The Tipping Point,

The fall of the Berlin Wall was surely the tipping point in the end of the cold war. This was initially caused by seemingly random miscommunication and indecision. However in an open system these things would have resolved themselves, not least of which by the people in responsibility having to be accountable for their actions. But compentance in East Germany, and communism by large is not a meritocracy but a dictatorship which rewards only loyalty. Eventually the people in authority had no experience in responding to crisis. Thus the system was bound to evalually fall. A fascinating and luckily bloodless conclusion to a tyrannical government.