8.8

Question 1

What were the three main factors that caused the end of the Cold War?

Answer 1

• military/technological development of the US
• failed USSR invasion of Afghanistan
• public discontent within USSR and their weak economy

Question 2

Explain the military and technological developments within the US that contributed to the end of the Cold War.

Answer 2

• early 1980s: over 12,000 nukes had been developed between the US and USSR combined
• 1980s: President Reagan led the SDI (Strategic Defensive Initiative)
  *scrapped
  *sent a global message, created a power shift to the US away from the USSR.

Question 3

Explain the SDI

Answer 3

The SDI was developed under the leadership of President Reagan in the USA. It stood for Strategic Defensive Initiative.

It sought to launch nuke-detecting systems into space that could shoot them down with lasers. The US took some steps in the creation of this technology, but the tech. the SDI strived for was too advanced at the time, and it was too expensive. It was scrapped.

However, the steps already taken in the SDI was a global display of power and created a power shift to the US and away from the USSR.

Question 4

Explain the USSR’s failed invasion into Afghanistan.

Answer 4

• 1978: communist-led coup in Afghanistan established a communist government supported by the USSR, with harsh policies. It became unpopular.
• 1979: Soviet-friendly president Noor Mohammad Taraki murdered by his second in command, Hafizullah Amin
• Amin established as president, anti-communist and anti-USSR
• 1979: USSR invaded and killed Amin, set up another USSR-friendly president, tried to repress resistance
  *USSR couldn’t overcome Afghan’s guerrilla tactics
  *led to a decade long War and the decline of the USSR economy
  **worldwide sanctions imposed on USSR, because their invasion was generally disapproved by the United Nations
  **cost of wartime supplies
• Soviets lost, ultimately weakened USSR and marked a major turning point of the Cold War

Question 5

Explain the public discontent and declining USSR economy that contributed to the end of the Cold War.

Answer 5

USSR’s economy had been declining since the 1960s, due to:
- limited foreign trade
- extreme government intervention led to stifled agriculture production
- Soviet Bloc upset with oppressive communist policies
*Prague Spring: mass protests beginning in Czechoslovakia in 1968 that was violently stopped by USSR troops. The sentiment spread, and the USSR had to allocate resources it couldn’t truly afford towards maintaining order and crushing Soviet Bloc rebellions

• 1985: liberan Russian gained power: Mikhail Gorbachev
  *Glasnost policy: opened up political processes and granted increased political freedoms
  *Perestroika: allowed some free enterprise
  **led to increased freedom throughout Soviet Bloc, also meant that USSR would no longer aid East European communist regimes
• democratic reforms swept through Soviet Bloc
• USSR dismantles in December of 1991, marking the end of the Cold War