## Learning Outcomes

- Explain why the Cold War ended through multiple causes rather than one single event or leader
- Identify the role of **Soviet economic stagnation**, the war in **Afghanistan**, and the burden of the arms race
- Distinguish clearly between **glasnost** and **perestroika**
- Understand how **Ronald Reagan** shifted from hard-line pressure to arms-control diplomacy
- Recall key dates and events including **1985**, **1987**, **1989**, and **1991**
- Analyse how Eastern European protest movements helped bring down Soviet control
- Use this topic in APUSH causation and LEQ/SAQ responses

## AP United States History Syllabus

For the AP United States History, you are expected to understand the causes of the Cold War’s end, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that the end of the Cold War belongs to **Period 9 (1980–present)** and connects to **America in the World**
- Identify the importance of **Soviet economic weakness**, including stagnation and the cost of military competition
- Explain how **Reagan’s military buildup**, **Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)**, and anti-communist policy increased pressure on the USSR
- Understand how **Mikhail Gorbachev’s** reforms after **1985** weakened Soviet control
- Distinguish between **glasnost** as openness and **perestroika** as restructuring
- Recognise the importance of the **Eastern European revolutions of 1989**, including **Solidarity in Poland** and the **fall of the Berlin Wall**
- Know that the **INF Treaty (1987)** and **START I (1991)** reflected superpower de-escalation
- Understand that the **dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991** was the final endpoint, not the only cause

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. Why is it inaccurate to say that Ronald Reagan alone ended the Cold War?
2. What is the difference between **glasnost** and **perestroika**?
3. How did Soviet problems at home affect Soviet foreign policy in the 1980s?
4. Why were the **Eastern European revolutions of 1989** so important?
5. What is the difference between a cause of the Cold War’s end and a symbol of its end?

## Introduction

The end of the Cold War is one of the most tested parts of late 20th-century U.S. foreign policy because it requires more than recall. APUSH expects you to explain causation: not just what happened, but why it happened and which factors mattered most.

A strong answer does not treat the Cold War’s end as a simple American victory or as the work of one Soviet reformer. Instead, it shows how long-term Soviet weakness, U.S. pressure, Gorbachev’s reforms, and mass protest in Eastern Europe combined to bring the conflict to a close between **1989** and **1991**.

> **Key Term: Cold War**
> The long period of ideological, political, military, and economic rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, usually dated from **1945 to 1991**.

### Soviet weakness and the burden of competition

The most basic cause of the Cold War’s end was that the **Soviet Union was weakening from within**. By the 1980s, the Soviet economy was suffering from low productivity, shortages, and slow growth. Its centrally planned system struggled to provide consumer goods, raise living standards, and keep pace with Western technological change.

> **Key Term: Soviet economic stagnation**
> A period of weak economic growth, low productivity, and poor living standards that made it difficult for the USSR to sustain superpower competition.

This matters because Cold War rivalry was expensive. The Soviet Union had to maintain a huge military, support allied communist governments, and compete in the arms race with the United States. A superpower can project strength abroad only if its economy can support that effort at home. The USSR increasingly could not.

The Soviet war in **Afghanistan**, which began in **1979**, made this problem worse. Like the Vietnam War for the United States, Afghanistan became a costly, frustrating conflict that drained money, military resources, and prestige. It also exposed limits to Soviet power. Instead of proving Soviet strength, the war suggested that the USSR was vulnerable and overstretched.

Cause-and-effect chain is crucial here:

- weak Soviet economy
- high military spending
- costly war in Afghanistan
- reduced ability to control Eastern Europe and compete globally
- growing need for reform and reduced tensions

Students often mention Afghanistan only as a fact to memorize. The exam wants more: explain how it pushed Soviet leaders toward de-escalation. If the USSR could not afford endless confrontation, then reform and negotiation became more attractive.

> **Test Tip:** In an SAQ or LEQ, do not stop at “the Soviet economy was weak.” Add the next link: this weakness made the USSR less able to sustain the arms race, control satellites, and continue confrontation.

### Reagan’s pressure and the shift from confrontation to negotiation

Ronald Reagan played a major role, but not in a simplistic “he won the Cold War by himself” way. Early in his presidency, Reagan took a very hard line against the Soviet Union. He increased military spending, supported anti-communist movements abroad, and used sharp anti-Soviet rhetoric, including calling the USSR the **“evil empire.”**

> **Key Term: Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)**
> A missile-defense proposal announced by Reagan in **1983**, intended to protect the United States from nuclear attack and to pressure the Soviet Union in the arms race.

SDI mattered even though it was never fully realised. It alarmed Soviet leaders because it suggested that the United States might move beyond the Cold War logic of mutual vulnerability. If the U.S. could someday block Soviet missiles, then the strategic balance would shift. The Soviet leadership feared the cost of trying to match another round of American military innovation.

Reagan also followed what became known as the **Reagan Doctrine**, supporting anti-communist resistance movements, especially in the developing world. This continued pressure in places linked to Soviet influence and made Cold War competition more expensive for Moscow.

> **Key Term: Reagan Doctrine**
> The Reagan administration’s policy of supporting anti-communist forces and insurgencies, especially in the developing world.

Still, APUSH rewards students who notice change over time. Reagan did not remain only a hard-liner. After **Mikhail Gorbachev** came to power in **1985**, U.S.-Soviet relations began to improve. Reagan and Gorbachev met at the **Geneva Summit (1985)** and the **Reykjavik Summit (1986)**. Reykjavik did not solve everything, largely because of disagreement over SDI, but it showed that both sides were now seriously discussing deep arms reductions.

This led to the **INF Treaty** in **1987**.

