| A | B |
|---|
| Containment | After WWII, the U.S. foreign policy practice of attempting to restrict the expansion of Soviet influence around the world |
| "Iron Curtain" | the ideological barrier that existed between Eastern and Western Europe from 1945-1990 |
| Truman Doctrine | A U.S. foreign policy, established in 1947 by President Truman, of providing economic and military aid to countries, initially Greece and Turkey, that were attempting to resist communism |
| Marshall Plan | A U.S. plan, initiated by Secretary of State George Marshall and implemented from 1948-1951, to aid in the economic recovery of Europe after World War II by offering certain European countries substantial funds |
| NATO | A military alliance fromed in 1949 among the United States, Canada, Iceland, and 12 European nations to establish collective security against the Soviet Union |
| HUAC | A group formed in 1938, a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives that investigated subversive organizations in the United States until 1975 |
| McCarthyism | The practice of publicly accusing people of subversive activities without evidence to back up the charges; named for Senator Joseph McCarthy, who began such a s practice in the early 1950s as part of the search for communists in the United States duirng the early Cold War |
| Rosenberg Trial | The controversial 1951 trial of two Americans, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, charged with passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union; the two were sentenced to death and executed in 1953, making them the only American civilians to be put to death for spying during the Cold War |
| Eisenhower Doctrine | In the Cold War period after World War II, U.S. foreign-policy pronouncement by President Dwight D. Eisenhower promising military or economic aid to any Middle Eastern country needing help in resisting communist aggression |
| Brinkmanship | A foreign policy characterized by a willingness to push a dangerous situation to the brink, or edge, of war rather than give in to an opponent |
| Domino Theory | The belief that if Vietnam fell to the Communists, the rest of Southeast Asia would fall like "a row of dominoes" |
| Interstate Highway Act | Authorized by Congress in 1956, a network of highways that connect major cities around the country; all highways are built under the same guidelines, so that each has at least two lanes in each direction, periodic rest areas for travelers, and no traffic lights or railroad crossings |
| Nuclear Arms Race | a competition between nations to achieve the more powerful weapons arsenal |
| Space Race | a competition between the U.S. and Soviet Union to get into space first; Soviets launched the satellite Sputnik first in 1957 |
| Detente | the relaxation of Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union and between the United States and China that began under President Nixon |
| Korean War | A conflict the United States fought defending against the spread of Communism; successful |
| Vietnam War | A conflict the United States fought defending against the spread of Communism; unsuccessfu |
| Kent State University Shootings | the killing of four protestors at Kent State University in 1970 by National Guard troops; reports of the shootings led to increased antiwar protests |
| Bay of Pigs Invasion | an invasion of Cuba in 1961, which was authorized by JFK for the purpose of overthrowing Castro's regime, organized by the CIA, executed Cuban exiles, and defeated by Castro's forces; unsuccessful |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in fall 1962 over the building of Soviet missile-launching sites in Cuba, in response to which the U.S. established a quarantine to prevent Soviet ships from transporting missiles to Cuba and to demand withdrawal of all Soviet weapons from the island; after a few days, the USSR agreed to withdraw its missiles and JFK agreed not to invade |
| Berlin Wall | a concrete wall that the communist East German government erected in 1961 to cut off West Berlin from the rest of East Germany and prevent East Germans from escaping into democratice West Berlin; the wall stood until 1989 |
| Berlin Blockade/Airlift | the Soviet blockade of the German city of Berlin, implemented from 1948-1949 to halt land travel into the city in hopes of forcing the U.S., Great Britain and France to give up their plan to combine their occupation zones into a single, democratic West German state; the Allied nations resisted the blockade by airlifting food and supplies into Berlin |
| Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions | Congress gave President LBJ a "blank check" to do whatever necessary to deal with the situation in Vietnam |
| lottery draft | American men 18 years or older could have been drafted into the war in Vietnam based on a lottery pick process |
| Tinker v. DesMoines | John and MaryBeth Tinker wore black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War and were suspended; the court ruled in the Tinker's favor stating their protect was protected by symbolic speech and the 1st amendment |
| Vietnamization | the process of replacing American troops in Vietnam with South Vietnamese troops |
| National Defense Education Act | this 1958 law put money into educating Americans in math and science |
| Truman's Loyalty Oaths | In response to the Red Scare, President Truman initiated a loyalty program to make sure there were no communists entering the executive branch of government |
