The Cold War Essay - The Modern Idiocracy in International Relations With Russia

t the end of the Second World War, the Cold War had begun. The world lay divided between two great superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. It would not be a conventional war, with the two sides never directly fighting; instead, it would be an ideological battle between communism and capitalism—the East versus the West. The resulting struggle for ideological influence and power would be seen throughout the world, with small regional conflicts being turned into proxy wars, where the two sides would back opposing groups to advance their own agendas.

Both sides would stockpile nuclear weapons, with questions over how to use, control, and eliminate them becoming central to the conflict. Propaganda, espionage, and psychological warfare would become the norm, with a rivalry for technological superiority culminating in the space race. From Stalin to Reagan, from the CIA to the KGB, from the Berlin Wall to Hiroshima and Chernobyl, this is the story of the Cold War.

Marx

In the 19th century, a great industrial revolution swept over the world, introducing machine tools, steam power, and new manufacturing processes that would transform Western nations into the most powerful on earth. For those able to control these technological breakthroughs, wealth and prosperity awaited, but it would often come at the expense of the workers who faced poor health, terrible working conditions, and poverty.

Taking note of the growing divide between rich and poor was German-born philosopher Karl Marx, who believed that this economic inequality could only lead to revolution. The workers, long exploited by the rich, would rise up to replace capitalism with communism—a system where the means of production would be commonly owned, and the extremes of wealth and poverty would disappear. His theories would become known as Marxism.

The Rise of Communism

Communism eventually emerged in Russia, where decades of discontent and horrendous failures in the First World War led to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, led by Vladimir Lenin. The Bolsheviks established a one-party state, or dictatorship of the proletariat, with Lenin at its head. This dictatorship safeguarded the revolution using any means possible, including propaganda, military action, and terror. The economy was nationalized, political opponents were outlawed, and the Communist Party soon had absolute control over the country. In 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was created from the remnants of the Russian Empire.

Communism found an ideological opponent in the West, where capitalism remained the dominant system. However, capitalism was failing as markets were hindered by price fixing and protectionism. Great empires denied their subjects political freedom, and the world had just experienced the worst conflict in history, the Great War, fought among the world's leading capitalist powers. American President Woodrow Wilson attempted to address these flaws by encouraging political self-determination, economic liberalization, and creating a collective security organization—the League of Nations—to deter aggressors and prevent another war. Wilson's vision fell apart when the United States refused to join the League, colonial empires continued undeterred, and the world economy fell into turmoil during the Great Depression. The League of Nations also failed to stop the aggression of fascist regimes in Italy, Germany, and Japan, leading to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

In contrast, the Soviet Union appeared more successful in achieving its goals. Lenin's successor, Joseph Stalin, secured his role by purging political rivals and transformed the nation from a backward agricultural society into a modern industrial superpower. The human cost was significant, with a massive expansion of the Gulag labor camps, the use of slave labor, the murder of dissidents, and a largely man-made famine that killed over 10 million people. However, much of this was unknown to the outside world. What was seen was a state that maintained full employment during the Great Depression, industrialized quickly to resist a Nazi invasion, and ended the Second World War with control over almost half of Europe. Communist support was growing throughout the Western world, and to many, a future built on democracy and capitalism was anything but certain.

The Second World War

Despite their differences, the Soviet Union was forced to ally with both the British and the Americans during the Second World War to fight against the Axis powers. However, as the war progressed, highly different wartime experiences laid the foundations for future conflicts. The USSR fought a largely defensive war, with a brutal Nazi invasion wiping out entire villages. Infrastructure and industry were destroyed, vast portions of agricultural land were ravaged, and Soviet casualties amounted to almost 27 million. Stalin pressed his British and American allies to open a second front in Europe, but they continually delayed doing so, leaving the Red Army to hold down up to 80% of Germany's divisions until the invasion of Normandy in 1944. For Stalin, it was evidence that the West cared little for Soviet lives.

The United States had a very different experience of the war. Only four hundred thousand Americans would die, less than two percent of Soviet losses, with the only major attack on U.S. territory being the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. economy thrived during the war, with unemployment dropping to two percent, and GDP nearly doubling. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor caused a significant shift in the American psyche. As a traditionally isolationist nation, the attack showed that they were no longer safe from hostile states armed with modern technology. A greater international presence was therefore needed to protect America and her interests.

A New World

As the war drew to a close, both powers sought to increase their own security against future attacks. For the United States, this meant establishing a collective security organization, the United Nations, to deter future aggressors. The revival of the global economy was also key to creating a more stable future, with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund being established. President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited Stalin to all three of these organizations, but the Soviet leader only accepted membership to the United Nations, seeing the other two as attempts to preserve and promote capitalism. For the Soviet Union, post-war security could only be gained by installing pro-Soviet governments across Eastern Europe, creating a buffer zone against the West. It also required stripping Germany of its military and autonomy, as well as forcing it to pay massive reparations so that it would be too weak to start another war. However, when Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, he was succeeded by his vice president, Harry S. Truman, who was far less willing to give in to Soviet demands.

Stalin's actions in Europe, particularly his occupation of Poland, had shown him to be a tyrant. He had encouraged the Polish Home Army, a potential rival, to rise up in Warsaw against the Nazis, only to sit by and watch them be slaughtered. Only then did he allow the Red Army to attack, ensuring there was little political opposition left. At the Potsdam Conference of July 1945, Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation, with the capital Berlin being divided in the same way. Each occupier would be entitled to reparations from their own zone, giving Stalin the funds he needed while protecting the valuable industrial areas of Western Germany.

However, in resorting to such a blatant division of the country instead of agreeing on one unified approach, the Allies had ensured the future division of Europe itself. As British Prime Minister Winston Churchill would state,

"an iron curtain has descended across the continent".

