| A | B |
|---|
| G.I. Bill | A law passed in 1944 that provided educational and other benefits for people who had served in the armed forces in World War II. |
| Levittown | the first of several low-cost, suburban housing developments built by Levitt and Sons following World War II. |
| second Great Migration | migration of more than five million African Americans from the South to the North, Midwest and West, 1941 to 1970 |
| Iron Curtain | the political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependent eastern and central European allies from open contact with the West and other non-communist areas |
| Truman Doctrine | principle that the US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or communist insurrection |
| Marshall Plan | program by which the United States gave large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after the devastation of World War II |
| Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) | U.S. federal agency that coordinates governmental intelligence activities outside the United States |
| Berlin Airlift | operation by British and American aircraft to airlift food and supplies to Berlin in 1948–9, while Russian forces blockaded the city to isolate it from the West and terminate the joint Allied military government of the city |
| Korean War | fought in the early 1950s between the United Nations, supported by the United States, and the communist Democratic People's Republic of Korea |
| Eisenhower Doctrine | issued January 5,1957; promising military or economic aid to any Middle Eastern country needing help in resisting communist aggression. |
| Nikita Khrushchev | 1953-1964, a politician who led the Soviet Union |
| N.A.T.O. | North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is a military alliance of European and North American democracies founded after World War II to strengthen international ties between member states—especially the United States and Europe—and to serve as a counter-balance to the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. |
| Warsaw Pact | A military alliance of communist nations in eastern Europe. Organized in 1955 in answer to NATO |
| Fallout Shelters | a building or other structure designed to protect people from radioactive fallout after a nuclear explosion. |
| Hollywood Blacklist | was the practice of denying employment to screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other American entertainment professionals during the mid-20th century because they were accused of having Communist ties or sympathies. |
| Alger Hiss | an American government official who was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948[1] and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950, involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department official and as a U.N. official |
| Julius and Ethel Rosenberg | were the first U.S. citizens convicted and executed of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, are executed |
| National Security Act (1947) | mandated a major reorganization of the foreign policy and military establishments of the U.S |
| National Highway Act | authorize appropriations for continuing the construction of highways; to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to provide additional revenue from taxes on motor fuel, tires, and trucks and buses; and for other purposes. |
| Detente | the easing of hostility or strained relations, especially between countries. |
| Bay of Pigs | On April 17, 1961, 1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion of Cuba |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores |
