Cold War

East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria

An "Iron Curtain" country was a Communist country in Europe. These included the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Except for Yugoslavia, all these countries were members of the Warsaw Pact.

Iron curtain was a metaphor coined by Winston Churchill to describe the division between the free countries of Western Europe and those of Eastern Europe which were dominated by the Soviet Union under communism. I suppose that an iron curtain country would be one which was behind that curtain, i.e. in Eastern Europe. Some of those would be Poland, Romania, East Germany, and the Soviet Union itself.

The Iron Curtain countries were also known as the Eastern Bloc. Added to the countries above should be Czechoslovakia ( now the Czech Rep. and Slovakian rep.) Bulgaria and Hungary. These communist countries established the Warsaw Pact in opposition to NATO. Though not formally part of either the Eastern Bloc or Warsaw Pact Albania was beyond the Iron Curtain. Whilst Communist, Yugoslavia refused to align with Stalin's wishes, and so distanced itself from the USSR and the Warsaw Pact/Eastern Bloc states.

The Iron Curtain marked the political division of Europe for the forty years or so following the end of WW2 and roughly followed the furthest point of advance by the Allied armies eastwards and the Red army westwards. Basically, where the armies stopped marked the split in Europe. The exception to this being Austria which was mostly liberated by the Red Army who then withdrew in the 1950's. So it was also the physical division of Europe into two spheres - the division marked by a fortified border between east and west making traveling between the two for ordinary people almost impossible. Nowhere was this more visible than in Berlin where a wall separated east and west (often dividing streets and even apartment blocks). Desperate to be free of communist oppression many East Germans tried to cross to the west over the wall. Most were shot in the process.

Ironically, the spontaneous dismantling of the Berlin Wall by east Berliners in 1989 led to the rapid collapse of the communist system in Europe.

The beginning of the end of communism in Eastern Europe wasn't the opening of the Berlin Wall, but rather two events that happened in Hungary in 1989. In June, the Hungarian border command was reduced to a very small unit (something like a Western country's immigration service, rather than a full-blown Communist-style border-sealing unit) and they removed the barbed wire along the Austro-Hungarian border. This was mostly symbolic since the Hungarian premier had granted Hungarians full freedom of travel and started to move toward a democratic form of government, but it brought on the second act, which was NOT symbolic. Under Warsaw Pact rules, citizens of any Warsaw Pact country could travel to any other Warsaw Pact country. After the barbed wire was removed, a lot of East Germans figured they could go through Hungary, which was still a Warsaw Pact nation, to get to West Germany. When the East Bloc was still in operation, any East German who managed to escape to West Germany or the western sectors of Berlin was granted immediate West German citizenship. In September 1989, the Hungarian government announced they'd allow any Warsaw Pact resident to cross the Austro-Hungarian border. Next thing the DDR knew, all its best and brightest were in West Germany. The DDR complained, of course, only to be told by the Hungarians it wasn't the Hungarians' problem the East German government was still a bunch of commie bastards. The DDR government eventually got rid of its major stumbling block to liberalization by firing its dictator Erich Honecker, and the rest is history.

Berlin

A+ users

Because university students were exempt from service.

glasnot

They were better able to resist political and economic interference from the United States and the Soviet Union.

because the two superpowers opposed each other but never fought an actual war

It was the split of Germany after WWII. The Soviet Union was trying to take over Germany to make sure they didn't have a threat again since during WWII they lost so many resources because of Germany. To ensure that wouldn't happen again, they split Germany up. The eastern bloc was the section that the Soviet Union received while the Western bloc was what the U.S. received.

Stalin stopped traffic to Berlin in response to Britain and the U.S. changing the currency in their district of Germany. Stalin saw this as an economic threat and deprived Berlin as resources in an attempt to push them out of Germany.

The Cold War was primarily between the USSR and the USA/NATO.

The term was coined as there was no war declared but both sides used their influence to try to support their own ideologies around the globe.

The influence of the Cold War can still be seen today and almost every conflict since WWII was at least partly due to conflicting interests of the Cold War adversaries.

