Flashcards: K. Nordstrom Social Studies: Cold War Terms
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kanordstrom on February 13, 2012
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Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 arms race | A competition between nations to expand their stock pile of weapons and armaments in order to gain a military superiority. |
| Berlin airlift | The supply of West Berlin by American and British planes during a Soviet blockade in 1948-1949. |
| Cold War | A sustained period of international tension, without actual warfare, that existed between the USA and the USSR from the end of World War II until the collapse of the USSR. |
| containment | A policy of the USA to stop Communists from taking control of other countries. |
| domino theory | A theory that if one nation came under Communist control, then neighboring nations would also come under Communist control. |
| Iron Curtain | The barrier between the communist eastern European countries and the democratic western European countries which emerged at the end of WWII: |
| Marshall Plan | A European recovery program, project instituted at the Paris Economic Conference to foster economic recovery in certain European countries after World War II. |
| NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organization - set up in 1949 as an alliance of North American and Western European countries against the USSR. |
| Truman Doctrine | A speech by US President Truman in 1947, in which he promised to help any country which wanted to oppose Communism. |
| Warsaw Pact | An organization of USSR and eastern European countries set up in 1955 to oppose the USA and NATO. |
| standard of living | General conditions for people, usually shown by their ability to afford food, a place to live, and a few luxuries. |
| superpower | A state powerful enough to influence events throughout the world; what the USA and the USSR were considered after 1945. |
| Cominform | An organization set up by Stalin to link the Communist parties in all countries under his control. |
| sphere of influence | An area where one country has a strong say in what happens in another, such as what the Soviet Union and had with eastern Europe. |
| personality clash | An argument caused by the fact that people dislike each other rather than political ideas. |