AMSCO 9.3 The End of the Cold War

Overview

AMSCO Topic 9.3, "The End of the Cold War," covers how the four-decade standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union finally ended between Reagan's first term and the Soviet collapse in December 1991. The chapter tracks Reagan's massive military buildup and "evil empire" rhetoric, his surprising pivot to summits with Mikhail Gorbachev, the Iran-Contra scandal, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the breakup of the USSR under George H. W. Bush, and the messy aftermath in Russia and Eastern Europe. It sits in Period 9 (1980-present), and the big skill here is causation: historians still debate whether Reagan's pressure or Gorbachev's reforms mattered more.

Reagan Renews the Cold War

Reagan came into office determined to rebuild American military power and intensify Cold War competition. He called the Soviet Union the "evil empire" and the "focus of evil in the modern world," and he backed the rhetoric with money and force.

The Military Buildup

• Billions went to new weapons systems like the B-1 bomber and the MX missile, plus expanding the Navy from 450 to 600 ships.
• The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a plan for a high-tech shield of lasers and particle beams to destroy enemy missiles before they reached the U.S. Critics nicknamed it "Star Wars" and warned it would escalate the arms race, since the Soviets could just build more missiles than the system could stop.
• Even with some congressional cuts, the defense budget jumped from $171 billion in 1981 to over $300 billion in 1985. (This spending also fed the deficits you read about in AMSCO 9.2 on Reagan and conservatism.)

Central America and Grenada

Reagan supported "friendly" right-wing dictators in Latin America to keep communism out.

• In Nicaragua, the Marxist Sandinistas overthrew the dictator in 1979. The U.S. armed the Contras to fight them. In 1985, congressional Democrats passed the Boland Amendment banning further aid to the Contras.
• In El Salvador, the administration spent nearly $5 billion backing the government against leftist guerrillas. Right-wing death squads tied to the Salvadoran army killed more than 40,000 civilians, including American missionaries, sparking protests at home.
• In Grenada (October 1983), Reagan sent marines to topple a pro-Cuban regime and block a Communist military base in the Americas. The quick invasion restored a pro-U.S. government and counts as the military triumph of his presidency.

The Iran-Contra Affair

This was the scandal of the Reagan years. Aides secretly sold U.S. antitank and antiaircraft missiles to Iran's government in exchange for help freeing American hostages held by an Iranian-linked group in Lebanon. In 1986, a staffer then funneled the profits from those arms sales to the Nicaraguan Contras. That diversion was illegal: it violated both the Boland Amendment and Congress's budget authority. Reagan denied knowing about it, and televised congressional hearings painted him as an uninformed, hands-off president manipulated by advisers. His popularity dropped sharply but recovered.

Setbacks in the Middle East

• In 1982, Israel (with U.S. approval) invaded southern Lebanon to stop PLO raids, and U.S. peacekeepers entered Lebanon's civil war.
• In April 1983, a suicide bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut killed 63 people. Months later, a truck bomb at the U.S. Marines barracks killed 241 soldiers. Reagan pulled U.S. forces out with little to show for the losses.
• Secretary of State George Schultz pushed for a PLO homeland in the West Bank, and under U.S. pressure, PLO leader Yasser Arafat agreed in 1988 to recognize Israel's right to exist.

Gorbachev, the Summits, and Thawing Relations

The Cold War actually got hotter in the early 1980s, fueled by Reagan's buildup and Soviet missile deployments against NATO. Then in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev took power in the USSR and changed everything.

Glasnost and Perestroika

Gorbachev tried to save the failing Communist system with two reforms:

• Glasnost ("openness") ended political repression and allowed greater political freedom for Soviet citizens.
• Perestroika ("restructuring") introduced some free-market practices into the Soviet economy.

To pay for reform, Gorbachev needed out of the costly arms race, though Soviet conservatives resisted cuts to military spending. In June 1987, Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate beside the Berlin Wall, the Cold War's most tangible symbol, and challenged him directly: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Three Summits and the INF Agreement

• November 1985: the first Reagan-Gorbachev summit produced agreements on cultural and scientific exchanges and environmental issues.
• October 1986, Reykjavik, Iceland: less successful, because Reagan's commitment to his missile defense system blocked progress on arms control.
• 1987, Washington, D.C.: both sides compromised and agreed to remove and destroy all intermediate-range missiles. This is the INF agreement, the concrete arms-control win of the era.

In 1988, Gorbachev began pulling Soviet troops out of Afghanistan and cooperated with the U.S. to pressure Iran and Iraq to end their war. By the end of Reagan's second term, the end of the Cold War seemed at hand.

