Topic 16 - A Global Superpower Facing Change (1975-2000)

Lesson 2 - The End of the Cold War

The policy of détente pursued by Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter opened the door to trade and friendlier relations with the Soviet Union. The hostility that marked the Cold War seemed to be easing. Then, near the end of Carter’s presidency, the Soviet Union took an action that the United States could not accept.

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Start up

Look at the photograph of the Berlin Wall, long a symbol of the Cold War. Write down several things you already know about the Berlin Wall. How did it become a symbol of the end of the Cold War?

Guiding Questions

What event caused Cold War tensions to increase, starting in 1979?
Why did communism fall in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union?
How did the end of the Cold War affect life in the United States?

Vocabulary

Academic Vocabulary

What Led to the End of Détente?

Efforts to reduce tensions during the Cold War had improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, this policy of détente ended suddenly in 1979. In December, troops from the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, a mountainous nation on the Soviet Union’s southern border. Soviet troops were sent there to help a pro-Soviet government.

Opposing Soviet Action in Afghanistan

The United States condemned the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. President Carter withdrew the SALT II Treaty from Senate approval hearings. The United States also refused to take part in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

Despite worldwide criticism, Soviet troops remained in Afghanistan for ten years. They suffered heavy losses as Afghan rebels, supplied by the United States, battled the Communist government. The war in Afghanistan became so costly for the Soviets that it weakened the Soviet economy, and Soviet forces could not remain. In 1989, the Soviets were forced to pull all troops out of Afghanistan.

Analyze Images The United States supported Afghan rebels such as these, seen here standing atop a Russian helicopter they had captured.

Use Visual Information How, do you think, did the rebels succeed in resisting the Soviet military?

Reagan Reacts

Ronald Reagan declared that the Soviet Union was “the focus of evil in the modern world.” He called on Americans to “oppose it with all our might.”

Reagan wanted to deal with the Soviets from a position of strength. To achieve this, he persuaded Congress to increase military spending by more than $100 billion during his first five years in office. His Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) also called for the development of a new weapons system that Reagan hoped could destroy Soviet missiles from ground and from space. SDI was nicknamed Star Warsafter a popular movie. Only the early stages of research were completed.

During Reagan’s first term in office, the two superpowers continued to view each other with deep mistrust. In December 1981, with Soviet backing, Poland’s Communist government cracked down on Solidarity, an independent labor union. Solidarity members had gone on strike at Polish shipyards to demand labor reforms.

Under Soviet pressure, the Polish government imposed martial law, or emergency military rule, on the country. President Reagan condemned the move. He urged the Soviets to allow Poland to restore basic human rights. The United States also put economic pressure on Poland to end martial law.

READING CHECK

Identify Supporting Details Identify three details that support the claim that Reagan took a strong stand against the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Empire Crumbles

Cracks began to appear in the Soviet empire in the mid-1980s. Economic problems grew in part because of the huge sums the Soviets were spending on their military to try to keep up with the United States, which had a much stronger free-market economy. The Soviets had little money left for producing consumer goods. Soviet citizens stood in line for hours waiting for poorly made products. The Communist system was not working. The time was ripe for reform.

Gorbachev Breaks With the Past

In 1985 a new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev (mee kah EEL GOR buh chawf), rose to power. Gorbachev believed that only major reforms would allow the Soviet system to survive.

Gorbachev backed glasnost, the Russian term for speaking out openly. Glasnost,Gorbachev hoped, would lead citizens to find solutions to pressing economic and social problems. This new openness was a break with the past, when any criticism of government policies had been quickly silenced.

Improving Relations

Gorbachev realized that he could not solve the Soviet Union’s economic problems without cutting military spending sharply. To do so, he had to have better relations with the United States.

President Reagan and Gorbachev met at several summit meetings. A summit meeting is a conference between the highest-ranking officials of different nations. Reagan agreed to these meetings because he approved of Gorbachev’s new policy of openness.

In 1987, the two leaders signed an arms control pact called the Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty. In it, both nations agreed to get rid of their stockpiles of short- and medium-range missiles. To prevent cheating, each side would have the right to inspect the other’s missile sites. Reagan summarized this aspect of the pact by reciting his favorite Russian proverb, “Trust, but verify.”

Two years later, Gorbachev withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan. This action removed another barrier to cooperation between the superpowers.

Analyze Images Mikhail Gorbachev (left) and Ronald Reagan made history when they signed agreements on human rights, nuclear arms reduction, and security.

Infer Why would these agreements be beneficial to the entire world?

Change Comes to Eastern Europe

For more than 50 years, the Communist governments of Eastern Europe had banned any open discussion of political issues.

As in the Soviet Union, only one political party, the Communist Party, was allowed to win elections. People were denied many basic rights, such as freedom of speech.

Now, in the late 1980s, Eastern European governments could no longer control the rising demands of their people for democratic and economic reforms. With opposition so widespread, most of those governments did not dare to use military force to oppose change. Furthermore, the Soviet Union did not have the power to suppress these protests. It was too busy trying to solve its own problems.

In 1989, Poland held its first free elections in 50 years. Polish voters rejected Communist candidates in favor of those put up by the trade union, Solidarity. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa (LEK vah WEN sah) had once been jailed by the Communists for almost a year. After the elections, he became head of a new Polish government.

