End of the Cold War Notes

Détente and a Colder War

After the crises of the 1960s (Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis), relations improved, marking a period called détente, a relaxation of strained relations.

Richard Nixon's visit to the Soviet Union in 1972 symbolized détente.

Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), which froze the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Nixon also visited China in 1972, the first visit by an American president to communist China, to leverage the Soviet-Chinese relationship.

Détente Benefits and Challenges

Détente served both U.S. and Soviet needs.

The Soviet Union faced economic crisis in the late 1960s and 1970s:

• The USSR experienced no economic growth.

• Central governmental controls restricted farmers and manufacturers.

• Foreign trade was limited.

• Eastern European Soviet bloc countries sought reforms and freedom from Moscow's control; the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia was violently suppressed.

• Russia had skirmishes with China.

The United States also faced difficulties:

• Nixon was mired in the costly and unpopular Vietnam War.

• The American economy was suffering.

• Establishing relations with China opened new markets and put pressure on the Soviet-Chinese relationship.

Détente helped the United States maintain its containment policy and ease tensions.

The United States began selling excess grain to the Soviet Union, benefiting American farmers and the Soviet people.

However, after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, President Jimmy Carter halted grain shipments, ending détente.

Soviet-Afghan War

The Soviets invaded Afghanistan to support the communist government against Muslim fighters.

Afghan civilian deaths ranged from 562,000 to two million.

Millions of Afghans fled to Pakistan and Iran.

The Soviet army could not defeat the guerrilla groups in Afghanistan.

Soviet legitimacy was undermined, and new political participation developed in Afghanistan.

The Soviet Army withdrew in 1989, and a civil war continued.

The war put immense stress on the Soviet Union's centralized economic system and made Soviet leadership vulnerable to reform.

Reagan and Gorbachev

During Ronald Reagan's presidency (1981-1989), tensions increased.

Reagan called the Soviet Union the "evil empire" and supported the Afghans with military aid.

By the early 1980s, the United States and the Soviet Union had over 12,000 nuclear missiles each.

A nuclear exchange would destroy the world "seven times over."

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

Reagan declared the United States would create the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), dubbed "Star Wars."

The system would destroy Soviet nuclear missiles targeting the United States or its allies.

The Soviets saw this as the beginning of an arms race in space and opposed Reagan's plan.

While not an immediate threat, it worried liberal and moderate Soviets as a long-term economic concern.

The Thaw

Increased tensions in the 1980s led other nations to believe they had to choose sides.

Non-aligned nations feared a nuclear holocaust.

Mikhail Gorbachev, a more progressive Communist, came to power in 1985.

He favored perestroika (economic restructuring with free enterprise elements) and glasnost (opening up Soviet society).

Reagan and Gorbachev met three times in two years and developed a working relationship.

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF)

In 1987, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), restricting intermediate-range nuclear weapons.

The INF reduced the risk of nuclear war.

The INF and other agreements quieted Cold War supporters.

Gorbachev could more easily implement political and economic reforms.

The End of the Soviet Union

Gorbachev ended economic support for Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe.

He implied the Soviet Army would no longer rescue communist regimes.

Economic reform in the Soviet Union provided greater freedom to other communist countries.

Democratic reform movements swept through Eastern European nations in 1989.

The Berlin Wall was torn down.

In October 1990, East and West Germany reunited.

The Spread of Reforms

Democratic reforms spread to the Soviet Union.

Lithuania, Georgia, and other Soviet republics declared independence.

The Warsaw Pact dissolved.

Gorbachev's reforms led to his downfall and the end of the Soviet Union in December 1991.

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