Second cold war 1981-1990

Question 1

Reagan’s policies:

Answer 1

Increased military spending 13% then 8% per autumn

Described USSR as an evil empire
God is on the side of US

Strategic defense initiative 1983
Huge escalation. Costs trillians. Militarisation of space.
Causes outrage in Europe because over the US would be weapon systems to intercept missiles. This eliminates MAD. The USSR’s target might be Europe now. Thatcher denies and Reagan says starts with the US then with the UK. Thatcher only stops denying when Reagn says they’ll buy from the UK around 300 million to UK companies

US marines invaded Grenada 1983
Reagan doctrine 1985 - assistance to anti-communist forces
Reversed nixon doctrine

Sent stinger missiles to afghan in 1986
Helps counter USSR air superiority
Deployed IRMS to western europe to counter ss-20s
Restricted trade to the USSR

Reagan’s perspective is SDI is ending MAD which is something horrific

Question 2

Reasons for end of cold war 1980-91:

Answer 2

confrontation (mostly RR) & reconciliation (mostly gorby)
- Ideological challenges & dissent
- economics
- arms race (paired with all factors)

Question 3

Impact of Gorbachev:

Answer 3

Stalin’s legacy of the USSR
Authoritarian, one party

Economically focused on military, rather than human needs
Gorby changes this

Introduced perestroika & glasnost
Economy more productive - needs to reduce military spending
Could not match Reagan’s SDI

Abandons arms race - negotiations reduce
Reconciliation - gorbachev promotes nuke war no winners
New mode of IR

Question 4

Arms Race:

Answer 4

Huge economic pressures on both superpowers, played role in ending cold war

Both US & USSR came to accept MAD
Test ban treaty 1963
Non-proliferation 1968
Strategic arms limitations agreement 1972
Anti-ballistic missile treaty 1972
SALT I 1972
Despite these there is still an arms build-up

Raegan 1980 - changed stability in nuclear relations
Biggest build up in US history
New developments - stealth bomber, neutron bomb, cruise missiles shipped to Europe
But SDI is key for USSR
Undermined MAD; gave US first strike capability
Destabilised international balance

Soviet economy in verge of collapse could not compete with SDI
Some historians believe threat of SDI lead to success of arms talks between Gorbachev & raegan

Gorbachev changed positions in nuclear position

Argued nuclear war not possible, security must be gained by political rather than by military means

Some historians argue negotiation and cooperation as important confrontation in arms race

Idea of ‘reasonable sufficiency’ - USSR only need enough weapons to defend itself, rather than launch a pre-emptive strike

Change in Soviet mindset + good relationship between Gorbachev and Reagan, led to end of arms race

Question 5

Confrontation - reagan

Answer 5

Defense spending increased 13% in 82 then over 8% per year. Largest build up in history

Reagan spent over 1 trillion a year on defense - 10,000 nukes aimed at the USSR

8th march 1983 reagan gave the most provocative speech calling the USSR an evil empire
Reagan victory school

A combination of military and ideological pressure gave soviets little choice but to abandon expansionism

Reagan’s military build up ended soviet military options and pushed soviet economy to breaking point

Reagan’s star wars initiative put soviets on notice that next phase of arms race would be waged in areas where west held decisive technological edge
Reagan victory school is critical of detente - rewarded soviets with one sided arms treaties -

Gave Moscow access to western capital markets and technologies through Helsinki - Detente prolonged life of soviet union whereas reagan confrontation forced a soviet collapse

Risk of misunderstanding

Able archer 1983
War game in nato to deal with soviet nuke strikes
Soviet armed forces think this is real
Nothing is deployed just communications

Came at time when relations between east and west were at an all time low
For soviets they are scared of sneak attacks due to history with operation Barbarossa

Question 5

In-terms of arguing arms race ended cold war:

Answer 5

P1 - Use of arms race - confrontation - SDI - leads soviets into a surrender situation - peace through force

P2 - Not about arms race building to confrontation or Reagan’s policy forcing gorby to quit its about both worrying, it’s about reconciliation because it’s the backbone of summitry, you could say why Gorbachev & Reagan reconcile is because of the stockpiling of arms and both wanna reduce.

