In which John Green teaches you about the end of the Cold War and the presidency of George H.W. Bush. It was neither the best of times nor the worst of times. On the domestic front, the first president Bush inherited the relative prosperity of the later Reagan years and watched that prosperity evaporate. That was about all the interest Bush 41 had, domestically, so let's move to foreign policy, which was a bigger deal at this time. The biggie was the end of the Cold War, which is the title of the video, so you know it's important. The collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest deal of Bush's term, and history has assigned the credit to Ronald Reagan. We give the guy a break and say that he helped. He was certainly an expert in foreign policy, having been an envoy to China, ambassador to the United Nations, and head of the CIA. Bush also oversaw the first Gulf War, which was something of a success, in that the primary mission was accomplished, and the vast majority of the troops were
