Explain the end of the Cold War, including detente, Reagan's policies, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of the Soviet Union (Ohio's Learning Standards for Social Studies, American History, The Cold War and the Post-Cold War World).

What this topic is asking

This part of the course asks how the long Cold War finally ended around 1989 to 1991, and what that meant for the United States as it entered the post-Cold War world. The Ohio standards (the content statement linking the collapse of communist governments to the end of the Cold War) want the causes of the Soviet collapse and the new American position in the world.

The road to the end: detente and renewed confrontation

The Cold War's last decades swung between thaw and tension:

Gorbachev's reforms

Change from inside the Soviet Union proved decisive:

Gorbachev's willingness to reform and to ease the Soviet grip on Eastern Europe opened the door to dramatic change.

The fall of the Wall and the Soviet collapse

The communist bloc came apart with stunning speed:

• Reform and protest movements swept Eastern Europe as Soviet control weakened.
• In 1989, the Berlin Wall that had divided communist East from free West Berlin since 1961 fell, and communist governments toppled across the region.
• In 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved into Russia and other independent nations, formally ending the Cold War.

The United States as the sole superpower

The Cold War's end reshaped America's place in the world:

• The United States became the world's only superpower, with no rival of comparable power.
• The decades-long nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union was over.
• New post-Cold War challenges, regional conflicts, terrorism, and globalization, soon emerged to define the next era.

The Ohio connection

Ohioans had lived through the whole Cold War, from the early arms race to the space race (Ohio's John Glenn) to the era's wars in Korea and Vietnam. The Cold War's end shifted the focus of the nation, and of Ohio's defense and manufacturing industries, away from the Soviet threat toward the new economic and security questions of a globalized, post-Cold War world.

Why this matters for the EOC

This topic rewards naming the causes of the Cold War's end (the arms race straining the Soviet economy, Gorbachev's reforms, Eastern European movements, US pressure) and the result (the United States as sole superpower). Know the vocabulary (detente, glasnost, perestroika, Berlin Wall, superpower). Expect a photograph of the Wall falling, a map of the former Soviet bloc, or a quotation, to read for the main idea. The big idea the standards want is that the collapse of communist governments in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union ended the Cold War.

Try this

Q1. What two events around 1989 to 1991 marked the end of the Cold War? [2]

• Cue. The fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991).

Q2. Name one cause of the Soviet collapse and one result for the United States. [2]

• Cue. Cause: the arms race straining the Soviet economy, Gorbachev's reforms, or Eastern European movements. Result: the United States became the world's sole superpower.