Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological conflict and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolized efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the west and non-Soviet-controlled areas. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union. On either side of the Iron Curtain, states developed their own international economic and military alliances:
Physically, the Iron Curtain took the form of border defenses between the countries of Europe in the middle of the continent. The most notable border was marked by the Berlin Wall and its Checkpoint Charlie which served as a symbol of the Curtain as a whole.
The events that demolished the Iron Curtain started in discontent in Poland, and continued in Hungary, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Romania was the only communist state in Europe to violently overthrow its totalitarian government.
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American History USA Articles
- Containment vs. Rollback -- Foreign Policy in the early 1950s
Under Dwight Eisenhower, John Foster and Allen Dulles, the United States became more aggressive in fighting Communism abroad.
Books/Sources
- Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 - Anne Applebaum
- Iron Curtains: Gates, Suburbs and Privatization of Space in the Post-socialist City - Sonia A. Hirt
Youtube
- Cold War - Iron Curtain (1945-1947)
- Patrolling the Communist Iron Curtain - Watching the Volitile Border Between USSR & Free Europe