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U.S. boycott of 1980 Summer Olympics
The U.S. decision to boycott the 1980 Olympic games had no impact on Soviet policy in Afghanistan. Russian troops did not withdraw until nearly a decade later, but it did tarnish the prestige of the games in Moscow. It was not the first time that Cold War diplomacy insinuated itself into international sports. -
“Caribbean Basin Initiative”
President Ronald Reagan announces a new program of economic and military assistance to nations of the Caribbean designed to "prevent the overthrow of the governments in the region" by the "brutal and totalitarian" forces of communism. The Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) was part of the Reagan administration's effort to curb what it perceived to be the dangerous rise in communist activity in Central America and the Caribbean. -
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (“Star Wars”)
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, was a program under President Ronald Reagan. The intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. With the tension of the Cold War looming overhead, the Strategic Defense Initiative was the United States’ response to possible nuclear attacks from afar. -
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Gorbachev quickly set about consolidating his personal power in the Soviet leadership. His primary domestic goal was to resuscitate the stagnant Soviet economy after its years of drift and low growth during Leonid Brezhnev's tenure in power (1964–82). -
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran Contra Affair began as an internal U.S. confrontation between Ronald Reagan and the Democratic Congress. In 1984, the Boland Amendment passed, which said that the CIA and Department of Defense could not give militaristic aid (specifically in Nicaragua). The conflict began in 1985, while Iran and Iraq were at war with each other. -
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) ratified
The Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was a major milestone in arms control. For the first time in history the U.S. and Soviet Union agreed to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons. The INF required the destruction of both nations’ ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 300 and 3,400 miles, their launchers and related support structures. The treaty included an on-site inspection regime for the European region. By the spring of 1991, nearly three-tho -
Berlin Wall Collapses
More than 2 million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in a celebration that was, one journalist wrote, “the greatest street party in the history of the world.” People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall–they became known as “mauerspechte,” or “wall woodpeckers”—while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section. Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945. “Only today,” one Berliner spray-painted -
1st McDonalds opens in Moscow
The Soviet Union's first McDonald's fast food restaurant opens in Moscow. Throngs of people line up to pay the equivalent of several days' wages for Big Macs, shakes, and french fries.The appearance of this notorious symbol of capitalism and the enthusiastic reception it received from the Russian people were signs that times were changing in the Soviet Union. -
Germany is reunified
A strong drive for reunification developed in East and West Germany in 1990. In East Germany, conservative parties supporting reunification won the elections, and the new government and the force of events proceeded to dismantle the state. -
Warsaw Pact is dissolved
"When you deprive the Warsaw Treaty of its military essence, it becomes more or less an empty shell," said the Polish Foreign Minister, Kryzstof Skubiszewski, at a news conference where representatives of the Soviet Union were notably absent. In the last year the Warsaw Pact had effectively ceased to function as its Eastern European members -- Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and, until recently, East Germany -- cut themselves loose from Moscow one by one. -
Boris Yelstin elected President of Russia
For Yeltsin, his election as leader of a republic of 150 million people stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean is a singular moment in an astonishing political odyssey. From provincial Communist bureaucrat, he rose to membership in the party's ruling Politburo as an ardent backer of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's reform drive and self-proclaimed destroyer of political practice. -
End of the Soviet Union
As the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The United States rejoiced as its formidable enemy was brought to its knees, thereby ending the Cold War which had hovered over these two superpowers since the end of World War II.
