2. The End of the Cold War

3. Nixon’s foreign policy
Nixon’s top priority was gaining honorable peace in Vietnam, as well as improve the US’s relationship with China and the Soviet Union.
Henry Kissinger: Nixon’s adviser on national security and Secretary of State.
Realpolitik: “political realism”. Foreign policy should be based solely on consideration of power, not moral ideals or moral principles. If a country was weak it was often more practical to ignore that country, even if it was communist.
This is a huge departure from the policy of containment. But this policy did call for the US to fully confront the powerful nations of the globe.
Détente: a policy aimed at easing Cold War tensions. Seen when Nixon visited Communist China.
China & US agreements: 1. neither would try to dominate the Pacific 2. Cooperate in settling disputes peacefully
Meeting in Moscow: 1st president to ever visit the Soviet Union
SALT I Treaty: 5 year agreement to limit number of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

4. Changes in the soviet union
March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union.
Beginning of a new era and reform
Soviet economy was weakening and US added to the pressure by increasing defensive spending, Soviets tried to keep up and almost caused their economy to collapse.
Glasnost: allowed for open criticism of the Soviet government & steps towards freedom of press.
Perestroika: restricting Soviet society. 1. less government control of the economy 2. private enterprise 3. steps towards democratic government.
Realized that a better relationship with the US would allow the Soviets to decrease their military spending and reform the economy.
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty): 12/8/87 reduce US and Soviet nuclear arms

5. Fall of the berlin wall Berlin Wall
Gorbachev made steps to unify East and West Germany, but he was not decisive enough. At the Berlin Wall in 1987 President Ronald Reagan challenged Gorbachev in his famous speech:
“Tear down this wall!”
August of 1989 – Hungarian soldiers on the border stopped enforcing the border controls into Austria
This begins a chain reaction of events destabilizing the “Iron Curtain”
November 9, 1989 – Citizens in Berlin begin dismantling the Berlin Wall
Without the communist state to enforce the boundary the wall falls quickly
Free passage between the two parts of the city for the first time in 28 years.
The fall of the wall means that Berlin and Germany can begin to re-unify

6. Fall of the berlin wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall did not signal the end of the Soviet Union-- December 26, 1991 that the Union formally dissolved.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union created new countries and a new geo-political dynamic across the world
Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania declare their independence from the Soviet Union,
Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania made successful transitions from communism.
US President George HW Bush (Reagan’s VP) found that he had to deal with a world that did not include the Soviet Union or the Cold War

7. Communism in china
Early 1980s Chinese Communist government loosened its grip on business eliminated price controls.
Students began to demand freedom of speech and have a greater role in the government.
Demonstration at Tiananmen Square
Students constructed a version of the Statute of Liberty to symbolize the struggle for democracy.
China’s premier ordered the military to crush the protesters.
China’s armed forces stormed the Square and slaughtered unarmed students.
The world watched in horror while China’s democratic future was uncertain.