Fall of Berlin Wall symbolized end of Cold War from "summary" of The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis
The collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 marked a turning point in the history of the Cold War. This concrete barrier had stood for nearly three decades, dividing East and West Berlin as a physical manifestation of the ideological divide between communism and capitalism. Its sudden fall shocked the world and signified the end of an era. The Berlin Wall had been a symbol of the Cold War since its construction in 1961. It was a stark reminder of the tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western powers, with East Berlin under communist control and West Berlin a democratic enclave deep within East Germany. The Wall represented the division of Europe and the world into two opposing camps, each armed with nuclear weapons and prepared for a potential conflict. The fall of the Berlin Wall was the culmination of a series of events that had been brewing for years. The Soviet Union, under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, had initiated a policy of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to reform the...
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