The Atomic Bomb

During the Potsdam Conference, Truman received word that American scientists working on the Manhattan Project had successfully carried out the first test of a nuclear bomb. Truman revealed this news to Stalin, attempting to intimidate him into giving further concessions. However, the Soviet dictator was undeterred. Unknown to Truman, Stalin had known about the Manhattan Project since the early 1940s, thanks to an extensive spy network within the United States. Despite this, the bomb presented Truman with a unique opportunity; he could now bring the war with Japan to a quick end, denying Stalin the opportunity to expand his influence in the East. The decision was made to bomb the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to the Japanese surrender shortly afterward. While Stalin made some gains in East Asia, he was denied any role in the occupation of Japan. Unlike Germany, this meant Japan's future would be exclusively shaped by the United States. For now, it appeared that the growth of communism had been stopped in Asia.

The Truman Doctrine

After the war ended, attempts at cooperation quickly ceased. Stalin had tried to secure his southern border by delaying the removal of Soviet troops from Iran and pressuring Turkey into giving him control over the Turkish Straits. However, with the war over, Truman had no reason to give in to Soviet demands. The United Nations was called in to deal with the crisis, and Truman sent the American Sixth Fleet to the Eastern Mediterranean as a warning. Stalin backed down, but Truman was now keen to take pre-emptive action against future Soviet expansionism. He announced the Truman Doctrine, sending military aid to Greece and Turkey. This doctrine was based on the policy of containment, the idea that if Soviet expansionism could be contained for long enough, then the inherent flaws of the Soviet system would cause it to fall apart. The Cold War had begun.

McCarthyism

Since the end of the Second World War, communist ideology had gained millions of supporters in the Western world. In Britain, communists won two seats in the 1945 general election, and the Italian Communist Party reached 2.3 million members in 1947. Even the American Communist Party saw success, boasting 32,000 members in 1950. Communism was perceived as posing a very credible threat to the Western world, with the possibility that Stalin could gain control through popular support alone. Paranoia began to spread in the United States, especially after several high-profile Soviet spies were uncovered in the West. Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy initiated an anti-communist crusade in the 1950s, claiming that there were spies and traitors within the US government itself. In the trials that followed, hundreds were investigated and interrogated on weak evidence, with the accused often losing their jobs and being blacklisted from future employment.

Along with McCarthy, many used anti-communist crusades to launch their political careers, including future President Richard Nixon. McCarthyism soon became a nationwide phenomenon, with American institutions, including Hollywood, blacklisting suspected communists. It was during this time that another future president, Ronald Reagan, played a leading role, providing names of potential communists as an FBI informant.

The CIA

To help stop the spread of communism, the CIA was set up in September 1947 and would operate on the basis of plausible deniability. This meant that operations could be carried out in a way in which top officials could deny all involvement, allowing the U.S. to conduct actions abroad that would be deemed unacceptable at home. One of the CIA's first missions was to prevent the election of the highly popular Italian Communist Party in 1948. They secretly funded the Christian Democrats and other non-communist parties while also organizing a massive anti-communist propaganda campaign involving 10 million letters, books, and radio broadcasts. The communists were defeated at the polls, with the CIA continuing to influence Italian politics for the next 24 years.

The Marshall Plan

To address the growth of communism in Europe, the Marshall Plan was introduced in 1948, sending financial aid to help with post-war reconstruction. The idea was that by improving the economic situation in Europe, people would be less likely to adopt communism. The plan provided almost $13 billion in financial aid, which is equivalent to $130 billion today. It aimed to encourage economic integration and the promotion of free markets.

Stalin, fearing that the aid would weaken his control over Eastern Europe, forbade his satellite states from taking part in the Marshall Plan. American policymakers quickly realized that the revival of Germany was key to sustaining economic growth in Europe. However, this directly contradicted Soviet goals, as they had made it clear that Germany was to be kept weak and divided to prevent it from posing another threat.

Knowing that the Soviets would never allow German rehabilitation, in early 1948, the U.S., U.K., and France began making plans for an independent West German state.

The Berlin Blockade

With the West rallying against communism, Stalin made attempts to secure control in Eastern Europe, soon to be known as the Eastern Bloc. In September 1947, he set up the Communist Information Bureau, or Cominform. This organization gave him greater control over the satellite states and the ability to enforce compliance and uniformity within the international communist movement.

In February 1948, Stalin sponsored a communist coup in Czechoslovakia, eliminating the last non-communist government in Eastern Europe. It marked the first of many instances where the Soviet Union resorted to force to maintain control over the Eastern Bloc. In retaliation against Western plans to create an independent West German state, Stalin initiated the Berlin Blockade on June 24, 1948, stopping all ground access to the city in an attempt to drive out the Americans, British, and French. Truman quickly responded by starting the Berlin Airlift, delivering supplies to the city for 15 months and forcing Stalin to end the blockade. With tensions high, the U.S. and its allies established an independent West German state, the Federal Republic of Germany. The Soviets responded the following month by creating the German Democratic Republic in the East. To create a united front against Soviet expansionism, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was created in 1949, bringing together the U.S., Canada, and most of Western Europe in a defensive pact against the Soviet Union.

The Cold War Comes to Asia

The Second World War fundamentally changed power dynamics in Asia. The European colonial powers, economically exhausted and militarily weakened by the Japanese, had lost all prestige and credibility in the region, leading to a surge of nationalist movements. Japan itself underwent drastic changes during its seven years of American occupation under the supervision of General Douglas MacArthur. A new Japanese constitution was created, formally renouncing war, forbidding the maintenance of an armed forces, and laying the foundations of parliamentary democracy. The economy underwent a rapid recovery program to reduce the appeal of communism. Education was improved, women were granted equal rights, and labor laws were enacted, all stimulating economic growth in the region. The situation changed drastically when Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Zedong took power in 1949, establishing the People's Republic of China. Mao soon signed a defensive pact with Stalin, known as the Sino-Soviet Treaty. The communist victory came as a complete surprise to both superpowers and quickly brought the Cold War to Southeast Asia, with various post-colonial independence movements feeling the consequences.

