9/16/2023 What ended the cold war Why was the afghan war called the Vietnam of the Soviet UnionRead NowThis all took place in the year of miracles, 1989 but hardly anyone predicted such an end for Stalin’s empire, for the division of Europe, or for the Cold War. Even the Securitate’s violent last stand in Bucharest and Timisoara – snipers on the rooftops and a rushed show trial for the last Stalinist standing (Ceaucescu) – provided the exception that proved the rule. Goulash reformers took down the barbed wire on Hungary’s borders and thousands of East Germans boarded trains to the West – the beginning of the end for the Wall. Grizzled union activists from Solidarity celebrated their 99-to-1 victory in Polish elections, as workers’ ballots evicted the dictatorship of the proletariat. A demonstrator handed dandelions to armored police in front of signs that said “Havel to the Castle,” and within days, indeed, the dissident playwright became President of Czechoslovakia. Hammers and chisels reduced the Berlin Wall to souvenir rocks while Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” blared out over the Brandenburg Gate. Instead, the lasting images of the Cold War’s demise were almost all peaceful (except in Romania) yet incandescent. ![]() The Cold War met a miraculous end during the late 1980s, with neither a bang nor a whimper.
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