Cold War Terms

Front 1

Iron Curtain

Back 1

the notional barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West prior to the decline of communism that followed the political events in eastern Europe in 1989.

Front 2

Berlin Airlift

Back 2

A military operation in the late 1940s that brought food and other needed goods into West Berlin by air after the government of East Germany, which at that time surrounded West Berlin ( see Berlin wall ), had cut off its supply routes.

Front 3

Potsdam Conference

Back 3

The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced on July 26 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee), and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II.

Front 4

NATO

Back 4

is an intergovernmental military alliance between several North American and European states based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949.

Front 5

Warsaw Pact

Back 5

A military alliance of communist nations in eastern Europe.

Front 6

GI Bill of Rights

Back 6

. A law passed in 1944 that provided educational and other benefits for people who had served in the armed forces in World War II.

Front 7

Communist Party

Back 7

is a political party that advocates the application of the social and economic principles of communism through state policy.

Front 8

Marshall Plan

Back 8

A 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.

Front 9

Truman Doctrine

Back 9

the principle that the US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or communist insurrection.

Front 10

Domino Theory

Back 10

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 dominoes to fall.

Front 11

Cold War

Back 11

a state of political hostility between countries characterized by threats, propaganda, and other measures short of open warfare, in particular.

Front 12

Containment

Back 12

the action of keeping something harmful under control or within limits.

Front 13

KGB

Back 13

Committee for State Security), was the main security agency for the Soviet

Front 14

CIA

Back 14

is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the United States federal government, tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT).

Front 15

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Back 15

is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender

Front 16

NASA

Back 16

is defined as an acronym for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the federal agency that is responsible for aerospace research, aeronautics, and the civilian space program.