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Reading 8.2
Cold War from 1945 to 1980
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Cold War | Ideological battle and competition for global influence after WWII between the capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union that was fought through proxy wars rather than a direct war. |
| Soviet Union | Communist country and world superpower after WWII that challenged the United States for global influence in the Cold War. |
| Joseph Stalin | Communist authoritarian dictator who led the Soviet Union through WWII as a member of the Allies and through the beginning of the Cold War and was known for using violence to maintain control. |
| United Nations | International diplomatic organization based on the League of Nations created at the end of WWII to help prevent future conflicts. |
| Security Council | International peacekeeping arm of the United Nations that is authorized to approve peacekeeping missions and includes five permanent members with veto powers and ten rotating members. |
| World Bank | International economic organization created near the end of WWII to help the world rebuild after WWII and fund major improvement projects that the Soviets refused to join over concerns of capitalism. |
| Satellites | Buffer communist states in Eastern and Central Europe created and supported by the Soviet Union as a protection measure against another German-like invasion from the West. |
| Winston Churchill | British Prime Minister who famously coined the term “iron curtain” to describe the control the Soviets had established over satellite states in Eastern and Central Europe. |
| Iron Curtain | Term coined by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to describe the control the Soviets had established over satellite states in Eastern and Central Europe. |
| Containment | U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War that focused on stopping the spread of communism through any means necessary, which was started under the Truman Administration with the Truman Doctrine. |
| George Marshall | U.S. general during WWII and Secretary of State for President Truman who created a plan to financially support the rebuilding of Western Europe after WWII to prevent the spread of communism. |
| Dean Acheson | Undersecretary of State under President Truman who helped create the U.S. foreign policy of containment during the Cold War through the Truman Doctrine. |
| George F. Kennan | Expert on Soviet affairs under President Truman who helped create the U.S. foreign policy of containment during the Cold War through the Truman Doctrine. |
| Walter Lippmann | Journalist and major critic of the Truman Doctrine and containment who believed it was too ambitious and would not have the intended effect. |
| Truman Doctrine | U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War that focused on stopping the spread of communism through any means necessary. |
| Marshall Plan | Extensive program of financial aid from the United States to financially support the rebuilding of Western Europe after WWII to prevent the spread of communism. |
| Berlin Airlift | Soviet blockade of West Berlin that was broken by U.S. planes flying supplies into the city, which ultimately forced the Soviet Union to end the blockade, but resulted in the creation of two Germanys. |
| West Germany | Officially known as the Federal Republic of Germany, this Germany was a U.S. ally during the Cold War and was a capitalist democratic republic. |
| East Germany | Officially known as the German Democratic Republic, this Germany was a communist Soviet satellite that eventually dissolved with the reunification of Germany in 1990. |
| North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) | Military alliance formed in 1949 for mutual defense, primarily against the Soviet Union, between the United States, Canada and predominantly Western European nations. |
| Warsaw Pact | Military alliance formed in 1955 for mutual defense, primarily against NATO, between the Soviet Union and its communist satellite states in Eastern and Central Europe. |
| National Security Act (1947) | Congressional law that replaced the War Department with the centralized Department of Defense, created the National Security Council and created the Central Intelligence Agency. |
| Department of Defense | Executive branch department created by the National Security Act that is charged with coordinating and supervising national security efforts and the United States Armed Forces. |
| National Security Council (NSC) | Advisory board to the president on matters of national security, military and foreign policy that was created by the National Security Act. |
| Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) | Civilian foreign intelligence service of the executive branch created by the National Security Act. |
| Arms Race | Intense competition between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War to develop and possess the most advanced and destructive weapons systems. |
| NSC-68 | Secret National Security Council report in 1950 that concluded the United States needed to quadruple defense spending and form alliances with non-communist countries in order to win the Cold War. |
| Douglas MacArthur | U.S. general in the Pacific Theatre of WWII who took command of the successful reconstruction of Japan and led U.S. troops in the Korean War until he was recalled by President Truman. |
| Emperor Hirohito | Monarch of Japan during WWII who was allowed to remain as the ceremonial head of state under Japan’s new constitution after the war after giving up his claims to divinity. |
| U.S.-Japanese Security Treaties | Official agreements that ended the U.S. occupation of Japan in exchange for permanent military bases and Japan giving up its claims to Korea and some Pacific islands. |
| Independence for the Philippines | Official end of the U.S. occupation of the Philippines as started under President Franklin Roosevelt, though the United States did maintain some military bases. |
| Chiang Kai-shek | Nationalist leader of China during WWII who lost the loyalty of millions of Chinese to communism over rapid inflation and widespread corruption and established a government in exile in Taiwan. |
| Mao Zedong | Communist leader in China who defeated Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists to establish the People’s Republic of China. |
| Taiwan | Historically Chinese island where Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists established a government in exile after being defeated by Mao Zedong and his communist forces. |
| People’s Republic of China | Communist government of China that Mao Zedong established after defeating Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists, which the United States refused to officially recognize until 1979. |
| 38th Parallel | Circle of latitude that separated North Korea and South Korea before and after the Korean War and continues to separate the two countries to this day. |
| Kim Il Sung | Communist leader the Soviets left in charge to form a Communist government in North Korea when the Soviets left after WWII and who ordered the invasion of South Korea that started the Korean War. |
| Syngman Rhee | Controversial conservative nationalist who was the elected leader of South Korea after U.S. troops left after WWII and led South Korea during the Korean War. |
| Korean War | Military conflict between North Korea and South Korea that served as a proxy war of the Cold War and put the Truman Doctrine of containment to the test. |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | Military hero from WWII and the 34th President of the United States who balanced fiscal conservatism with a moderate approach to domestic issues and a firm stance against communism. |
