End of the Cold War

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End of the Cold War
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Détente

• French for relaxation
• Tensions began to cool between the USA and USSR
  beginning in the early 1970s
• 1950s and 1960s had been a period of high tension
  between USA and USSR
• Korea
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Nuclear arms build-up

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Negotiations with the USSR

• In the 1970s the USA and USSR reached compromises
  on arms reduction
• SALT agreements (strategic arms limitation talks)
  in Helsinki, Finland
• Talks placed caps on size of armaments for each
  side

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Nixon in China

• Nixons relationship with China also represented
  a sort of cooling in tense relations
• Nixon forged a friendly relationship with China
  by traveling there in 1972
• He pitted China against the USSR
• Therefore keeping China and USSR from becoming
  allies
• Think of geographic advantage???

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Trouble in USSR

• Soviets couldnt keep up financially with the USA
• Star wars (Strategic Defense Initiative)
• Reagan
• Soviet citizens began admiring western culture,
  which was seeping into the USSR
• Nationalist movements
• Poor economy
• New, open leadership

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Gorbachev

• Glasnost openness, especially in media,
  publication
• Less censorship
• Perestroika economic restructuring
• Make command economy (communism) less stringent
• Better meet the needs of consumers by infuse some
  free-market values into the economy

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Ronald Reagan

• 1980-1988
• Challenged the USSR
• Called it evil
• Said it had no moral legitimacy

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Ronald Reagan

• 1980-1988
• Challenged the USSR
• Called it evil
• Said it had no moral legitimacy
• Famous speech at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
• Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall
• Programs like Star wars increased military and
  economic pressure on USSR
• Soviet couldnt keep up

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Reagan at Gate 1987
Wall falls! 1989