concrete wall along the border between East and West Berlin, shutting the two parts of the city off from each other. Crossing from one part to the other was possible only at designated checkpoints and only for people with proper papers. The wall became a major symbol of the Cold War era.The most dangerous days of the Cold War occurred during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, which represented another facet of the globalization of the Cold War, on this occasion into the Americas. Fidel Castro toppled the existing dictatorship in Cuba and established a communist government allied with the Soviet Union. This caused enormous concern within the United States. In 1962 the Soviet Union began to place nuclear missiles on the island. Now concern turned to confrontation. The American government, under President Kennedy, blockaded Cuba, halted the shipment of new missiles, and demanded the removal of existing installations. After an extremely tense week, during which communications between Washington and Moscow were permeated with admonitions and threats, the Soviets backed down and the crisis ended. In 1963 the United States and the Soviet Union concluded a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. This agreement marked the beginning of a lessening in the tensions between the two powers.Decolonization since 1945 has been a direct result of both World War II itself and the rise of indigenous nationalist movements within the European colonial world. World War II drew the military forces of the colonial powers back to Europe. The Japanese conquests of Asia helped force the European powers from that area. After the military and political dislocations of the war came the postwar economic collapse, which left the European colonial powers unable to afford to maintain their positions abroad. In 1947 war broke out in Vietnam. The United States intervened in attempt to eliminate the communist Diem regime and to establish a new government in South Vietnam capable of generat...
