• When did the Cold War end?
• What role did Mikhail Gorbachev play in ending the Cold War?

Robert McMahon - The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction

-         The beginning of the end of the Cold War began in the late 1980s.

-         In 1984 Reagan offered an olive branch to Moscow, calling 1984 “a year of opportunities for peace” and declaring a willingness to renew negotiations.

-         Moscow agreed to participate in negotiations under that framework and talks began in March 1985.

-         Gorbachev becomes general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in March 1985 and this is critical turning point in the Cold War’s final phase.

-         Gorbachev made virtually all of the major concessions that led to arms reduction agreements in the late 1980s.

-         He succeeded in changing the entire tenor of the Soviet-American relationship. He had advanced dramatic new ideas about security and nuclear weapons. Gorbachev believed this was not a risk because nobody would attack the Soviet Union if they disarmed completely.

-         Thought the main goal of Soviet foreign policy should be to encourage a joint nuclear and conventional arms build-down with the US. This would create a more secure environment.

-         Gorbachev convinced Reagan to attend meeting in 1986 which led to conclusion of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty – December 1987.

-         INF Treaty led to destruction of 1846 Soviet Nuclear weapons and 846 US weapons within 3 years.

-         December 1988 Gorbachev goes to US and makes speech stating his intention “to reduce unilaterally Soviet military forces by 500,000 troops.

-         Brezhnev Doctrine was discarded – notion that Soviet Union would use force to maintain control over Warsaw Pact allies. Led to democratic revolutions that swept Communist regimes out of power in Eastern Europe.

-         9^th November 1989 – opening of the Berlin Wall – Anatoly Chernayev wrote “And a common fellow [Gorbachev] from Stavropol set this process in motion”.

-         1989 can be said to be end of Cold War yet one problem is still unresolved – the status of Germany.

-         Gorbachev accepted by mid 1990 the inevitability of a reunified Germany and was assured by Bush that Germany would remain anchored to NATO.

-         The Cold War ended therefore in 1990, with the Soviet acceptance of a united Germany in NATO.