Cold War Vocab

Conflict between the U.S.  and Soviet Union that lasted from 1945 until 1991. There was no actual fighting on a battlefield. It was a war of ideas.

• Communism

• Capitalism

• Cold War

• Iron Curtain

Economic system in which private citizens own and control business.

• Communism

• Capitalism

• Socialism

Economic system in which the government owns and controls business.

• Communism

• Capitalism

• Socialism

U.S. Cold War policy of trying to stop the spread of communism around the world

• Truman Doctrine

• Containment

• Warsaw Pact

• Brinkmanship

Part of containment:  U.S. policy that offered help to western European countries after WWII if they set up democratic governments

• Truman Doctrine

• Containment

• Marshall Plan

• Brinkmanship

Part of containment:  U.S. policy that gave military and economic aid to 

Greece and Turkey when they were threatened by a communist takeover by the Soviet Union

• Truman Doctrine

• Containment

• Marshall Plan

• Brinkmanship

Alliance of democratic nations from western Europe along with the U.S. and Canada formed in 1949 in response to the Soviet threat posed by the Berlin blockade.

• Truman Doctrine

• Warsaw Pact

• Marshall Plan

• NATO

Alliance of communist nations headed by the Soviet Union along with their satellite nations  in 1955

• Truman Doctrine

• Warsaw Pact

• Marshall Plan

• NATO

Committee in the House of Representatives to investigate communists in the federal government and the movie industry.

• Arm's Race

• U-2 Incident

• HUAC

• NATO

He was the most famous 

anti-communist activist. 

He claimed to have evidence 

of over 200 federal government 

employees being communist.

• Senator Algen Hiss

• Senator Joseph McCarthy

• House Rep. Dwight Eisenhower

• President Kennedy