Initially, Truman worked to support these movements in line with American ideals of self-determination. Truman granted independence to the United States' own colonial possession, the Philippines, in 1946. He encouraged his European allies to do the same, with Britain granting independence to India, Pakistan, Burma, and Salon (modern-day Sri Lanka) in the late 1940s. Although reluctant, the Dutch also bowed to American pressure, granting independence to Indonesia in 1949. However, the French colony of Indochina posed a problem for the United States. The French refused to surrender the colony, and the leader of the Vietnamese independence movement, Ho Chi Minh, was a communist veteran. After attempts at neutrality, Truman pledged military aid to the French puppet regime in Vietnam, hoping it would allow France to spend more on domestic post-war issues. Faced with the prospect of American military intervention, Ho Chi Minh traveled to Beijing and Moscow, receiving recognition from both communist powers. Mao, in particular, was keen to help, sending weapons and providing advice so that he could be seen taking a leading role in the anti-colonial struggle.

The Korean War

As a former Japanese colony, Korea had been divided along the 38th parallel since the end of the Second World War, with the Soviets occupying the north and the Americans occupying the south. Although both sides had pledged to work toward an independent unified Korea, any attempt at cooperation had been halted once the Cold War began to escalate. Both sides had oppressive dictators in power, Kim Il Sung in the north and Syngman Rhee in the south, both desperate for Korean reunification. However, Korea was strategically unimportant for either side to devote significant attention and resources, especially with the U.S. withdrawing forces in the late 1940s to reinforce their positions in Japan and the Philippines. Things suddenly changed in January 1950 when Stalin, encouraged by the victory of the Chinese communists, gave his approval for Kim Il-sung to invade the south. The attack disregarded the 38th parallel, a boundary established by the United Nations, and it was correctly suspected that the Soviets were behind the aggression. While the term "domino theory" would not be popularized for another few years, American politicians were already concerned that Asia would experience a string of communist revolutions if they failed to halt the spread of communism in Korea.

After initial defeats for the South Koreans, a United Nations task force led by American General Douglas MacArthur managed to push the North Koreans all the way back to the Chinese border. However, Mao responded by sending 300,000 Chinese troops to assist the North, driving MacArthur's forces back and leading to a stalemate that would last for the rest of the war. The conflict dragged on for three years, with the armistice of July 1953 leaving no clear victory for either side. The border between the two Koreas hardly shifted at all, and the loss of life totaled over two million. Importantly, the Korean War demonstrated that communism could be contained, influencing the thinking behind future conflicts, especially in Vietnam. It also set a precedent that, no matter how intense proxy conflicts became, the use of nuclear weapons would never be justified. Despite pressure from the military, Truman refused to consider their use, and when it became apparent that General MacArthur had different ideas, Truman fired him. This precedent became especially important as the size and number of nuclear weapons began to grow.

The Nuclear Arms Race

The Cold War was a unique conflict as both sides possessed the destructive power to wipe out humanity. The United States began the Cold War with a nuclear monopoly, and Harry Truman, to this day, remains the only man to have ever ordered a nuclear attack. Despite this, Truman was keen to regulate the use of nuclear weapons. In 1946, he proposed that all such weapons, along with their means of production, should be turned over to the United Nations. However, this plan fell through, and on August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union managed to test its own atomic bomb using research stolen from the West.

Truman responded by accelerating the production of atomic weapons, as letting the Soviet nuclear program catch up would be a massive psychological blow. On January 31, 1950, he announced the development of a super bomb, later known as a thermonuclear or hydrogen bomb. It theoretically would be a thousand times more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, it soon became obvious that there could never be a rational use for such weapons. This became clear on March 1, 1954, when the most powerful American nuclear device ever tested, codenamed Castle Bravo, was detonated in the Pacific. The blast had a yield of 15 megatons, triple what was predicted, with radioactive fallout spreading for hundreds of miles, contaminating 23 members of a Japanese fishing boat. The test set off radiation detectors around the globe, raising serious questions over the ecological impact of a nuclear war. While the test was shocking to leaders worldwide, the new American President, war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower, was keen to make good use of the American nuclear arsenal. Unlike Truman, he had looked for ways to use nuclear weapons during the final months of the Korean War. When Mao began attacking the islands of Quemoy and Matsu in 1954, Eisenhower used nuclear threats to end the conflict. In 1955, he stated,

"In any combat when these things can be used on strictly military targets for strictly military purposes, I can see no reason why they shouldn't be used just exactly as you would use a bullet or anything else."

Throughout his presidency, Eisenhower insisted on preparing only for an all-out nuclear war, believing it was the best way to ensure that a nuclear war would never occur. Limited wars could escalate, but no rational person would ever initiate total destruction. However, this view was disturbing to many, including his successor John F. Kennedy, who was shocked to discover that the only war plan Eisenhower had left him consisted of the simultaneous use of over 3,000 nuclear weapons against all communist countries.

Khrushchev

Eisenhower found his match in Nikita Khrushchev, the new Soviet leader who gained power after Stalin's death in 1953. Khrushchev created the Warsaw Pact to counter the growing power of NATO, forming an alliance between the USSR and its Eastern European satellites. The secret police, little more than organized thugs, were brought under the control of a new and professional intelligence agency, the KGB, tasked with managing internal security and conducting espionage abroad. In February 1956, Khrushchev made a revolutionary speech at the 20th Party Congress, revealing and denouncing Stalin's crimes. He implemented a policy of destalinization, vowing to decentralize power and reduce the use of terror. Statues of Stalin were torn down across the empire, giving hope to reformers in Eastern Europe. Nationalist riots erupted in Poland, leading to the return of Władysław Gomułka, a victim of Stalin's purges, to power. This inspired riots in Hungary, with their prime minister announcing plans to leave the Warsaw Pact, become a neutral country, and appeal to the United Nations for help. However, Khrushchev's response showed he was not as progressive as he appeared. He sent the Red Army to crush the rebels in Hungary, resulting in the deaths of twenty thousand Hungarians. The prime minister and other rebel leaders were arrested and executed. Khrushchev proved to be a provocative and unpredictable leader, known for emotional outbursts, such as allegedly banging his shoe on a table during the 1960 United Nations General Assembly. Despite being behind the United States in military technology, the USSR continued to advance its nuclear arsenal under Khrushchev. They launched the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on August 21, 1957, and later that year, on October 4th, they launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite. This caused a panic in the United States, leading to the creation of NASA and initiating a decade-long space race.

Feeling confident, Khrushchev attempted to resolve the Berlin issue in 1958 by issuing an ultimatum to the Western powers to withdraw their forces from West Berlin. When they failed to do so, he considered allowing the East German government to control access to the city. However, fearing nuclear war, he ultimately let the deadlines pass. In the negotiations that followed, Khrushchev won a personal victory—an invitation to visit the United States in September 1959. The visit, though bizarre, did not result in substantial agreements. However, it gave hope for future cooperation. This optimism did not last long, as on May 1, 1960, Russian air defenses shot down an American U-2 spy plane flying over Soviet territory. The incident led to strained relations, with Khrushchev dramatically withdrawing from a Paris summit later that year. When Eisenhower left office the following year, Soviet-American relations had reached an all-time low.

The Third World

Starting in the 1950s, Western observers began categorizing the world into three groups. The United States and its allies comprised the first world, with the Soviet Union, China, and their allies making up the second world. The term "third world" referred to non-aligned countries, although it quickly became a catch-all term for any country that was poor, undeveloped, or a former colony. With the Cold War reaching a stalemate in Europe, both powers sought to expand their influence and power in the third world, often with disastrous results for those caught in the crossfire.

For the United States, keeping developing nations friendly was crucial for accessing their resources, especially in the Middle East where oil was needed for economic and military needs. Khrushchev initiated campaigns of diplomacy and trade to gain support in the developing world, capitalizing on deep-seated hatred of the West in many countries that had endured centuries of Western colonialism. The CIA played a significant role in aligning these countries with American interests. Between 1949 and 1952, the CIA's personnel increased tenfold, overseas bases grew from 7 to 47, and the annual budget expanded from $4.7 million to $82 million. The CIA orchestrated a coup in 1953 against the Prime Minister of Iran, who had nationalized the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The pro-Western autocrat, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was installed, leading to anti-Western sentiment in the region. The Shah was overthrown in 1979, and a radical Islamic anti-Western government replaced him, taking 52 American hostages during the chaos. A similar story unfolded in Guatemala, where President Jacob Arbenz's attempt to nationalize the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company led to a CIA-initiated coup in 1954. Arbenz was toppled, and an unpopular military dictatorship was installed in his place. The CIA sometimes targeted leaders who posed no threat to American interests. In the Republic of Congo, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was targeted for assassination in 1960 after accepting Soviet assistance in suppressing a mutiny. Though the assassination failed, pro-American forces deposed and murdered Lumumba in 1961, installing a pro-Western military dictator. Despite contradictions with American ideals of democracy and self-determination, U.S. officials prioritized the containment of communism, leading the CIA to support pro-Western dictators worldwide. The CIA operated with almost no congressional oversight until the 1970s.

The Suez Crisis

Despite the overwhelming power of the two Cold War giants, some third-world leaders found ways to profit by playing the first and second worlds against each other. Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser was able to do this in the mid-1950s, convincing the Americans to fund the construction of the Aswan High Dam project while also buying weapons from pro-Soviet Czechoslovakia. However, the Czechoslovakian arms deal triggered American anxieties, as did Nasser's recognition of the People's Republic of China. The U.S. decided to cease funding the dam entirely, but Nasser quickly secured funding from the Soviet Union. In retaliation against the West, he nationalized the Suez Canal, an internationally owned waterway allowing travel from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. Fearful of losing access to the Middle East, Britain and France joined with Israel to launch a military invasion of Egypt. To their surprise, Eisenhower condemned the attack, threatening economic sanctions, as he had not been consulted, and the invasion risked offending the entire Arab world. Khrushchev also condemned the invasion, threatening the invaders with rocket weapons. Under pressure from both sides, Britain and France were forced into an embarrassing retreat, bringing an end to their roles as major world powers.

In the end, the only winner was Nasser. He managed to keep the canal, protect his country from colonial powers, and secure his place as the leader of Arab nationalism, all while having both superpowers vie for his approval. The Suez Crisis spurred America to take a greater role in the Middle East, leading to the establishment of the Eisenhower Doctrine the following year. This doctrine formalized the ongoing commitment, promising military and economic aid to anti-communist regimes in the Middle East, with both superpowers continuing to interfere around the world.

The Berlin Wall

In 1961, a new President, John F. Kennedy, came to power. Wanting to take advantage of Kennedy's inexperience, Khrushchev met him in Vienna that same year for yet another attempt to gain control of Berlin. He reissued his 1958 ultimatum, giving the President six months to vacate the city. However, just like his predecessor, Kennedy was unwilling to let American credibility be challenged. He refused the demands, asking Congress to increase the defense budget by 3.2 billion dollars and for a further 207 million dollars to create fallout shelters in preparation for a nuclear attack. The meeting with Khrushchev proved tough for the new president, with Kennedy later recalling that it was the worst thing in my life; he savaged me. However, Khrushchev's bravado was masking his own insecurities. There had been a staggering number of defections from East Germany since 1949, around 2.7 million, most of which had escaped through West Berlin. Securing the city was vital to the survival of the German Democratic Republic, as defections, usually of the highly trained and educated, were growing by the day.

With the Americans unwilling to budge, Khrushchev saw no option but to authorize the construction of the Berlin Wall on August 12, 1961. It created a physical barrier between East and West Berlin, starting as a barbed wire fence and soon turning into a massive concrete block wall, 12 feet high and nearly 100 miles long, complete with armed guards and minefields. It was an embarrassment for communists everywhere, as Kennedy would state in 1963:

"Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in—to prevent them from leaving us."

The Cuban Missile Crisis

But Kennedy was having difficulties of his own. Cuba had been taken over by communist revolutionaries. In the 1950s, Cuba was taken over by communist revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. They began freeing Cuba from its economic and political reliance on the U.S., nationalizing American-owned banks, oil refineries, and plantations. However, Castro turned to the Soviet Union for help, prompting President Eisenhower to place a trade embargo on Cuba and attempt to undermine Castro through CIA plots. Kennedy inherited the Cuban situation and, in 1961, initiated the Bay of Pigs invasion, using CIA-trained Cuban exiles to try to topple Castro. The invasion was a failure, leading Khrushchev to believe he needed to protect Castro by sending nuclear missiles to Cuba in 1962. Khrushchev thought the U.S. would have little ground to oppose him, as the U.S. had stationed Jupiter missiles in Italy and Turkey, aimed at the Soviet Union. Kennedy viewed the move as a dangerous provocation. When American reconnaissance aircraft spotted the Soviet missiles in October 1962, Kennedy responded by setting up a naval blockade of Cuba.

The Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded, with the world on the brink of nuclear war. Kennedy's strategy involved negotiations with Khrushchev and the use of a naval blockade. Kennedy offered a deal: if Soviet missiles were removed, the U.S. would pledge not to invade Cuba, and Jupiter missiles in Italy and Turkey would be removed voluntarily. The crisis escalated, and the U.S. raised its alert status to DEFCON 2, preparing for nuclear war. U.S. bombers were on high alert, and intercontinental ballistic missiles were ready. The threat of nuclear war loomed large. Kennedy's brother, Robert F. Kennedy, played a crucial role in negotiating with the Soviets. A potentially catastrophic incident occurred when a Soviet submarine neared the blockade, and a confrontation nearly led to nuclear war. The crisis was resolved on October 28, 1962, when Khrushchev accepted Kennedy's terms.

The Cuban Missile Crisis had a profound impact on both superpowers, leading to the installation of a hotline between the White House and the Kremlin for better communication. The experience shaped the policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), where both sides avoided missile defenses to ensure vulnerability and prevent nuclear war. Despite the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the CIA continued attempts to topple Fidel Castro, with over 600 assassination attempts, involving exploding cigars, a tuberculosis-infected scuba diving suit, and poisoning plots. Castro remarked that if surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, he would win the gold medal.

The Vietnam War

The next major crisis would occur in Vietnam where the US had been supporting the South in their struggle against the communist North for almost a decade. The country had been divided along the 17th parallel after the French had surrendered in 1954, with the U.S. sending increasing amounts of aid to the southern regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem. But Diem would quickly become an embarrassment for the United States. He was an incompetent and oppressive dictator, with a North Vietnamese-backed insurgency soon emerging. The CIA would arrange the removal of Diem in 1963, an operation that ended with his assassination. Kennedy himself would be assassinated three weeks later, leaving his Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to deal with the rapidly declining situation in Vietnam.

Domino theory was now an accepted fact for American politicians, with Johnson choosing to rapidly increase U.S. military involvement. But still, the Americans failed to crush the insurgency. As the war began to drag on, its critics grew in number both in the U.S. and abroad. The Tet Offensive of 1968 was a particularly low point during which over a hundred South Vietnamese towns and cities were attacked, as well as the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. This showed that the North Vietnamese were much stronger than the American public had been led to believe. The Vietnam War was the first television war, in which on-site coverage from the front lines was brought into the American living room. The public had been told up to the Tet Offensive that the war was nearly over, that the North Vietnamese were so ground down that victory was in sight. So when the offensive was launched, it contradicted what the American people had been told, and it broke their trust in the government. The term "credibility gap" soon developed—the difference between what was actually going on and what the government told the public. In 1968, protests would break out across the Western world. The largest would be seen in America, where a politicized youth demonstrated against a war they thought unjust and unwinnable. The scale of discontent proved too much for Johnson, who decided not to seek re-election. But the political situation would continue to decline. Within a week, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and protesters again took to the streets. The nation hadn't been this divided since the Civil War. To make matters worse, as Robert Kennedy ran for president and campaigned to bring the war to an end, he too, just like his brother, was assassinated. The nation was torn apart. Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon, came into power facing an unwinnable war, and his government's authority was being challenged at every turn. Desperate to make advances in Vietnam, Nixon would announce the invasion of neighboring Cambodia on April 30th, 1970. But this would spark a new wave of protests, and on May 4th, the loss of life when Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four students at Kent State University.

Nixon would eventually decide to withdraw U.S. forces, with the last leaving the country in 1973. But the conflict soon resumed, and within just two years, the communist North had taken over the South. By the end of the war, more than 58,000 Americans had died, as well as 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers. Over one million North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong guerrillas had also perished, as well as over 2 million civilians from both the North and the South. While containment had worked in Korea, it had proven ineffective in Vietnam. Neighboring Laos and Cambodia would also be taken over by communists, with thousands dying in the conflict. Pol Pot, the communist leader of Cambodia, would carry out numerous atrocities over the next four years—a period known as the Cambodian Genocide. Pot would force hundreds of thousands into prisons and labor camps, where they would be tortured, experimented on, and executed. Up to two million people are thought to have died in the genocide, almost a quarter of Cambodia's population.

Mao’s China

Khrushchev's policy of destalinization had severely strained relations with China. Mao had been appalled by Khrushchev's speech, branding it as dangerous revisionism. The Chinese dictator modeled his own rule after Stalin's, carrying out industrialization and collectivization drives, purging political opponents, and creating a cult of personality centered around himself. Mao continued on his Stalinist path, launching the Hundred Flowers Campaign in 1957 to purge intellectuals. "Let a hundred flowers bloom," he said, "let a hundred schools of thought contend." But in reality, anyone who dared to speak their mind was arrested. Mao's attempts to rush the process of industrialization and collectivization produced disastrous results. He had poor knowledge of agricultural techniques and relied heavily on the ideas of the later discredited Russian agricultural expert Trofim Lysenko.

In 1958, he announced the Four Pests Campaign, encouraging people to kill sparrows and other wild birds. While the campaign saw massive success, it led to the rapid growth of vermin, which ate through much of the crops. Mao also launched the Backyard Furnace Campaign, encouraging citizens to melt down their possessions to create as much steel as possible. The campaign was extremely popular, and by October 1958, nearly a quarter of the population had abandoned their jobs to take part. However, the steel produced was often of unusable quality, and it put unsustainable strain on food production, with many fields being left untended. These policies, combined with a period of drought and flooding, produced the greatest famine in recorded history, with deaths estimated between 30 and 50 million people, lasting between 1958 and 1962. Mao only made the situation worse by continuing to requisition grain from the starving peasants. During this period, he deliberately made the situation worse in Tibet, whose cultural identity he had been trying to destroy since 1950, leading to the death of a quarter of the Tibetan population. The famine was kept hidden from the outside world, only acknowledged by the Chinese government in 1980. Relations with the Soviet Union had continued to deteriorate and reached a low point in March 1969 when a massive border conflict broke out between the two, lasting seven months. It looked possible that the two communist superpowers might actually go to war with each other. Seeing an opportunity to gain leverage over the Soviet Union, Nixon visited China in February 1972, meeting with Mao and promising future cooperation. The United States and China would slowly stabilize relations, leaving the Soviet Union deeply unsettled, as predicted.

Détente

By 1964, the Soviet Union had been experiencing several internal difficulties. Khrushchev had been deposed and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev, who immediately began reversing the more radical aspects of destalinization. Power was recentralized, and Khrushchev's limits on tenure of office were dropped. The bureaucracy grew substantially, as did corruption and nepotism. Party members were kept in their posts indefinitely, with many dying of old age while in office. Brezhnev's 18-year rule became known as the era of stagnation, with the economy suffering under a complete lack of innovation. In Eastern Europe, the Soviet command economies were failing to fulfill some of the basic needs of its citizens. Living standards were deteriorating, and many lost faith in the communist system. Citizens were spied on by the KGB, and house searches and arrests became far more frequent. When attempts at reform did come, they were quickly crushed by the Soviet military. In Czechoslovakia, a brief period in 1968 known as the Prague Spring saw a series of liberal reforms take place under the leadership of Alexander Dubček. But Brezhnev was fearful of change and responded by sending 250,000 Warsaw Pact troops to put an end to the reforms. He announced the Brezhnev Doctrine, vowing to intervene in any socialist country believed to be falling to capitalism. However, the invasion of Czechoslovakia had gone poorly, taking the Red Army eight months to break Czech resistance. The invasion also received international condemnation, even from communist countries including Yugoslavia, Romania, and China. Discontent was so great that there had even been a demonstration in front of Lenin's tomb.

The Cold War had the opposite effect on Western society. Europe had experienced an unprecedented time of peace and prosperity, thanks to the Marshall Plan, the revitalization of West Germany, and continued economic integration. The European Coal and Steel Community had been formed in 1951, bringing together France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and West Germany in an economic alliance. These six countries would lead Europe's economic boom, which saw higher wages, better education, improved healthcare, and low levels of unemployment, becoming the foundation of the European Union. The difference in living standards between the East and the West became increasingly obvious, and unlike the start of the Cold War, support for Western Europe's communist parties was almost non-existent. Many began questioning whether communism was still a threat that needed containing and began considering the morality of proxy conflicts, leading to the anti-war protests of 1968. Facing these protests, a severely overstretched defense budget, and the seemingly unwinnable Vietnam War, President Nixon looked for a more stable Soviet-American relationship. In 1969, he began talks with Brezhnev about a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). Brezhnev was receptive to the idea, believing that easing Cold War tensions could allow him to focus on the numerous issues in the Eastern Bloc. The SALT I Treaty was signed in May 1972, freezing the existing number of intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles on both sides. A basic agreement was also reached outlining superpower relations going forward. Both promised to show restraint, agree to do their utmost to avoid military confrontations, and prevent the outbreak of nuclear war. It was the beginning of a period of détente, a French term that refers to the easing of tensions between nations.

The Space Race

The intense competition of the Cold War led to some of the 20th century's most important technological breakthroughs. The space race began on October 4th, 1957, after the Soviets used a modified ballistic missile, the R7, to launch Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite. This tiny metal ball, only 23 inches in diameter, caused panic in the United States. It was not Sputnik itself that was worrying, but rather the technology behind it, which could be used to launch nuclear missiles at targets in the United States. There were also fears of a technology gap opening between the two superpowers, with America on the losing side. These fears seemed confirmed when, just one month later, Sputnik 2 was launched, carrying a dog named Laika, the first animal to be sent into orbit. Four months after the launch of Sputnik 1, America responded by sending Explorer 1 into orbit. Eisenhower then passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA. The organization began a serious effort to catch up with the USSR. However, the Soviets scored another victory when they sent Yuri Gagarin into space on April 12, 1961, making him the first human to orbit the Earth. Gagarin was hailed as a hero in the Soviet Union. The following month, the United States sent its own man into space, Alan Shepard, although it took another nine months until they achieved orbit with the launch of John Glenn.

Realizing the significance of the space race, Kennedy pledged to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. The Soviets continued to stay ahead; on June 16, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, and two years later, Alexei Leonov completed the first-ever spacewalk. However, the tide soon turned with NASA heavily investing in the Apollo program. In 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to make a lunar orbit, and on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the moon, planting the American flag. With the American flag planted on the moon, the space race quickly died down. The Soviets canceled their plans for lunar landing and instead focused on creating the first-ever space station, Salyut. Soviet-American relations at an all-time high, the two sides decided to cooperate on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, where an American and Soviet spacecraft docked together. The crew shook hands and exchanged gifts, symbolizing détente and marking a definitive end to the space race.

Nixon

Nixon persisted in treating communism as an urgent threat that needed containment, despite shifting public sentiments. In 1969, he authorized the bombing of Cambodia, a neutral country, with the aim of destroying North Vietnamese bases and supply lines. The true nature of this action was hidden from the public by falsifying Air Force records. In October 1970, the Marxist government of Salvador Allende was democratically elected in Chile. Nixon publicly asserted non-interference, while clandestinely deploying the CIA to support Allende's opponents, orchestrating a failed coup, and destabilizing his government. Over the next three years, a successful military coup occurred in September 1973, leaving Allende dead and General Augusto Pinochet in power. Although direct CIA involvement was never conclusively proven, Nixon embraced Pinochet, an oppressive dictator responsible for thousands of killings and numerous human rights abuses.

