Cold war vocabulary Flashcards
laissez-faire
a policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering.
Communist
ruled by a dictator, who cared little about human rights.
Democracy
valued freedom.
Truman Doctrine
the United States helped nations that were threatened by communism.
Reparations
from Germany, and a ‘buffer’ of friendly states to protect the USSR from being invaded again.
Marshall Plan
This plan gave food and other aid to European countries to help them recover from the war.
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was built by the communist government of East Berlin in 1961. The wall separated East Berlin and West Berlin. When it was knocked down this symbolized the end of the Cold War.
Containment
blocking the Soviets from spreading communism.
Berlin Airlift
The United States and Britain responded with the Berlin airlift. On June 24, the Soviet Union made a bid for control of Berlin by blockading all land access to the city. From June 1948 to May 1949, U.S. and British planes airlift 1.5 million tons of supplies to the residents of West Berlin. After 200,000 flights, flying food and supplies into the city for 11 months. Finally, the Soviets lifted the blockade.
Warsaw Pact
In 1949, the Soviet Union announced that it had developed an atomic bomb. Three years later,
both superpowers had an even more deadly weapon—the hydrogen bomb
NATO
The United States, Canada, and several countries in Western Europe formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO was a military alliance.
Brinkmanship
Both sides were willing
to go to the brink, or edge, of war. This became known as brinkmanship.
Sputnik
the world’s first human-made satellite.
Arms Race
produced more and more nuclear weapons and developed new ways to deliver them.
Domino Theory’
a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries, like a falling domino causing an entire row of upended dominoes to fall.