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House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) searched for communists and other suspected subversives for nearly forty years. Founded in 1938 as the House Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities and chaired by a conservative Texas Democrat, Martin Dies, HUAC became a standing committee of the House in 1945. -
"The Voice of America"
The Voice of America (VOA) is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. The VOA provides programming for broadcast on radio, TV, and the Internet outside of the U.S., in English and some foreign languages. -
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Bretton Woods Conference
July 1944 conference between the U.S., Great Britain, and France held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire which set up the World Bank, GATT, and the IMF. It also made the U.S. dollar the medium of international economics. -
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Arms Race
(1945-1990) A competition between nations for superiority in the development and accumulation of weapons, especially between the US and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. -
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Satellite Nations
The term 'satellite nation' was first used to describe certain nations in the Cold War. These were nations that were aligned with (but also under the influence and pressure of) the Soviet Union. The satellite nations of the Cold War were Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and East Germany. -
Yalta Conference
Feb. 4, 1945 meeting between Allied forces to discuss combat strategies against Germany and Japan and to discuss diplomatic issues and address the status of Poland -
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Baby Boom
A baby boom is any period marked by a greatly increased birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds. -
Iron Curtain Speech
Mar. 5, 1946 speech by Winston Churchill condemning the policies of the Soviet Union and saying that an “iron curtain” has formed across Europe. -
Truman Doctrine
March 12, 1947 doctrine by U.S. President Harry S. Truman saying that the U.S. will provide military assistance to any nation under attack by other authoritarian forces -
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Marshall Plan
1948 proposal by the United States to provide financial assistance to nations involved in World War II -
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Berlin Airlift
June 24, 1948-May 11, 1949 Transport of support to Allied-controlled areas in Berlin by plane after the Soviet Union’s blocking of their portion of Berlin -
"Fair Deal"
The Fair Deal was an ambitious set of proposals put forward by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to Congress in his January 1949 State of the Union address. More generally the term characterizes the entire domestic agenda of the Truman Administration, from 1945 to 1953. -
NATO
A.k.a North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Apr. 4, 1949 group of nations that formed an alliance between nations of North America and Europe in order to have a form of defense from Communist nations (implying the Soviet Union) -
Soviets Detonation of the Atomic Bomb
1949- soviets detonate “first lightening” and reward scientists who built it with as much honor as the amount of penalties they would have received had the bomb not detonated. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
The culmination of the Chinese Communist Party's drive to power since its founding in 1921 and the second part of the Chinese Civil War. -
Alger Hiss
(November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official who was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. -
H-Bomb
January 31, 1950 marked start of development of a weapon that could be more powerful than atomic bombs by leaps and bounds -
McCarthyism/Red Scare
February 1950 marked the start of the witch hunt done by Joseph McCarthy to weed out those who he believed were Communists in America. He had a list of 205 people who worked in the State Department, but had no proof to back that up. This made people in America scared of the spread of Communism and cost many government employees their jobs. -
NSC-68
National Security Council Report 68 (NSC-68) was a 58-page top secret policy paper by the United States National Security Council presented to President Harry S. Truman on April 14, 1950. It was one of the most important statements of American policy in the Cold War. -
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Korean War
1950-1953 war between the United Nations-endorsed South Korea and Soviet-endorsed North Korea caused by the North Korean invasion of South Korea -
Rosenberg Spy Case
1951 case that convicted married couple Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage. The couple had given the Soviet Union secret information regarding the United States construction of the Atomic Bomb -
Dennis vs. US (1951)
Dennis v. United States (1951), was a United States Supreme Court case relating to Eugene Dennis, General Secretary of the Communist Party USA. The Court ruled that Dennis did not have the right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to exercise free speech, publication and assembly, if the exercise involved the creation of a plot to overthrow the government. -
McCarran
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Stalin's Death
The general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, died March 5, 1953 in Kuntsevo Dacha, Moscow, Russia. -
Massive Retaliation
January 12, 1954 was when the announcement of a new policy occurred, saying that the United States will protect its allies through the “deterrent of massive retaliatory power” showing the United States’ crutch regarding the use of nuclear weapons -
