End of the Cold

War

End of the Soviet

system
In the early Cold War, Communism and the
Soviet Union had considerable soft power.
Many Communists led the resistance against
fascism in Europe and many people believed
that Communism was the wave of the future

Soviet soft power was undercut by the

exposure of Stalin's crimes in 1956 and by the
repression in Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia
in 1968, and Poland in 1981.

Problems within Soviet

Union
Soviet defense budget began to undermine
other aspects of Soviet society. Healthcare
deteriorated and the mortality rate increased.
This was the case even before the 1980s when the
U.S. increased defense spending

The economic problems prompted many to

think that things needed to change.

The Soviet-Afghan War

and the end the Cold War.
&
The conflict laid the foundation for the more
recent conflicts

US-supplied Stinger
missiles helped the
mujahedeen defeat
Soviet forces in
Afghanistan

Afghanistan and the

two superpowers

While the US was

spending at levels the

USSR was finding
difficult to match, the
Soviets were having
their own internal
problems
The Soviets withdrew

from Afghanistan in
1989 after ten years of
a failed war many
likened to the US
experience in Vietnam
The Soviet economy
and those of its eastern
and central European
satellites were in

More importantly, the

U.S. helped create
networks among
radical Islamists,
including those who
followed Wahhabism,
which originated in
Saudi Arabia. These
networks helped
groups like Al Qaeda
form and spread
influence.
- (Example of
unintended

Gorbachev
With economic and political reforms obviously needed,

Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev initiated

perestroika (the restructuring or decentralizing of the
economy)
glasnost (an opening of the Soviet society to public
scrutiny)

Gorbachev made it clear by the summer of 1989 that the

Soviet Union would not use force to put down rebellions.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall (November 1989) became the
symbolic end of the Cold War

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was built by Communists in August 1961 to keep

Germans from escaping Communist-dominated East Berlin into
the Democratic, capitalistic West Berlin.
The 12-ft concrete wall extended for 100 miles and included
electrified fences and guard posts.
The wall was a symbol of the Cold War, in which the politically
opposed superpowers continually wrestled for dominance,
stopping just short of actual warfare.

Tear Down This Wall Speech

(1987)
Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this
gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Many people have come to believe that this line was

responsible for the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and so the
end of the Cold War, yet the reality is far more complex.

Tear Down This Wall Speech

(1987)
Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
What contributed to the end of the Cold War?
Economic problems:
Expense of a decade long Soviet-Afghan War
Continued arms race
Soviet economic system had stalled
Gorbachevs leadership willingness to reform the
Soviet Union
Reagans friendlier approach (during his second
term)
helped Gorbachev maintain power in the Soviet
Union against hardliners

Collapse of the Soviet Empire

Beginning in August 1991,

Soviet republics began

declaring their
independence from the
USSR
Also in August, a group of
conspirators representing
dissatisfied elements of the
Communist Party, the KGB,
and the military attempted
to seize power while
Gorbachev was on vacation
Boris Yelstin crushed the
coup, but himself replaced
Gorbachev
By the end of 1991, the
USSR had ceased to exist

AP photo of Boris Yelstin

atop an armored
personnel carrier
encouraging resistance
to the coup