Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Class felt a little warm today as we ended our coverage of the Cold War.  The almost 50 year threat of nuclear war, complete with fallout shelters, spies, astronauts, angry Soviet premiers banging shoes against podiums, and duck and cover drills, finally came to an end in 1991 as Mikhail Gorbachev resigned from his position, and Kazakhstan "walked" out of the Union, the last Soviet state to do so. So did we, the United States, "win" the Cold War? That's for you to decide. 

The U.S. government's "duck and cover" film for students (1951)

Today you should've taken away the following points:

• The Cold War came to an end as a result of internal dissent (crippling economic measures under a command economy, politically repressive policies) and external problems (ongoing revolutions in satellite states such as Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, etc.)
• The most visible symbol of the end of the Cold War was the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Germany was united as one country.
• The end of the Cold War is usually associated with leaders such as President Reagan of the U.S. (alongside Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of England) and the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. 

According to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a result of policies dating back to Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. See the link for a news article about this.

Here are some famous images from the Cold War and its aftermath.

Buzz Aldrin posing on the moon...take that Soviet space program!

Khrushchev and Nixon at the "kitchen debate"

Protesters during Czechoslovakia's 1989 Velvet Revolution

Germans celebrating reunification in 1990 in front of the Reichstag building

Hungarian flag with the Soviet coat of arms cut out..
This later becomes a symbol of the failed 1953 uprising

You'll get a lot of the Cold War in U.S History and AP European History. 

Don't forget - Current Event #9 is tomorrow! We've posted an article about the terrorist attack that occurred in Brussels yesterday.

Looking for a Humanities Experience? Here are some suggestions for the upcoming long weekend:

• Check out the Vermeer exhibit at the DMA
• Watch a musical adaptation of The Little Mermaid at Fair Park
• Listen to a symphony performance of Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage at the Verizon Theater
• Listen to Beethoven's Fifth at the Meyerson Symphony Center
• Listen to UTD's Chamber Singers Concert: Magic and Fantasy at the Jonsson Performance Hall (featuring music from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc...and it's FREE)

And now for some Internet funnies.

- Warrior Princess Siddiqui