Do Now How do you think the Cold War ends? Explain your answer in a couple of sentences.

The End of the Cold War

Standards I can explain and rationalize how the Cold War ended.

Inferior Russian Economy-AKA Russia is doomed For many people, the country’s superpower status brought few rewards and no increase in standard of living Consumer goods were inferior and workers were poorly paid Because workers had lifetime job security, there was little incentive to produce high-quality goods What warning signs are shown here?

Soviets Lose Money and Morale Keeping up with the United States in an arms race also strained and drained the Soviet economy How was this similar to the Vietnam war?

New Soviet Leadership A new Soviet leader named Mikhail Gorbachev emerged in 1985 who favored changes to the USSR Gorbachev urged economic and political reforms for the USSR His policies fueled unrest across other countries in the Soviet empire

Unrest in Eastern Europe- leads to change Eastern Europeans, thirsty for political and economic changes, demanded an end to Soviet rule Previous attempts to defy Soviet authority had failed

Fall of Eastern European Dictatorships By the end of the 1980s, a powerful democracy movement was sweeping across Eastern Europe Meanwhile, East German Communist leaders resisted reform, and thousands of East Germans fled to the west as the border between Hungary and Austria opened The Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) regained independence after 50 years of Soviet control

Fall of the Berlin Wall President Ronald Reagan asked Mikhail Gorbachev to remove the Berlin Wall that separated West Berlin from East Berlin: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” - these were the famous televised words that Reagan said to Gorbachev, the leader of the former Soviet Union, in reference to the Berlin Wall that had divided residents of West Berlin from East Berlin since the wall was constructed in 1961

Fall of the Berlin Wall On the evening of November 9, 1989, an announcement made by East German government official Günter Schabowski stated, "Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between the GDR (East Germany) into the FRG (West Germany) or West Berlin." People were in shock. Were the borders really open? East Germans tentatively approached the border and indeed found that the border guards were letting people cross. Very quickly, the Berlin Wall was inundated with people from both sides. Some began chipping at the Berlin Wall with hammers and chisels. There was an impromptu huge celebration along the Berlin Wall, with people hugging, kissing, singing, cheering, and crying. The Berlin Wall was eventually chipped away, into smaller pieces (some the size of a coin and others in big slabs). The pieces have become collectibles and are stored in both homes and museums. After the Berlin Wall came down, East and West Germany reunified into a single German state on October 3, 1990.

Berlin Wall Speech (June 12, 1987) Please watch President Reagan’s speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjWD rTXMgF8

Fall of Eastern European Dictatorships By the end of 1991, the remaining Soviet republics had all formed independent nations The Soviet Union ceased to exist after 69 years of communist rule In 1992, Czechoslovakia was divided into two separate countries: Slovakia and the Czech Republic Additionally, some communist governments in Asia, such as China, instituted economic reforms only but no political reforms

Fall of Eastern European Dictatorships North Korea is hardline communist with no political or economic reforms Vietnam implemented some economic reforms Cuba is still communist and has lost much economic support from the former Soviet Union