Vocab 1
A period of tension and competition after World War II (1945–1991) between the United States and the Soviet Union, without direct fighting between the two superpowers.
Cold War
A military alliance formed in 1949 between the U.S., Canada, and Western European countries to protect each other from Soviet aggression.
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
A U.S. program that gave money and aid to rebuild Western European countries after WWII to help them resist communism.
Marshall Plan
A Cold War strategy of pushing dangerous situations to the edge of war to force the other side to back down.
Brinkmanship
An economic system where private individuals own businesses and make economic decisions based on supply and demand.
Capitalism
A military alliance formed in 1955 between the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies as a response to NATO.
Warsaw Pact
A U.S. and British operation in 1948–1949 to fly supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet Union blocked access to the city.
Berlin Airlift
A period in the 1970s when the U.S. and the Soviet Union tried to ease Cold War tensions through diplomacy and agreements.
Détente
An economic and political system where the government owns all property and controls the economy to create equality. The Soviet Union followed this system.
Communism
A competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to build more powerful weapons, especially nuclear bombs.
Arms Race
A war (1950–1953) between communist North Korea (supported by China and the USSR) and democratic South Korea (supported by the U.S. and UN). Ended in a ceasefire.
Korean War
A 1962 crisis where the U.S. discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba, leading to a tense standoff that almost caused nuclear war.
Cuban Missle Crisis
A term used to describe the division between Western Europe (democratic) and Eastern Europe (communist) during the Cold War.
Iron Curtain
A competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to achieve major milestones in space exploration, like launching satellites and landing on the Moon.
Space Race
A conflict (1955–1975) where the U.S. tried to stop communist North Vietnam from taking over South Vietnam. The war ended with a communist victory.
Vietnam War
A conflict where superpowers support different sides without directly fighting each other (e.g., Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan).
Proxy War
A U.S. policy aimed at stopping the spread of communism by providing help to countries resisting Soviet influence.
Containment
The idea that if either the U.S. or the Soviet Union used nuclear weapons, both sides would be destroyed, which helped prevent nuclear war.
Mutually Assured Destruction
The belief that if one country fell to communism, nearby countries would also fall, like a row of dominoes.
Domino Theory
A Soviet policy in the 1980s under Mikhail Gorbachev that encouraged more openness, freedom of speech, and government transparency.
Glasnost