Unit 6: The Cold War

Flashcards covering key concepts, terms, and events from Unit 6: The Cold War.

Atomic Age

The period characterized by the development and use of nuclear weapons, particularly after World War II.

Nuclear weaponry

Weapons that derive their destructive force from nuclear reactions, capable of causing mass destruction.

Duck and Cover drills

Safety drills practiced by children during the Cold War era to prepare for potential nuclear attacks.

The Cold War

A prolonged period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the USSR, marked by economic, political, military, and ideological conflicts.

Containment

U.S. foreign policy aimed at preventing the spread of communism during the Cold War.

Marshall Plan

An American initiative providing aid to Western Europe to prevent the spread of communism after World War II.

The Iron Curtain

The political and physical division in Europe that separated the democratic nations of the West from the communist countries of the East.

McCarthyism

A campaign against alleged communists in the U.S. government and other institutions, characterized by heightened political repression and a culture of fear.

The Rosenbergs

A married couple executed during the Second Red Scare for allegedly transmitting atomic secrets to the Soviets.

Perestroika

A policy of economic restructuring initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev to revitalize the Soviet economy.

Glasnost

A policy that allowed more openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union.

Brinkmanship

A strategy during the Cold War where nations pushed dangerous events to the threshold of active conflict in hopes of achieving favorable outcomes.

Cuban Missile Crisis

A 1962 confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba, considered the closest the world came to nuclear war.

Vietnam War

A conflict in which the U.S. intervened to prevent the spread of communism in Vietnam, widely controversial and not well-supported by the American public.

The Korean War

A conflict between North Korea (supported by the USSR) and South Korea (supported by the U.S.) as part of the Cold War dynamics.

Fallout Shelters

Structures designed to protect people from nuclear fallout, reflecting the fears of nuclear war during the Cold War.