when did the cold war take place who was involved and why
Cold War
By 1989 , the Soviet alliance system was on the brink of collapse , and , deprived of Soviet military support , the communist leaders of the Warsaw Pact states were losing power . Grassroots organizations , such as Poland 's Solidarity movement , rapidly gained ground with strong popular bases . In 1989 , the communist governments in Poland and Hungary became the first to negotiate the organizing of competitive elections . In Czechoslovakia and East Germany , mass protests unseated entrenched communist leaders . The communist regimes in Bulgaria and Romania also crumbled , in the latter case as the result of a violent uprising . Attitudes had changed enough that US Secretary of State James Baker suggested that the American government would not be opposed to Soviet intervention in Romania , on behalf of the opposition , to prevent bloodshed . The tidal wave of change culminated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 , which symbolized the collapse of European communist governments and graphically ended the Iron Curtain divide of Europe . The 1989 revolutionary wave swept across Central and Eastern Europe and peacefully overthrew all of the Soviet - style communist states : East Germany , Poland , Hungary , Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria ; Romania was the only Eastern - bloc country to topple its communist regime violently and execute its head of state .
By 1989 , the Soviet alliance system was on the brink of collapse , and , deprived of Soviet military support , the communist leaders of the Warsaw Pact states were losing power . Grassroots organizations , such as Poland 's Solidarity movement , rapidly gained ground with strong popular bases . In 1989 , the communist governments in Poland and Hungary became the first to negotiate the organizing of competitive elections . In Czechoslovakia and East Germany , mass protests unseated entrenched communist leaders . The communist regimes in Bulgaria and Romania also crumbled , in the latter case as the result of a violent uprising . Attitudes had changed enough that US Secretary of State James Baker suggested that the American government would not be opposed to Soviet intervention in Romania , on behalf of the opposition , to prevent bloodshed . The tidal wave of change culminated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 , which symbolized the collapse of European communist governments and graphically ended the Iron Curtain divide of Europe . The 1989 revolutionary wave swept across Central and Eastern Europe and peacefully overthrew all of the Soviet - style communist states : East Germany , Poland , Hungary , Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria ; Romania was the only Eastern - bloc country to topple its communist regime violently and execute its head of state .