Ideologies
The U.S. policy aimed to stop the spread of communism by supporting countries resisting Soviet influence.
What is containment?
The physical barrier erected in 1961, separating East and West in a European capital city
What is the Berlin Wall?
Covert intelligence gathering between Cold War rivals; both sides used spies, double agents, and secret operations
What is espionage?
A strategy intended to discourage an enemy from attacking by convincing them of unacceptable retaliation
What is deterrence?
Soviet leader associated with the thaw after Stalin, promoted peaceful coexistence and criticized Stalin
Who is Krushchev?
The Soviet and Eastern Bloc term describing influence and control over neighboring states, often enforced politically and militarily.
What is sphere of influence?
1948–49 Soviet attempt to cut off access to a city in Germany, prompting Western air supply missions
What are the Berlin Blockade and Airlift?
Operation Paperclip brought members of this political group to the US after WWII to develop rocket technology for NASA
Who are Nazis?
Policy where competing states avoid direct military conflict and instead use political, economic, and proxy struggles
What is a proxy war?
U.S. president during the Cuban Missile Crisis who negotiated a peaceful resolution with the USSR
Who is John F. Kennedy?
The belief that if one country fell to communism, nearby countries would follow, used to justify U.S. interventions.
What is the Domino Theory?
1962 confrontation over Soviet missiles on an island 90 miles from the U.S. coast that brought superpowers close to nuclear war
What is the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Name of US intelliegence agency
What is the CIA?
The 1970s policy of eased tensions and improved diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the USSR
What is detente?
Soviet leader who introduced Glasnost and Perestroika in the late 1980s
Who is Mikhail Gorbachev?
The political program initiated after Stalin’s death to reduce repression and censorship and to criticize Stalin’s cult of personality.
What is de-Stalinization?
Early Cold War spy plane incident in 1960 that worsened U.S.–Soviet tensions when a pilot was captured
What is the U2 Crisis?
What is the Marshall Plan?
The Soviet idea promoted by Khrushchev that capitalism would destroy itself, so there would be no need for war
What is Peaceful Co-Existence?
British prime ministers, U.S. presidents, and other Western leaders often argued the Iron Curtain described Soviet domination across Eastern Europe; name one leader who popularized the phrase
Who is Winston Churchill?
The practice of maintaining and threatening massive nuclear retaliation to prevent enemy attack. Abbreviated as MAD
What is Mutually Assured Destruction?
The broader term for the policy of testing limits and pushing dangerous situations to the edge of war, often associated with the threat of nuclear war
What is Brinkmanship?
This was hinted at by the US during the Potsdam Conference, causing further tensions between the US and the Soviet Union.
What is the invention of the atomic bomb?
Gorbachev’s twin reforms intended to open Soviet society and restructure the economy
What is glasnost and perestroika?
Soviet leader associated with rapid industrialization, purges, and a cult of personality; policies later led to de‑Stalinization
Who is Josef Stalin?