9.3 The End of the Cold War

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Explain the causes and effects of the end of the Cold War and its legacy

INTRODUCTION

• Historians debate important of causes & end of Cold War

  • Role of Reagan & Mikhail Gorbachev were pivotal

    - world continues to experience lasting-effects

FOREIGN POLICY DURING THE REAGAN YEARS

• Reagan was determined to build military power & prestige

  • Intensified Cold War competition

    - Reagan prepared to use military force to fight ¨evil¨

    - proved to be more flexible with USSR in his 2nd term

    - responded to USSR & satellite states

RENEWING THE COLD WAR

• Anti-communist aid & defense were sent to latin America by Reagan

MILITARY BUILDUP

• Reagan spent billions in new weapons systems & military

  • B-1 bomber, MX missle, expansion of US navy

  • Srategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (¨STAR WARS¨)

    - plan for building high-tech system of lasers & particle beams

    - would destroy enemy missle before they reach us territory

    - critics argued costyly program would escalte arms race

  • Defense budget grew $171—→ $300 billion

CENTRAL AMERICA

• Reagan supported right-wing anti-communist dictators

  • Nicargua

    - Marxist movement (Sandinstas) overthew dictator

    - US provided aid to Contras to dislodge Sandinistas

    - Democrats passed Boland Amendment (prohibited further aid)

  • El Salvador

    - Regan spent $5 billion to support colation of leftist guerillas

    - Americans protested killings by right-wing death squads

GRENDA

• Coup—→ pro-Cuban regime on island of Grenada

  • Regan ordered small force of marines to invade island

    - meant to prevent establishment of Communist military base

    - invasion succeeded in reestablishing pro-US gov

IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR

• Regan efforts to aid Nicargua Contras—→ serious blunder & scandal

  • Iran-Contra affair

    - Iran & Iraq has been in war since 1980

    - US secretly sold antitank & missles to Iran for hostages

    - US used profits from the deal to fund Contras in Nicaragua

  • Regan denied knowledge of illegal diverserion of funds

    - violated Boland & congressional budget authority

    - Reagan was seen as uninformed & easily-manipulated

    - suffered sharp drop in popularity polls

LEBANON, ISRAEL, AND THE PLO

• Regan suffered setbacks in the Middle East

  • Isreal invaded south Lebanon to stop PLO from raiding Israel

    - US sent peacekeeping forces to contain civil war

    - Arab suicide squad bombed US in Beirut (63 killed)

    - Arab terrorist drove bomb truck into US barracks (241 killed)

    - US pulled US forces out of Lebanon

  • US pushed for peaceful settlement

    - set up homland for the PLO in West Bank territories

    - PLO leaders Yasser Arafat agreed under US pressure

IMPROVED U.S.-SOVIET RELATIONS

• Reagans arms buildup & Soviet deplotment of missles against NATO

  • Intensified Cold War

GORBACHEV

• Mikhail Gorbachev became new Soviet leader

  • Gorbachev attempted to change communist system:

    - Glasnost (openess for freedom & end of repression)

    - Perestroika (restructuring Soviet economy w free-market)

  • Gorbachev wanted to end arms race to acheive reforms

    - Soviet conservatices were against reduced military spending

    - Regan challenged reforms with demand to break Berlin Wall

  • Regan & Gorbachev held three summit meetings

    1. resulted in agreemnts on cultural & scientifc exchanges

    2. new missle defense system—→ issue on arms control

    3. sides agreed to remove & destroy itermediate-range missles in INF agreement)

  • Gorbachev further reduced Cold War tensions

    - pulled troops from Afghanistan

    - cooperated with US to put diplomatic pressure on Iran & Iraq

    - superpower relations improved—→ end of cold war

ASESSING CAUSES

• Multiple causes—→ decline in Cold War

  • Gorbachevs desires for domestic reform

    - contrivuted to willingness to negotiate along w Reagan

    - Regan helped relieve Russian domestic pressure

  • Reagans military buildup

    - forced Soviets to concede defeat

  • Other leaders carried long struggle

    - Polish union leader & pope

    - George Kennan containment guided US through Cold War

GEORGE H.W. BUSH AND THE END OF THE COLD

• Cold War threatened existence of humankind but gave clear purpose to US foreign policy

  • George H. W. Bush defined new era

PERSIAN GULF WAR

• Bush pushed for new world order of peace & democracy

  • Iraqs dictator Saddam Hussein challenged order

    - invaded oil-rich but weak Kuwait

    - threatend oil sources in Saudi Arabia & Persian Gul