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During the 1970s, the United States faced a series of real and growing crises. Americans lost faith in government after the American involvement in the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that resulted in President Richard Nixon's resignation. For the first time, the United States was headed by an unelected President, Gerald Ford, who lost to Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter in 1976. The American economy struggled, held down by inflation and slow economic growth. Additionally, the first major wave of outsourcing began to eliminate formerly plentiful and well-paying manufacturing jobs. Carter's presidency saw its share of crises, including the overthrow of the American-allied Shah of Iran in 1979, sparking a second oil crisis.

==Contrasting Leadership==

In the United States, President Reagan polled as one of the more popular presidents of the 20th Century. He was already familiar to millions of Americans through his days as an actor and the governor of the nation's most populous state. Despite being the oldest elected President, Reagan remained in office for eight years, projecting an air of stability. Reagan's iconic speech at the Berlin Wall helped to galvanize opposition to Soviet power.

==Glasnost, Perestroika, and the Wider World==

Gorbachev recognized much of the rot that threatened to undermine every aspect of Soviet society. He understood that the structure of the Soviet Union could not tolerate rapid, radical change and instead introduced a series of reforms meant to bring more liberty and growth to the U.S.S.R. Gorbachev introduced the glasnost policy, sometimes referred to as 'openness' in the West in 1986. These reforms did not completely open up Soviet society, but did reduce censorship and allow some criticism of the past. As Soviet citizens and intellectuals read a more accurate version of Soviet history, discontent would follow. Residents of the Soviet bloc would also read accurate government statistics and about the true standard of living in the West. Gorbachev also restructured the government of the Soviet Union, creating the position of President assume much of the power given to the General Secretary of the Communist Party. The most profound effects of this new policies would take place in Eastern Europe. The countries under Soviet domination now demanded more liberties.

==Instability and the Ultimate Fall==

The Soviet Union faced a series of internal and external challenges that it was unable to meet. Gorbachev's reforms had improved some conditions while giving enough of an opening for anti-Communist ideas to spread. Nationalist forces, some suppressed since the First World War began to break out. Violence in the Caucasus began as ethnic Armenians demanded the Azerbaijani-controlled territory Nagorno-Karabakh be united with the Soviet Republic of Armenia. Soviet power appeared on the wane everywhere-- Soviet forces were pulling out of Afghanistan after a decade of unsuccessful war, protests roiled Eastern Europe and the Baltic republics, and the Soviet economy continued to lag.<ref>Lebow, Richard Ned, and Thomas Risse-Kappen, eds. ''International relations theory and the end of the Cold War.'' New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.</ref>