#Cold War

49 entries

People (10)

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Supreme Allied Commander, 34th President, and the man who warned America about itself

George H.W. Bush

41st President of the United States, 1989–1993

Harry S. Truman

The haberdasher from Missouri who dropped the bomb, integrated the military, and contained the Soviets

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Director of the Manhattan Project and father of the atomic bomb

John F. Kennedy

35th President of the United States, 1961–1963

Joseph McCarthy

U.S. Senator whose anti-Communist crusade defined — and disgraced — an era

The 37th President who opened China, ended the draft — and became the only president to resign

Robert F. Kennedy

Attorney General, Senator, and presidential candidate assassinated in 1968

Pioneer of modern rocketry who launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926

40th President of the United States, 1981–1989

Places (4)

Seward's Icebox — America's largest and most remote state

The Florida Launch Site That Has Carried American Ambitions Into Space Since 1950

The city where Kennedy was killed and the Sun Belt came of age

The Interstate Highway System

The largest public works project in American history

Eras (1)

The ideological standoff between the United States and Soviet Union, 1945–1991

Events (16)

ARPANET and the Birth of the Internet

The Cold War research network that grew into a global communications system

Assassination of JFK

The Murder of a President, Dallas, November 22, 1963

The CIA's Failed Invasion of Cuba and Kennedy's Defining Early Crisis, April 1961

The 11-Month Mission That Defied the Soviet Blockade, 1948–1949

The Democratic Convention that tore a party apart and handed the White House to Nixon

Cuban Missile Crisis

Thirteen days in 1962 when nuclear war became a real possibility

Election of 1968

Nixon's narrow victory amid assassination, riots, and the collapse of the New Deal coalition

Fall of the Berlin Wall

The 1989 night that signaled the end of the Cold War

Iran Hostage Crisis

The 444-Day Captivity That Ended the Carter Presidency, 1979–1981

Iran-Contra Affair

The Reagan administration's secret arms deal that illegally funded Nicaraguan rebels

The "Forgotten War" that established the Cold War's logic of limited conflict, 1950–1953

The Manhattan Project

The secret World War II program that built the atomic bomb

The Miracle on Ice

The 1980 Olympic hockey upset that became a Cold War triumph

The Moon Landing

Apollo 11 and humanity's first steps on another world, July 1969

The Cold War competition between the United States and Soviet Union to conquer space

America's longest 20th-century conflict and the war that broke the postwar consensus, 1955–1975

Documents (7)

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

The 1964 Congressional Authorization That Escalated the Vietnam War

Kennedy's Inaugural Address

Ask not what your country can do for you, 1961

The American Program That Rebuilt Western Europe After World War II

National Security Act of 1947

The law that created the CIA, NSC, and Joint Chiefs — and built the permanent architecture of the Cold War

North Atlantic Treaty

The 1949 alliance document that reversed 150 years of American foreign policy

Pentagon Papers

The leaked Defense Department history that revealed the government had systematically lied about Vietnam

Tear Down This Wall

Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate, 1987

Concepts (11)

America's Cold War strategy to halt the spread of Soviet communism

Nixon and Kissinger's strategy of easing Cold War tensions through direct diplomacy

The anti-communist witch hunt that suppressed dissent and defined postwar American politics

Military-Industrial Complex

Eisenhower's Warning About the Alliance Between Defense Industry and Government Power

The alliance that deterred a war for 40 years — and redefined itself when that war never came

Two Episodes of Anti-Communist Hysteria That Reshaped American Civil Liberties

The Domino Theory

The Cold War premise that communist takeover in one country would trigger a regional chain reaction

Truman Doctrine

The Cold War Policy That Committed America to Containing Communism

U.S.–China Relations

From Open Door to trade war — the relationship that will define the 21st century

U.S.–Soviet Relations

Allies for four years, adversaries for 46 — the rivalry that defined the 20th century

The institution America built, funds, defies, and cannot replace

All Tags

Politics 109 Civil Rights 106 Economy 98 Presidency 93 Military 90 Founding Era 84 Law & Justice 78 Race 72 Foreign Policy 67 Reform 59 Civil War 59 Protest 57 Westward Expansion 56 Slavery 53 Constitution 51 Cold War 49 War 49 Revolution 49 Industry 47 Modern America 43 Women 42 Science & Technology 40 Indigenous 35 Diplomacy 34 Arts & Culture 32 Immigration 28 World War II 27 Media & Press 26 Supreme Court 25 Religion 24 Congress 22 Labor 22 Reconstruction 21 Progressive Era 21 Environment 20 Abolition 20 Exploration 19 Disaster 18 Assassination 15 Gilded Age 13 Colonial America 13 Public Health 10 Finance 9 Sports 8 Education 8 World War I 7 Suffrage 7 Democracy 7 Corruption 6 Prohibition 1