Cold War Vocabulary

1950-1991 A period of threats or tensions but never an actual war over differences between Russia and the United States.

Country involved in the Cold war who wanted democracy and capitalism.

Country involved in the Cold War who wanted autocracies and communism.

1950-1953 A UN force led by the United States fought for a democracy in the South, and China and the Soviet Union fought for communism in the North. In the end, the boundary between the 2 remained at the 38th parallel (DMZ).

1955-1975 A twenty year conflict between communist North against South and its ally, the United States. Ended with an unified communist country.

A competition between, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US), for supremacy in spaceflight capability. The Soviet Union won by launching 1st artificial satellite called Sputnik in 1957 and the first man in space, Turi Gagarin in April 1961.

Leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores

Symbol of the Cold War, built in Germany to separate Communist East Berlin from democratic West Berlin.

A system of beliefs or ideas.

Term used by Winston Churchill to describe the growing East-West divide in postwar Europe between communist and democratic nations

A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control.

The United States tried to stop the spread of communism by creating alliances and helping weak countries to resist Soviet advances

A United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe after WWII. Offered money to countries who supported democracy and resisted communism.

An alliance of democratic countries in western Europe made to defend one another if they were attacked.

An alliance between the Soviet Union and other Eastern European communist nations.