Cold War Downfall

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The Cold War was the political, ideological, and economic struggle between the USA and the USSR that started in 1947 and lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991. Its collapse was acclaimed by the west as a triumphant victory of freedom, proving the superiority of democracy. However, the exact cause of this monumental historical event has not been agreed on by historians, with varying notions of when it ended and definitions of what really constitutes its ‘ending’. However, it indisputably and definitively ended with the USSR’s dissolution in December, 1991. The main reason for this disintegration was Russia’s failing economy, as a consequence of its military competition with the United States, which caused a disintegration …show more content…
Since the beginning of the Cold War, the US and USSR had been caught in a vicious race in building nuclear weapon stockpiles, costing both countries billions of dollars. As both countries developed more powerful weapons, they also built defense mechanisms. The turning point that marked the beginning of the downfall of the USSR of the Cold War came with President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (also known as his ‘Star Wars policy’), his “vision of a futuristic space-based “shield” that would protect the United States from Soviet attack by shooting down incoming missiles” (Judge and Langdon, 215). When this ‘shield’ was developed in 1983, the USSR essentially bankrupted itself trying to develop counter-weapons, spending around 27% of its gross national product on their military and greatly crippling its economy (Global Security, “Russian Military Budget”). This opened a Pandora’s box of problems. Russia could not provide any more support to their satellite states and aid was reduced to these countries’ governments. People were treated poorly and wages were reduced, igniting the spark of discontent and rebellion, further fueled by the new Soviet leader Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost. Glasnost meant a “freedom of speech and a greater willingness of Soviet officials to allow western ideas and goods into the USSR” (Hall, “Fall of the Soviet Union”). Gorbachev had hoped this would be enough to reignite the Soviet economy. However, he did not realize that by allowing people to express themselves, he was unwittingly unleashing powerful, pent-up political
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