> **Key Term: INF Treaty**
> The **Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty**, signed in **1987** by Reagan and Gorbachev, which eliminated an entire class of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

Why is the INF Treaty so important? Because it was not just rhetoric. It was evidence that Cold War hostility was being replaced by active arms reduction. Earlier phases of the Cold War had included tension management; now both sides were dismantling weapons. That is a major shift.

So Reagan mattered in two linked ways:

1. early pressure increased strain on a weak Soviet system
2. later diplomacy helped turn confrontation into negotiated de-escalation

Students often miss the second point and write only about military buildup. That loses complexity.

> **Test Tip:** If a question asks about Reagan, compare his **early hard-line stance** with his **later diplomacy**. That comparison shows stronger historical reasoning than listing SDI and stopping there.

### Gorbachev, reform, and the collapse of Soviet control

If Reagan increased pressure, **Gorbachev** changed the Soviet response. When he became Soviet leader in **1985**, he recognised that the USSR could not continue on the old path. His answer was reform.

> **Key Term: glasnost**
> Gorbachev’s policy of greater openness, including reduced censorship and more public discussion.
>
> **Key Term: perestroika**
> Gorbachev’s policy of restructuring the Soviet political and economic system.

The distinction matters. **Glasnost** was about openness and public criticism. **Perestroika** was about restructuring the system itself. Students often blur them together, but APUSH likes precise distinctions.

Why did these reforms matter so much? Because they were meant to save the Soviet system, but they weakened it instead.

Glasnost reduced censorship. Once people could speak more openly, criticism of corruption, repression, and economic failure spread quickly. That made it harder for the Soviet state to rely on fear and silence.

Perestroika tried to make the system more efficient and flexible. But reforming a weak command economy is risky. Instead of quickly fixing problems, it exposed how serious they were. It also disrupted old structures without creating stable new ones.

Most important of all, Gorbachev **loosened Soviet control over Eastern Europe**. Earlier Soviet leaders had used force to crush uprisings, as in **Hungary in 1956** and **Czechoslovakia in 1968**. By the late 1980s, Gorbachev was no longer willing to pay the cost of such intervention.

That decision changed everything. Eastern European reformers now had reason to believe Moscow might not send in tanks.

This is where internal Soviet weakness connects directly to the end of the Cold War. The USSR did not simply “become nicer.” It became less able and less willing to maintain its empire by force.

### Eastern Europe, 1989, and the final end of the Cold War

Once Soviet control loosened, opposition movements in Eastern Europe moved fast. The revolutions of **1989** were not the original cause of the Cold War’s end, but they were the clearest sign that it was happening.

In **Poland**, the independent labour movement **Solidarity**, led by **Lech Wałęsa**, gained major success in **1989**. This was a breakthrough because it showed a communist government giving way under organised domestic pressure.

> **Key Term: Solidarity**
> An independent Polish labour movement led by **Lech Wałęsa** that challenged communist rule and helped break Soviet bloc control in **1989**.

Elsewhere, **Hungary** opened its borders, **Czechoslovakia** experienced the **Velvet Revolution**, and **Romania** saw violent regime change. In **East Germany**, growing protest led to the most famous symbol of all: the **fall of the Berlin Wall** on **November 9, 1989**.

The Berlin Wall’s fall is hugely important, but students must be careful. It was a symbol and an outcome, not the sole cause.

> **Key Term: fall of the Berlin Wall**
> The collapse of the barrier dividing East and West Berlin on **November 9, 1989**, symbolising the breakdown of Soviet control in Eastern Europe.

A strong APUSH answer will explain sequence:

- Soviet weakness made reform necessary
- Gorbachev introduced glasnost and perestroika
- Soviet willingness to use force declined
- Eastern European protest movements took advantage
- communist regimes fell in **1989**
- the Soviet Union itself dissolved in **1991**

This last step matters. The Cold War did not formally end just because the wall fell. The USSR still existed until **1991**. In that year, the superpowers also signed **START I**, another major arms-reduction agreement, and then the Soviet Union broke apart. Gorbachev resigned on **December 25, 1991**.

> **Key Term: dissolution of the Soviet Union**
> The breakup of the USSR in **1991**, which marked the final formal end of the Cold War.

George H. W. Bush also deserves brief mention. His cautious diplomacy helped manage the final phase without provoking crisis. The **Malta Summit (1989)**, support for **German reunification in 1990**, and **START I in 1991** all fit this final stage. Bush did not cause the Cold War’s end, but he helped guide its peaceful conclusion.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- The Cold War ended through multiple causes, not one leader or one event
- Long-term **Soviet economic stagnation** weakened the USSR from within
- The Soviet war in **Afghanistan (1979–1989)** drained resources and prestige
- Reagan increased pressure through military spending, anti-Soviet rhetoric, and **SDI**
- Reagan later shifted toward diplomacy with Gorbachev through summit meetings
- **Gorbachev** came to power in **1985** and introduced **glasnost** and **perestroika**
- **Glasnost** meant openness, while **perestroika** meant restructuring
- Gorbachev’s reforms weakened Soviet control instead of fully saving the system
- The **INF Treaty (1987)** showed real arms reduction between the superpowers
- The **Eastern European revolutions of 1989**, including **Solidarity** and the **fall of the Berlin Wall**, marked the collapse of Soviet domination
- The **fall of the Berlin Wall** was a symbol of the Cold War’s end, but the USSR did not dissolve until **1991**
- The **dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991** was the final endpoint of the Cold War

## Key Terms and Concepts

- Cold War
- Soviet economic stagnation
- Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
- Reagan Doctrine
- INF Treaty
- glasnost
- perestroika
- Solidarity
- fall of the Berlin Wall
- dissolution of the Soviet Union


The End of the Cold War - Causes of the Cold War’s end