How valid is the view that the Cold War came to an end only because American & Soviet politicians lost control of events in 1989?
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The main cause for the end of the Cold War was the deterioration of the Soviet economy, meaning it could no longer afford to compete with the US in terms of the arms race / space race etc.
With jobs, money, and even food becoming scarce at home, Soviet leaders like Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin had to increasingly focus on the country's internal affairs, and seek friendlier relations with the west in order to increase the possibility of receiving foreign loans.
Despite its best efforts, the USSR had to watch each Eastern European country in turn shed communism and free themselves from what had been over 40 years of Soviet influence. The eventual break-up of the Soviet Union itself in the years that followed meant that the Cold War was well and truly a thing of the past.
With jobs, money, and even food becoming scarce at home, Soviet leaders like Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin had to increasingly focus on the country's internal affairs, and seek friendlier relations with the west in order to increase the possibility of receiving foreign loans.
Despite its best efforts, the USSR had to watch each Eastern European country in turn shed communism and free themselves from what had been over 40 years of Soviet influence. The eventual break-up of the Soviet Union itself in the years that followed meant that the Cold War was well and truly a thing of the past.
source(s):
Further reading :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cold_War#End_of_the_Cold_War_.281985.E2.80...
Further reading :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cold_War#End_of_the_Cold_War_.281985.E2.80...
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