Why Did the Cold War End?

According to Mr. Beat, it was the collapse of the Soviet Union, although many people give credit to capitalism, Ronald Reagan, or even Harry Truman.

For my full paper on this topic, including sources, visit here: https://www.scribd.com/document/34876...

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By the 1960s, the world’s two largest communist countries, the Soviet Union and China, were not getting along so well. Mao Zedong, the leader of China,and Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, both had different interpretations of communist ideology, and the two countries simply had conflicting national interests. Mao generally thought that Khrushchev and his regime favored a revisionist, or watered down version of Marxism. Regardless, things got tense between the two countries, and this became known as the Sino-Soviet split.

Soon after this, Nixon seized the moment and opened up diplomatic and economic relations with China. Soon after this, Nixon sat down with the Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev to sign the SALT I Treaty, which was the first time that the United States and Soviet Union both agreed to limit the number of nuclear missiles they had.

By the time Jimmy Carter had taken office in 1977, it really seemed the Cold War was about to end, as the United States was getting along with both China and the Soviet Union better than it had since the beginning of the Cold War. Carter was less flexible than Nixon was, however, and he demanded the Soviet Union do more to guarantee equal rights for everyone. Sure, Carter and Brezhnev signed the SALT II Treaty, which limited the number of strategic weapons and nuclear-missile launchers each side could produce, but tensions still went back up a bit during his Presidency.

During the early 1980s, tensions went up even further as President Ronald Reagan talked a lot of trash against the Soviet Union (Evil Empire speech) and greatly increased military spending, creating Star Wars. No no no no, not that Star Wars. Although that movie is how it got its nickname. Star Wars was also known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, the defense system that would keep Americans safe from enemy missiles that didn’t really launch (pun intended) due to being expensive and overambitious. At the same time, the Soviet Union was stuck in an unpopular war against the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, appearing to much of the world as an imperialist, aggressive, bully. In 1983, the movie The Day After, a film about nuclear attacks on the United States by the Soviet Union mostly filmed in the city where I live (Lawrence represent!) became the highest-rated television film in history. More than 100 million people tuned in and were justifiably freaked out that the end of the world was near.

By the 1960s, the world’s two largest communist countries, the Soviet Union and China, were not getting along so well. Mao Zedong, the leader of China,and Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, both had different interpretations of communist ideology, and the two countries simply had conflicting national interests. Mao generally thought that Khrushchev and his regime favored a revisionist, or watered down version of Marxism. Regardless, things got tense between the two countries, and this became known as the Sino-Soviet split.

Soon after this, Nixon seized the moment and opened up diplomatic and economic relations with China. Soon after this, Nixon sat down with the Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev to sign the SALT I Treaty, which was the first time that the United States and Soviet Union both agreed to limit the number of nuclear missiles they had.

By the time Jimmy Carter had taken office in 1977, it really seemed the Cold War was about to end, as the United States was getting along with both China and the Soviet Union better than it had since the beginning of the Cold War. Carter was less flexible than Nixon was, however, and he demanded the Soviet Union do more to guarantee equal rights for everyone. Sure, Carter and Brezhnev signed the SALT II Treaty, which limited the number of strategic weapons and nuclear-missile launchers each side could produce, but tensions still went back up a bit during his Presidency.

During the early 1980s, tensions went up even further as President Ronald Reagan talked a lot of trash against the Soviet Union (Evil Empire speech) and greatly increased military spending, creating Star Wars. No no no no, not that Star Wars. Although that movie is how it got its nickname. Star Wars was also known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, the defense system that would keep Americans safe from enemy missiles that didn’t really launch (pun intended) due to being expensive and overambitious.