A Child of the Cold War: Terms to Know Quiz

Answer: Following the Russian Revolution

The first Red Scare, from approximately 1918-1921, occurred following the successful Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. It was a time of great upheaval: a deadly flu epidemic, a wave of strikes, hyper-inflation, deportation of foreign-born citizens, race riots, and the beginning of women's suffrage and Prohibition, among others.

There were new political groups, anarchists, bomb plots, and the newspapers that reported all this as "threats to American society". The outcome of WWI had brought a lot of change to the U.S. already, and many people believed a revolution would be forthcoming at any time.

Answer: Winston Churchill

On March 5, 1946, at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill delivered his famous Iron Curtain speech. "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." His speech, considered by many to herald the opening of the Cold War, also warned of "Communist fifth columns" that were operating in Europe to spread ideology. President Truman, who was in attendance at the speech, was not so sure that the United States wanted to be involved in the closer, "special relationship" that Churchill spoke about.

The British had been valuable allies, but so had the Soviet Union. Stalin called the speech "warmongering", and the three allies that had been so close at the end of WWII were drawn into a different kind of war - the Cold War.

A year later President Truman would make a proposal to Congress that would change everything.

Answer: Truman Doctrine

On March 12, 1947, the Truman Doctrine, which outlined the foreign policy of the United States at the beginning of the Cold War, was presented to Congress. The United States would provide political, military, and economic assistance to any country under threat from communist forces.

In particular, he asked Congress for aid for the Greek government, because he believed the Soviet Union was supporting the Communist party there. There was also concern about possible Soviet expansion into Turkey and even their potential control of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.

It would no longer be prudent to stay isolated from European conflict that did not directly involve the United States. The Truman Doctrine, the first of the U.S. containment policies, attempted to prevent a domino affect. If Communism was successful in one country, it would lead to the spread of it to others.

Answer: Teletype machines

On June 20, 1963, after the tension following the Cuban Missile Crisis had eased somewhat, the Moscow-Washington hotline was established and was referred to as the "red telephone". In practice, however, it wasn't telephones, but other types of technology were used.

The first hotline, the teletype (telex) machine was eventually replaced first by the telecopier, and later by electronic mail.

Answer: Duck

In 1951 the Federal Civil Defense Administration issued a film called "Duck and Cover" to be shown in schools. Hosted by Bert The Turtle, the film was aimed at teaching children how to duck and cover. The point of the movie was to teach children to immediately assume a prone position after seeing a nuclear flash.

Not only that, but they were to make an attempt to cover exposed skin (to prevent burns) and be sure to NOT run toward the flash because the slow-moving flash wave would cause windows to explode and shred anyone who was too close. If there was a warning given before the attack, people were instructed to find the closest Civil Defense Shelter.

Answer: Any of the answers is correct.

The purpose of the fallout shelter was to protect inhabitants from exposure to radiation. The shelter being underground and made of concrete helped with the reduction of gamma radiation. Because the danger of radiation decreases with time, people were taught how to live in fallout shelters for days and weeks. Of course, the shelters had to be stocked with medical supplies and provisions. I remember watching movies that explained how to make food, how to dispose of waste, how to tend to burn victims, how to dispose of a dead body, and how to assist in childbirth in a fallout shelter.

They were part of the health curriculum at my school.

Answer: Nuclear fallout

Following a nuclear blast, radioactive particles "fall out" of the sky, and could take the form of black rain. Radioactive particles are a very dangerous form of radioactive contamination. Many symptoms can develop, even months and years after the initial exposure, such as radioactive sickness, cancer, birth deformities, and death.

Nuclear sharing was the Cold War practice of the U.S. of sharing weapons with NATO allies. Nuclear winter is defined as a long period where fallout and other particles linger in the air and block out sunlight. This, of course, would make food production difficult. Nuclear weapons are explosive devices that generate enormous heat and destructive power through nuclear fission.

Answer: Arms Race

In an arms race, parties compete to see who can have the best (and biggest) armed forces, the most weapons, and superior military technology. The first arms race is said to have occurred in the late nineteenth century when France and Russia seemed to challenge Britain's superiority, creating friction over colonial expansion. There was not a war at the time, there were separate agreements reached between the countries. In 1897 Germany began to challenge Britain's naval superiority, and the arms race between the two countries began soon after failed negotiations between the two countries. After Russia's very poor showing in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) senior figures in the British government and military doubted whether Russia had the internal social cohesion to fight a difficult major European war and Britain aligned itself much more closely with France (and later also Russia).

That did not, however, cause the powder keg to explode: the system of alliances (Germany and Austria-Hungary vs. Britain, France, and Russia) did that after the Archduke was killed. The arms race that had taken place before the assassination just enabled rapid mobilization and meant that for much of World War 1 the two sides were very evenly matched overall. The first arms *limitation* treaty was signed in 1921. The arms race was one of the key features of the Cold War, and led to huge military budgets and the stockpiling of vast numbers of weapons.

Answer: Communism

Karl Marx, the founder of Communism, saw class conflict as the driving force in history; he believed there was a series of class struggles between the ruling class and the working class, or the proletariat. One day, he stated, the proletariat would rise up and rebel (Phase 1), and would eventually establish a classless society, where the means of production and distribution would be owned in common and the state would wither away. Marx did believe that a period of Socialism, or government control (Phase 2), would have to exist before the classless society (Phase 3) could come into existence, primarily because most of the members of the proletariat would have no experience of how to effectively control the means of production and distribution.

At the time of the Cold War, the Russians, saw themselves as still in Phase 2 of the revolution, showing no sign of moving to Phase 3. I know this is an oversimplification of Marx's theory, but this is an attempt to help a child understand Marx's theory.

Answer: Minuteman

Announced on February 27, 1958, the Minuteman program, officially known as LGM-30A Minuteman-I, began when Congress officially gave the Air Force the nod to begin the research and development of the missile. Boeing Aircraft Company won approval to be the prime contractor of the program. With the Cold War intensifying, the project was assigned "Highest National Priority" by the Department of Defense in September of 1959. Using a mobile-based system, such as the railroad network, was considered; however, it was decided to deploy the missiles in dispersed hardened silos spread across the central United States. By 1965 there were four permanent bases in the U.S. Each base had a stock of 150 missiles.

The Minuteman missile was one component of what was called the nuclear triad; the other parts were the Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile, and nuclear weapons carried by long-range strategic bombers.