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Yalta Conference Cold War Begins
At the end of the World war 2, a conference was held where Germany was divided into 4 economic zones under the control of UK,France,US and USSR. US,UK and France were democracies and they combined their zones to form West Germany. USSR was communist and its zone became East Germany. Both sides felt threatened by the other and started gathering stock piles of weapons. This began the cold war. -
NATO ratified
The allies(UK, France, US and some of their friendly countries formed an alliance called North Atlantic Treaty Organization) They pledged to help each other if attacked. -
Soviets explode first atomic bomb
USSR tested their first nuclear weapon and became an Atomic power like USA. This started a Nuclear weapons race between the two. -
Korean War begins
Even though USA and USSR were not fighting each other directly, they were helping opposite sides in various wars. USA helped democratic South Korea where as USSR helped communist North Korea -
KGB established to counter CIA
Both side had intelligence agencies that sent spies to keep an eye on what the other side was planning. USA had CIA where as USSR had KGB. -
Warsaw Pact formed
Just like NATO, Eastern European communist countries like USSR, Hungary, Poland etc. formed an alliance and pledged to help each other in war. -
1961: August 17 -- Construction of Berlin Wall begins
East and West Germany were seperated a wall to divide the city of Berlin so that democratic and communist people cannot interact. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Both sides had nuclear missles pointed at each other. US had missles setup in the NATO countries that were pointed towards USSR. USSR set up Nuclear missles in CUBA , close to USA and threatened to use them. President JF Kennedy helped to calm the situation. -
North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam
Just like Korea, USSR supported communist North Vietnam where as USA supported democratic South Vietnam. -
President Reagan proposes Strategic Defense Initiative
President Reagan started the Star Wars initiative to point missles from space on to USSR. USSR economy was weak and did not have money left for the citizens due to the large expense on weapons. They could not compete in the star wars initiative. Both sides were competing in sports, space programs, weapons etc. USSR did not have resources for food, housing etc. -
Gorbachev ends economic aid to Soviet satellites
Soviet leader Gorbachev realized that they cannot compete and need to focus on local economy. He stopped help to Warsaw countries and reduced the weapons expense. -
Reagan and Gorbachev resolve to remove all intermediate nuclear missiles from Europe
Both sides agreed to reduce the nuclear missles pointed at each other. The world leaders welcomed this agreement. Cold war was ending. -
Berlin Wall falls
Berlin wall was removed or broken down by the people of East and West Germany so they can reunite and become one part again. -
Germany reunited
This step helped people from both sides to unite. Communist East Germany merged with East to form a united Germany. -
End of Soviet Union Cold War Ends
The countries in the Soviet union broke from the Union to form independent countries. The cold war ended.
