Cold War Ends
Presidents Bush and Gorbachev formally declared the Cold War over at the Malta Summit
December 03, 1989
A Rivalry That Defined the 20th Century
The Cold War was a period of political tension and military competition between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from the end of World War II in 1945 until 1991. The two superpowers never directly fought each other, but they competed fiercely — in nuclear weapons, space exploration, economic systems, and global influence. Dozens of proxy wars were fought in Korea, Vietnam, Angola, Afghanistan, and elsewhere as the two powers backed opposing sides.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet Collapse
The Cold War began to crack in the late 1980s as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced reforms — glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) — that loosened political controls. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell as East Germany opened its borders. Country after country in Eastern Europe broke free from Soviet control. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the Soviet Union formally dissolved, splitting into fifteen independent nations. The Cold War was over.
The World After the Cold War
The end of the Cold War reshaped global politics entirely. NATO expanded eastward. Former communist countries embraced market economies and democratic elections. The United States emerged as the world's sole superpower. Military spending dropped across the Western world, freeing budgets for social programs. But new conflicts — ethnic wars, terrorism, and rising regional powers — quickly filled the vacuum. The Cold War's end was a moment of extraordinary hope, though the world that followed proved far more complicated than many had predicted. Use our date calculator to see how long ago the Soviet Union dissolved.