Cold War
Key Terms and Names
Key Terms and Names
• Marshall Plan – an economic recovery plan in
which the United States provided aid to European
nations to rebuild their economies
• Containment – the policy of keeping communism
within its present territory through the use of
diplomatic, economic, and military actions
• Limited War – a war fought to achieve a limited
objective such as containing communism
Key Terms and Names
• Mao Zedong – communist leader of China
• Chiang Kai-shek – Nationalist leader of China
who was backed by the U.S.
• Alger Hiss – a government official accused of
being a Communist spy
• McCarthyism – Senator McCarthy’s method of
destroying reputations with weak evidence
and unfounded charges of Communist activity
Key Terms and Names
• Fallout – the radiation left over after a nuclear
blast
• Perjury – lying under oath
• Sputnik – the first artificial satellite to orbit
the earth, developed by the Soviet Union
• Brinkmanship – the willingness to go to the
brink of war to force the other side to back
down
Key Terms and Names
• Massive retaliation – the policy of threatening
Communist states with nuclear war if the state
tried to take territory by force
• Jonas Salk – research scientist who developed
a vaccine that prevented polio
• Baby boom – the time between 1945 and
1961, when more than 65 million children
were born
Key Terms and Names
• Truman Doctrine – this policy stated that the
U.S. would try to stop the spread of
communism
• NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Organization created by Western Allies to
oppose the Soviets
• Rosenbergs – a married couple who were
executed for helping the Soviet Union.
Key Terms and Names Civil Rights
• New Frontier – President Kennedy’s domestic
programs
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – Leader of the Civil
Rights movement of the late 1950’s and
1960’s. Believed in passive resistance, nonviolent protests.
• CORE– Congress of Racial Equality
• SCLC – Southern Christian Leadership
Conference.
Key Terms and Names Civil Rights
• Brown v. Board of Education – Supreme Court
case ruled that segregation in public schools
was unconstitutional.
• Thurgood Marshall – chief counsel for NAACP
and later Supreme Court Chief Justice
• Freedom Riders – teams of African Americans
and white Americans who traveled through
the South to draw attention to the South’s
refusal to integrate bus terminals
Key Terms and Names Civil Rights
• Civil Rights Act of 1964 – law that made
segregation illegal in most public places
• SNCC – Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee.
• Black Panthers – a militant African American
group that preached black power, black
nationalism, and economic self-sufficiency
• Malcolm X – most visible spokesperson of the
Black Power movement, credited with raising the
self-esteem of black Americans and reconnecting
them with their African heritage.
Terms and Names Civil Rights
• Black Power – a movement that called for
African American control of the social,
political, and economic direction of the
struggle for equality
• African American militants urged civil rights
through forceful demonstrations of “black
power” instead of nonviolent means.
Key Terms and Names Vietnam
• Ho Chi Minh – Vietnam leader of the
nationalism movement (Communist leader)
• Domino theory – the belief that if Vietnam fell
to communism, so would the other Southeast
Asian nations.
• Vietcong – guerrilla army organized by Ho Chi
Minh
• Napalm – a jellied gasoline that explodes on
contact
Key Terms and Names Vietnam
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution – a Congressional
resolution that allowed President Johnson to
use force to defend American troops in
Vietnam
• Vietnamization – a plan for a gradual
withdrawal of American troops and for the
South Vietnamese army to take over more of
the fighting in Vietnam
Key Terms and Names Reagan Years
• Supply-side economics – the economic idea
that cutting taxes would boost businesses and
provide more money for consumers to spend
• Reaganomics – the term given to President
Reagan's approach to solving the nation’s
economic problems
• Sandra Day O’ Connor – first woman on the
Supreme Court
Key Terms and Names Reagan Years
• Iran-Contra scandal – illegal operation in
which profits from arm sales to Iran were
diverted to the contras in Nicaragua
• Oliver North – major figure in the Iran-Contra
scandal
• Start – Strategic Arms Reduction talks to
reduce the number of missiles on both sides.
Key Terms and Names Reagan Years
• SDI – Reagan’s space -based anti-missile
system (Strategic Defense Initiative) better
known as “Star Wars”.