At Cold War's end

National Intelligence Estimates and other intelligence assessments reveal publicly how US Intelligence Community interpreted and predicted rapidly unfolding events that led to collapse of communism and end of the Cold War. The Bush administration's stewardship of American foreign policy coincided with some momentous changes of the 20th century. Estimates that seemed premature or pessimistic or alarmist often turned out to be too conservative in their forecasts. Some key events happened so quickly and unexpectedly that they do not appear in any of the Estimates. The Estimates often accurately anticipated an event or development but misjudged the time it would take for it to materialize.