COLD WAR 3 Flashcards
(29 cards)
détente
after the second world war , an arms race race developed which led to the creation of nuclear weapons- the result of a war fought with these weapons would have led to Mutually assured destruction, something neither country’s leaders wanted to risk
- the Cuban missile crisis showed that even if the leaders didn’t want war it could still break out almost by accident so in the 1970s there was a genuine attempt to create a more stable and co-operative relationship- this policy was generally referred to as détente
why did the soviet union and USA choose to follow détente at this time
-avoidance of war
-1968 Richard Nixon elected president of the USA and determined to take the USA out of the Vietnam war since it had cost them billions of dollars and caused the death of almost 60,000 Americans
-large demonstrations against the war in the USA which sometimes ended violently and many Americans thought the USA should take a less active role in international affairs
-social problems in the USA included inequality between the rich and poor, white and black, leading to urban rioting on massive scales in 1968, triggered by the assassination of Martin Luther King
-détente would allow the USA to spend less on weapons and more on trying to solve the problems within their own society which led to the riots
-soviet union was facing economic problems and wanted to cut spending on weapons and devote more resources to improving living standards and updating the economy
-soviets felt this way a good time to improve their relations with the USA since they seemed to be their equals in nuclear powers and as seen in the Vietnam war the USA military were not unbeatable
SALT 1
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty signed in May 1972
- anti ballistic missile treaty stated that ABMs were allowed at only 2 sites and each site should have a maximum of 100 missiles
-interim treaty placed restrictions on the number of ISBMs and SLBMs each country could have- the USA was allowed 1,054 ICBMs and 740 SLBMs while the soviet union was allowed 1,618 ICBMs and 740 SLBMs - soviet union allowed more ICBMs because the USA had more strategic bombers
- basic principles agreement laid down rules for the conduct of nuclear warfare, like banning the placement of warheads on the seabed, and set out steps for avoiding nuclear war
significance of SALT 1
while SALT 1 had its weaknesses it held large symbolic importance since it demonstrated that both the USA and soviet union wanted to reach agreement and demonstrate better relations publicly
- shortly after signing SALT 1 Nixon visited Brezhnev in Moscow and in 1973 the soviet leader visited Washington and by 1974 negotiations were underway for a SALT 2 in which it was hoped the issues that went unresolved in SALT 1 would be addressed
weaknesses of SALT 1
- in reality of nuclear war was likely it would be unrealistic to think it would be stopped just because they had signed a piece of paper especially since both countries still owned enough nuclear weapons to destroy the other several times over
- did not take into account the lates technological development of the MIRVs which could carry multiple nuclear warheads on a single missile
Helsinki Accords
1973 33 nations from NATO and the Warsaw pact met to build on the spirit of co=operation established in SALT 1
-August 1975 an announcement was made to say that agreement had been reached in 3 areas, which were referred to as baskets.
- basket 1 was the agreement that the borders were inviolable and the boundaries between east and west Germany and the existing boundaries of the soviet controlled countries were formally accepted
-basket 2 was an agreement for international co-operation which was followed up the same year with a joint USA -soviet space mission
- basket 3 was the agreement to respect human rights and individual freedoms such as speech and religion.