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Dien Bien Phu
Site where French were quartered in Vietnam during Indochina War, also where the French eventually surrendered to the Vietnamese -
Domino Theory
The theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries, like a falling domino causing an entire row of upended dominos to fall. -
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Guatemalan Coup
The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état (18–27 June 1954) was a covert operation carried out by the United States Central Intelligence Agency that deposed the democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution. -
Warsaw Pact
A military alliance of communist nations in eastern Europe. Organized in 1955 in answer to NATO, the Warsaw Pact included Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. -
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Space Race
August 2, 1955-July 20, 1969 competition between the United States and Soviet Union for supremacy in outer space. Started with Soviets saying that they would explore space and launch a satellite into space, just after the U.S. had said they would do that as well. -
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The Vietnam War
(1955–75) was a Cold War conflict pitting the U.S. and the remnants of the French colonial government in South Vietnam against the indigenous but communist Vietnamese independence movement, the Viet Minh, following the latter's expulsion of the French in 1954. -
Khrushchev's Secret Speech
February 25, 1956 speech in front of the Congress of the Soviet Union denouncing Joseph Stalin. This marked the start of a de-Stalinization campaign in the Soviet Union. -
Interstate Highway Act of 1956
Enacted on June 29, 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law. With an original authorization of US$25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles of the Interstate Highway System supposedly over a 10-year period, it was the largest public works project in American history through that time. -
Sputnik
Oct. 4, 1957 failed launch of the artificial satellite that weighed 183 pounds and was the size of a basketball -
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Neutron Bomb
The neutron bomb is a specialized thermonuclear weapon that produces a minimal blast but releases large amounts of lethal radiation which can penetrate armor or several feet of earth. Sam Cohen is considered the father of the neutron bomb. -
National Defense and Education Act (NDEA)
U.S. federal legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower on September 2, 1958, that provided funding to improve American schools and to promote postsecondary education. -
Fidel Castro
February 1959 marked the beginning of Fidel Castro’s reign as the leader of Cuba. Castro was a heavy Communist. -
U-2 Spy Plane Affair
May 1, 1960 capture of U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers who was caught spying on the Soviets per the request of the U.S. and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
Leonid Brezhnev
The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. -
M.A.D. - Mutually Assured Destruction
Around 1961- a U.S. doctrine of reciprocal deterrence resting on the U.S. and Soviet Union each being able to inflict unacceptable damage on the other in retaliation for a nuclear attack. -
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Berlin Wall
Wall that stood between the Soviet-controlled East Germany and the Ally-controlled West Germany from August 13, 1961 until November 9, 1989, built to keep the East Germans in. -
Hotline
June 20, 1962 marked the establishment of the “hotline” communication system between the United States and the USSR following the Cuban Missile Crisis in order to be able to solve their problems easily and efficiently, ultimately preventing the possible nuclear war that could ensue. -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
13-day standoff between the United States and Soviet Union in Cuba in October 1962 in regards to the containment of the USSR’s missiles in Cuba. The U.S. formed a naval blockade around Cuba, and the U.S. made the Soviets back down after a standoff. The world believed it was the beginning of a nuclear war. The U.S. promised not to invade Cuba and to remove their missiles from Turkey (which they didn’t) if the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba. -
The Feminine Mystique
Book published on February 19, 1963 by Betty Friedan that discusses the treatment and social status of women at the time -
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
August 5, 1963 signing of treaty which prohibited testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, underwater, or in the atmosphere, limiting test sites only underground. Signed by representatives of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Overwhelmingly approved by U.S. Congress on August 7, 1964, resolution that allowed Lyndon B. Johnson to expand that United States’ military role in Southeast Asian Communist countries (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc.) -
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Indonesian Coup
(1965–1966) large-scale killings which occurred in Indonesia over many months, targeting communists, ethnic Chinese and alleged leftists, often at the instigation of the armed forces and government. -
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Chinese Cultural Revolution
1966-1976 Movement to reassert Mao Zedong’s beliefs in China in order to reassert his authority after the other party leaders were growing stronger -
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Six Day War
