Cold War AP Exam Review

Comprehensive vocabulary and timeline flashcards for AP World History review of the Cold War era (1945-1991).

Yalta Conference

A 1945 meeting where FDR, Churchill, and Stalin divided post-war Europe.

Truman Doctrine

Part of the U.S. containment strategy beginning in 1947 to stop the spread of communism.

Marshall Plan

U.S. economic aid to rebuild Western Europe which also strategically countered Soviet influence in war-ravaged nations.

NATO

A Western military alliance founded in 1949.

1949 Soviet Milestone

The year the USSR tests its first atomic bomb and China turns communist.

Korean War

The first major proxy war (1950-53) which ended in a stalemate.

Warsaw Pact

A Soviet military alliance formed in 1955.

Sputnik

The first satellite launched by the USSR in 1957, beginning the Space Race.

Berlin Wall

Built in 1961 to stop East Germans fleeing to the West; demolished in 1989 as a symbol of Cold War division and its end.

Bay of Pigs

A failed CIA invasion of Cuba that occurred in 1961.

Cuban Missile Crisis

A 1962 incident lasting 13 days that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

Prague Spring

A 1968 Czech reform movement that was crushed by Soviet tanks.

Détente

The easing of Cold War tensions in the 1970s through diplomacy, arms control (such as SALT I in 1972), and trade agreements.

Fall of Saigon

The 1975 event where North Vietnam reunified the country and the U.S. lost the Vietnam War.

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

A 1979 event that caused the collapse of détente.

USSR dissolution

The 1991 event where the USSR dissolved into 15 independent states, marking the end of the Cold War.

Containment

Kennan's doctrine to stop the spread of communism without direct war; it served as the foundation of U.S. foreign policy from 1947-1991.

Perestroika

Gorbachev's 'restructuring' of the Soviet economy through limited market reforms that destabilized the system.

Non-Alignment

The refusal of Third World nations to join either superpower bloc, expressing sovereignty and Cold War era decolonization tensions.

Proxy War

Conflicts where superpowers backed opposing sides in local regions (Korea, Vietnam, Angola, Afghanistan) to avoid direct confrontation.

Glasnost

Gorbachev's policy of 'openness,' which allowed for more political freedom and transparency in the USSR.

Domino Theory

The fear that one communist takeover would trigger neighboring countries, used to justify intervention in Vietnam and elsewhere.

MAD

Mutually Assured Destruction; nuclear deterrence based on the guaranteed annihilation of both sides in any nuclear exchange.

Iron Curtain

Churchill's metaphor for the division between Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe and the democratic West.

Brinkmanship

The Eisenhower/Dulles policy of pushing dangerous situations to the edge of war to force the enemy to back down.