AICE US History Cold War

Terms/Backgrounds for AICE Paper 3

17th Parallel

17th Parallel

Line of latitude that separated North and South Vietnam

38th Parallel

Latitude line/Boundary between North Korea & South Korea

Apollo 11

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became first people to walk on the moon (1969)

Bay of Pigs

Failed CIA operation to overthrow Castro and take over Cuba using Cuban exiles (April 1961

Berlin Airlift

A 327-day operation in which U.S. and British planes flew food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviets blockaded the city in 1948.

Berlin Wall

A concrete wall that separated East Berlin and West Berlin from 1961-1989, built by Communist East German government to prevent its citizens from fleeing to the West

Brinkmanship

A policy of threatening to go to war in response to any enemy aggression

China

Asian nation that turns to Communism in 1949 after the Mao Zedong comes into power and fights with the North in the Korean War

Communism

An economic and political system based on one-party government and state ownership of property

Containment

The blocking of another nation's attempts to spread it's influence - especially the efforts of the United States to block the spread of Soviet influence during the late 1940s to early 1950s

Cuban Missile Crisis

Soviet nuclear missile were pointed at the U.S in Cuba (13-Day period in October 1962)

Détente

A policy of reducing Cold War tensions that was adopted by the U.S during the presidency of Richard Nixon

Domino Theory

If a nation falls under communist control, nearby nations will also fall under communist control

Fidel Castro

Communist dictator of Cuba who came into power in 1959

Friendship 7

US space capsule orbits the earth with John Glenn on board (1962)

• Proves that NASA can send a man safely into space and return to Earth

Harry Truman

Fired General Douglass MacArthur over disagreements on the Korean War

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of North Vietnam led the fight against the French and then the Americans to reunify the country

Iron Curtain

A phrase used by Winston Churchill to describe the imaginary line that separated Communist countries in the Soviet bloc of Eastern Europe from the countries in Western Europe (1946)

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

35th President of the United States. Was in office during the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuban Missile Crisis and the building of the Berlin Wall

Joseph Stalin

Soviet leader following World War II, dies in the middle of the Korean War in 1953

Korean War

A conflict between North Korea and South Korea, lasting from 1950-1953, in which the United States along with other UN countries, fought on the side of the South Koreans while China fought on the side of the North Koreans

Lyndon B. Johnson

Became president after Kennedy's assassination and reelected in 1964; committed the US more heavily to fighting in Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident

Mao Zedong

Communist leader of China who comes into power in 1949

Marshall Plan

A program proposed by Secretary of State George Marshall (1947)

• U.S supplied economic aid to European nations to help them rebuild after WW2

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

Military alliance created in 1949 made up of 12 non-Communist countries including the United States that support each other if attacked

• Members: United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Turkey, Greece, West Germany

Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet leader from 1955-1964, responsible for putting missiles in Cuba

Result of the Vietnam War

North Vietnam takes over South Vietnam

SALT

(Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty)

Negotiations between the U.S and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics designed to limit both countries' stock of nuclear weapons

Satellite Nations

A country that is dominated politically and economically by another nation

Stalemate

Result of the Korean War

Truman Doctrine

A policy introduced by US President Harry S. Truman in 1947

• Aimed to contain the spread of communism by providing economic and military aid countries threatened by internal or external opponents

  • Ex: Greece/Turkey

• A response to the Soviet Union’s expansionist policies

• Marked the beginning of the Cold War

United Nations

An international organization formed after WWII to promote international peace, security, and cooperation

Vostok 1

Yuri Gagarin's space flight completed a single orbit around Earth before re-entering and parachuting out of his capsule (1961)

Warsaw Pact

A Military alliance formed by the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites (1955)

• Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania