End of cold war

Détente

• While negotiating an end to the Vietnam War, President Nixon, along with his Secretary of State Kissinger, instituted the Cold War policy of détente

• The easing of hostility or strained relations

Nixon

• Led to Nixon’s visit to China and the United States’ formal recognition of the communist-controlled People’s Republic of China

• The Soviets sought to improve relations with the United States, which led to the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT).

• Series of conferences and international treaties between the US and USSR that sought to reduce the missiles that each side could possess

Soviet Problems

• Unpopular war in Afghanistan

• Economic inefficiency

• Increasing Soviet military expenses to compete with the United States

• Rising nationalism in Soviet Republics

• Chernobyl Disaster

Soviet Response

• Gorbachev’s new policies:

• Glasnost - openness

• Perestroika- economic restructuring

• Fast-paced reforms—market economy

U.S. Response

• Operation Cyclone - US will aid local tribes in fight against Soviets in Afghanistan

• Increased United States military and economic pressure on the Soviet Union

• SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative, also called Star Wars)

• Agreed to terms of arms reduction in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)

The Berlin Wall

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the symbolic end of the Cold War

The Collapse

• Soviet satellites (like East Germany and Poland) in Eastern Europe begin to break away

• Parts of the USSR itself (like Ukraine) begin to break away as the USSR breaks into it component parts

• In the early 1990s, the USSR dissolves and most parts adopt market capitalism

A few of former members of the USSR

Russia, Ukraine, Belaruis, Moldova, Georigia, and Lativia