Cold War Vocabulary

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Vocabulary

Soviet Union

The USSR or the Soviet Union was the world superpower which fought on the side of the Allies in World War II and helped to defeat Nazi Germany. They would be the United States adversary in the Cold War.

hot war

This is actual warfare. All talks have failed and the armies are fighting.

warm war

This is where talks are still going on and there would always be a chance of a peaceful outcome but armies, navies etc. are being fully mobilized and war plans are being put into operation ready for the command to fight.

proxy war

A war where two powers use third parties as a supplement to, or a substitute for fighting each other directly.

communism

A political and economic system in which all power is directed by the ruling government. No individual freedoms, and no private ownership of property.

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed to protect Western Europe from attack of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Soviet Bloc countries.

Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact was formed as communist military alliance to maintain power over Eastern Europe, and protect Eastern Europe from Western Europe and democracy.

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was built to encircle West Berlin and keep East Berlin (Communist) citizens from escaping to the west and freedom.

Cuban Missile Crisis

A nuclear confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for 13-days between the United States and the Soviet Union. It began because of American deployments of nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey that were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The crisis lasted from October 16 to October 29, 1962. The confrontation is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into full-scale nuclear war.

SALT

The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty was an agreement between the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States to limit the amount and type of nuclear weapons each side had. There were subsequent treaties between the two countries.

Western Bloc

The Western Bloc was the name given to the forerunner countries of NATO shortly after WWII.

Eastern Bloc

The Eastern Bloc was the name given to the forerunner countries of The Warsaw Pact shortly after WWII.

Space Race

The Space Race was the competition between the USSR (Soviet Union) and the United States to launch a person into orbit around the earth, and then to land a person on the moon. The U.S. won the Space Race with Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being the first humans to land and walk on he Moon on July 20th, 1969. No other country has ever landed people on the Moon.

espionage

Is when a country spies on another country.

Arms Race

The Arms Race was a competition between the USSR (Soviet Union) and the United States in which the building up of weapon technology including nuclear weapons continued until 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Korean War

The Korean was was a conflict (U.N. Police Action) fought by the South Koreans, with assistance from the United States, to prevent the North Koreans from complete control over the Korean peninsula as a communist nation. The war ended in a draw and a line called the 38th parallel separating the two Korea's to this day.

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was was a cobflict fought by the North Vietnamese, with assistance from China, against the French at first, and then the United States over Vietnam and communism vs. democracy. The U.S. would eventually withdraw all troops and people in 1975, and lose the war at home with public opinion strongly against the war.

ICBM

Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile were weapons capable of reaching far distances (other continents) with nuclear warheads attached.

glasnost

A policy of "Openness" designed by Mikhail Gorbachev leader of the Soviet Union to modernize the USSR politically, and socially as a result of domestic and foreign pressures especially from U.S. President Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II.

perestroika

A policy of "Restructuring" designed by Mikhail Gorbachev leader of the Soviet Union to modernize the USSR politically, and economically as a result of domestic and foreign pressures especially from U.S. President Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II.