World History: End of Cold War

The Key events that led to end of Cold War are discussed as follows:

Detente and easing of tension

Detente or a relaxation of tension, in the relations between the two super powers was a new development in the cold war during the period 1969 to 1978. This phase in the cold war was crucial for the future shaping of international politics since this phase witnessed a better understanding of the two super powers’ compulsions and necessities in a faction-ridden world. Hence it led to a spirit of compromise and gave both a respite from confrontation. Relations between the USA and USSR appeared relaxed and normal with an increasing number of mutual visits, cultural exchanges, trade agreements and cooperative technological ventures. Undoubtedly, the spirit of detente was the handiwork of President Richard Nixon of the USA and his national security adviser Henry A. Kissinger. It was enthusiastically responded to by the Soviet leadership.

Collapse of detente

The decade of detente, however, was abruptly shattered in 1979 and there was a return to the old habit of confrontation rather than accommodation. International developments with grave consequences for the future coincided in 1979. The Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Kampuchean crisis lead to the Sino-Vietnamese war of 1979, the US involvement in EI Salvador and finally the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan in December 1979 {discussed in next module} gave an ominous pointer that something had gone terribly wrong somewhere. While the Americans came to suspect the Russians of trying to impose communist dictatorship in different parts of the world the Russians were convinced of a sinister American campaign to destabilise the Soviet Union. All this and many more were a perfect recipe for the beginning of· Cold War II.

Revival of Detente Gorbachev’s contribution

Though many interpreted the end of detente and the beginning of Cold War II would eventually lead to the outbreak of the Third global war, it was a great boon for mankind that the new cold war did not last long and the process of detente revived during the early eighties of the twentieth century. The credit for restarting the process of discussion and understanding undoubtedly goes-to the new Soviet leadership that came to power in 1985. Milhail Gorbachev reversed the ‘historical process of confrontation between the U.S.A. and the USSR and sought to replace it by a spirit of conciliation and coexistence. Gorbachev realised that the Soviet Union faced an economic breakdown of an unparalleled magnitude and that it could no longer afford a confrontation with the United States. In his view, the US had clearly emerged victor in the military and economic fields, and for the Soviet Union to survive, it had to integrate itself with all other leading economics of the world, particularly the United States. Gorbachev thus presented a “new political thinking” to the world which emphasised integration rather than annihilation. The first reaction of the United States was one of scepticism and suspicion, but soon the US and the west realised Gorbachev’s sincerity of purpose.

Soviet-U.S. Understanding the INF Treaty

The earliest evidence of the gradual defusion of the cold war is to be witnessed in the revival of the summit level talks between Ronald Reagan, the American President and Gorbachev. The talks that had been discontinued in the wake of the Afghanistan crisis of 1979 were resumed in November 1985. The world leadership saw in Gorbachev a man committed to peace and peaceful coexistence, which only could lead to the realisation of the idea of a global family. Since November 1985, a series of Russo-American summits were held which created conditions conducive to cordial relations between the two. These talks led to a reduction of the arms race and created a healthy atmosphere for the signing of the Geneva Accords in 1987 leading to the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. The high watermark of the revival of the spirit of detente was marked by the signing of ‘the most significant treaty on nuclear disarmament. The Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces [INF] Treaty signed in 1987 gave a tremendous boost to nuclear disarmament -since for the first time in the history of post-war disarmament a specific nuclear weapon was eliminated forever.

The ‘end of cold war

The signing of the INF Treaty ironically enough coincided with the collapse of communism in East Europe. One after the other Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe discarded communism and opted for new regimes which were not under the control of Moscow. The Soviet Union itself under dire economic crisis was unable to stem the rot while its empire disintegrated fast and forever. The victory of communism in Russia in 1917 had engendered the cold war and with its collapse, which was marked by the withering away of the communist East European bloc in 1989, it became all too apparent that the cold war had ended. The end to the fifty year long cold war was marked by, the signing of the historic Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty [START] between Gorbachev and President George Bush [Senior]. It pledged the reduction of their strategic nuclear arsenals by about 30 per cent. In December 1991, the Soviet Union, the only other super power to challenge the United States throughout the period of the cold war, disintegrated and the vast Soviet Union was fragmented to numerous independent states. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] ceased to exist and in its place was born the Commonwealth of Independent States [CIS]. The year 1991 also witnessed an event of immeasurable consequences when that hateful relic of the cold war – the Berlin Wall- was dismantled. It signified not only the reunion of [Communist] East Germany with West Germany, but also symbolised the reunion of Europe. In February 1992, President Bush and the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin formally declared an end to the cold war. Not a drop of blood had been shed, yet the fifty-year old cold war had come to an end. It indeed marked a triumph for American Foreign Policy. The disintegration of the Warsaw pact, brought into existence in 1955 as a counterpart of NATO, was an unmistakable pointer to the fact that, the cold war had indeed ended.