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Iron Curtain
What was used to describe the line of the advancing communist influence in Europe. Also defined as the line between the Soviets and Europe. -
Nike Missiles
A system introduced to be used for defence. Bell Telephone Laboratories created a command system which would make it possible to guid a missile to a target from the ground. Its intent was to "thwart" enemy attacks. -
Truman Plan
Was created when President Harry Truman presented it in a speech. It stated that the U.S would support countries within Europe with economic and military aid that where falling under the influence of communism. It's often considered the beginning of the Cold War. -
Containment
Was created within the Truman plan to try and stop the spread of communism. It was the result when the Soviets starting moving across Europe. -
Marshall Plan
Also referred to the European Recovery Plan was when the U.S gave European countries money to rebuild what was destroyed during WWII. It also helped to prevent the spread of communsim. Through the duration of reconstruction the U.S spent around 13 billion dollars.. -
Apartheid
Segregation in South Africa established by the national party governments. It was a policy that separated people into 4 racial groups: native, white, Asian, and colored. Beaches, schools, and more were segregated by the government. Eventually lead to only white people running the government and black people losing their rights as citizens. -
Berlin Blockade
Russias attempt to stop the Western influence (U.S, Britain, France) of their sphere of influence in west Berlin. Berlin was in Soviet territory but was split between the countries after WWII. It was considered the first major conflict of the Cold War and foreshowded future conflicts of the city. Ended May 12 1949. -
Berlin Airlift
Once the soviets began the Berlin Blockade they thought it would push out the western influence. What happened was the U.S and the other countries that occupied Berlin sent in supplies to West Berlin by air for almost a year. During that time they transfered around 2.3 million tons of supplies. Ended May 12th 1949. -
The Pershing Missile System
NATO decided that the U.S presense was needed in Europe to help stop expansion of the Soviet influence. After WWII America retrieved German scientists and began developing new weaponry with them. They developed the Redstone missile which was large and not mobile, and the Pershing Missile was the replacement to the Restone missile and was more dependable. -
Federal Civil Defense Act
Concering the Soviet occupation in Europe and dscovering that they had successfully tested an atomic bomb congress passed the act. President Truman agreed and said, “designed to protect life and property in the United States in case of enemy assault,” It soon would become an essential element of national security. -
Domino Theory
Said that if one country began communist than mulitple others would soon follow.The. U.S used this policy as justification for supporting south vietnam. -
Korean War
North Korea sent an army across the 38th parallel into South Korea. It was the first action of the Cold War that was militarily based. The U.S sided with South Korea and helped push the North Koreans back in fear of a WWIII. The war reached a stalemate and the fighting stopped in July of 1953 will some 5 millon lives lost. -
The Warsaw Pact
It was the communist response to NATO. It was a treaty of mutual friendship, cooperation, and assitance. The pact was signed by People’s Republic of Albania, the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, the Hungarian People’s Republic, the German Democratic Republic, the Polish People’s Republic, the Rumanian People’s Republic, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the Czechoslovak Republic. It was seen as a militaristic threat. -
Vietnam War
Northern Vietnam and their southern partners the Viet Cong fought Southern Vietnam and their allies the U.S. Meanwhile the Cold War was still taking place between the U.S and Russia. People in the U.S became upset with the involvment in the war and President Nixon withdrew the troops. The war didn't end until 1975 when communist forces took Saigon and the country was unified and called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam a year later. More than 3 million people lost their lives during the war. -
The Berlin Tunnel
Cable-top operations, kind of like underground spies. It wasn't the first time it was used, it became famous because it made front pages of papers and other news when the Soviets "discovered" it. -
Bomber Gap
The fear of the Soviet superiority in intercontinental bombers. Started when they flew their Bear and Bison bombers multiple times by observers. The bison bomber was developed to carry a nuclear bomb to the U.S from the Soviet Union but it was unclear if the Soviets actually had one. -
Sputnik
Mirrored the competition in arms development between the U.S and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite into space. Soon after Sputnik they sent the first man to the moon and the U.S did the same. Then the U.S began the Apollo development which landed us on the moon. -
Great Leap Forward
Mao's 5 year plan to make China a rival to America. He planned to grow agriculture and industry in China. Mao believed that these two concepts "fed" off of eachother. China needed these two concepts to become modernized, and they were generally successful. -
Peace Corps
John F. Kennedy went to the University of Michigan and asked them to help other needy countries and promote peace. The were to aid them in any way they could and this started an evolution of volunteering around the world. Since then over 190,000 volunteers have been sent to around 139 countries. -
OPEC
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Contorls gas prices. -
Bay of Pigs
The U.S provided 1300 exiles with weapons and sent them into cuba. It was the U.S’s attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. The invasion took place because after Castro took control of Cuba in 1959 and then began taking control of all U.S ran businesses within Cuba the U.S responded. The plan was considered a failure. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Nikita Khrushchev from the Soviet Union began secretly developing missile bases in Cuba just in case the U.S were to attack them. Once Kennedy knew about the bases he informed the American people that if Cuba were to attack he would treat it like the Soviets attacking. The Soviets and the U.S came to an agreement that if the U.S swore to not invade Cuba they would dismatle the missiles. -
