Cold War Basics
A state of tension between countries that involves threats, espionage, and competition but not direct military fighting.
What is the Cold War?
The structure built in 1961 to stop people from fleeing communist East Germany.
What is the Berlin Wall?
The 1962 crisis involving Soviet nuclear missiles placed 90 miles from Florida.
Cuban Missle Crisis
A period when Americans feared communists had infiltrated the United States.
What is the Red Scare?
The military alliance formed by Western democracies in 1949.
NATO
The U.S. policy aimed at stopping the spread of communism to new countries.
What is containment?
he 1948 event when the Soviet Union blocked roads and railways into West Berlin.
What is the Berlin Blockade?
The Soviet leader who agreed to remove missiles from Cuba.
Who is Nikita Khrushchev?
The congressional committee that investigated suspected communists in government and Hollywood.
What is HUAC?
The Soviet-led military alliance created in response to NATO.
What is the Warsaw Pact?
The first man-made satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957.
What is Sputnik?
The term used by Winston Churchill to describe the division between communist Eastern Europe and democratic Western Europe.
What is the Iron Curtain?
A war in which major powers support opposing sides without fighting each other directly.
What is a proxy war?
The group of writers and directors who refused to testify before HUAC.
Hollywood 10
The easing of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.
What is détente?
The U.S. space agency created in 1958 in response to Soviet space achievements.
NASA
The Allied response that flew supplies into a part of Germany for nearly a year.
What is the Berlin Airlift?
The war from 1950–1953 where communist North Korea invaded South Korea.
What is the Korean War?
The senator whose anti-communist campaign led to widespread fear and accusations.
Who is Joseph McCarthy?
The children’s book that served as an allegory for the Cold War arms race.
What is The Butter Battle Book?
The theory that if one country falls to communism, neighboring countries will follow.
What is the Domino Theory?
The U.S. program that gave economic aid to rebuild Europe after WWII and prevent communism.
What is the Marshall Plan?
The line that divided North Korea and South Korea after the war ended in a stalemate.
What is the 38th parallel?
The accused Soviet spy who was convicted of perjury in 1950.
Who is Alger Hiss?
The idea that nuclear war would destroy both the attacker and defender.
What is Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)?