ABSTRACT
In the late 1980s, the Cold War came to an end. Or did it? The former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt had no doubt, observing that ‘the INF [Intermediate Range Forces] treaty was the end of the Cold War’. This was signed in Washington, DC at 1.45 p.m. on 8 December 1987.1 Another popular suggestion would be the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989. At least two other possibilities have been put forward, both from 1990: Gorbachev’s acceptance of reunified Germany’s membership of NATO, and the signing of the Paris Charter for a New Europe. And so, the Cold War was not like the other major conflicts of the twentieth century, the First and Second World Wars. There is no unanimous acceptance of 8 December 1987 as a conclusion as there is of 11 November 1918, the Armistice, and 14 August 1945, the Japanese surrender. Moreover, why should there be general agreement about when the Cold War came to an end while, as we have seen, there is no general agreement about when it began?
