Two Superpowers, Two Ideals
This economic system relies on private ownership and free markets, championed by the United States.
What is capitalism?
This 1950–1953 conflict ended in a stalemate, leaving the peninsula divided at the 38th Parallel.
What is the Korean War?
This massive concrete barrier was erected by East Germany in 1961 to stop its citizens from fleeing to the democratic West.
What is the Berlin Wall?
Launched by the USSR in 1957, this was the world's first artificial satellite, shocking the US and triggering the Space Race.
What is Sputnik?
The destruction of this physical barrier in November 1989 came to symbolize the impending collapse of communism in Europe.
What is the Berlin Wall?
This political and economic system system, championed by the Soviet Union, features state ownership of all property and a classless society.
What is communism?
This 13-day confrontation in 1962 brought the US and USSR to the brink of nuclear war over Soviet missiles placed just 90 miles from Florida.
What is the Cuban Missile Crisis?
When the Soviets blockaded West Berlin in 1948, the US and Britain responded by flying in food and supplies for nearly a year in this operation.
What is the Berlin Airlift?
This was the acronym for the military strategy where both sides knew a nuclear attack would result in the complete annihilation of both attacker and defender.
What is M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction)?
This US President famously gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, demanding, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
Who is Ronald Reagan?
Winston Churchill coined this famous term to describe the physical and ideological division between Western Europe and the Soviet-controlled East.
What is the Iron Curtain?
The US fought a long, controversial war in this Southeast Asian country from the 1950s to 1975 to prevent a communist takeover of the south.
What is the Vietnam War?
This massive US economic aid package gave $13 billion to rebuild Western Europe after WWII, successfully weakening the appeal of communism.
What is the Marshall Plan?
Developed in the early 1950s, this weapon was hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
What is the Hydrogen Bomb (H-bomb)?
He was the final leader of the Soviet Union, whose reforms inadvertently led to the dissolution of the USSR.
Who is Mikhail Gorbachev?
This military alliance was formed in 1949 by the US and its Western allies to provide collective defense against Soviet aggression.
What is NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)?
This geopolitical theory suggested that if one country in a region fell to communism, surrounding countries would quickly follow.
What is the Domino Theory?
Germany was divided into four zones after WWII; these three Western allies merged their zones to form democratic West Germany.
Who are the United States, Great Britain, and France?
This newly created US government agency was tasked with winning the Space Race, leading to the Apollo moon landings.
What is NASA?
This Russian term translates to "openness" and referred to Gorbachev's policy allowing more freedom of speech and press.
What is Glasnost?
In response to the creation of NATO, the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites formed this military alliance in 1955.
What is the Warsaw Pact?
The Soviet Union faced its own "Vietnam" when it invaded this Central Asian country in 1979, fighting US-backed Mujahideen rebels.
What is Afghanistan?
This term refers to the Eastern European nations that were theoretically independent but kept under strict Soviet political and economic control.
What are satellite states (or Soviet satellites)?
This term describes the dangerous practice of pushing a tense geopolitical situation to the absolute brink of war to force the opponent to back down.
What is brinkmanship?
This Russian term translates to "restructuring" and referred to Gorbachev's economic reforms that allowed some private enterprise.
What is Perestroika?