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Richard Nixon and Policy of Dentente
Détente (a French word meaning release from tension) is the name given to a period of improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union that began tentatively in 1971 and took decisive form when President Richard M. Nixon visited the secretary-general of the Soviet Communist party, Leonid I. Brezhnev.
Quote is first tan box by Raymond Garthoff -
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
December 1979 to February 1989. Part of the Cold War, it was fought between Soviet-led Afghan forces against multi-national insurgent groups called the Mujahideen, mostly composed of two alliances – the Peshawar Seven and the Tehran Eight.
"Even during the years of the Cold War, the intense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, we always avoided any direct clash between our civilians and, most certainly, between our military" Vladimir Putin -
Solidarity Movemtn in Poland
a Polish trade union federation that emerged at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-Communist Party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country.
"The fall of the Berlin Wall makes for nice pictures. But it all started in the shipyards." Lech Walesa -
Ronald Regan addresses the National Association of Evangelicals
It referred to communism as "the focus of evil in the modern world," and quickly became known as his "Evil Empire Speech." The speech was delivered at a time when Congress was debating a resolution in support of a "nuclear freeze," a doctrine supported by the Soviet Union that would have prevented the deployment of U.S. cruise and Pershing II Missiles in Europe. -
Strategic Defense Iniative
Use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.
"I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering those nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete." Ronald Reagan -
Summit in Geneva, Switzerland
Between U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The two leaders met for the first time to hold talks on international diplomatic relations and the arms race. -
Reykjavik Summit, Iceland
A summit meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. The talks collapsed at the last minute, but the progress that had been achieved eventually resulted in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. -
Gorbachev, Perestrokia, Glasnost
The CPSU has Gorbachev present his criticism that justifying his policies of perestroika and glasnost are the only solutions to the problems of the Soviet Union. Over Gorbachev’s time in power, perestroika and glasnost were his most important goals. Economic, social, and political aspects of the Soviet Union have been partly implemented due to these two elements which heighten his seriousness of pushing towards his current objective. -
Reagan speech at Brandenberg Gate, West Berlin
The Berlin Wall, referred to by the President, was built by Communists in August 1961 to keep Germans from escaping Communist-dominated East Berlin into Democratic West Berlin. The twelve-foot concrete wall extended for a hundred miles, surrounding West Berlin, and included electrified fences and guard posts. The wall stood as a stark symbol of the decades-old Cold War between the United States and Soviet Russia in which the two politically oppose -
Reagan and Gorbachev sign INF Treaty
The treaty eliminated nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with intermediate ranges, defined as between 500-5,500 km (300-3,400 miles). -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Wall fell is considered to have been 9 November 1989, but the Wall in its entirety was not torn down immediately. Starting that evening and in the days and weeks that followed, people came to the wall with sledgehammers or otherwise hammers and chisels to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts of it in the process and creating several unofficial border crossings. These people were nicknamed "Mauerspechte" (wall woodpeckers). -
Fall of Soviet Union
On the previous day, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned, declaring his office extinct, and handed over the Soviet nuclear missile launching codes to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. That same evening at 7:32 P.M. the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the Russian tricolor.
