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The Berlin Wall Of World War II

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The Berlin Wall symbolized many things for different people. For the Germans it served as their punishment from World War II, this punishment divided up their country and separated many people from their families who might have lived in different parts of Germany. Everyday things that were accessible to them like going to the grocery store or visiting family members were now made harder since in order to cross to the other side of the wall people would have to go through security checks. The Wall also represented death because if someone were to try to escape to the other side of the wall they would be shot dead. To other countries the Berlin Wall represented communism as well as division between two different forms of government. During …show more content…

During the Cold War people had been living in fear thinking that one day their country might be bombed with a nuclear weapon. With the détente the nuclear anxieties were eased a bit. In 1972 a discussion known as Strategic Arms Limitation Talks or SALT was held. United States President Richard Nixon and Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev agreed to “freeze a number of strategic ballistic missile launches as well as reduce spending on nuclear weapons.” The two countries also agreed to limit their number of nuclear weapons. A second Strategic Arms Limitation Talk was held in 1979 this time between United States President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev. This time more “controls were put in place on strategic nuclear weapons and new missile programs were banned, however this deal was not ratified by the U.S congress.” The reason why this treaty was never ratified was because President Carter was angry that the USSR had decided to invade Afghanistan. This goes to show that there was a period of relaxation between the United States and the USSR; however tensions did start to rise again when Afghanistan was invaded. The election of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the USSR is another example of thawing out of the Cold War. Gorbachev was regarded as a “young and reformist” leader. In 1988 Gorbachev ordered that troops should with drawl from Afghanistan. Tony Judt stated

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