The goal was to increase economic co-operation between North and South America, and to help countries south of the Rio Grande to "modernize" their economies and political structures, which is to say to help them become liberal, free-market democracies. The tools to be used were aid and trade. basically it was set up to help latin america. The goals of the Alliance for Progress were breathtakingly vast and naive in their scope. Kennedy announced that over a ten year period, he wanted to help Latin American Republics achieve 2.5% annual growth, eliminate adult illiteracy, democratize their governments, and carry out sweeping "land reform", a euphemism for massive social engineering which would involve the transfer of land from large landowners to the population at large, a process that took centuries in Western European countries. The planners behind the Alliance rightly recognized it was "revolutionary" in scope, and this was intentional because it was supposed to provide an alternative blueprint to the future for countries that might be tempted to turn to the Soviet Union and socialism. It was not a coincidence that the Alliance was announced so shortly after the Cuban Revolution had installed Fidel Castro in Havana. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy started the Alliance for Progress with the purpose of establishing economic cooperation between America and Latin America. The agreement led to increased economic assistance to Latin America.

One event that caused great fear in the United States in 1949 was the communist takeover of China. The other event was the Soviet Union detonating an atomic bomb.

Cause it's the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as in a pact only between the US and it's European and North American allies and even though Israel is a US ally it is not a European country.

The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope alive. The free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms.

communist (:

It was communist because it was under the Soviet Union which was also communist. They weren't able to advance because they were communist and even with industrialization, they were unable to rise.

Many people lived their lives in a carefree didn't give a darn attitude; because they believed the world was going to "go up in smoke" (nuclear war) at any time. ---------

The above is 100% incorrect. Actually, people were so terrified of possible nuclear war that there was a significant rise in Evangelism. People lived in an anxious state of mind filled with paranoia regarding war with the Soviets. Hence, all of the "duck and cover" drills in schools in case a warhead was dropped, all of the bomb shelters being constructed, etc. Also, there was widespread fear about Communist agents inside the U.S. spying part due to real events but mostly due to scare tactics from people like Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Referring to the global war on terrorism?:

1. Enemy could be anyone (man, woman, child, or animal)

2. Enemy could be anywhere, anytime

3. Enemy has no army

4. Enemy has no navy

5. Enemy has no air force

6. Enemy has no marine corps

7. Enemy has no recognized, organized, central form of government

8. Enemy has no uniforms

9. Enemy has no flag

Enemy cannot be negotiated with...because they don't exist as a formal/traditional enemy. Just as the old slogan in America used say..."war on crime", could be anyone, anytime, anywhere. Law Enforcement fights crime 24/7, 365 days a year, this is the global war on terrorism.

Germany Got split in-half and the USSR (Russia) Took the west half of Germany and the allied powers took the East half. Then come s the Berlin wall

Employment was higher during the cold war due to defense construction/bases/and new technologies. When the cold war ended; base closures took effect, causing unemployment around the bases surrounding communities. Industrial defense contractors had to find other means of employment. Military personnel had to either retire or find civilian employment.

The cold war was VERY strong in 1961; when President Kennedy took office.

can you guys helped me :(

Do the accusations seem to have been fair? Explain.

- The Hollywood Ten

- Alger Hiss

- Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

Fighting without actually going so far as to pick a fight with the other major power

In Vietnam, The Americans had to fight without provoking World War 3 with the Soviets, while in Afghanistan, the Soviets had to do the same, but with the Americans.

The cold war was a frightening time period to live in because there was no actual fighting between the Russians and the Americans. The scariness occurred from the tension between the two nations, and the anxiety of a potential nuclear war. A nuclear war would essentially end humanity, so many people lived in fear of the mass death and destruction that could occur. Both the Americans and the Russians did not want to be the first country to attack, yet they did not want to be attacked first.

In this time period, the first country to launch a nuclear weapon would, in theory, suffer less civilian deaths because they would have destroyed more of the other country first. However, it is likely that if one country detected the other preparing to attack, a preventive attack would occur first, resulting mass destruction to both sides.

This all caused a great deal of anxiety throughout the world, including parts of the Middle East and South American, where proxy wars between the Americans and Soviets occurred. An example of this is the Afghanistan-Russia war, in which the Americans secretly funded the Afghani's with money and weapons to fight the Russians. This resulted in the Soviets being too far in debt to compete with the Americans on a global scale, and lead to the end of the Cold War.