About This Quiz
For more than four decades, the world lived in a state of anxiety and tension as two great military powers, bristling with devastating nuclear weapons, stared each other down. Test your knowledge of the Cold War with this quiz.The Vietnam, Korean and Soviet-Afghan war are all examples of proxy wars.
A spy from the KGB, the Soviet security and intelligence agency, helped the two sides communicate, defusing the situation at Checkpoint Charlie when the tanks withdrew.
Strategic Air Command was disbanded and its assets and responsibilities were distributed to other military organizations in 1992.
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Other members of the Warsaw Pact included Hungary, Bulgaria, East Germany and Poland.
Solidarity's principles spread to other communist nations, and its success strengthened other anti-communist groups in those nations.
The Soviets convicted Powers of espionage but eventually released him as part of a prisoner exchange.
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The Gulf of Tonkin incident, which may have been exaggerated by the U.S. Defense Department, led Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing intervention in Asian countries threatened by communism.
MiG-21s scored numerous victories in Vietnam, Syria, Angola and other proxy wars.
The checkpoints at the Berlin Wall were officially opened in 1989. It was demolished piece by piece throughout 1989 and 1990 by both Germans with chisels and hammers and official demolition crews.
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Large numbers of Minuteman missiles were built to deter Soviet nuclear attacks with the fear of a devastating retaliation.
Markov was injected with ricin by a man holding an umbrella.
"Detente" is a French word that means "relaxation."
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The Iron Curtain was a symbolic division between Warsaw Pact and NATO states, but it was also a physical border marked by fences, walls and guard posts.
"Stasi" is an abbreviation for Staatssicherheit, which means "state security."
Truman's speech to Congress declaring the Truman Doctrine on March 12, 1947, is often considered the historical starting point of the Cold War.
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Glasnost means "publicity" in the sense of making government decisions and operations public knowledge.
Elton John toured the Soviet Union in 1979.
The Cuban missile crisis began when U.S. surveillance photos showed Soviet ships sending missiles to nearby Cuba.
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The missile gap was based on exaggerated numbers and used primarily for political purposes.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a massive blunder for the U.S.
Oswald was a communist sympathizer, but we'll probably never know if he truly acted alone in carrying out the assassination.
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Eisenhower's domino theory is what led him to send U.S. military advisors to Vietnam.
Operation CHAOS used undercover agents to infiltrate student groups.
The Cheyenne Mountain Complex was built under 2,000 feet of solid granite.
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The exchange of table tennis teams was known as "ping pong diplomacy" and eventually led to President Richard Nixon's visit to China.
Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" was released in 1964 at the height of the Cold War.
The Berlin Airlift rendered the Soviet blockade of West Berlin impotent, and Joseph Stalin called it off in 1949.
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Bombings, shootings and even a faked plane crash were to be blamed on Cuban nationals to drum up support for a U.S. war on Cuba.
The Battle of Inchon was a major turning point in the Korean War.
During the Prague Spring, Czechoslovakian civilians resisted the Soviet occupation through mostly nonviolent methods.
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