orientation that stressed international independence, non-offensive defence, multilateral co-operation, and the use of the political process to solve security issues. At first, Castro took a relatively positive outlook on "new thinking." He commented that "this was the first time since the appearance of these awesome weapons of mass destruction... that such a categorical, resolute and concrete proposal had been made." However, ideological divergences over disarmament, international conflicts in Nicaragua and Angola, and the debt crisis in the developing world quickly created irreconcilable differences between Castro and Gorbachev. Demonstrative of the cooling of Cold War tensions and "new thinking" was the announcement by Gorbachev on September 11, 1991, that all Soviet troops would be removed from Cuba. That move symbolized Gorbachev's efforts to eliminate Marxism from Soviet foreign policy, which Castro believed undermined Cuba's struggle against US imperialism. After a Soviet coup attempt in August 1991, Cuban leaders felt that they had less to lose and began openly criticism of Soviet reforms. An editorial in Granma several days after the coup wrote that "in the Soviet Union, politicians favour the process of privatization and the acceleration to the market economy. These positions have resulted in the development of these events." From 1985 to 1991, Soviet-Cuban relations continued, as Moscow wanted the relationship with Cuba to be reformed, not terminated, and Havana relied on continued Soviet investment and trade. Perestroika and Gorbachev's other reforms quickly eroded the economic and political alliance between the Cubans and the Soviets, as it became increasingly difficult for the Soviets to maintain their trade commitments to Cuba. After 1989, Castro publicly criticized Soviet reformism but hoped Soviet communism to survive perestroika. End of Soviet Union The end of the Soviet Union in December 1991 had an immediate and devastating effect on Cuba. Valuable aid and trading privileges ended for Cuba, with the Soviet Union no longer existing. Cuba soon entered a social and fiscal crisis, known as the Special Period. Since the 1990s, Cuba has maintained and started relationships with other Latin American neighbors and non-aligned countries, but since it is the only Marxist nation in the Western Hemisphere, Cuba can no longer maintain its political status. After the shift to world market prices under the 1991 trade agreement and the dissolution of CMEA, which once accounted for almost 85% of Cuban trade, trade with the Soviet Union declined by more than 90%. The Soviet Union alone