Reverse ID Quiz Prep

Berlin Airlift (1948-1949)

US led operation to supply West Berlin with food, fuel, and aid via air transport in response to the Berlin Blockade by the USSR

Containment

US foreign policy strategy during the Cold War aimed to stopping the spread of communism, first introduced by George Kennan in the Long Telegram - (through military alliances, economic aid, political interventions, rather than direct military confrontation

Fall of China (1949)

Mao Zedong and the Communist Party take control of China, start of US fears of growing communist influence with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China

George Kennan

American diplomat who introduced the policy of containment in his long Telegram of 1946, US should resist Soviet expansion and were the only ones capable of it

Joe McCarthy

US Senator who fueled anti-communist sentiment and created a fearful society in the early 50s by falsely and publicly accusing officials of communist ties, known as McCarthyism

HUAC (House of Un-American Activities Committee)

Congressional committee that investigated alleged communist influence in the US - basis of investigation was suspicion and not solid evidence

Loyalty Review Board (1947)

Federal program established by President Truman to investigate government employees for communist ties during the Red Scare

Mao Zedong

Leader of the Chinese Communist Revolution who established the People’s Republic of China in 1949, aligning China with the Soviet Union

Marshall Plan (1948)

US program that provided economic aid to rebuild Western European economies after WWII and prevent the spread of communism

NATO (1949)

North Atlantic Treaty Organization - military alliance formed between US, Canada, and Western European nations to provide collective security against communist powers

NSC-68 (1950)

Secret US policy document that recommended a major military buildup so the US could fight communism globally; described Cold War as struggle between freedom and slavery

The Rosenbergs (Julius and Ethel Rosenberg)

Couple convicted of espionage for allegedly passing atomic secrets to the USSR, communist ties → executed in 1953

Truman Doctrine (1947)

US policy that provided military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey to prevent them from falling to communism, marking the start of containment

Yalta Conference (February 1945)

Meeting between FDR, Churchill, and Stalin to disucss post-war Europe, leading to agreements on dividing Germany and holding free elections in Eastern Europe