Political Climate of 1980's the Term Paper

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Less than a year after Reagan left office after the end of his second term, the Berlin Wall fell, and the Cold War essentially ended in 1991 after the Soviets experienced the Chernobyl disaster, the Baltic rebellions, and consumer demands for better quality products (Hoffman 2004).

According to David Williamson in the December 2003 issue of History Review, Berlin had become a symbol of the Cold War. The construction of the wall had divided East and West Germany for several decades however this long period of detente in Europe was based on the status quo in German and Berlin, "which was underwritten by what was perceived to be nuclear parity between the superpowers" (Williamson 2003). Yet when it became clear that Russia was no longer strong enough to maintain this status quo, the East German state crumbled and Berlin once again became the capital of a united Germany (Williamson 2003).

While the reasons for the swift collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are still debated among scholars, most Cold War specialists believe that the economic decline in the Soviet Union combined with the growing costs of maintaining an international military presence were simply too burdensome for the system (Somin 1994).

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However, some experts believe that the rapid collapse was due in large part to declining morale among the Soviets, coupled with the ongoing United States military pressure and support of dissident groups within the Bloc, which served to drain resources and foment social awareness (Somin 1994).

According to IIya Somin in the September 1994 issue of Policy Review, studies have revealed the extent to which Gorbachev and his advisers underestimated the power of nationalism in Eastern Europe and ethnic separatism in the U.S.S.R. (Somin 1994). Moreover, most experts now agree that the reformers overestimated how much the Soviet political and economic system could be revamped with destroying its foundation (Somin 1994). Afghanistan and the Euro-missile crisis set back Soviet expansion, and together with its stagnant economy, the Soviet Union might have survived, but it was clearly not going to increase its power and influence, and could not stifle the movement toward democracy and national self-determination with the U.S.S.R. indefinitely (Somin 1994).

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