| A | B |
|---|
| containment | Policy of U.S. President Harry Truman towards communism. He believed in letting it stay where it already existed, but preventing it from spreading into anywhere new. |
| Korean War | War fought by the United States and its ally South Korea against China and its ally North Korea in the early 1950’s. |
| Vietnam War | War fought between the United States and its ally South Vietnam against North Vietnam in the 1960’s and 70’s. The war was tremendously unpopular and the United States eventually had to retreat. This is considered by many to be the first war that the United States lost. |
| Ho Chi Minh | Communist leader in Vietnam. |
| Berlin Wall | Wall built to keep people from Soviet East Germany from fleeing to democratic West Germany. It became a symbol of the Cold War until it was destroyed in 1989. |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | Situation where the United States was trying to keep the Soviet Union from putting nuclear missiles on the island nation of Cuba. It was the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. |
| deterrence | This is the idea that if two nations have nuclear missiles, they won’t attack each other, because if they do, they will both be annihilated. |
| Chiang Kai-Shek | Leader of Nationalist China and a United States ally. He lost control of China to Mao Zedong and had to flee to Taiwan. |
| Mao Zedong | The leader of the Communists in China, he eventually defeated Chiang Kai-Shek and took control of China, establishing China as a Communist nation. |
