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Yalta Conference
World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union for the purpose of discussing Germany and Europe's postwar reorganization. -
End of WW2
The combination of the atomic bombings with the potential threat of a full-scale invasion of Japan by the USSR was enough to remove any hope that Japan may have held for continuing the war. -
The Creation Of the United Nations
A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established after World War II with the aim of preventing another such conflict -
The Long Telegraph
George Kennan, the American charge d'affaires in Moscow, sends an 8,000-word telegram to the Department of State detailing his views on the Soviet Union, and U.S. policy toward the communist state. -
Iron Curtain
the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas. -
The Red Scare
A "Red Scare" is promotion of widespread fear by a society or state about a potential rise of communism, anarchism, or radical leftism. -
Truman Doctrine
an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. -
The Marshall Plan
an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $13 billion in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. -
The Creation of NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. -
Berlin Blockade/Airlift
international crisis that arose from an attempt by the Soviet Union to force the Western Allied powers to abandon their post-World War II jurisdictions in West Berlin -
McCarthyism
hundreds of Americans were accused of being communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private industry panels, committees and agencies. -
Duck and Cover
a civil defense training film that was widely distributed to United States schoolchildren. It advised students on what to do in the event of a nuclear explosion -
Rosenbergs
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were United States citizens who were executed. convicted of committing espionage for the Soviet Union. -
The Warsaw Pact
Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defence treaty signed in Warsaw among the Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe during the Cold War. -
The Suez Canal
an invasion of Egypt by Israel, followed by the United Kingdom and France. The aims were to regain Western control of the Suez Canal and to remove Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had just nationalized the canal. -
Eisenhower Doctrine
Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, a Middle Eastern country could request American economic assistance or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression. -
The Korean War
North Korea invaded South Korea following a series of clashes along the border. -
U-2 incident
a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet airspace. The aircraft, flown by Central Intelligence Agency pilot Francis Gary Powers was performing photographic aerial reconnaissance when it was hit by an S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missile and crashed near Sverdlovsk.
