I'm doing my homework for my AP US History class, and one of the vocab words is about the Cold War, "The political and economic confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States that dominated world affairs from 1946 to 1989." Why does my book say it lasted until 1989 when the USSR fell in 1991? And is it right to say it lasted until 1989?
Long story, short: Glastnost and Perestroika. Gorbachev's policies began taking effect in 1989, allowing for a relaxing of tensions between East and West. Symbolically, the Berlin Wall, which served as a barrier between the two ideologies, was torn down in 1989.