Cold War Key Terms

Mao Zedong

• an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down and captured while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 incident.

• helped found the Communist Party of China; ultimately leading to communist China. 

• an ongoing political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that developed after World War II.

• a campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950-1954.

Joseph McCarthy

• was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s

• executed for conspiracy to commit espionage under the U.S. Espionage Act of 1917.

• launched the House of Un-American Committee (HUAC) which investigated Nazi ties within the U.S. but later after WW2 changed to investigate citizens with communist ties. He was also responsible for the Red Scare: the potential rise of Communism within the United States.

• helped found the Communist Party of China

Truman Doctrine

• A program by which the United States gave large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after the devastation of World War II.

• notorious for its anti-Communist investigations in the late 1940s and 1950s

• the policy of President Truman to provide military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey and to any country threatened by Communism or any totalitarian ideology.  Often considered the starting point of the Cold War.

•  international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights.

Iron Curtain

• a metaphor for the extreme political and ideological division that separated Western Europe from the Soviet Union and its satellite states in the east

• an ongoing political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that developed after World War II

• A military operation in the late 1940s that brought food and other needed goods into West Berlin by air after the government of East Germany had cut off its supply routes.

• a military alliance between Communist countries in East Europe to counter the threat of Capitalism in Europe

Brinkmanship

• chosen in 1945 by the USA and USSR as a convenient borderline for their divided military occupation of the Korean peninsula.

• a campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950-1954.

• foreign policy used in the Cold War which is where a country would push a dangerous issue or event to the edge looking for the best outcome for their side

• a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II.

Korean War

• fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953.

• an ongoing political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that developed after World War II

• Hydrogen Bomb

• A program by which the United States gave large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after the devastation of World War II

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

• A political and military alliance of countries in Europe and North America established in Washington, D.C. (1949) for the purpose of collective defense against aggression

• notorious for its anti-Communist investigations in the late 1940s and 1950s

• was created to be a peace-time intelligence organization, caused in part by the growing threat of the Soviet Union post-WWII and leading into the Cold War

•  An American U-2 spy plane is shot down while conducting espionage over the Soviet Union.

 H-Bomb (Hydrogen Bomb)

• A program by which the United States gave large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after the devastation of World War II

• involved the practice of denying employment to entertainment industry professionals believed to be or to have been Communists or sympathizers.

• was created to be a peace-time intelligence organization, caused in part by the growing threat of the Soviet Union post-WWII and leading into the Cold War

• The United States detonates the world's first thermonuclear weapon on Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific. The test gave the United States a short-lived advantage in the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union.

38th parallel

• an ongoing political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that developed after World War II.

• international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights

• chosen in 1945 by the USA and USSR as a convenient borderline for their divided military occupation of the Korean peninsula.

• a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II. 

Cold War

• 10 motion-picture producers, directors, and screenwriters who appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in October 1947, refused to answer questions regarding their possible communist affiliations, and, after spending time in prison for contempt of Congress, were mostly blacklisted by the Hollywood studios. 

• an ongoing political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that developed after World War II.

• A program by which the United States gave large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after the devastation of World War II.

• notorious for its anti-Communist investigations in the late 1940s and 1950s