Cold War Era

What was the Cold War?

A period of geopolitical tension (1947–1991) between the US-led Western bloc and the Soviet Union-led Eastern bloc, without direct military conflict between them

What was the Iron Curtain?

A term coined by Winston Churchill describing the political and ideological boundary dividing Europe into Western and Soviet spheres

What was the Truman Doctrine?

A 1947 US policy pledging support for countries resisting communism, initially applied to Greece and Turkey

What was the Berlin Blockade?

A Soviet blockade of West Berlin (1948–1949) that was overcome by the Western Allies' Berlin Airlift

What was NATO?

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance formed in 1949 by Western nations for collective defense against the Soviet Union

What was the Warsaw Pact?

A military alliance of Soviet-bloc countries formed in 1955 as a counterpart to NATO

What was the Korean War?

A conflict (1950–1953) between North Korea (supported by China and USSR) and South Korea (supported by the US and UN)

What was McCarthyism?

A period in the 1950s of intense anti-communist suspicion led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, involving hearings and blacklists

What was the Space Race?

A competition between the US and USSR for spaceflight supremacy, from Sputnik (1957) to the Moon landing (1969)

What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?

A 13-day standoff in October 1962 over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, the closest the Cold War came to nuclear war