-some American politicians were displeased while the soviets were pleased with baskets 1 and 2 since Brezhnev wanted to boost the soviet economy and have the existing borders recognised
- the Americans were pleased with basket 3 while the soviets were concerned that organisations would be set up to monitor soviet policies in its satellite states
SALT 2
talks working towards SALT 2 continued until 18 June 1979
- President carter and Brezhnev signed complex and technical agreement including restrictions on missile launchers and strategic bombers as well as a ban on testing or developing new types of ICBM
-improved relations were beginning to fade
–in the USA there was a growing belief amongst both the democrats and the republicans that soviet governments could not be trusted especially since there had been growing support for the soviet union in communist groups like El Salvador and Nicaragua and an agreement signed with them was seen by some as a sign of weakness
November 1979 Islamic militants captured the American embassy in Tehran , the capital of Iran and America diplomats and their families were publicly humiliated and more than 60 of them were eld hostage for 444 days- this angered many Americans and many wanted an end to détente and for the USA to again take stronger measures against those threatening their interests
-December 1979 the soviet union invaded Afghanistan and brought détente to an end- a this time SALT 2 was still undergoing ratification in the America government at which point President Carter felt he could no longer support the treaty and it was withdrawn from the Senate
why was the soviet union interested in Afghanistan
-1979 a revolution in Iran had deposed the Shah and replaced him with a Muslim fundamentalist government and since the Soviet union had many Muslim citizens they didn’t want Muslim fundamentalism spread across its borders- Afghanistan served as a buffer between them and Iran so it was important that there be a pro-soviet government installed there
build up to the invasion of Afghanistan
April 1978 a pro -soviet government took control of Afghanistan and received economic assistance from Moscow but they were overthrown in September 1979 in a coup staged by Hafizullah Amin- at first Moscow supported Amin but his government became increasingly unpopular as other pro- muslim factions tried to overthrow him and when Brezhnev heard rumours that amin was talking to the USA about possible support, he decided to take action
- 24 December 1979 soviet forces invaded Afghanistan and claimed they had been invited by Amin to support his government against terrorists but Amin was assassinated on the 27th most likely by soviet commandos and replaced by the pro soviet Babrak Kamal and the Soviets remained there for almost 10 years fighting opponents of Babrak Kamal
American reaction to the invasion of Afghanistan
- the soviet union saw the situation of Afghanistan as similar to that of Czechoslovakia and it was done to protect their interests in a neighbouring state, while the Americans saw this as another attempt to extend communist influence abroad, which they had worked to resist
- Carter even went as far to claim the invasion had posed the biggest threat to world peace since the end of WW2 - he withdrew SALT 2 and increased spending on arms and in his state of the union speech to the American people in January 1980 he said that the USA would repel by force if necessary any threat to American interests in the Persian Gulf- this became known as the Carter doctrine and was deliberately modelled after the Truman doctrine to show its importance- he also imposed economic sanctions on the Soviet union and began sending weapons and funds to the Mujahideen
impact of the invasion of Afghanistan on USA- soviet relations
- end of détente- it had already been nearing its end before the invasion and some historians even suggest the Americans were looking for a way out
-in the 1980 presidential election in the USA Ronald Reagan (republican candidate) ridiculed President Carter as weak and argued that the time had come for America to claim its position on the world stage and stand up to communism and he won a landslide victory
-US soviet relations becoming more confrontational and the invasion made it a certainty and it helped bring about the election of a US president who believed communism was evil and should be actively opposed
Olympic boycotts
in protest of Afghanistan the USA led a boycott of the 1980 Olympic games which were held in Moscow and over 60 nations supported the US boycott
- significant move because the games were a global event which the Soviet union was planning to use to promote communism to the huge television audience who would watch the games all around the world
- the boycott demonstrated the influence the USA had over international affairs since all countries looked forward to the Olympics
-boycott was effective and with many of the athletes absent some events at the Moscow games were made to look second rate an the Soviet union was extremely angry that its chance to showcase communism to the world had been undermined and relations with the U deteriorated even further- it was a significant moment in the second cold war
-relations were so poor that 4 years later when the USA hosted the Olympics in LA the soviet union led a boycott supported by 15 communist countries
second cold war
President Reagan’s tougher and less accommodating approach led to a period of tense and hostile relations often referred to as the ‘second cold war’- this change had already begun under Carter but it had become more apparent under Reagan
Reagan’s policies/ and speeches
- he made his mindset and stance clear in a speech he gave to a Christian group in 1983 in which he described the soviet union as an ‘evil empire’ and the USA as representing the forces of ‘good’
- Reagan persuaded the US congress to boost America’s armed forces by increasing spending on arms- in 1982 13% more was spent, with a further 8% in 1983 and 1984- new weapons such as trident submarines and Stealth bombers were developed
