28 Iconic Pictures That Defined The Cold War

A group portrait of Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference, which was held at the Livadia Palace in Livadiya, Soviet Union (later Ukraine), in February 1945. From left: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The conference was called to discuss Europe's postwar reorganization in the years to come.

US troops of the 69th Infantry Division shake hands with Soviet troops in a staged photo on the wrecked bridge over the Elbe in Torgau, Germany, to mark the previous day's linkup between US and Soviet forces on April 26, 1945.

President Harry S. Truman (to the left of the podium) listens on as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes a speech about the Communist threat, in which he said his famous line: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent.”

A West Berlin customs officer inspects a vehicle before allowing it to enter the US sector of the city in 1947.

Sacks of coal are loaded onto an aircraft (left) at the Fassberg Air Base in Germany for transport to Berlin during the Berlin Airlift in 1948. The airlift was necessitated by the Berlin Blockade, when the Soviet Union blocked Allied access to West Berlin. A C-47 cargo plane (right) flies over locals standing amid ruins on its approach to Tempelhof Airport, where it was taking food and other relief supplies.

President Truman signs the North Atlantic Treaty on Aug. 29, 1949.

A waitress (left) puts up a sign outside her restaurant inviting everyone to enjoy "free borsht" in celebration of Stalin's death. In New York (right), Commissioner George Monaghan, Mayor Vincent Impellitteri, and a number of other city officials look over the media's coverage of Stalin's death, while attending a boxing match at Madison Square Garden.

The Soviet delegation arrives at Warsaw Airport on May 13, 1955, to attend the Communist Bloc Conclave, which brought together eight Eastern European countries prior to the signing of the Warsaw Pact on May 14. The treaty was signed in response to West Germany joining NATO the same year.

On Oct. 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 entered Earth's orbit and set off a space race between the US and the Soviet Union.

Malyshka, a Soviet space dog (left), poses with a snug-fitting space suit while training for space flight. Romanian postage stamps (right) feature Laika, one of the first living organisms to enter space, and the first animal to orbit the planet.

Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space as he completed a full orbit around the Earth in 1961. Gagarin was killed seven years later during a test flight for the MiG-15.

Two East German workers secure pieces of broken glass on top of the newly built Berlin Wall, to prevent East Berliners from escaping.

West Berliners (left) wave to relatives in East Berlin from across the Berlin Wall. A refugee from East Berlin (right) attempts to escape by climbing over it.

Castro (far left) and Guevara (center) march arm-in-arm with Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, the president of Cuba from 1959 to 1976.

A large group of customers in California gathers in an electronics department to watch as President Kennedy delivers a televised address to the nation on the the Cuban missile crisis.

Motorized launchers loaded with Lyulev 2K11 Krug surface-to-air missiles are paraded through Moscow's Red Square, marking the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union.

Astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders were onboard.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin stands for a portrait on the surface of the moon. It was taken by his fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong, whose reflection is visible in Aldrin's visor.

President Nixon and visiting Soviet leader Brezhnev appear on a platform together during an official welcoming ceremony on the White House lawn.

Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov (left) and astronaut Deke Slayton (right) frolic during the joint Apollo–Soyuz linkup in July 1975.

Soviet leader Gorbachev and President Reagan smile during the summit's concluding ceremony.

West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall as they watch East German border guards demolish a section to open a new crossing point between East and West Berlin. Two days beforehand, Günter Schabowski, the East Berlin Communist Party boss, declared that East Germans would be free to leave the country without permission.

A woman fixes her belongings atop a vandalized hammer and sickle on a Moscow street. The hammer and sickle was a communist symbol conceived during the Russian Revolution.