P3 - Economic impact of cost of arms race, less about leaders - even though huge drain on US they can bare the burden, by the 1980s it is a burden the soviets cannot afford, end the cold war

P4 - arms race prolonged cold war - due to understanding nukes could not be used - kind of a mask, nukes made USSR look like a threat/equitable to the US but internally they’re demising

Question 6

Reconciliation Summitry: Geneva summit, nov 1985:

Answer 6

Both leaders determined to reconcile
Main argument about reconciliation is gorby - came into power 85 and said we cannot go on like this

Gorby is convinced the nuke arms race must end due to chernobyl
Geneva summit, nov 1985:

Reagan wanted to build up a rapport and end nuclear threat

Reagan is able to be far more direct in reconciliation than a democrat

Key agenda for soviets is SDI
No substantial progress - nothing agreed

Real soviet change is due to Gorbys trust in RR
Initially RR was reviled with the peace movement yet he hated atomic bombs. He believed MAD was inhumane. Was unsure if he was to launch nukes even if they were attacked first.

His assination attempt gave him a relocation, a goal of leaving the world a safer place.

Raegan was portrayed in Russian media before gorby as the modern Hitler

RR: the fact that neither of us likes each other doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk, especially in the nuclear age, his tone his different in his second term, he was up to summits but there was no one to summit with until gorby

Gorby initially thought that proposal for summitry was only propaganda

Question 7

Reconciliation Summitry: Reykjavik Summit, oct 1986:

Answer 7

Begin drafting the biggest arms limitation
Continue building rapport
Talks ended without an agreement mainly due to sdi

Gorbachev said SDI should be confined to a lab but Reagan refused to make concessions

Talks did cover most sweeping arms race control proposals in history

Gorbachev declared it had been a complete intellectual breakthrough with the US

Question 8

Reconciliation Summitry: Washington summit december 1987

Answer 8

Agreement reached INF

An intermediate-range nuclear force treaty, agreed to abolish weapons - land based missiles of intermediate and short range. Important first step in reducing nuclear stockpiles

Agreement for first time on inspection of destruction of missiles

Question 9

Reconciliation Summitry: Moscow summit May 1998

Answer 9

Regan stated he longer believed in the evil empire, 180 ideological turn around
They begin again to draft arms reduction
Reagan again refuses to drop SDI

Question 10

Reconciliation Summitry: Malta summit 1989

Answer 10

By 1989 gorbachev had announced plans to withdraw from afghan
Gorbachev sinatra doctrine

New US president George HW Bush - attended Malta summit in 1989

Key here is soviet foreign minister he says - at the end of the summit they had buried the cold war at the bottom of the mediterranean sea

Question 11

Reconciliation Summitry: Reagan reconciliation

Answer 11

Moved 180 politically to negotiate with gorby
Conclusion of Reagan’s role - Reagan proved willing first to moderate then abandon these deeply held personal convictions about the evil nature of communism, thereby permitting a genuine rapprochement to occur.

Question 12

Role of economics USSR

Answer 12

When Brezhnev dies the soviet economy was in shambales

USSR achieved parity with the US

Achieved at a high price - mid 1980s, 25% of USSR GDP spent of military compared to US of 4-6%
Cost of maintaining USSR empire/allies - drain on resources

Ventures in Africa

War in Afghanistan

Cuba received 4 billion aid and subsides
Vietnam received 6 million

Members of warsaw pact was given 3 billion oil subsidies
Empire in reverse - its costing them dearly

Serious lack of spending on domestic economy - too much on military
Falling behind in modern technology - falling productivity & efficiency

Industrial output decline

Agriculture’s workers live below poverty lien
Workers lack incentive to work better or harder

Labour morale low; high absenteeism and chronic alcoholism

Between 1967-80 annual growth rate for soviet declined from 5.2-2 percent
Economy also hit by a fall in oil & gas prices
Economics forced gorby to negotiate

Question 13

Role of economics US

Question 14

Role of economics USSR: Gorby policies

Answer 14

Internal reforms led to collapse of soviet union
Gorbachevs perestoika & glasnost - wanted to revive economy but some free market policies led to chaos

Coincided with a collapse of oil prices
Economic growth by 1991 was -15%

It was hard to defend the legitimacy of the existing government
Key impact of perestika and glasnots was crazy inflation