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Cold War
The political, economic, and military conflict, short of direct war on the battlefield, between the United States and the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1991.
Potsdam Conference
Meeting in July of 1945 in Germany, between Truman and Stalin. The two leaders agreed to free elections in Eastern Europe, Soviet withdrawal from Northern Iran, and creation of four Allied occupation zones in Germany.
Containment
Belief that the Soviet Union desired the spread of communism throughout the world. To prevent this spread U.S. diplomat George Kennan advocated a strict policy of containing communism where it already existed and preventing its spread.
Totalitarianism
Type of government that puts the state first, with all other parts of life designed to support and sustain the government first and foremost.
Iron curtain
Term coined by Churchill that described the ideological and political divide between the Communist Soviet Union and the non-Communist western world.
Imperial Presidency
Term used to describe the growth of presidential powers during the Cold War, particularly with respect to war-making powers and the conduct of national security.
Truman-Doctrine
U.S. pledge to contain the expansion of communism around the world. Based on the idea of containment, the Truman Doctrine was the cornerstone of American foreign policy throughout the Cold War.
Marshall Plan
Post World War II European economic aid package developed by Secretary of State George Marshall. The plan helped rebuild Western Europe and served American political and economic interests in the process.
Berlin Airlift
The mass-scale transport of food and supplies to West Berlin by U.S. and British government air forces during the Soviet blockade of Berlin from 1948 to 1949.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Cold War military alliance intended to enhance the collective security of the United States and Western Europe.
Warsaw Pact
Russian military alliance with seven satellite nations in response to the U.S. Marshall Plan and establishment of NATO.
NSC-68
April 1950 National Security Council document that advocated the intensification of the policy of containment both at home and abroad.
Korean War
Conflict fought between the northern Communist, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United Nations-backed southern Republic of Korea between 1950 to 1953.
Harry S Truman
President after Franklin Roosevelt, took a much ;ess nuanced approach to US-Soviet Relation
Joseph Stalin
Leader of the Soviet Union
George Kennan
Advocate of containment of Soviet expanison during the Cold War. Said that capitalist nations should not coeexist with communism. Also said that future wars were unavoidable unless communism triumphed over capitalsim.
Winston Churchill
Former British Prime minister who declared the formation of the Iron Curtain.
Henry Wallace
Roosevelts vice preident. Served as Trumans secratary of commerce. Voiced concern about a “Hard Line” against the soviet union.
George Marshall
Secratary of state who proposed the Marshall Plan to provide financial assitance to Europe.
Mao Zedong
Led Chinese communist forces who succeded in overthrowing the US backed nationalist government. Created”Peoples Republic of China”
Douglass Macarthur
U.S general who reported to the president, not the United Nations. His ploan to invade North Korea failed when chona regained control.
House Un-American Activities Committee
U.S. House of Representatives Committee established in 1938 to investigate domestic communism. After World War II, HUAC conducted highly publicized investigations of Communist influence in government and the entertainment industry.
Second Red Scare
Fear of Communist influence infiltrating the United States and threatening national security in the 1940s and 1950s. Such fears resulted in the creation of government-controlled programs and entities such as the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Federal Employee Loyalty Program.
Federal Employee Loyalty Program
Program established by President Truman in 1947 to investigate federal employees suspected of disloyalty and Communist ties.
McCarthyism
Term used to describe the harassment and persecution of suspected political radicals. Senator Joseph McCarthy was one of many prominent government figures who helped incite anti-Communist hysteria in the early 1950s.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Passed atomic secrets to the soviets. They recieved the death penalty and became the first spies executed in American history.
Alger Hiss
A former state department official in the Roosevelt administration who had accompanied the president to the yalta conference.
Whittaker Chambers
He was a communist that Hiss passed him classified documents.
Richard Nixion
Discovered a cache of State Department documents that chambers had stored for safe keeping and reopened the case.
Joseph McCarthy
Junior Republican senator from Wisconsin, developed McCarthyism
Mutually Assured Destruction
Defense strategy built around the threat of a massive nuclear retaliatory strike. Adoption of the doctrine of mutually assured destruction contributed to the escalation of the nuclear arms race during the Cold War.
Eisenhower Doctrine
A doctrine guiding U.S. intervention in the Middle East. In 1957 Congress granted President Dwight Eisenhower the power to send military forces into the Middle East to combat Communist aggression. Eisenhower sent U.S. marines into Lebanon in 1958 under this doctrine.
Modern Republicanism
The political approach of President Dwight Eisenhower that tried to fit traditional Republican Party ideals of individualism and fiscal restraint within the broad framework of the New Deal.
National Interstate and Defense Highway Act
1956 act that provided funds for construction of 42,500 miles of roads throughout the United States.
Sputnik
First artificial satellite, launched in 1957 by the Soviet Union.
Bay of Pigs invasion
Unsuccessful 1961 attempt under the Kennedy administration to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba.
Berlin Wall
Physical and ideological barrier between East and West Berlin which existed from 1961 until 1989. The wall was designed to prevent Soviet controlled East Berliners from fleeing to the West.
Dwight Eisenhower
President who prepetuated Trumans containment doctrine while at the same time expousing the contradictary princicle of “rolling back” communism in Eastern Europe.
John Kennedy
Democratic candidate for president in 1960 of MA, promised to instill renewed “vigor” in the white house and get the country moving again. He was catholic
Nikita Khrushchev
Deplaced Stalin after his death, gathered in Geneva with Eisenhower to discuss arms control. He denounced the excesses of stalins totalitarian rule and reinforced hopes for a new era of peacful coexistence between the Cold War antagonists.
Fidel Castro
Led an uprising and came to power in Cuba after overthrowing the American-backed dictator Fulgenico Batista. Sought to regain full control over his countrys economic resources including those owned by US corporations.
Lyndon Johnson
Passed the first pieces of civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.
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