Read the passage from President Bush’s 1991 speech describing relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. Europe has become whole and free, and America’s leadership was instrumental in making it possible.

Our relationship to the Soviet Union is important, not only to us but to the world. That relationship has helped to shape these and other historic changes. . . .

. . . We will maintain our contact with the Soviet leadership to encourage continued commitment to democratization and reform.

–George Bush,
1991

The passage provides evidence that, by 1991, relations between the two superpowers had

deteriorated as the Soviet Union rejected democracy.
improved as Cold War tensions lessened.
resulted in war and the defeat of the Soviet Union.
brought democracy to the Soviet Union.