- apartheid
- a South African policy of racial segregation that ended in 1991
- Berlin Airlift
- an operation carried out by Great Britain and the United States to supply West Berlin from the air during the Soviet Union’s blockade of West Berlin
- bloc
- a group of countries united for a common purpose
- Cold War
- a contest for ideological, social, economic, technological, and military supremacy between the United States and the Soviet Union
- containment
- the West’s Cold War policy goal of confining communism to the Soviet Union and the nations of Eastern Europe
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- the 1962 confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba
- détente
- the relaxation of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1970s
- domino theory
- the belief that the neighbors of a communist country were likely to become communist themselves
- glasnost
- a Soviet policy encouraging openness, which allowed those who were angry to be critical of the government
- Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
- the 1964 resolution that gave President Lyndon Johnson permission to retaliate against North Vietnamese attacks and to act first to defend U.S. lives
- Marshall Plan
- a plan extending financial assistance to European nations to help them rebuild after World War II
- Non-Aligned Movement
- a movement of nations that sought to remain outside the sphere of influence of both the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
- a military alliance among the United States, Canada, and the countries of Western Europe
- perestroika
- the restructuring of the Soviet state and economy under Mikhail Gorbachev
- proxy wars
- wars fought by allies of the Soviet Union and the United States to avoid risking a direct conflict between the two superpowers during the Cold War
- satellite state
- a country controlled by another nation
- Truman Doctrine
- the promise of U.S. assistance to any country in danger of being overthrown by communism
- Warsaw Pact
- a military and political alliance among the communist nations of Eastern Europe