1. With the election of Mikhail Gorbachev as the President of USSR in March 1985, there were phenomenal political and social changes in the Soviet Union.
2. Gorbachev committed himself to reforms. In February 1986 he spoke in the Communist Party Congress, explaining the need for political and economic restructuring, or perestroika, and called for a new era of transparency and openness, or glasnost.
3. By Perestroika Gorbachev loosened centralised control of many institutions, allowing businesses, fanners and manufacturers to decide for themselves which products to make,how much to produce; and what te charge for them.

1. Robert Schuman, the French foreign minister, realised that a reconciliationbetween France and Germany was good for both and for reconstruction of post-War Europe.
2. He presented a plan known as Schuman Plan on 9 May 1950.
3. Accordingly, he proposed that the joint output of coal and steel in the two countries be placed within the framework of a strong, supranational structure, the High Authority.
4. This plan for sectoral economic integration created mutual interests and automatically linked the two countries. West Germany's Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, welcomed the plan to come close to the Western world.

1. On 26 October the Russians agreed to Nagy becoming premier again.
2. On his assumption of office he started introducing a multiparty system and set up a coalition government.
3. Enraged by the development, Soviet Russia sent its army into Hungary on 4 November and crushed the rebellion.

1. The Korean War of 1950-53 and the Vietnam Wars of 1955-75 were classic examples of the Cold War period.
2. In both case Soviet Union supported the communist government in North Korea and in North Vietnam and the United States supported South Korea and South Vietnam.
3. These wars resulted in huge casualties and losses, and turned out to be civil wars as well.
4. International opinion was mobilised in these wars, and anti-Vietnam protests made a profound impact on the politics, society and culture of the US and western Europe.

1. USSR set up The Cominform the Corrnnunist Information Bureau in September 1947.
2. This was an organisation in which all European communist parties were represented.
3. It discouraged trade contact between the non-communist countries and tried to forge ideological and material linkages with its member countries.

1. The General Assembly at the initiative of US passed the 'Uniting for Peace resolution'.
2. This clearly set the precedent that if the Security Council could not reach an agreement to intervene in a crisis, then the General Assembly should meet in emergency session and reconned the use of armed force if necessary.
3. USSR regarded this resolution as illegal.
4. The fighting ended with the signing of an armistice in July 1953.

1. The USA came out with the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan to support the war-tom European countries·to reconstruct their economy.
2. An organisation, OEEC (Organisation for European Economic Cooperation) was formed in April 1948 to oversee the disbursement of Marshall Aid under the auspices of the European Recovery Prograrrnne (ERP).

In the United States the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was established in 1947 and the Soviet Union's Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB), or 'Committee for National Security' was formed in 1954.