beginning
the beginning of the end the event or development to which the conclusion or failure of something can be traced.
☞ In 1942 Winston Churchill, reporting on the Allied victory at the battle of Alamein, said 'This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.'
1992H. Norman SchwartzkopfIt Doesn't Take a Hero I heard about D-Day on the radio. The announcer quoted Ohio governor John Bricker's now-famous line that this was 'the beginning of the end of the forces of evil'.