Why Did the Cold War End? (Assessing Causes)

This is the historiographical debate the exam loves. Don't memorize one cause; weigh several:

• Gorbachev's desire for domestic reform made him willing to negotiate.
• Reagan's military buildup, some argue, forced the Soviets to concede they couldn't keep up.
• Reagan's willingness to negotiate arms reductions relieved domestic pressure on Gorbachev, letting him pursue reform.
• Eastern European opponents of communism, like Polish union leader Lech Walesa and the Polish pope John Paul II, waged a long struggle for freedom.
• George Kennan's containment policy guided the U.S. through the whole Cold War without triggering a world war.

George H. W. Bush and the Cold War's End

The Cold War had given U.S. foreign policy a clear purpose. George H. W. Bush, a former UN ambassador and CIA director, became the first president to define America's role after it.

The Persian Gulf War

Bush's hopes for a "new world order" of peace and democracy were tested in August 1990 when Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein invaded oil-rich Kuwait, threatening Western oil sources in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Bush built a United Nations coalition, and in January 1991, Operation Desert Storm sent more than 500,000 Americans plus units from 28 other nations into action. The ground war defeated the Iraqi army in just 100 hours, but Saddam Hussein stayed in power in Iraq.

Communism Cracks: Tiananmen and Eastern Europe

• China: In spring 1989, prodemocracy students and workers demonstrated in Beijing's Tiananmen Square while Western cameras broadcast it worldwide. The Chinese government crushed the protest with tanks at night, killing hundreds. China stayed an authoritarian one-party state while promoting economic development.
• Eastern Europe: The once-outlawed Solidarity movement under Lech Walesa won overwhelmingly in Poland, and Communist parties then fell in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania. In late 1989, protesters tore down the Berlin Wall, and East Germany's Communists were forced out. In October 1990, the two Germanys, divided since 1945, reunited with the blessing of both NATO and the Soviet Union.

The Breakup of the Soviet Union

Nationalist demands for self-determination overwhelmed Gorbachev. In 1990, the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania declared independence. After Communist hard-liners staged a failed coup against Gorbachev, the remaining republics dissolved the Soviet Union in December 1991, leaving Gorbachev a leader with no country. Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Republic, joined nine former Soviet republics in a loose confederation called the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), disbanded the Communist Party in Russia, and attempted to build a democracy and a free-market economy.

Proof the Cold War Was Over

Nuclear disarmament agreements made the end official:

• START I (1991): Bush and Gorbachev cut nuclear warheads to under 10,000 per side.
• START II (late 1992): Bush and Yeltsin reduced warheads to just over 3,000 each, with U.S. economic aid for Russia included.

Bush stayed cautious rather than declaring victory. Americans worried about civil wars in the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia began disintegrating in 1991, and people at home asked whether the U.S. still needed heavy defense spending and bases around the world. That debate over how to use American power post-Cold War carries into AMSCO 9.6 on 21st-century challenges.

Aftermath in Europe and Russia

The transition out of communism was rocky almost everywhere.

• European Union: By 2002, the EU was a unified market of 15 nations, 12 sharing the euro. It grew to 27 nations by 2007, including 10 former Soviet satellites such as Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania.
• Russia: Yeltsin struggled with economic reform and rampant corruption. Vladimir Putin took office in 2000. U.S.-Russia relations were strained by Russia's brutal repression of the Chechnya civil war, NATO's 1999 admission of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, and Russia's support of Serbia in the Balkan wars.
• Former Yugoslavia: Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic violently suppressed independence movements in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo. Ethnic and religious rivalries (Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim) fueled "ethnic cleansing" that killed hundreds of thousands, including many Muslims. Diplomacy, bombing, and NATO troops (including U.S. forces) stopped the bloodshed in Bosnia in 1995 and Kosovo in 1999. These were Europe's bloodiest conflicts since World War II.
• Difficult times: Decades of stagnation under communism made prosperity and democracy slow to take root, leaving newly independent states vulnerable to corruption and autocratic rulers.

Key Terms to Know

Practice and Next Steps

Pair these notes with the Topic 9.3 course study guide on the end of the Cold War for the College Board framing, then check the full set of AMSCO chapter notes to keep moving through Period 9. The next chapter, AMSCO 9.4 on the changing economy, shifts from foreign policy to globalization at home.

To check yourself, run guided multiple-choice practice on Period 9, or try writing a causation-focused response with FRQ practice and instant scoring. The "why did the Cold War end" debate is a natural LEQ or SAQ prompt, so practice arguing both the Reagan-pressure side and the Gorbachev-reform side.