| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Nuremberg trials | trials at an Allied military court that brought several dozen Nazi |
| Cold War | a post-World War II era of open hostility and high tension between the United States and the Soviet Union |
| iron curtain | Winston Churchill’s term for the division of Europe created by Soviet |
| Truman Doctrine | U.S. pledge to provide economic and military aid to oppose the spread of communism |
| Marshall Plan | a massive program of U.S. economic aid to help Western Europe make a rapid recovery from the war and remain politically stable |
| containment | a policy of resisting Soviet aggression to contain the spread of communism |
| Berlin airlift | a massive effort to supply West Berlin by air after the Soviets blockaded it |
| NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance between the United States, Canada, and Western Europe designed to counter Soviet power in Europe |
| Warsaw Pact | an alliance formed between the Soviet Union and the Communist nations of Eastern Europe |
| hydrogen bomb | an immensely destructive weapon powered by nuclear fusion |
| deterrence | the development of or maintenance of military power to deter an attack |
| arms race | a struggle between nations to gain an advantage in weapons |
| Sputnik | the world’s first satellite, a human-made object launched in 1957 by the Soviet Union that flies in orbit around the Earth |
| Bay of Pigs invasion | unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by a secretly trained force, which |
| Cuban missile crisis | a tense standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union |
| nonaligned nations | countries that refused to support either side during the Cold War and tried to promote the interest of poorer countries |
| détente | reduced tension between the superpowers |
| Martin Luther King Jr. | leader of a civil rights campaign that exposed racial injustice and won reforms |
| counterculture | a youth movement that rebelled against mainstream American society |
| Solidarity | a movement of Polish workers who united to protest against the Communist |
| Mikhail Gorbachev | Soviet leader who came to power in 1985 and made changes in the nation’s economy and government |
| Glasnost | “openness,” a willingness to discuss the problems of the Soviet Union |
| Perestroika | “restructuring,” a concept for the reform of the Soviet economic and |
| Velvet Revolution | a peaceful revolution that removed Communists from power in |
| Boris Yeltsin | leader of the republic of Russia who favored more radical change than |
| ethnic cleansing | elimination of an ethnic group through killing or forced emigration |
| Internet | a system of networks that connects computers around the world |
| Saddam Hussein | dictator of Iraq who invaded neighboring Kuwait in August 1990 |
| Persian Gulf War | war in which a UN-authorized multinational force led by the United |
| al Qaeda | Islamist terrorist organization that launched a series of attacks against U.S. |
| Osama bin Laden | al Qaeda leader who aims to unite Muslims and destroy the United States |
| Taliban | Islamist government of Afghanistan that supported and protected members of al |
Combine with other sets
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