RuPaul.Lettin’ It All Hang Out. New York: Hyperion,
1995.
Jane L. Ball
See also African Americans; Cable television; Ho-
mosexuality and gay rights; Transgender commu-
nity.
Russia and North America
Definition Diplomatic, economic, and strategic
relations between two former Cold War rivals
Relations between Russia and North America during the
1990’s principally dealt with issues related to the unravel-
ing of the Soviet Union and its successor states’ desires to re-
form their economies and political systems, transform their
foreign policies, and seek accommodation with the West, in
general. As the largest successor state of the former Soviet
Union and the inheritor of the Soviet Union’s nuclear
weaponr y, the Russian Federation was of enormous signifi-
cance to American and Canadian national security inter-
ests as it moved toward a market-based economy and a dem-
ocratic polity.
Since coming to power in 1985, Mikhail Gorba-
chev had attempted to lead the Soviet Union to-
ward a more open and market-oriented socialist sys-
tem. During the 1990’s, U.S. president George H. W.
Bush and the Canadian prime minister Brian
Mulroney generally supported Gorbachev’s reform-
ist policies while he remained in power. However,
his reform efforts failed because of their internal in-
consistency and ineffectiveness, as well as strong
conservative opposition. Ultimately, conservative
reaction to the program led to an abortive coup
d’état against the Gorbachev regime in August,
- As Gorbachev’s chief rival and the chief execu-
tive of the largest constituent unit of the Soviet
Union, Boris Yeltsin oversaw the eventual dissolu-
tion of the Soviet Union in late 1991, edging
Gorbachev out of any meaningful political role and
inheriting as president of the newly created Russian
Federation many of Gorbachev’s former powers and
responsibilities.
As many of these processes unfolded, both the
U.S. and Canadian governments sought to encour-
age a peaceful transformation of the Soviet state,
while the United States continued negotiations with
the Soviet Union over German reunification and
restationing of Russian troops, strategic arms con-
trol, and economic assistance. To that end, the
United States and the Soviet Union implemented
the major provisions of the Treaty on the Final Set-
tlement with Respect to Germany on October 3,
1990, allowing for the formal reunification of
East and West Germany, separated since the end
of World War II. In addition, in July and August
of 1991, Bush visited the Soviet Union and held a
two-day summit with Gorbachev; at the closing meet-
ing, the two leaders signed the first treaty of the Stra-
tegic Arms Reduction Talks (START I), which com-
mitted the two sides to dramatic reductions in
strategic, or long-range, nuclear missiles. As well,
during the remaining months of the Gorbachev
era, Bush and other Western leaders pledged bil-
lions of dollars in agricultural support credits in
response to increasingly severe food shortages in
the Soviet Union.The West Supports Yeltsin’s Reforms In the re-
maining year of their tenure as president and prime
minister, Bush and Mulroney vigorously supported
Yeltsin’s attempts to jettison half-baked economic re-
form measures and institute a sweeping transforma-
tion of the socialist economy, including the whole-
sale freeing of prices, the imposition of hard budget
constraints on loss-making Russian enterprises, and
an extensive privatization program for state-owned
industry. Soon after introducing these reforms,
Yeltsin met with Bush and Mulroney in their respec-
tive capitals, whereupon the two Western leaders ini-
tialed an agreement, Operation Provide Hope, that
would supply former Soviet republics with interna-
tional emergency assistance. In addition, the Bush
and Yeltsin issued a joint statement proclaiming that
their respective countries no longer viewed one an-
other as potential adversaries.
At the June, 1992, summit in Washington, D.C.,
the two leaders signed additional agreements mark-
ing the definitive end of the Cold War. These dealt
primarily with relaxing economic restrictions on
trade and intensifying progress toward strategic nu-
clear arms cuts; however, both parties also signaled
their intention to step up joint U.N. peacekeeping
efforts in the Balkans, while also agreeing to
send American Peace Corps volunteers to Russia
for the first time. At the 1992 G7 (Group of Seven)
meeting in Munich, Germany, the world’s seven
most advanced, industrialized countries committed734 Russia and North America The Nineties in America