23 Cold War Vocabulary

Cuban Missile Crisis

• 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba

• Failed secret United States plan to overthrow Fidel Castro in 1961

• Event in which the USSR used a guided missile to shoot down an American U-2 spy plane over Soviet territory

• Joint effort by the US and Britain to fly food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet blocked off all ground routes into the city

Demilitarized Zone

• The boundary between North and South Korea

• A area in which military forces or operations or installations are prohibited

• Failed secret United States plan to overthrow Fidel Castro in 1961

• Communist nations in Eastern Europe on friendly terms with the USSR and thought of as under the USSR's control

Red Scare

• Policy in which the United States and the Soviet Union hoped to deter nuclear war by building up enough weapons to destroy one another

• Event in which the USSR used a guided missile to shoot down an American U-2 spy plane over Soviet territory

• Intense fear of communism and other politically radical ideas

• Nationally televised hearings which largely discredited Joseph McCarthy & his claims of communist infiltration of the US government

Iron Curtain

• The boundary between North and South Korea

• Winston Churchill's term for the Cold War division between the Soviet-dominated East and the U.S.-dominated West

• A area in which military forces or operations or installations are prohibited such as along the 38th Parallel in Korea

• The theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control

Bay of Pigs Invasion

• 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba

• Failed secret United States plan to overthrow Fidel Castro in 1961

• Event in which the USSR used a guided missile to shoot down an American U-2 spy plane over Soviet territory

• Joint effort by the US and Britain to fly food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet blocked off all ground routes into the city

Democracy

• A political system in which the people elect their government officials

• A political system in which the government has total control over the lives of individual citizens

• An economic system based on private property and free enterprise

• An economic system based on the holding of all property in common with actual ownership belonging to the state

Berlin Airlift

• The theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control

• A United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II

• Joint effort by the US and Britain to fly food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet blocked off all ground routes into the city

• Event in which the USSR used a guided missile to shoot down an American U-2 spy plane over Soviet territory

Domino Theory

• The theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control

• A United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II

• Joint effort by the US and Britain to fly food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet blocked off all ground routes into the city

• US policy stating it would defend the Middle East against attack by any Communist country

Cold War

• The power struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II

• A policy of threatening to go to war in response to any enemy aggression in order to gain an advantage in negotiations

• Policy in which the United States and the Soviet Union hoped to deter nuclear war by building up enough weapons to destroy one another

• Intense fear of communism and other politically radical ideas

Warsaw Pact

• An alliance created in 1949 that promised member nations would defend each other against any communist threat

• An alliance between the Soviet Union and other Eastern European nations made in response to the creation of NATO

• US intelligence agency responsible for analyzing national security information from around the world

• The main security agency of the Soviet Union