included the conquered countries of Eastern Europe.
What is Containment?
a policy known as containment to thwart Soviet expansion.
When was the Korean War?
1950-1953
What happened to soldiers After the Cold War?
In the years after World War II, veterans pursued civilian lives of normalcy and comfort.
What is the so-called Baby-Boomer generation and when was it?
(1945–1961). The growing population triggered increased consumer demand for basics as well as consumer durables that increased the comfort of living, such as appliances, televisions, and cars.
What happened during the second stages of the Cold War?
During the second phase, Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khrushchev, reformulated the policy to include spreading aid and influence to new nationalist regimes in Asia and Africa that had won their independence from Western colonialism
What is the Warsaw Pact?
it was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War.
When was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
1962
When was the first and second artificial satellite launched?
4 October, the USSR launched Earth’s first artificial satellite; 3 November, the USSR launched Earth’s second artificial satellite.
What is the so-called Bay of Pigs?
The so-called Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 (named for the small bay in southern Cuba where the anticommunist invasion began)
What is the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON?
engineered communist governments in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, transforming them into the Communist bloc and integrating their economies with the Soviet Union.
What was the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963?
an agreement banning the aboveground testing of nuclear weapons. The treaty also sought to prevent the spread of these technologies to other countries.
When was Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech?
1946
Compare and Contrast Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev?
Both believed Communism would take over the world, but Khrushchev thought he could do it peacefully.
What is Anticolonialism?
a new policy that supported anticolonial nationalist independence movements around the globe even if the movements were not communist.