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U.S. boycott of 1980 Summer Olympics
The Soviet Invasion of Afganistan in 1979 led Jimmy Carter to demand that the Soviets withdraw or the US will boycott the Summer Olypics about to be held in the USSR. The United States would ask its allies and the rest of the world to also not attend. In total 65 nations did not attend the 1980 Summer Olypics. -
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (“Star Wars”)
A plan proposed by Ronanld Reagan as an attempt to divert nuclear defensive policy from determent to actual defence. The program was critizied as being unrealistic, and had many troubles due to budget cuts. -
Caribbean Basin Initiative
A temporary United States policy to provide aid to several South American/Caribbean nations and guerillas. The program would supply aid by tariff and trade benefits to many nations. -
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Govachev served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. He instituted many democratic and economic reforms. He was the last president of the USSR before its downfall. -
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran-Contra Affair was a scandal during the Reagan Administation to sell arms secretly to Iran, currently subjected to an arms embargo. The United States hoped to fund the Contras, rebels of guatamalo in order to topple the current government.w -
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) ratified
Document signed by both the president of the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear and ground based ballistic missiles. Started as Mikhail Gorbachev's plan to end all nuclear missiles by 2000. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall, which had been created to divide East and West Berlin, had been ordered down as a result of public outcry against it. The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the begining of the reunification movement. -
1st McDonalds opens in Moscow
The very first McDonalds, a famous symbol of American capitialism, had appeared in the Soviet Union. Both critized and praised by many Russians at the time, it was a symbolic change in Soviet policy. -
Germany is reunified
The German reunification was process throughout 1990 were east and west Germany were unitted under a single german state. The process started 2 weeks later after the fall of the Berlin wall in which the president of West Germany called for reunification. -
Boris Yelstin elected President of Russia
Boris Yelstin was the first democractically elected president of Russia. He would reform the economy after the fall of the Soviet Union into a free market. -
Warsaw Pact Disbanded
A pact created to dominate eastern and central Europe was disbanded by Czechoslovak President Václav Havel. At the end of its lifespan it became practically became obsolete as many communist governments in the eastern bloc had been overthrown. -
End of the Soviet Union
Due to many interior issues the Soviet Union was dissolved one day after president Gorbachev resigned. The End of the Soviet Union also marked the end of the cold war.
