Key Terms
This term describes the ideological, political, and military struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1991.
What is the Cold War?
This 1962 event brought the world to the brink of nuclear war due to Soviet missiles in Cuba.
What is the Cuban Missile Crisis?
He was the U.S. President at the start of the Cold War, implementing the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.
Who is Harry S. Truman?
This war involved the U.S. fighting to prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia from 1955 to 1975.
What is the Vietnam War?
This was the U.S. strategy to prevent the spread of communism by providing economic and military aid to countries opposing the Soviets.
What is the Truman Doctrine?
This 1948-1949 operation was a response to the Soviet blockade of West Berlin.
What is the Berlin Airlift?
This U.S. President famously told the Soviet leader to "tear down this wall" in a 1987 speech in Berlin.
Who is Ronald Reagan?
This Middle Eastern conflict in 1956 involved Egypt nationalizing a crucial waterway, leading to a crisis involving Britain, France, and Israel.
What is the Suez Crisis?
This policy involved the relaxation of tensions and improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
What is détente?
This 1989 event symbolized the end of Cold War divisions in Europe.
What is the fall of the Berlin Wall?
He was the first leader of the Soviet Union during the Cold War era, known for his role in the early years of the conflict.
Who is Joseph Stalin?
This event in 1956 saw a violent Soviet crackdown on a national uprising in a central European country.
What is the Hungarian Revolution?
This barrier physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989.
What is the Berlin Wall?
This 1950-1953 conflict was the first military action of the Cold War, involving North and South Korea, and forces from the UN, predominantly the USA.
What is the Korean War?
This Cuban leader aligned his country with the Soviet Union, leading to significant Cold War tensions.
Who is Fidel Castro?
This 1968 movement in Czechoslovakia aimed at reforming the communist government and was crushed by Warsaw Pact troops.
What is the Prague Spring?
This was the U.S. policy of providing political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces.
What is the Marshall Plan?
This 1979-1989 conflict saw Soviet troops fighting against insurgent groups in a Middle Eastern country, heavily backed by the USA.
What is the Soviet-Afghan War?
This Soviet leader-initiated reforms such as glasnost and perestroika in the 1980s.
Who is Mikhail Gorbachev?
This period in the early 1980s involved a massive arms buildup by the U.S. to counter the Soviet military threat.
What is the Reagan Military Buildup?