Cold War Flashcards
Cold war
50-year,Non-fighting war between
countries with Communist & Mixed
Economies
Communism
Government completely controls the economy
NO PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF ANYTHING
Capitalism
Private ownership of everything—buyers and
sellers decide what gets made & who gets
what—laissez faire
Mixed Market economy
some private & some government ownership
A mix between command & market economies
EX: USA, Great Britain, Canada
Containment
Stop the spread of Communism
Truman Doctrine
U.S. will help any country resisting Communism
Marshall plan
U.S. Plan to Rebuild Europe after WWII
Berlin Blockade
Soviets cut off access to West Berlin
Berlin Airlift
U.S. & Great Britain dropped supplies into West
Berlin during the Berlin Blockade
Berlin wall
Soviet-built wall dividing East and West Berlin
NATO
American Military Alliance against The Soviet
Union & Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
Soviet Military alliance against The U.S.A & NATO
Korean War
Containment operation in Korea—1950-1953
Domino Theory
If one country falls to communism, others will
too. They will fall “like dominos.”
Arms Race
Competition for the most destructive weapons
Brinkmanship
Living on the edge of all-out nuclear war
Mutually Assured Destruction
Part of Brinkmanship that prevented a nuclear war
Both Sides knew that no one would win in a
nuclear war—everyone would be killed
Cuban Missile Crisis
Soviet Union tried to put nuclear missiles in
Cuba to use against the USA
Almost resulted in nuclear war
Space Race
Competition for most
advanced space technology
Sputnik
World’s first satellite—launched by U.S.S.R.
Dwight Eisenhower
U.S. President—1953-1961
Prosperity
Living well; a high standard of living
Joseph McCarthy
Senator who accused many of being
Communists in America
McCarthyism
Publicly accusing people of disloyalty without
evidence
Blacklist
To ban someone—(people accused of being
communists were kept from jobs)
Covert
Done in secret
Ethel & Julius Rosenberg
American couple executed for spying for Soviets
