A competition between nations for superiority in the development and accumulation of weapons.

A policy aimed at controlling the spread of communism around the world.

A form of government in which one person is in a ruler of a country who has with total power over his people and usually acquires and maintains that power with force.

A group of individuals chosen by the president to head up of all of the offices, departments and agencies found within the executive branch. These individuals act as advisors to the president and help him carry out his policies and the laws passed by Congress.

The idea that if one key nation in a region fell to control of communists, others would follow one after the other.

A system by which states have attempted to prevent or stop wars. This policy states that when a nation attacks any other nation, its allies will come to its aid. In simple terms, an attack of one ally is an attack on all allies

A political policy of surrendering to the demands of warlike nations

A form of government where the government is controlled by the people primarily through the act of free elections in which the people choose those who represent them in government.

An economic and political system in which a country's trade, businesses and industry are controlled by private owners who compete for a profit, rather than by the government.

An economic and social system envisioned by the nineteenth-century German scholar Karl Marx which states that all means of production are owned equally by all and controlled by the government, usually by a single authoritarian party. This system also includes the belief in a society without different social classes.

An armed conflict between two states which act on the urging or on behalf of other countries that are not directly involved in the hostilities.

When one person or one group has TOTAL control over all aspects of a country and its government. Government regulates nearly every aspect of public and personal life and the personal rights of its citizens are not a concern.

A military alliance of European and North American democracies founded after World War II to strengthen international ties between democratic countries, especially the United States and Europe, against the threat of the Soviet Union and the spread of communism.

A military alliance of communist nations in Eastern Europe. Organized in 1955 this was a response to the formation of the democratic Western Powers alliance.

In Russian this means, “openness” and “reconstruction.” The policy of Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s that attempted to loosen control over the Soviet people and to allow for more freedom. This policy eventually led to the end of communism in that country.

A United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism around the world.

The practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of different countries to prevent or revolve difficulties that may arise.

The name for the boundary dividing Communist Eastern Europe from a Democratic Western Europe from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1992. The term refers to the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and the countries it controlled from open contact with the West and its allied states.

The widespread fear in the United States that communism was overtaking the country.