The Sinatra Doctrine was the name that the Soviet government of Mikhail Gorbachev used to describe their policy of allowing neighboring Warsaw Pact nations to determine their own internal affairs. This doctrine, named after the Frank Sinatra song "My Way" because it allowed these nations to go their own way, contrasted with the earlier Brezhnev Doctrine, which had been used to justify the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
The phrase was coined by Gorbachev's Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze.
As a result of this new policy, the various Eastern bloc allies of the Soviet Union initiated democratic reforms and, in 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down, signalling the end of the Cold War.