- he announced the ‘Reagan doctrine’: the USA would support both anti communist governments and anti communist groups trying to overthrow communist governments- and in line with this doctrine support was provided to insurgent groups in Central American countries such as El Salvador and Nicaragua+ US forces invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada and toppled the communist government, which Reagan described as the first ‘rollback’ of communist influence since WW2
Strategic defence initiative
Reagan knew the Soviet economy was struggling so by increasing spending and support for anti communists he would be creating difficulties for the soviet union since it would take extra funding to counter them
- 1983 Reagan introduced a new policy that would place Soviet spending under even more pressure called the strategic defence initiative (SDI) or ‘star wars’ as it was popularly called- a series of satellites would be placed into orbit and they would carry powerful lasers that could shot down soviet missiles and prevent them harming the USA (against the terms of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty)- he spoke of SDI as a reality and did not admit that it was actually years from being ready
- The news was a shock to Moscow since they soviet union had devoted a huge amount of resources to be able to stand on equal footing with the USA in terms of arms but now their missiles would be redundant and and entirely new system was needed
significance of SDI
a significant turning point both in the arms race and the Cold War since soviet leaders knew they would have to invest large sums to develop an equivalent system and the USA had made major advances in technology an the Soviet union would have to catch up before it could start building it own version of SDI - however the Soviet economy was not strong enough - something that was an important factor behind the thinking of Gorbachev
problems the soviet union was facing around the time Gorbachev became leader
- during the time of Brezhnev huge sums had been spent on developing arms at the same pace as the USA and investment in the economy was low- there had been barely any industrial growth in the soviet union or the satellite states since the mid 1980s and standards of living in the east were way below what they were in the west
- low standards of living and a lack of human rights was leading to unrest in some satellite states, e.g. in Poland the trade union ‘solidarity’ posed such a threat to the communist government that it was banned and in 1981 the government declared martial law
- soviet troops carried out manoeuvres along the Polish border ready to invade if necessary and in other satellite states opposition to soviet rule was only kept in check by the tight control of the secret police
- the soviet union had suffered from poor leadership for many years
- in recent years there had been a run of leaders in poor health who ruled briefly and did not have time to make useful plans for the future- Brezhnev died in 1982 after a long illness, Andropov had died in 1984 and Chernenko followed and died a year later
American reaction and mindset as Gorbachev introduces new policies
-Reagan had promised he would stand strong against communism and had brough about a second cold war with an increase in arms spending and a more confrontational approach when dealing with the soviet union but relations changed when Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet union in 1985 because a new leader had been appointed who was willing to reform the soviet union rather than expanding its influence
- Reagan saw an opportunity to end the cold war and to adopt a more open approach to the Soviet union whilst at the same time sticking to his overall aim
policies introduced by Gorbachev
-proposed that the soviet state and economy should be reformed to include some of the practices that made capitalism successful- this was called perestroika
-there should be more openness and less corruption in government and people should not need to fear the state or fear expressing their opinions- this was called glasnost and allowed opposition to the government
- Brezhnev doctrine was to be dropped and the soviet union would no longer e involved in the domestic affairs of other communist countries
- soviet union would reduce spending on arms and defence and withdraw from Afghanistan
Geneva summit pt.2
November 985
-before the summit Gorbachev appointed a new foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze to replace the old hardliner Andrei Gromyko
-Reagan and Gorbachev met for the first time
- no formal agreements were made but the two leaders established a good working relationship and a mutual desire to improve relations between their countries
Reykjavik summit
October 1986
-Gorbachev was worried about the danger nuclear weapons posed to the world and wanted to reduce the world stockpile of nuclear arms (likely strengthened by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploding in April 1986 since large parts of the soviet union and beyond were affected by nuclear fallout)
-Gorbachev proposed phasing out nuclear weapons if the Americans gave up on their SDI program
- the outcome was that since they both knew the Americans would not give up on their SDI program no formal agreement was established but there was again an improvement in relations
Washington summit
December 1987
-Gorbachev had accepted the Americans would not give up on SDI and so he realised his country’s best interests lay in agreements for disarmament and better relations with the west
- outcomes were that it was the first US -soviet summit to lead to the formal signing of a treaty- the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force (INF) treaty which said both countries would abolish all land based missiles with a range of 500-5,000 km
Moscow summit
1988
-complex detail in relation to the INF treaty was resolved and later in the year Gorbachev travelled to the USA where he made a speech at the United Nations announcing a reduction in Warsaw pact troops and that Soviet forces would leave Afghanistan
Malta summit
1989
at Malta Gorbachev met with the new American president George Bush
-the outcome was that no new agreements were made but both the USA and soviet union saw this as a meeting marking the end of the cold war
