CHAPTER 25 VOCAB US HISTORY- MORAN APPROVED ✅

Massive Retaliation

A military strategy responding to any attack with great force (nuclear).

CIA

US agency for secret missions and spying overseas.

Sputnik

The first (artificial) satellite, launched by the Soviet Union 1957.

NASA

US agency for space exploration and (aeronautics) research.

Spirit of Geneva

A short period of reduced Cold War tensions

Interstate Highway System

Nationwide highways built for travel and military defense.

Nation of Islam

An African American political and religious movement.

Brown v. Board of Education

Supreme Court case ending segregated public schools.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Student civil‑rights group using nonviolent protests like sit‑ins.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFD)

Group challenging Mississippi’s all‑white Democratic Party.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

Martin Luther King Jr’s nonviolent civil‑rights organization.

Modern Republicanism

Eisenhower’s mix: conservative with money, moderate with social programs.

Military-Industrial Complex

Eisenhower’s warning: military + weapons industry gaining too much power.

Brinkmanship

Pushing a dangerous situation to the edge of war to force an opponent to back down.

Atoms for Peace

Eisenhower’s idea to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Eisenhower Doctrine

US promise to help Middle Eastern nations fight communism.

U-2 Incident

The 1960 shooting down of a US spy plane over the Soviet Union.

Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW)

Cabinet department for health, education, and welfare programs.

The Feminine Mystique

Book exposing how 1950s women felt trapped in domestic roles

National Defense Education Act (NDEA)

US funding for science/math education after Sputnik.

Little Rock Central High School

Federal troops enforced school integration in 1957.

Termination Policy

Failed plan to end federal recognition of Native tribes.

Berlin Crisis (1958-1961)

A standoff over Berlin, ending in the city's division.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

The first federal civil rights law since Reconstruction.

OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)

Group of oil‑producing nations coordinating oil policies.

Suez Crisis

A 1956 conflict triggered by Egypt seizing the Suez Canal.

Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet leader after Stalin during key Cold War years.

SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization)

A defense alliance to stop communism in Southeast Asia.

Domino Theory

Idea that if one country fell to communism, neighbors would follow.

New Look

Eisenhower's defense plan with nuclear weapons (over troops).

Dien Bien Phu

A 1954 battle where Vietnamese communists defeated France

Concurrent

Happening or existing at the same time.

Exacerbate

To make worse.

Proliferate

To increase rapidly.