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The Cold War

The long rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1991.

72 cardsGrades 6–8, Grades 9–12#cold war#soviet union#space race#berlin wall

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72 cards
  • Cold WarTerm or event
    Decades-long rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union that stopped short of direct war
  • SuperpowersTerm or event
    The US and the Soviet Union, the two strongest nations after WWII
  • CapitalismTerm or event
    Economic system with private businesses and free markets
  • CommunismTerm or event
    System where the government controls the economy and there is one party
  • Iron CurtainTerm or event
    Churchill's phrase for the line dividing communist Eastern Europe from the West
  • ContainmentTerm or event
    US policy of stopping communism from spreading
  • Truman Doctrine (1947)Term or event
    Promised US aid to nations resisting communist takeover
  • Marshall PlanTerm or event
    US money that helped rebuild Western Europe after WWII
  • Berlin Airlift (1948-49)Term or event
    Allies flew food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviets blocked roads
  • NATO (1949)Term or event
    Western alliance in which members agree to defend one another
  • Warsaw Pact (1955)Term or event
    Soviet-led military alliance in Eastern Europe
  • Soviet atomic bomb (1949)Term or event
    The USSR tested its first nuclear weapon
  • Arms raceTerm or event
    Competition to build more and better weapons
  • Nuclear weaponsTerm or event
    Bombs of great destructive power, built by both sides
  • DeterrenceTerm or event
    Preventing attack by showing that you could strike back
  • Mutually assured destructionTerm or event
    Idea that a nuclear war would destroy both sides, so neither would start one
  • Korean War (1950-53)Term or event
    War in which the US and UN forces helped South Korea against North Korea and China
  • 38th parallelTerm or event
    Line that divided North and South Korea
  • Armistice (1953)Term or event
    Ceasefire that ended the Korean War's fighting without a peace treaty
  • McCarthyismTerm or event
    1950s practice of accusing people of being communists with little proof
  • Joseph McCarthyTerm or event
    Wisconsin senator who made many unproven accusations
  • Red ScareTerm or event
    Widespread fear of communists in America
  • Duck and coverTerm or event
    School drills that taught children how to protect themselves from an atomic blast
  • Fallout shelterTerm or event
    Underground room built to protect people from radioactive dust
  • Sputnik (1957)Term or event
    First artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union
  • Space RaceTerm or event
    Competition between the US and USSR to lead in space
  • NASATerm or event
    US space agency, founded in 1958
  • National Defense Education ActTerm or event
    1958 law that increased money for science and math education
  • Yuri GagarinTerm or event
    Soviet cosmonaut, first human in space in 1961
  • Alan ShepardTerm or event
    First American in space, 1961
  • John GlennTerm or event
    First American to orbit Earth, 1962
  • Moon landing (1969)Term or event
    Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon on July 20
  • Neil ArmstrongTerm or event
    First person to step on the Moon
  • EisenhowerTerm or event
    President from 1953 to 1961 during the early Cold War
  • Interstate Highway SystemTerm or event
    Highway network started in 1956, partly for defense
  • U-2 incident (1960)Term or event
    A US spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union
  • Fidel CastroTerm or event
    Led a revolution in Cuba in 1959 and ruled it as a communist leader
  • Bay of Pigs (1961)Term or event
    Failed US-backed attempt to invade Cuba
  • Berlin Wall (1961)Term or event
    Wall built by East Germany dividing East and West Berlin
  • Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)Term or event
    Tense 13 days when the US found Soviet missiles in Cuba
  • John F. KennedyTerm or event
    President during the Cuban Missile Crisis
  • Nikita KhrushchevTerm or event
    Soviet leader during the Cuban Missile Crisis
  • HotlineTerm or event
    Direct phone line set up between Washington and Moscow in 1963
  • Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963)Term or event
    Banned nuclear tests in the air, in space and underwater
  • Vietnam WarTerm or event
    Conflict in Vietnam from the 1950s to 1975 in which the US supported South Vietnam
  • Domino theoryTerm or event
    Belief that if one country fell to communism its neighbors would too
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)Term or event
    Gave President Johnson wide power to use force in Vietnam
  • Tet Offensive (1968)Term or event
    Big surprise attacks in Vietnam that shook American support for the war
  • Antiwar movementTerm or event
    Protests against US involvement in Vietnam
  • Vietnam Veterans MemorialTerm or event
    Wall in Washington, DC listing names of the Americans who died in the war
  • Fall of Saigon (1975)Term or event
    South Vietnam's capital fell to North Vietnam, ending the war
  • DétenteTerm or event
    Easing of tensions between the US and USSR in the 1970s
  • Richard NixonTerm or event
    President who visited China in 1972 and Moscow the same year
  • SALT I (1972)Term or event
    First treaty limiting some nuclear weapons
  • Apollo-Soyuz (1975)Term or event
    US and Soviet spacecraft docked in orbit
  • Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979)Term or event
    Soviet troops entered Afghanistan, ending détente
  • 1980 Olympic boycottTerm or event
    The US and others stayed away from the Moscow Summer Games
  • Ronald ReaganTerm or event
    President in the 1980s who built up defense and later negotiated with the USSR
  • Strategic Defense InitiativeTerm or event
    Reagan's plan for missile defense, nicknamed Star Wars
  • Mikhail GorbachevTerm or event
    Last Soviet leader; introduced glasnost and perestroika
  • GlasnostTerm or event
    Gorbachev's policy of openness
  • PerestroikaTerm or event
    Gorbachev's policy of restructuring the Soviet economy
  • INF Treaty (1987)Term or event
    US-Soviet treaty eliminating a class of nuclear missiles
  • Reagan's Berlin speech (1987)Term or event
    Reagan urged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall
  • SolidarityTerm or event
    Polish workers' movement that helped end communism in Poland
  • Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)Term or event
    On November 9, crowds opened the wall between East and West Berlin
  • German reunification (1990)Term or event
    East and West Germany joined as one nation
  • Collapse of the USSR (1991)Term or event
    The Soviet Union ended and split into 15 independent countries
  • Proxy warTerm or event
    A war where powers back opposing sides in another country
  • EspionageTerm or event
    Spying
  • Sino-Soviet splitTerm or event
    Rift between China and the Soviet Union in the 1960s
  • Marshall, Truman and KennanTerm or event
    Key figures in early containment; George Kennan wrote the 'Long Telegram'

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