US Cold War Foreign Policy: Key Terms and Events (1945-1960)

Cold War

A period of intense geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, following WW2, but without direct, large-scale military conflict between the two superpowers.

Big Three Conferences (Yalta, Potsdam)

Involved the “Big Three” leaders of the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union (Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin). They made crucial agreements regarding the end of the war and postwar order, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin later violated promises of free elections in Eastern Europe. 

The United Nations and Security Council 

The United Nations during the Cold War consisted of the U.S., the U.K., the Soviet Union, France, and China. The UN Security Council is a primary organ of the UN with the main responsibility of maintaining international peace and security. 

Marshall Plan (European Recovery Plan)

A U.S. program enacted in 1948 to provide economic aid to Western European countries after World War II. This was created by George C. Marshall.

Division of Germany and Berlin

After WW2 the main Allied powers—the U.S., France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union—divided Germany into two zones. The Soviet Union occupied East Germany and installed a rigidly controlled communist state.

Berlin Airlift

A military operation in which the U.S. and its allies transported food and supplies to West Berlin after the Soviet Union blocked access to the city.

Iron Curtain

The division in Europe between Western capitalists and Eastern communist countries.

Satellite Nations

A country that is officially independent but is heavily controlled by a more powerful nation.

Eastern Bloc

A group of communist states in Central and Eastern Europe that were aligned with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Truman Doc.

U.S. foreign policy commitment to provide military and economic aid to countries threatened by communist expansion especially to counter Soviet influence.

Kennan’s Long Telegram and Major Points

Long Telegram served as a comprehensive analysis of Soviet foreign policy and laid the foundation for America’s Cold War strategy of containment. Major points are soviet motivation, the policy of containment, and the impact on U.S. foreign policy.

Arms Race - Infrastructure, technology, NASA, military industrial complex

The arms race refers to the competitive build-up of military technology, which involves infrastructure, advanced weaponry, and space capabilities. The military-industrial complex is the relationship between the military and defense industry that fuels this competition, and agencies like NASA also play a role by developing technologies and infrastructure that can have both civilian and military applications, as seen in the ongoing space war.

NATO and Warsaw Pact

Opposing military alliances during the Cold War. NATO being a Western alliance and the Warsaw Pact being its Eastern bloc counterpart led by the Soviet Union.

Domino Theory

The idea that if one country fell to communism its neighboring countries would fall to communism as well like a row of dominoes.

Cold War in Asia - Communism in China; Early Vietnam Conflict

The rise of communism in China and the early Vietnam Conflict were key parts of the Cold War in Asia, fundamentally shaped by the ideological struggle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The Korean War - Sides, allies, major turning points

North Korea invaded South Korea. The allies for North Korea were the Soviet Union and China, while the allies for South Korea were the United Nations. Turning points include North Korea’s invasion in June 1950, Inchon Landing in September 1950, Chinese intervention from October-November 1950, Stalemate from 1951-1953, and lastly the Armistice which is signed in July 1953.

Armistice and DMZ

A ceasefire agreement signed in 1953 that ended active fighting in the Korean War, and the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) is the buffer zone in established between North Korea and South Korea.

Eisenhower as President

President from 1953 to 1961 and ended the Korean War. He also worked to ease Cold War tensions and pursued a moderate “Modern Republicanism” domestic agenda that included both fiscal responsibility and the expansion of programs like Social Security. Key accomplishments include the creation of the Interstate Highway System, the establishment of NASA, and the desegregation of the armed forces, which he enforced by sending troops to Little Rock.

Nikita Khrushchev

Former Prime Minister of the Soviet Union and he was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He denounced his predecessor Joseph Stalin, embarking on a campaign of de-Stalinization, and presiding over the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Eisenhower Doctrine

A U.S. foreign policy in 1957 that committed the United States to providing economic and military assistance to Middle Eastern countries threatened by communist aggression. It was a Cold War strategy to counter Soviet influence in the Middle East by allowing a nation in that region to request American military or economic aid against an armed attack from another state controlled by international communism.

Nuclear Deterrence

A military strategy where the threat of using nuclear weapons is used to prevent an adversary from attacking, either with nuclear or conventional weapons.

Brinkmanship

Brinkmanship was a foreign policy strategy of pushing a dangerous situation to the verge of conflict—the “brink”—in order to force an opponent to back down without engaging in full-scale war. This was used to assert dominance and gain concessions but carried the risk of miscalculation leading to actual conflict which is demonstrated in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“More bang for the buck”

A phrase used by Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson to describe the Eisenhower administration’s “New Look” policy. This strategy relied on powerful nuclear arsenal and air power to deter Soviet aggression, as it was considered a more cost-effective alternative to maintaining a large conventional military.

Massive Retaliation 

A military doctrine that promised an overwhelming response, primarily with nuclear weapons, to any act of aggression by an enemy. This strategy aimed to deter attacked by threatening catastrophic consequences, thereby preventing smaller conflicts from escalating.

Nuclear Triad

A three-part structure for a country’s nuclear forces, designed to ensure that a nation can launch a retaliatory “second strike” even if one or more of its systems are destroyed.

MAD

Mutually Assured Destruction was a Cold War military strategy where the threat of nuclear annihilation served as a deterrent to nuclear war. The concept is that if both the U.S. and the Soviet Union had the capability to destroy each other, neither side would risk a first strike for fear of a retaliatory attack that would lead to their own complete destruction. This tense standoff created a form of stable peace, and if influenced both nations’ arms race and security policies.

CIA and Covert Actions

The CIA engaged in numerous covert actions to counter Soviet influence and advance U.S. interests, using these operations as a substitute for overt military action. These actions ranged from supporting anticommunist resistance movements and overthrowing foreign governments to providing intelligence and financial aid to allied groups.

Spy Planes and U-2 Incident

During the Cold war, spied frequently infiltrated the other side, passing important documents and military information. The U-2 Incident in 1960 was a confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that began with the shooting down of a U.S. U-2 reconnaissance plane over the Soviet Union and that caused the collapse of a summit conference in Paris between the U.S., the Soviet Union, the U.K., and France.

Sputnik and NASA

Sputnik refers to a series of Soviet spacecraft, with Sputnik 1 being the most famous as the world’s first artificial satellite, launched on Oct. 4, 1957. This event shocked the U.S., heightened Cold War tensions, and triggered the Space Race, as the launch demonstrated the Soviet Union’s technological capabilities. NASA’s activities during the Cold War were largely a direct response to the Soviet Union’s early lead in space exploration, creating the “Space Race” and spurring advancements in technology. The U.S. NASA developed the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.