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Berlin Wall Collapses
This was a barrier that was created by the German Democratic Republic that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and East Berlin. -
U.S. Boycotting of 1980 Summer Olympics
President Carter issued an ultimatum saying that if the Soviet did not withdraw their troops from Afghanistan that they would not be sending a team over. The USOC would still be willing to send a team over to Moscow if they saw "spectacular change in the international situation." -
Strategic Defense Initiative
President Reagan proposed this idea to use ground based and space based systems to protect the United States from attack. They were most concerned with being attacked with strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. -
"Carribean Basin Initiative"
A temporary program that the United States initiated which would provide trade and tarriff benefits to the Central American and Carribean countries. The CBERA prevented the United States from extending preferances to the CBI countries that it judged to be under communist rule. -
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Gorbachev was the seventh and last undisputed leader of the Soviet Union. After he graduated from Moscow State University, he became very active in the Communist party. He held many different positions in the Soviet Union's government. -
Iran-Contra Affair
This was a political scandal in the United States in which Israel was supposed to give its weapons to Iran and then the United States would resupply Israel. In trade for the weapons, the United States would get their hostages back. -
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) ratified
A treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union that eliminated nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles. President Ronald Regan met with Soviet's General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in Washington D.C. to sign this treaty. -
1st McDonalds opens in Moscow
McDonald's was a notorious symbol of capitalism and the way that the Russian people accepted it and were so excited about it showed that the Soviet Unions ways were changing. After two years of McDonald's being in Moscow the Soviet Union ceased to exist as a nation and various Soviet republics proclaimed their independence. -
Germany is Reunified
After World War II, Germany was cut into two pieces; the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. Germany is unified when the German Democratic Republic joined in with the Federal Republic of Germany to become one. -
Warsaw Pact is Dissolved
The Warsaw Pact was a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states. It was dissolved for many reasons, one being that the Soviet authorities showed some tenacity in insisting on maintaining the treaty but it was clear that the greatest hostilities animating the organization was internal. -
Boris Yeltsin elected President of Russia
Yeltsin was 60 years old when he became the president of Russia. He was on the rise in the Communist Party. Yeltsin was orriginally a supporter of Gorbachev but he started to criticize his leadership amd ideas for the country. -
End of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Gorbachev resigned to make way for a new "common wealth of independent states" and that was the end of the Soviet Union began. To show the end of the Soviet Union, the Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin and the Russian flag was put up in its place.
