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Bern Accords
The Bern Accords (formally the The Agreement Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Reduction of Their Nuclear Stockpiles, Multinational Defense Agreements and Other Issues) is the agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States that is commonly agreed to mark the end of the Cold War. The accords, reached after months of negotiation by both superpowers (with US President Walter D. Huddleston and Secretary of State George Mitchell on one side and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze on the other), were the result of the Soviet economy deteriorating to a point where continued conflict with the West was no longer sustainable. As such, the accords' final terms were much more favorable to the United States- the Soviets agreed to a drastic reduction of their nuclear stockpile, sign international agreements that included declarations that the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states to be illegal, withdraw military advisers and military aid from other countries (with a few exceptions), allow unlimited emigration of ethnic and religious minorities outside of the USSR, and cooperate with UN agencies working to prevent nuclear proliferation. In return, the United States agreed to work to prevent the entrance of former Warsaw Pact nations (including any breakaway states from the Baltics) from entering into NATO or other defensive treaties, a similar reduction in their nuclear stockpile, and to increase trade with the Soviet Union.
The Accords' impact was felt throughout the world and in the Soviet Union, where Gorbachev’s status was so weakened after being forced to allow for internationally-observed independence referendums in the Baltic states that he was deposed in a coup that led to the resumption of hardliner rule in the USSR. Most notably, in Africa, the end of the Cold War resulted in many countries becoming destabilized as American or Soviet aid was removed while surviving communist states that had not undergone Chinese-style reform like Cuba or North Korea either began to change to allow more economic freedom (Cuba) or instead became nearly-failed states dependent on their neighbors for survival (North Korea).