In June 1971, classified documents on the Vietnam War, known as the Pentagon Papers, were leaked to The New York Times. In response, Nixon formed a group called the Plumbers, comprising retired detectives and former CIA and FBI agents. Their objective was to prevent the release of further classified information through a series of illegal activities, including burglaries, wiretaps, and surveillance operations. However, on the morning of June 17, 1972, several Plumbers were arrested after those working for them were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building. Despite Nixon's attempts to cover up his involvement, the truth was soon exposed, severely damaging his credibility. Faced with the prospect of conviction and removal from office, Nixon chose to resign on August 9, 1974, making him the only president to do so.

The repercussions of Nixon's actions were substantial. Congress, motivated by Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia, passed the War Powers Act in 1973, imposing a 60-day limit on all military deployments without congressional consent. Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, faced the consequences, unable to act when North Vietnam invaded and conquered South Vietnam in 1975. The CIA underwent intense scrutiny, with three commissions investigating its abuses and exposing many secrets. The CIA's repeated attempts to overthrow Chile's democratically elected government, coupled with the recent failure in Vietnam, stirred significant outrage. This, combined with events in Angola, marked a significant shift in American Cold War policy. Unlike earlier decades, the public began critically assessing measures to contain communism, and US officials found themselves increasingly held accountable for their actions.

The End of Détente

As the 70s progressed, détente faced challenges. In 1973, a war erupted in the Middle East as Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. The conflict drew in Cold War powers, with the U.S supporting Israel and the Soviets supporting the Arab states. Brezhnev proposed a joint Soviet-American peacekeeping force, threatening independent Soviet action. Nixon, entangled in the Watergate scandal, responded strongly, placing U.S. nuclear forces on worldwide alert. While the conflict was resolved within a month, questions arose about the future of détente. However, the Soviet Union still grappled with internal discontent. On August 1, 1975, Brezhnev signed the Helsinki Accords with the U.S and 33 other nations, gaining acknowledgement of existing European boundaries in exchange for a commitment to respect human rights. The accords backfired politically, as reformers within the Soviet camp used them to oppose the communist regime. President Ford, criticized for seemingly ignoring Soviet injustices, tried to distance himself from the term détente during his 1976 campaign. Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency in 1977 and initially attempted to revive détente. However, his contradictory actions confused the Soviet leadership. Carter called for cooperation while meeting with Soviet dissidents and suggesting additional limits on nuclear weapons. Brezhnev's health declined, and the Soviet military gained power, jeopardizing arms control. In 1977, the Soviets deployed SS-20 missiles against Western Europe, prompting NATO's counter-deployment of Pershing 2 and cruise missiles in 1979.

While a second Soviet-American arms treaty, SALT II, was signed in 1979, it faced widespread criticism, particularly in the U.S, where skeptics argued that it did little to reduce the nuclear danger. Events in the Middle East would eventually bring an end to détente. In February 1979, Islamic revolutionaries took power in Iran, escalating tensions when militants stormed the U.S Embassy in Tehran. Concurrently, a Marxist coup in Afghanistan led to a Soviet invasion in response to a violent rebellion. Carter, fearing Soviet attempts to cut off America from Middle East oil, withdrew the SALT II treaty, imposed embargoes, announced a boycott of the Moscow Olympics, and increased defense spending. The situation reached a turning point in January 1980 when Carter, via the Moscow-Washington hotline, conveyed to Brezhnev that the invasion of Afghanistan could mark a fundamental and lasting shift in U.S.-Soviet relations. Carter backed his words with actions, signaling a renewed escalation of the Cold War.

Reagan

In November 1980, former actor Ronald Reagan won in a landslide victory over Jimmy Carter. Reagan was a fierce opponent of détente, which he saw as prolonging the Cold War indefinitely. To break the stalemate, Reagan sought to reassert American strategic dominance over the Soviet Union. To do so, Reagan needed to convince the American public that the USSR was no longer in a position to keep fighting. Beginning a campaign of public speeches to discredit the Soviet Union's status as a superpower in the modern world:

"Let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world."

Despite his provocative speeches, Reagan's view on nuclear weapons was clear. He wanted to see a world in which they did not exist and where nations were free from the threat of total annihilation. The only way he saw to achieve this was to force the Soviets into a new arms race they would lose, pressuring them to accept an arms reduction agreement. As Reagan stated,

"Their choice is to break their backs to keep up or to agree to reductions."

This policy would be called "peace through strength."

Reagan began by increasing Carter's defense spending even further, with the Pentagon's budget almost doubling between 1980 and 1985. One hundred new intercontinental-range missiles were made, new aircraft carriers were deployed, as well as new Trident nuclear submarines equipped with improved missiles. Reagan also managed to convince Saudi Arabia to triple their production of oil, causing its price to plummet on the international market. As oil made up a significant amount of Soviet exports, they would experience a massive drop in revenue, destabilizing their already fragile economy. But the cornerstone of Reagan's strategy would be the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), nicknamed "Star Wars" by the media. The project aimed at creating a radical new missile defense system using lasers and space-based missile systems that could defend against a nuclear attack. While Reagan was aware that the US was possibly decades away from developing such technology, he knew that the Soviets were lagging far behind in computer technology, and a convincing bluff could force them to the negotiating table.

The bluff worked but produced some unexpected results. The Soviet leadership went into a panic, fearing that the U.S. was preparing for a first strike. The new Soviet leader, Yuri Andropov, would begin a two-year intelligence alert with Soviet agents across the globe looking for evidence of U.S. attack preparations. The USSR was on such high alert that when a South Korean civilian airliner accidentally flew into Soviet airspace on September 1st, 1983, it would be shot down. All 269 passengers were killed, including 62 Americans. The situation was made worse by a complete lack of remorse on the Soviet side, with Andropov first denying the incident and then claiming that the plane had been on an American spy mission. Negotiations were brought to a temporary halt, with Reagan denouncing the event as an act of barbarism. An even more dangerous crisis would begin that November when NATO carried out one of its regularly scheduled military exercises in Western Europe, codenamed Abel Archer 83. But this time, the exercise would involve several heads of government and radio silence to simulate realism. Still in a state of high alert, these developments led Andropov to believe that the U.S. were using the exercise as a front for a nuclear attack. Soviet nuclear forces were prepared, and air units were placed on high alert in Eastern Europe. While the Soviets soon realized their mistake and backed down, it was one of the most dangerous situations since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Reagan's aggressive anti-Soviet policies would also bring him into conflict with his NATO allies. Détente was still alive and well in much of Europe; the two sides of the continent had benefited greatly through mutual contact. In response to heightened tensions and the deployment of missiles by both sides, large peace movements would be organized in Europe. In the U.S., the Nuclear Freeze Movement was born, calling for a freeze to the nuclear arsenals of both superpowers. The movement was incredibly popular, with a million supporters gathering in Central Park on June 12, 1982, in one of the largest political demonstrations in U.S. history.

