This topic addresses the final climactic ten years of the Cold war. Initially heightened tensions seemed to threaten imminent hot war but, against expectations, gave way to real engagement and the final ending of the Cold War. The significance of the specified developments should be understood. As in all these periods, an appreciation of the roles of the specified leaders is vital. Students understand the significance of economic issues in changing relations. The economic developments provided an essential context for diplomatic developments and students become aware of the massive economic problems facing Gorbachev 's Russia and also the technological advances carrying the USA further ahead of its erstwhile rival. The complex and rapid series of changes in the Soviet Union and the specified developments in Eastern Europe at the end of the decade is appreciated in order to understand the sudden finale of the saga of the Cold War.

Students will understand the roles of the specified personalities. Once again, with the exception of Mao, it was a new series of leaders who set the agenda and partially shaped developments in these years. Students will acquire an understanding of superpower relations and why and to what extent there was change. Students will understand stresses on the Soviet economy were indirectly referred to by the reference to the need for food imports, but will also be aware of the financial strains placed by the rapid expansion of the Soviet Navy and the cost of easing discontent in Eastern Europe.

Set of lessons with activities covering the unit.

This covers the very dramatic ten years from the death of Stalin to the downfall of Khrushchev in 1964. Assesses the part of new players in explaining the key pattern of conciliation, confrontation and then renewed conciliation. Explores the significance for east-west relations of, the Sino-Soviet split- Khrushchev and Mao personality clash. Maps specified developments along the European Iron Curtain and in relation to nuclear weapons. Highlights the flowering of some degree of liberalisation followed by the savage repression in Hungary, the withdrawal from Austria but the renewed confrontation in Berlin. Recognise the same oscillating pattern repeated with regard to nuclear weapons with the nuclear confrontation over Cuba followed by the Test Ban Treaty.