▲The competition between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, for world hegemony is mainly reflected in their competition for regions.

Europe has always been the strategic focus of competition between the United States and the Soviet Union.

As the European region at the forefront of the Cold War, with the two major military blocs of NATO and the Warsaw Pact as fortresses, the United States and the Soviet Union deployed the largest military forces and the most advanced weapons and equipment here, putting the entire European region in a serious military confrontation.

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East Asia and the Middle East in Asia are important areas for fierce competition between the United States and the Soviet Union.

In Northeast Asia, after the failure of the war of aggression against North Korea, the United States strengthened its political and military control over South Korea.

In Southeast Asia, the United States directly sent troops to invade Vietnam and intervened in the affairs of the three countries of Indo-China.

The Soviet Union did not back down either.

After the 1970s, the Soviet Union continued to expand the strength of its Pacific Fleet to increase its leverage against the United States. After the United States failed in the Indo-China War, the Soviet Union took control of Vietnam and supported Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia. In West Asia, the Soviet Union even directly sent troops

Invading Afghanistan and trying to open up access to the Indian Ocean.

The Middle East was once known as the "powder keg of the world" and was also one of the areas where the United States and the Soviet Union competed most fiercely.

The Middle East has an important strategic position, rich oil and gas resources, and complex ethnic conflicts. It is the "petroleum lifeline" on which the economies of Europe, Japan, and the United States rely for development.

From the mid-1950s, the Soviet Union tried its best to penetrate into the Middle East and intensify its competition with the United States. Until the 1970s, it supported "proxy wars."

In Latin America, the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union was most intense in the Caribbean and Central America.

In Africa, competition between the United States and the Soviet Union also occurred one after another.

The ever-present and pervasive struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union for global hegemony has posed a great threat to world peace and regional stability.

●The struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union for hegemony ▲ 3. The disintegration of the Cold War pattern ▲ The transformation of the international strategic pattern from old to new is marked by major international events.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the drastic changes in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Cold War pattern that had lasted for more than 40 years finally collapsed.

●Dramatic changes in Eastern Europe.

Since the late 1980s, Eastern European countries have successively abandoned the socialist road and the leadership of the Communist Party (Workers Party), and social systems and ideologies have undergone drastic changes.

In early 1989, Poland and Hungary took the lead in announcing the implementation of "multi-party system" and "political pluralism".

In June of the same year, the Polish United Workers' Party lost the general election and lost its ruling position.

Since then, the Communist and Workers' Parties in Hungary, the Democratic Republic of Germany, Czechoslovakia and other countries have changed into socialist parties, and soon lost their ruling status, and then split or disbanded.

On November 9, 1989, the Democratic Republic of Germany opened the "Berlin Wall" and opened the "door" from Eastern Europe to the West.

The collapse of the "Berlin Wall", a symbol of the Cold War between East and West and the confrontation between the two camps, accelerated the process of drastic changes in Eastern Europe.

●On October 3, 1990, the Democratic Republic of Germany and the Federal Republic of Germany achieved reunification.

The new political forces in power in Eastern European countries turned to the West in domestic and foreign affairs, causing the Soviet Union and the Eastern European bloc to begin to collapse.

On January 5, 1991, the Council for Mutual Economic Cooperation was dissolved; on February 25, the Warsaw Pact was disbanded.

The drastic changes in Eastern Europe, which was at the forefront of the Cold War, greatly changed the balance of power between the East and the West, fundamentally shook the foundation of the bipolar pattern between the United States and the Soviet Union, and brought the Yalta system to the verge of collapse.

●The Soviet Union collapsed.

In 1991, the "8.19" incident occurred in the Soviet Union, which kicked off the split of the Soviet Union.

On December 21, 1991, the heads of 11 independent countries issued the "Almaty Declaration" in the capital of Kazakhstan and signed an agreement on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

On December 25, the red flag flying over the Kremlin quietly lowered, and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union brought an end to the Cold War pattern of fierce confrontation between the two major Eastern and Western blocs that lasted for nearly half a century.

▲The end of the Cold War pattern is the inevitable result of the postwar world economic and political development and the growth and decline in power and differentiation of the United States and the Soviet Union and the power groups they represent.

▲First of all, serious mistakes in the lines, principles, and policies of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries led to drastic changes in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

●From the post-war period to the 1980s, the Soviet Union focused its main energy on the arms race and global competition with the United States, and lost many good opportunities for economic development.

The large-scale arms race caused the national economy to develop abnormally and be overwhelmed. The economic development rate slowed down significantly and began to stagnate in the 1980s.

In 1990, the Soviet economy experienced its first post-war decline: gross national product fell by 2% and national income fell by 4%.

In 1991, the economic decline expanded to double digits.

Affected by the Soviet Union, the economies of Eastern European countries also faced difficulties.

Eastern European countries, which had long been dissatisfied with the "Soviet model", saw their political situation take a turn for the worse as the Soviet Union loosened its control and influence, and its economic situation worsened day by day, eventually leading to the end of the bipolar pattern.

▲Secondly, ●Western countries, led by the United States, have long pursued a "containment" strategy against the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, and took advantage of the internal conflicts and difficulties of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries to vigorously implement a strategy of peaceful evolution, isolating socialist countries politically and militarily.

Siege, economic blockade, and ideological and cultural infiltration.

●In addition, Gorbachev and other leaders mistakenly promoted "new thinking", exacerbating people's ideological confusion.

Under the attack of internal and external anti-socialist forces, the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries were unable to support themselves, which accelerated the collapse of the defense line and led to the collapse of the Cold War pattern.

▲Once again, the rise of the Third World has begun to break the bipolar monopoly of world politics.