Popular uprisings in East Germany, Hungary, and Poland were brutally put down by the Soviets, while they intensified their support of Communist China, North Korea and North Vietnam. On May 1st, 1960, a U-2 spy place piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down deep inside Russia, and the Cold War began to heat up.
Berlin would remain the focal point of a cold war being fought around the globe. On August 13th 1961, East German authorities began building what would become the Berlin Wall, which became a symbol of the Iron Curtain Churchill had spoken of. Cuba would later align themselves with the USSR, providing a springboard for Soviet forces and Inter-Continental Ballistic Missles within a mere 90 miles of the United States, and leading the world to brink of World War III in 1962 with the Cuban missile crisis.
Throughout the remainder of the 1960's and '70's, the Cold War was quietly fought around the world, with NATO and Warsaw Pact nations facing off in Europe, US and Soviet submarines playing cat and mouse games, and Soviet long range bombers testing the air defenses of the United States.
The 1980's brought the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and US support of the Mujahadeen fighting them. By 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was leading Russia towards a more democratic government and setting the stage for the end of the Cold War.
The Cold War ended peacefully in the same place it began: Berlin. On November 9th, 1989 all travel restrictions were removed by the East Germans, and for all practical purposes, the Berlin Wall ceased to exist. Less than a year later, East and West Germany were reunited as a single nation.
The Cold War was over, but the peace would be short lived.
Galleries:Tensions between the former Allies began almost as soon as the end of the World War II. While the western Allies attempted to restore democracy to the areas under their control, the Soviets began installing their own Communist governments within the Eastern Bloc countries - to which Winston Churchill refered in his March 5th, 1946 speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri: "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has decended across the continent". 2 years later, the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin in an unsuccessful attempt to force the Allies out of the city. The Berlin Airlift became a symbol of the Cold War and the American determination to halt Soviet expansion.