One by one, Communist governments fell in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Albania. In Romania, a violent revolt toppled Nicolae Ceausescu, the country’s longtime Communist dictator.

In East Germany, protests in 1989 drove the Communists from power. The government was forced to open gates in the Berlin Wall when citizens demanded to be let through. By 1990, Germany was reunited under a democratic government.

Analyze Images In November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. Here, jubilant East Germans rush past Checkpoint Charlie, the U.S. army’s control point at the entrance to West Berlin.

Infer Why do you think the East German military did not act against the people who took down the Wall?

The Soviet Union Breaks Apart

The Soviet Union was made up of 15 different republics held together by a strong central government in Moscow. Under Soviet rule, the republics had few powers. All important policy decisions were made in Moscow. Moscow was also the capital of the republic of Russia, containing most of the land and people of the Soviet Union.

By 1990, resentment of Moscow was high in the non-Russian republics. Some of their people demanded self-rule. Meanwhile, Gorbachev allowed political parties to form. For nearly 70 years, the Soviet Union had been a one-party Communist state.

Hard-line Communist officials were outraged. A group of them sent troops to oust Gorbachev. Their power grab did not last long. A Moscow politician who had rejected the Communist Party, Boris Yeltsin, led thousands of Russians in protest. They surrounded the Parliament building and forced troops to pull back.

As a Communist rejected by his own defeated party, Gorbachev was weakened. In the months that followed, republic after republic declared its independence from the Soviet Union. In late 1991, Gorbachev resigned. By then, the Soviet Union had collapsed.

Fifteen new nations emerged from the old Soviet Union. Of these, Russia was the largest and most powerful. It began the difficult task of building a new economy based on a free-market system. In a free market, individuals decide what and how much to produce and sell. Under communism, the government had made such economic decisions.

Analyze Charts After the first nations declared independence from the Soviet Union, the rest followed quickly.

Draw Conclusions Why did the dissolution of the Soviet Union speed up in late 1991?

Promoting Democracy in Eastern Europe

The United States and Western European nations provided economic aid to Russia, the other former Soviet republics, and Eastern European nations. American experts offered advice to political and business leaders in Russia and Eastern Europe on the free-market system.

The United States was eager to see stable, democratic governments emerge in the old Communist world. It also hoped that the new nations would become trading partners.

Meanwhile, nations formerly under Soviet domination in Eastern Europe sought to protect their new freedom. Former East Germany left the Warsaw Pact and became part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, when Germany reunified in 1990. As a member of NATO, the United States promised to defend other members. In 1999, President Clinton welcomed Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary into NATO.

READING CHECK

Summarize How did the United States respond to the collapse of the Soviet Union?

The Aftermath of the Cold War

For almost 50 years, the Cold War deeply affected American life. Students in the 1950s and 1960s practiced crouching under their desks in case of atomic attack. Hundreds of thousands of Americans went off to fight in the Korean and Vietnam wars. About 112,000 of them did not return.

The Costs of the Cold War

Americans cheered the end of the Cold War and the emergence of democratic governments in Eastern Europe. Victory was costly, though. From 1946 to 1990, the United States spent more than $6 trillion on national defense. The development of nuclear weapons and the arms race had created new dangers for the world. During and after the Cold War, other nations besides the superpowers worked to develop their own nuclear weapons.

The Cold War had divided Americans at times. The search for Communists in the 1950s had created an atmosphere of fear and suspicion. The Vietnam War had split the American public in an often bitter debate. Many Americans greeted the end of the Cold War with relief.

Analyze Charts The Cold War had many effects around the world.

Use Visual Information How did the Cold War affect U.S. military power?

The Peace Dividend

The collapse of the Soviet Union allowed President Clinton to cut military spending. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed in Germany and other European countries to defend against a possible Soviet attack were brought home. U.S. military bases were closed.

The money saved by reducing military spending, sometimes called a “peace dividend,” helped Clinton wipe out the federal budget deficit. Some economists believe that it contributed to the economic boom during the Clinton years.

There was another peace dividend that could not be measured in dollar terms. This was the feeling, after decades of living in fear of another world war, that the United States was free at last from serious external threats. This feeling of ease was short-lived, however. During the 1990s, the United States faced a number of new challenges around the world.

Analyze Images Members of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division fall out for the final time in Germany. The Division had been stationed in Germany from 1945 to 1994, when they were reassigned to the United States.

Infer Why were military units such as this no longer needed in Germany after the Cold War?

READING CHECK

Identify Main Ideas What were the costs of fighting the Cold War?

Lesson Check

In 1981, the Soviet-backed Polish government declared martial law as a means of dealing with a strike by Solidarity. How did the United States react?
Why can you be sure both Reagan and Gorbachev would have attended a summit meeting between the United States and the Soviet Union?
Draw Conclusions Why might Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost have suggested to Americans that the Soviet Union might be open to a closer relationship?
Sequence How did Gorbachev’s policy of openness trigger changes in Eastern Europe that eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union?
Generate Explanations Why were Americans optimistic about the country’s future at the end of the Cold War?
Writing Workshop: Support Thesis with Details To support your thesis on the Cold War, you must find detailed information in reliable books, journal articles, and online sites. Write the details, organizing them in a way that best develops your thesis.

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