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Nikita Khrushchev Visits the USA
On September 15, 1959, Nikita Khrushchev became the first Soviet leader to visit the United States. It was a two week trip during a lull in the Cold War that included summit meetings with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
Berlin Wall Goes Up
On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of East Germany began building a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Germany. It was meant to keep Western “fascists” from entering Eastern Germany. -
Nixon Visits China
Even after a successful Communist revolution, the US never stopped formally recognizing the PRC after the successful communist revolution of 1949. In fact, the two nations were bitter enemies. Nixon seemed like an unlikely candidate to rebuild the connection between the two, but planned to bring peace, and got more. -
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)
USSR President Leonid Brezhnev and USA President Richard Nixon met in Moscow and signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreements, which at the time were the most far-reaching attempts to control nuclear weapons ever. August 1972 the SALT agreements became the foundation for all arms limitation talks. -
Olympic Rivalry: 1972 basketball game
Munich, back then in West Germany, won it’s bid to host the 1972 Summer Olympics. On September 10, the gold medal game between the Soviets and the US played. The Soviets in red, and US in white, the stage was set. At stake not was a gold medal, but issues of international diplomacy. In a way, it ended with the Soviets somewhat cheating.
