AP U.S. History 9.3: The End of the Cold War

The AP U.S. History course framework says Reagan asserted U.S. opposition to communism through speeches, diplomatic efforts, limited military interventions, and a buildup of nuclear and conventional weapons. His inaugural addresses show the speeches and the buildup; they do not describe the limited interventions.

In January 1981 he turned to "the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries," and said they would be reminded that peace was what Americans wanted most: "We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it; we will not surrender for it." Then he added: "We will maintain sufficient strength to prevail if need be, knowing that if we do so we have the best chance of never having to use that strength."

In January 1985 he said the Soviet Union "has conducted the greatest military buildup in the history of man, building arsenals of awesome offensive weapons," and that "We have made progress in restoring our defense capability. But much remains to be done." He predicted his first term would be remembered for "sincere efforts at meaningful arms reduction, rebuilding our defenses," and as years when Americans "turned the tide of history away from totalitarian darkness and into the warm sunlight of human freedom." A totalitarian state tries to control every part of its people's lives.

Sources: Reagan, First Inaugural, 1981 (Avalon Project); Reagan, Second Inaugural, 1985 (Avalon Project).

Reagan's 1985 address turned to the Soviet Union with talks first: "We are not just discussing limits on a further increase of nuclear weapons. We seek, instead, to reduce their number."

Then he described the nuclear standoff: "for decades, we and the Soviets have lived under the threat of mutual assured destruction; if either resorted to the use of nuclear weapons, the other could retaliate and destroy the one who had started it." Mutual assured destruction is that standoff: each side is kept from striking first by the certainty that it would be destroyed in return. He asked: "Is there either logic or morality in believing that if one side threatens to kill tens of millions of our people, our only recourse is to threaten killing tens of millions of theirs?"

His next words were a research program: "I have approved a research program to find, if we can, a security shield that would destroy nuclear missiles before they reach their target." He said it "wouldn't kill people, it would destroy weapons" and said it would make nuclear weapons obsolete. Right after, he returned to talks: "We will meet with the Soviets, hoping that we can agree on a way to rid the world of the threat of nuclear destruction."

These are Reagan's own claims to the American public. They state goals, not results.

Source: Reagan, Second Inaugural, 1985 (Avalon Project).

The course framework names three causes and counts all of them as important: increased U.S. military spending, Reagan's diplomatic initiatives, and political changes and economic problems in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

No primary source in this lesson shows the Soviet side. Every document here is an American president's inaugural address, so the third cause appears only in the course framework's words and in how American presidents described the change from outside. In January 1989 George Bush, Reagan's vice president, took office and said "a new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man's heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over." He went on: "The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree." Note "if not in fact": he described a hope more than a finished change. By January 1993 William J. Clinton could say: "Communism's collapse has called forth old animosities and new dangers."

Neither speech names a country, an event or a date inside Eastern Europe or the Soviet Union, and neither describes economic problems there. A historian needs other sources for that side. Bush also hedged his own view of the new relationship: "One might say that our new relationship in part reflects the triumph of hope and strength over experience."

Sources: Bush, Inaugural, 1989 (Avalon Project); Clinton, First Inaugural, 1993 (Avalon Project).

The course framework says the end of the Cold War led to new diplomatic relationships, but also to new U.S. military and peacekeeping interventions, and to continued debates over the appropriate use of American power in the world.

In January 1997 Clinton, beginning his second term, said: "The world is no longer divided into two hostile camps. Instead, now we are building bonds with nations that once were our adversaries." In 1993 he had named Americans serving in the Persian Gulf and Somalia, as you will read below; the speeches do not describe those missions, so this lesson does not say which were military and which peacekeeping.

The debate over power went on. In 2001 George W. Bush said "America remains engaged in the world by history and by choice, shaping a balance of power that favors freedom," and promised "we will show purpose without arrogance." In 2009 Barack Obama said "we are ready to lead once more," and that earlier generations understood "our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please." Bush's lines put more weight on what American power can shape, and Obama's more on its limits, though each spoke to both. The course framework calls these continued debates and does not settle them.

Sources: Clinton, Second Inaugural, 1997 (Avalon Project); G. W. Bush, Inaugural, 2001 (Avalon Project); Obama, Inaugural, 2009 (Avalon Project).