The waning of the Cold wAr
The Fall of the Soviet Union
- The first he called glasnost (openness): the dismantling many of the repressive mechanisms that had been conspicuous features of Soviet life for over half a century.
- The Communists Parties of Eastern Europe collapsed or redefined themselves into more conventional left-leaning social democratic parties.
- Among other things, it legalized the chief black party in the nation, the African National Congress, which had been banned for dec ades; and on February 11, 1990, it released from prison the leader of the ANC, and a revered hero too black south Africans, Nelson Mandela, who had been in jail for 27 years.
- At a summit meeting with Reagan in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1986, Gorbachev proposed reducing the nuclear arsenals of both sides by 50 percent or more, although continuing disputes over Reagan’s commitment to the SDI program prevented agreements.