War from June 5 to June 11, 1967 between the American-backed Israel and the Soviet-backed Arab nations of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria due to the Israeli occupying of Palestinian land. This soon became a heated rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the end, the Israelis defeated the Arab nations. -
U.S.S. Liberty--1967
An attack on a United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats, on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War. The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two marines, and one civilian), wounded 171 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, about 29.3 mi northwest from the Egyptian city of Arish. -
Prague Spring Rebellion
Attempted reform in Czechoslovakia in 1968 including the breaking away from the Soviet Union and governmental transition from communism to democracy, ending in Warsaw Pact troops invading and taking back control and enforcing even more strict laws. -
Tet Offensive
January 30, 1968 attack on South Vietnam by North Vietnam that was the largest offensive in the Vietnam War -
U.S.S. Scorpion
a Skipjack-class nuclear submarine of the United States Navy and the sixth vessel of the U.S. Navy to carry that name. Scorpion was lost on 22 May 1968, with 99 crewmen dying in the incident. USS Scorpion is one of two nuclear submarines the U.S. Navy has lost, the other being USS Thresher. It was one of four mysterious submarine disappearances in 1968; the others being the Israeli submarine INS Dakar, the French submarine Minerve and the Soviet submarine K-129. -
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Detente
May 1972 was the peak of a time period called detente, meaning release from tension in French, where the United States and the Soviet Union had gotten along very well. Nixon visiting Leonid I. Brezhnev was the peak of the time period. -
Vietnamization
1969 strategy introduced by President Richard Nixon to end the Vietnam War by slowly transferring all military responsibility in the war to South Vietnam, which would gradually build the South Vietnamese military by slowly taking out U.S. troops. -
SALT I & II
Either of two preliminary five-year agreements between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for the control of certain nuclear weapons, the first concluded in 1972 (SALT I) and the second drafted in 1979 (SALT II) but not ratified.SALT II in Culture Expand. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). -
Title IX
Enacted on June 23, 1972 by President Lyndon B. Johnson saying that nearly all schools must treat men and women fairly -
First Unelected President
America’s 38th president, Gerald Ford (1913-2006) took office on August 9, 1974, following the resignation of President Richard Nixon (1913-1994), who left the White House in disgrace over the Watergate scandal. Ford became the first unelected president in the nation’s history. -
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Cambodia & Khmer Rouge
(1975–1979) refers to the rule of Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, Khieu Samphan and the Communist Party of Kampuchea over Cambodia, which the Khmer Rouge renamed as Democratic Kampuchea. -
Helsinki Accords
August 1, 1975 agreement signed in Helsinki, Finland, in order to reduce tension between the Soviets and the Westerners. Signed by all countries of Europe, but Albania signed later on in September 1991, as well as the United States and Canada. -
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Afghanistan War
A great drain on the Soviet military, and it cost the Soviet regime significant international prestige. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew the last Soviet troops in February 1989. -
Solidarity
Independent trade union formed on September 17, 1980 in Poland in response to the raising prices for basic goods by the Communist government -
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Ronald Reagan
February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor, who served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. -
SDI (Star Wars)
Strategic Defense Initiative initiated on March 23, 1983 by Ronald Reagan to develop an anti-ballistic missile system so the U.S. could defend itself from countries who used missile attacks against them. -
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Perestroika/Glasnost
Perestroika - March 1985 restructuring of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union by overhauling the top members of the party and replacing the centralized government planning.
Glasnost - March 1985 concept created by Mikhail Gorbachev which looked to loosen the tight, strict attitude of the Soviet government towards its people. It also leads to the start of a democratic Soviet Union -
Gorbachev
President of the Soviet Union appointed in 1985, elected at the head of the Cold War and believed it was caused by mistrust between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. He initiated Glasnost and Perestroika -
John Walker
John Anthony Walker, Jr. (July 28, 1937 – August 28, 2014) was a United States Navy Chief Warrant Officer and communications specialist convicted of spying for the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1985. -
INF Treaty
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was a (now de facto defunct) 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union (and later its successor states, in particular the Russian Federation). The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles. -
German Reunification
The uniting of East and West Germany in 1990 after they had been separated since 1945. This followed the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and then the collapse of the East German government.