The+End+of+the+Cold+War

= ** The End of the Cold War ** =

While superpower leaders like Richard Nixon lost face and power, new leaders like Mikhail S. Gorbachev helped bring an end to the cold war. Ronald Reagan mad a final push against the Soviet Union by reinvigorating cold war animosities, zeroing in on communism and the USSR. Reagan also spent millions on military programs and proposals, the most famous being the Strategic Defense Initiative also referred to as "Star Wars." Reagan's budgets challenged the Soviet ability to match U.S. spending, but it was really internal changes that resulted in the USSR downfall. Between 1989 and 1990 people in Eastern and Central Europe began seeking independence through a series of non-violent revolutions. These may have been cause by horendous military spending and economic costs. The people of Europe began to reinstitute democratic forms of government, and adopting market-based economies. The economic weakness of communist regimes in eastern and central Europe and the Soviet Union became so apparent as to require reforms. Mikhail Gorbachev could only watch as radical reforms and opposition of entrenched interests caused the Soviet Union to collapse in 1991. The cold war system of states and alliances became irrelevant to international relations.
 * The End of the Cold War **

Revolutions in Eastern and Central Europe The inability to connect communism with nationalism left communist regimes vulnerable throughout Europe. The communist regimes lacked legitimacy from the beginning as they were never firmly establlished throughout Eastern and Central Europe. The Soviet Union had a high prestige however after they played a major role in defeating facism and liberating Eastern and Central Europe from German rule. Nikita Khrushchev had a vision of a more prosperous and humane communism that inspired a generation of reformers in the Soviet Union and Europe. The brutal Soviet backlash dashed aspirations of reformers. By the early 1970s, itellectuals and dissidents abandoned all hope for humane socialism. The accelerated arms race with the Reagan administration further strained the Soviet economy, but Eastern and Central Europe rulers were too reluctant to confront the challenge of restructuring their systems. The new Soviet orientation that Gorbachev put on the USSR led in the rapid succession to the collapse or overthrow of regimes in Poland, Bulgaria,Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and East Germany. The end of communism came first in Poland. Solidarity- a combined trade union and nationalist movement was legalized by the government. This put pressure on the crumbling rule of the Communists. After Poland, communist regimes in Bulgaria and then Hungary began to fall. In 1989, the longest surviving communist dictator was forced to resign in Bulgaria. In Czechoslovakia, the term velvet revolution was used after the communists were swept from office. In 1993, differences in views caused Czechoslovakia to break up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia forming the Velvet Divorce. In Romania, the dictator did not see the need for reforms and after a brutal secret police force savagely repressed demonstration, Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were killed. Romani then held its own elections and formed a new government. In Germany, Berliners began tearing down the Berlin wall in the last weeks of 1989, and in 1990 the two Germanies were united once again.

= __THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION__ =

The desire to concentrate attention and resources on urgent matters at home motivated Gorbachev's decision to disengage his nation

from the cold war. When he came to power in 1985, Gorbachev was aware of the need for economic reform and the liberalization of Soviet society. Gorbachev's reform efforts went mostly to ailing economy. The failure of state and collective farms to feed the population compelled the Soviet government to import grains from the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. By 1990, the government imposed rationing to deal with the shortage of food and water. At this time infant mortality increased while life expectancy decreased. Also, divorce rates climbed, corruption increased, and alcoholism became more widespread. The term uskorenie, or "acceleration," was the slogan used by Gorbachev while he was trying to get his country out of this economic crisis. Gorbachev tried to implement a type of reform called "perestroika," or restructuring. This was much more difficult to implement then expected. By the summer of 1990, Gorbachev's reforms had done nothing. The industrial and agricultural production continued their downward slide. The largest and most prominent of the Soviet republics, the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, led the drive to independence. On December 25, 1991, the Soviet flag flew for the last time on top of the Kremlin, and by the last day of the year the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics no longer existed.

Toward an Uncertain Future
World War II left most of the major imperialist, fascist, and militarist nations in shambles. The Cold War defined the world for almost fifty years. The most immediate and obvious loss that accompanied the end of the cold war involved the alliance systems built by the two former superpowers. Critics of the cold war routinely denounced military alliances like NATO or the Warsaw Pact for promoting an expensive arms race. A few nations, such as North Korea and Cuba stayed communist after the cold war, but their economies were near collapse. The end of the cold war suggested the possibility of a major shift in power relations and change how the world was shaped forever.