Summer of Love
Counterculture leaders began a "human be-in" in San Francisco California. The thousands who attended went to Golden Gate park and promoted peace, happiness, and love. People began traveling to San Fran to experience "The Summer of Love" -
Tet Offensive
North Korea launched the first of two surprise attacks; they were determined to beat America and their ally south Vietnam. They dropped bombs surprising the Americans and destroyed major bases and a lot of supplies. The second attack was on the Lunar New year for the Vietnamese. They bombed several cities and took control of the U.S embassy of Saigon and it took about 2 weeks for the U.S to get it back. The point in the war when American realized that it would be a struggle -
Woodstock
Once of the most famous concerts held during the Summer of Love. The producers of the concert were only expecting a crowd of around 50,000 and there ended up being over 500,000. There was traffic jams, and limited supplies but because of the harsh times people bonded during the event when violence was expected. -
26th Amendment
The U.S government can no longer set the bar for voting higher than the age of 18. The amendment was brought up when student activists opposed the vietnam war. -
Munich Massacre
Was an attack by the Palestinian group Black September on the Israeli Olympic Team during the 1972 Olympics. Black September took 9 of the members of the team hostage and eventually they all died. Some of the demands they had included the release of 234 prisoners that were in Israel and the released of the German Red Army Faction who were also in prison -
Coup D'Etat in Chile
Chile was relatively quiet compared to it's neighbors. Then communism began competeing against the socialist party in the country. The socialist party won and U.S president Nixon said he wanted the socialist president Allende out of power. The only way for this to happen was the military to rise against the government which they did in 1973. -
Operation Babylift
Viet Cuong began to take over south vietnam again and captured their second largest city, Da Nang. Vietnamese fearing the worst began fleeing the country to the United States. So many children had been left as orphans after the war that they couldn't get them all out fast enough so the U.S sent planes in to save thousands of them. -
Camp David Accords
Is when Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egypts president Anwar Sadat negotiated the accords along with U.S President Jimmy Carter in Maryland. It was to be a peace agreement between the countries since they have been fighting for many years. After 12 days they decided on 2 things (1) a framework for the conclusion of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and (2) a broader framework for achieving peace in the Middle East -
Ayatollah Khomeini
Khomeini came back to Tehran on Feb 1, 1979,after being exiled by the shah, and was put in charge of the Iranian Revolution. He wanted to make Iran a religious state. In the process a U.S Embassy in Tehran was stormed and staff was taken hostage for 444 days. In 1979 a new Iranian constitution was created and Khomeini was named the political and religious leader for life. He banned westernization and reissued traditional Islamic law. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
Between Iran and the United States. Iranian students took control of a the U.S embassay and took 52 captive for 444 days. President Carter called the hostages "victims of terrorism and anarchy," adding that "the United States will not yield to blackmail." -
Olympic Games
Held in Moscow it had the greatest boycott at in all of the Olympic games. It followed the Soviet invasion of Afghanastan. The U.S and 61 other ocuntries boycotted. -
Perestroika and Glasnost
Mikhail S. Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist party of the soviet union in march 1985 he started perestroika and glasnost which is restructuring and openness. It changed different parts of the government and in 5 years the plan brought communist governments down from power ending the cold war. It also caused the Soviet Union to collapse in 1991. -
Chernobyl
One of the reactors was shut down at a nuclear power plant so technicians could make sure that the plant could run on backup turnbines. They also tuned off the safety system. The plants power suddenly dropped one night and since there were no safety systems on the system went out of the control and the plant exploded. -
Tiananmen square massacre
Protests within china lead by students that were pro-democratic. They were demanding things such as free speech, and it was non-violent until June 3rd when the Chinese army began attacking the unarmed civilians. People immediately stopped broadcasting their democratic ways and people within China today are not allowed to speak of it. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
East and West Germany formed a social union. The wall and all traveling restrictions were taken away, and a red line was painted where it formally stood. -
Reunification of Germany
East Germany conservative parties won the election that supported the reunification of east and west germany. West Germany thrived for awhile under the west germany constitution and the east side fell.Tensions were high but eventually they began to restablish economic stability. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union fell and split into 15 different countries. The west interpreted it as a victory for freedom, and one of the reasons to end the Cold War -
NAFTA
North American Free Trade Agrrement is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Created open trade and ended tariffs on goods. -
Operation Pedro Plan
Moved thousands of kids from Cuba after it was declared it a communist countries.Parents were scared and sent their kids to the U.S. -
John Vassall and the Cambridge 5
Countries in the cold war often had spies within the opposing countries. The Soviet Union was most notorious for this. Being a spy was dangerous and if you were caught you were often executed. The most famous of the soviet spies were the cambridge five and John Vassall was one.
