The Cold War Ends

Mr. Ornstein

Willow Canyon High School

IB History of the Americas

Ronald Reagan

US President 1981-1988

Strongly Anti-Communist, Anti-Soviet, and Anti-Nuclear Missiles

Margaret Thatcher

Prime Minister of England

Strongly Anti-Soviet and Close Ally of US

Pope John Paul II

Polish Anti-Communist Helps Lead a

Peaceful Anti-Communist Revolt in Poland

Helps Communism Fall in Eastern Europe

Lech Walesa

Polish Electrician Leader of Union

Workers Opposed to Communist/Solidarity

Solidarity Movement Helps Lead to Fall of Communism in Poland and Eastern Europe

Mikhail Gorbachev

Last Communist Ruler of Soviet Union

Tried to Save Communism by Making Reforms

Does Not Use Force As Communism Falls in Eastern Europe

Works with Reagan to eliminate Nuclear Weapons

Boris Yeltsin

First Elected President of Non-Communist Russia

George H.W. Bush

US President as Soviet Union Breaks Up and Communism Falls in Eastern Europe

Signs START Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty

The Cold War Ends

Tough Anti-Soviet Policies of Ronald Reagan

Internal Opposition to Communism in Poland (Pope and Solidarity)

Reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union

Gorbachev Not Using Force

Reagan’s Views

Soviet Union and Communism are Evil

Soviet Union Must Be Defeated/End Détente

Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Ronald Reagan

Re-Starts the Arms Race and Outspends USSR

Believes if Soviet People See How People Live Under Democracy and Capitalism They Will Turn Against Communism

SDI/Star Wars

Reagan’s Plan for an Anti-Nuclear Missile System

Soviets Are Afraid SDI will Allow US to win Arms Race

Goes Against Mutual Assured Destruction

Soviets Are Convinced That US Can Build

Mikhail Gorbachev

Glasnost and Perestroika

Gorbachev’s Plans to Save Communism in the USSR

Glasnost-More FreedomsPerestroika-Some CapitalismActually Speeds Up Collapse of

Communism

Internal Opposition

Pope and Solidarity Movement Lead Internal Opposition Movement to Communism

Poland Leads Way in Eastern Europe

War in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Soviet’s VietnamHigh Soviet Casualties without

victoryDrains Soviet ResourcesUS sends arms to Islamic

Resistance Fighters

Berlin Wall Collapses

1989Symbol of Cold

War EndingNations of Eastern

Europe Become Free of Soviet and Communist Control

Communism Collapses in Eastern Europe

Communism Collapses Rapidly Throughout Soviet Block and Eastern Europe

Soviets Do Not Resist

End of Soviet Union

By 1991 Communists Lost Power in Russia and the Soviet Union Collapsed

USSR is now Russia AgainEastern Europe Free from CommunismBoris Yeltsin is First Democratically

Elected Russian Leader

START

1991 Treaty Between the USA and the USSR on

the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, It barred its signatories from deploying more than 6,000 warheads atop a total of 1,600 ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bombers.

Post-Cold War Issues

Russia’s Difficult Transition from Communism

Ethnic Cleansing in the Former Yugoslavia/Balkans

America’s Issues in Being Only Superpower

Post-Cold War Issues

Communism in CubaTensions Between North and

South Korea/North Korean NukesTaiwan/China IssuesArming of Islamic Resistance in

Afghanistan

Post-Cold War Issues

Accounting for Russian Nuclear Weapons

Ethnic Tensions in Lands Formally Controlled by Soviets

Terrorism

India

Largest Democracy Non-Aligned or

Neutral During Cold War

Frustrates US-Democracy Neutral