| John Foster Dulles | Secretary of State to President Eisenhower who felt containment was too passive and pushed for an aggressive foreign policy of brinkmanship to combat Soviet influence. |
| Brinkmanship | Aggressive foreign policy developed by President Eisenhower’s Secretary of State that involved threatening communist nations with American nuclear superiority in order to control their influence. |
| Massive Retaliation | Aggressive foreign policy developed by President Eisenhower’s Secretary of State that involved threatening an overwhelming military response in the event of an attack. |
| Korean Armistice | Ceasefire in the Korean War brokered by President Eisenhower in 1953 that was not a permanent peace treaty, but put a stop to open fighting and kept Korea divided at the 38th parallel. |
| Atoms For Peace | President Eisenhower’s foreign policy plan for stressing the dangers of nuclear weapons in order to help reduce the arms race while encouraging the use of nuclear reactors for good such as energy. |
| Open-Skies Policy | Rejected proposal made by President Eisenhower for opening U.S. and Soviet territory to open aerial photography in order to try and prevent a surprise nuclear war. |
| Spirit of Geneva | Meeting between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1955 that is typically viewed as the first thaw in the Cold War. |
| Nikita Khrushchev | Soviet leader who took power in 1956 and in a public speech denounced the crimes of Joseph Stalin and supported peaceful coexistence with the West. |
| Peaceful Coexistence | Idea that the United States and its capitalist allies could safely exist along with the Soviet Union and its communist allies. |
| Hungarian Revolt | Overthrow of the communist government in Hungary that the Soviet Union violently put down and the United States refused to interfere in, which marked the end of the first thaw in the Cold War. |
| Sputnik | Soviet satellite launched in 1957 that was the first satellite successfully launched into space, which sparked fear in the United States of falling behind technologically and led to the creation of NASA. |
| National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) | Congressional law passed in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik, which authorized increased funding for math, science and foreign language education. |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) | National government agency created in 1958 to direct U.S. efforts to build missiles and explore outer space in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik. |
| Second Berlin Crisis | Threat made by the Soviet Union in 1958 to turn over West Berlin to the East Germans, which was diffused after President Eisenhower held talks with Premier Khrushchev at Camp David. |
| U-2 Incident | Diplomatic disaster that involved the Soviets shooting down a high altitude U.S. spy plane over Soviet territory, which exposed a secret U.S. tactic for gaining information and greatly increased tensions. |
| Cuba | Country in the Caribbean Sea near the United States that became a communist nation in 1959 after Fidel Castro successfully overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista, which sparked fear in the United States. |
| Fidel Castro | Communist leader of Cuba who overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista, stopped the Bay of Pigs invasion and sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis. |
| Military-Industrial Complex | Relationship between a country’s military and the defense industry that supplies it, which President Eisenhower warned against in his farewell address. |
| John F. Kennedy | 35th President of the United States who oversaw the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, navigated the Cuban Missile Crisis and abandoned massive retaliation for a flexible-response foreign policy. |
| Bay of Pigs | Failed invasion of Cuba by CIA trained and armed anti-communist Cuban exiles that turned into a diplomatic embarrassment and led to Fidel Castro getting more aid from the Soviet Union. |
| Berlin Wall | Fortification surrounding West Berlin controversially built by the East Germans with Soviet backing in 1961 to prevent East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin. |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | Tense diplomatic and military standoff between the United States and the Soviets over Soviet missiles in Cuba that ended with an agreement between President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev. |
| Nuclear Test Ban Treaty | International agreement to end the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere signed by the United States, Soviet Union and over 100 other nations in 1963. |
| Flexible-Response Policy | President Kennedy’s foreign policy that favored increasing military spending on conventional arms and mobile military forces over nuclear weapons in order to reduce the risk of nuclear war. |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | 36th President of the United States who continued the U.S. policy of containment by sending U.S. troops to Vietnam, but also negotiated agreements with the Soviets to control nuclear weapons. |
| Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968) | International agreement between the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union in which each signatory agreed not to help other countries develop or acquire nuclear weapons. |
| Prague Spring | Attempt to democratize the communist Czechoslovakia in 1968 which was violently put down by the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact. |
| Richard M. Nixon | 37th President of the United States who worked with his national security adviser Henry Kissinger to develop a pragmatic foreign policy called détente that reduced Cold War tensions. |
| Henry Kissinger | National security adviser and later Secretary of State to President Nixon who helped develop a pragmatic foreign policy called détente that reduced Cold War tensions. |
| Détente | Foreign policy implemented by President Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger, which focused on pragmatic solutions to purposefully reduce Cold War tensions. |
| Visit to China | President Nixon’s diplomatic meeting with communist leader Mao Zedong in Beijing, which led to official U.S. recognition of the communist Chinese government in 1979. |
| Antiballistic Missiles (ABMs) | New type of missiles with the potential for nuclear warheads developed as part of the arms race between the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War. |
| Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT I) | Diplomatic meetings between the United States and the Soviet Union endorsed by President Nixon with the goal of limiting the number of nuclear armed ballistic missiles. |
| George H. W. Bush | Former member of Congress and future president who President Ford tasked with reforming the CIA after the agency was accused of engineering the assassinations of foreign leaders. |
| Salvador Allende | Communist president of Chile who died in 1973 under mysterious circumstances, with accusations of the CIA engineering his assassination. |
| SALT II | Continuation of the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks with a treaty signed in 1979 that would have limited the size of each nation’s nuclear delivery systems, but the treaty was never ratified by the Senate. |
| Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan | Attempted Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979 that led to fears of the Soviets wanting control of the oil rich Persian Gulf and greatly increased Cold War tensions. |
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