coldwar

Cold War

A conflict that was between the US and the Soviet Union. The nations never directly confronted each other on the battlefield but deadly threats went on for years.

Soviet Union

A Communist nation, consisting of Russia and 14 other states, that existed from 1922 to 1991.

Joseph Stalin

Russian leader who succeeded Lenin as head of the Communist Party and created a totalitarian state by purging all opposition (1879-1953)

United Nations Security Council

the main governing body of the United Nations, it has the authority to identify threats to international peace and security and to prescribe the organization's response, including military and/or economic sanctions

World Bank Satellites

During the Cold War, the US relied heavily on reconnaissance satellites, like the HEXAGON KH-9, to gather intelligence on the Soviet Union and China, with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), Department of Defense (DoD), U.S. Air Force, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and industry working together to develop these systems.

Winston Churchill

A noted British statesman who led Britain throughout most of World War II and along with Roosevelt planned many allied campaigns. He predicted an iron curtain that would separate Communist Europe from the rest of the West.

Iron Curtain

A political barrier that isolated the peoples of Eastern Europe after WWII, restricting their ability to travel outside the region

Containment Policy

Established by the Truman administration in 1947 to contain Soviet influence to what it was at the end of World War II.

George Marshall

United States general and statesman who as Secretary of State organized the European Recovery Program (1880-1959)

Dean Acheson

He was Secretary of State under Harry Truman. It is said that he was more responsible for the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine than those that the two were named for.

George F. Kennan

an American advisor, diplomat, political scientist, and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War. He later wrote standard histories of the relations between Russia and the Western powers.

Truman Doctrine

1947, President Truman's policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology, mainly helped Greece and Turkey

Marshall Plan

A United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe (1948-1952)

Berlin Airlift

airlift in 1948 that supplied food and fuel to citizens of west Berlin when the Russians closed off land access to Berlin

West Germany

British, American and French zone of Germany and was democratic.

East Germany

After WWII, Germany was divided into two countries, this part was communist in government and had a command economy

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

a group of 28 countries that has agreed to protect each other in case of attack; founded in 1949

Warsaw Pact

An alliance between the Soviet Union and other Eastern European nations. This was in response to the NATO

National Security Act

Passed in 1947 in response to perceived threats from the Soviet Union after WWII. It established the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Council.

arms race

Cold war competition between the U.S. and Soviet Union to build up their respective armed forces and weapons

Second Red Scare

Post-World War II Red Scare focused on the fear of Communists in U.S. government positions; peaked during the Korean War and declined soon thereafter, when the U.S. Senate censured Joseph McCarthy, who had been a major instigator of the hysteria.

Loyalty Review Board

(1947) federal board set up by President Truman that checked up on government workers, and dismissed those found to be communist.

Dennis et al. v. United States

1951, The Supreme Court upheld the conviction clearing the way for prosecution of other communist leaders. In July 1048, the administration charged eleven top communists with violating the Smith Act of 1940, which made it a crime to conspire to "advocate and teach" the violent overthrow of government. After ten months of trial and deliberation, a lower court declared the Smith Act constitutional and the communists guilty.

Smith Act (1940)

Required fingerprinting and regulating of all aliens in the US. It made it a crime to teach or advocate the violent overthrow of the government. The basis of later prosecutions of members of the Communist and Socialist Workers parties.

McCarran Internal Security Act (1950)

1950 - Required Communists to register and prohibited them from working for the government. Truman described it as a long step toward totalitarianism. Was a response to the onset of the Korean war.

House Un-American

Activities Committee

(HUAC)

A congressional committee that investigated Communist influence inside and outside the U.S. government in the years following World War II.

Whittaker Chambers

Whittaker Chambers, a key figure during the Red Scare, was a former Communist Party member and Soviet spy who later became a prominent anti-communist figure, most notably known for accusing Alger Hiss of being a Soviet spy, sparking the Hiss Case.

Alger Hiss

A former State Department official who was accused of being a Communist spy and was convicted of perjury. The case was prosecuted by Richard Nixon.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Arrested in the Summer of 1950 and executed in 1953, they were convicted of conspiring to commit espionage by passing plans for the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

Joseph McCarthy

1950s; Wisconsin senator claimed to have list of communists in American gov't, but no credible evidence; took advantage of fears of communism post WWII to become incredibly influential; "McCarthyism" was the fearful accusation of any dissenters of being communists

McCarthyism

The term associated with Senator Joseph McCarthy who led the search for communists in America during the early 1950s through his leadership in the House Un-American Activities Committee.

NSC-68

National Securtiy Council memo #68 US "strive for victory" in cold war, pressed for offensive and a gross increase ($37 bil) in defense spending, determined US foreign policy for the next 20-30 yrs