Cold War Era Overview

Flashcards covering important terms and concepts related to the Cold War era and civil rights movement.

Bolshevik Revolution

A revolution that ended the Russian Empire and initiated a civil war between the Bolsheviks (reds) and counterrevolutionaries (whites), leading to the formation of the USSR.

Stalin's Great Purge

A campaign led by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s to eliminate dissent from the Communist Party, resulting in millions of executions and imprisonment in gulags.

United Nations

An international organization formed in 1945 after WWII to promote peace and cooperation among countries, with a General Assembly and a Security Council.

Iron Curtain

A term coined by Winston Churchill to describe the division between Western democratic nations and Eastern communist countries during the Cold War.

The Truman Doctrine

A policy announced by President Truman in 1947 to provide economic and military aid to countries resisting communist subjugation.

Marshall Plan

A U.S. program established in 1947 providing extensive financial aid for the reconstruction of European countries after WWII.

Berlin Airlift

A U.S. operation initiated in 1948 to deliver food and supplies to West Berlin after the Soviet blockade.

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance formed in 1949 among Western nations to counter Soviet aggression.

Domino Theory

The belief that the fall of one country to communism would lead to the fall of neighboring countries, akin to a row of dominoes.

Cuban Missile Crisis

A 1962 confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, leading to heightened Cold War tensions.

Civil Rights Movement

A movement in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s aiming to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans.

Brown v. Board of Education

A landmark Supreme Court case in 1954 that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional.

Kennedy's New Frontier

A set of domestic and foreign programs proposed by President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s aimed at advancing civil rights and economic growth.

Freedom Riders

Civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 to challenge non-enforcement of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Bay of Pigs

A failed U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba in 1961 aimed at overthrowing Fidel Castro.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

A landmark civil rights law that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.