Reagan would call 1984 a year of opportunities for peace, stating that he would be willing to resume negotiations with Moscow after his re-election that November. The Soviet leadership would agree to negotiate, but as the talks began in 1985, an incredibly significant change of Soviet leadership would take place.

Gorbachev

Andropov had died in February 1984 after only 15 months in office. He was replaced by Konstantin Chernenko, a 72-year-old heavy smoker who succumbed to his illnesses after just 13 months in his post. Realizing they were in desperate need of change, the Soviet Politburo elected Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary. At 54, Gorbachev was a fresh new face among the aging Soviet leadership. He was willing to acknowledge the failures of the Soviet system, embrace reform, and openly negotiate with the West. Unlike his predecessors, he had a high amount of personal charisma, with Reagan taking an immediate liking to him.

After years of mismanagement, discontent, and economic stagnation, Gorbachev faced a nearly impossible task. To make matters worse, China had begun to adopt capitalist elements after Mao's death in 1976. Deng Xiaoping had emerged as the leader, a Chinese dissident who had been purged from the party twice for his capitalist sympathies. Deng criticized Mao's terrible implementation of a command economy and began experimenting with capitalism. The introduction of these capitalist elements worked wonders for China's economy, with per capita income tripling between 1978 and 1994. GDP would quadruple, and by the time Deng died in 1997, the Chinese economy was one of the largest in the world. This only put further pressure on the failing Soviet economy, which had stagnated through the 1970s and had actually shrunk during the early 1980s. To revive the Soviet economy, Gorbachev introduced perestroika, or restructuring. It allowed for the introduction of limited market mechanisms, with Moscow's first McDonald's opening in 1990. Gorbachev also realized that the ongoing arms race was crippling the Soviet economy and drawing resources away from his reforms. Negotiation with the West was the only option. Gorbachev would meet with Reagan five separate times between 1985 and 1988, with each meeting building a level of trust and respect between the two leaders. Gorbachev was more open and conciliatory than his predecessors had ever been, willing to participate in arms agreements, offer unilateral concessions on armed forces, and prepared to remove Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

In the face of such a cooperative Soviet leader, Reagan happily negotiated with the two signing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty on December 8, 1987. The treaty banned all short and intermediate-range missiles within three years. It led to the destruction of over two and a half thousand nuclear weapons, with each side allowing access to their nuclear sites to check compliance. It was a momentous agreement, being the first time both sides pledged to eliminate an entire class of nuclear missiles.

Failed Reforms

It would soon become apparent that perestroika was not working, with the economy continuing to stagnate. Gorbachev's other main policy, glasnost, or openness, would also cause issues. The policy attempted to address the corruption of the Brezhnev era and re-establish a connection between the party and the people. The party would be more honest about its mistakes and encourage open debate, paving the way for reform. It was largely inspired by the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. That April, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had released a large amount of radioactive fallout, which began to drift over the USSR and Western Europe. The Soviet government attempted to cover up the incident, delaying the evacuation of those living in toxic areas. This would lead to more cases of leukemia and birth deformities. Gorbachev later stated that the disaster revealed the sickness of our system:

"The concealing or hushing up of accidents and other bad news, irresponsibility and carelessness, slipshod work, wholesale drunkenness... Chernobyl made me and my colleagues rethink a great many things."

However, glasnost would not work as intended. Open debate soon turned into widespread criticism of the party and Gorbachev himself, with uprisings breaking out across Eastern Europe.

The Fall of the USSR

Gorbachev had also begun the move towards democratization, allowing multi-candidate elections and announcing that he would reduce the Soviet military presence in Eastern Europe by half a million men, signaling that the Brezhnev Doctrine would no longer be enforced. Realizing they would not be crushed by the Soviet military, reformers emerged across Eastern Europe. In 1989, a string of democratic revolutions broke out, seeing nearly every communist government ousted from power. While most transitions happened peacefully, some were met with violence. Romania's leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu, ordered the army to fire on demonstrators, resulting in hundreds being killed. In the chaos, Ceaușescu was hunted down and executed on Christmas Day, bringing a violent end to communism in Romania. On November 9th, the most symbolic monument of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, came down, and Germany itself would be reunited the following year. Gorbachev gained admiration abroad, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. However, he faced a much colder reception at home. Despite his best efforts, the Soviet economy remained stagnant, and his actions led to the dissolution of all Soviet power abroad. In March 1990, he abolished Article 6, ending the Communist Party's monopoly on power, allowing opposition to become formalized.

Soon, the individual states that formed the USSR were ready to make their own bid for independence. Even Russia, the home of the revolution, was hit by a wave of nationalism, with Boris Yeltsin elected president. Yeltsin began a mission to dissolve the Soviet Union, quickly becoming Gorbachev's chief rival. However, Gorbachev also faced opposition from within the Communist Party itself. Believing his reforms were tearing the union apart, high-ranking officials in the government, army, and KGB staged a coup in August 1991. Gorbachev was placed under house arrest, and tanks were sent to the streets of Moscow. The coup was widely denounced, even by Boris Yeltsin, whose opposition helped bring it to an end in just three days. While Gorbachev returned to power, it was now clear that the USSR could not be saved.

On December 25th, 1991, 74 years after the Bolshevik Revolution, Gorbachev resigned, officially terminating the existence of the Soviet Union. That evening, at 7:32 pm, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time. The USSR would dissolve into 15 independent states, bringing a definitive end to the Cold War, a conflict that had dominated international relations for over 40 years.

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