4) The end of the Cold War 1984-1995 unf Flashcards
What was Reagan’s stance?
- Conservative- moved to meet Russia half way
- Anti communist
- Believed USA were lagging behind in the arms race- embarrased of USA in 1980
- Détente was morally wrong- wrong to abandon belief of good and evil
- Saw USSR as ‘evil empire’
- Hated nuclear weapons- opposed to MAD and deterrence
How was the USSR in reality, lagging behind the USA?
- In first years of presidency USSR arms appeared to be thriving
- Casper Weinberger- thought USSR’s goal was world domination (echoes Kennan telegram)
- Now fear lurked in soviet commanders of USA superiority- Ussr afraid of computers as it would mean loss of political control
Everyday soviet items in short supply- shortages constantly
* 3/4/5 hrs queuing for food
* Gorbachev tried to modernise agriculture
* In charge of Russian space institute- but in autumn all employees went to fields to help with harvest
What were the increases to USA military spending under Reagan?
- 1981: budget increased by 53%, 13% 1982 and 8% 1983-4 (after Carter had already increased)
- new technologies: Trident submarines, stealth bomber, and new nuclear weapons (neutron bomb), as well as 3 new carrier groups to project US power
- 1983: deployment of Cruise and Pershing II missiles in Europe
WHat was SDI?
- Strategic defence initiative- building of satellites and spaceships armed with lasers and darts which could shoot down Russian missiles
- Practical problems meaning NOT an alternative to deterrence
- Ramped up arms race
Reagans initiave:
- Top down initiative- plans based on what the president wants the scientists want to do and not, the president’s plan based on what the scientists can do
- No evidence as yet that this was a feasible defense system- viable?
Why was the cold war ‘hotting up’ in 1980s?
- Andropov was convinced war was imminent- USA stepped up spy flights along their borders, planes disguised as civilian air flights looked suspicious to soviets
- KGB were spectating everything
- Aug 1983 a Korean flight left Anchorage (Alaska) to Seoul but entered soviet airspace on the way- forces put on alert immediately- looked like civilian aircraft and would not respond to signals. Plane shot down, everyone killed on board- completely normal plane who was facing technological problems
- Crisis gripped east and west
- SS20 missiles met with Cruise and Pershing ii missiles in Europe- intensifying arms race in Europe
- Biggest near miss 1983 NATO war practice- Russia though USA were about to launch a nuclear strike
- Reagan tried to communicate with Russia but all their leader were dying or too ill to communicate
What were the weaknesses of the USSR system?
- planning objectives were unrealstic
- the quality of goods produced without competition between private firms were poor
- lack of motivation in the workforce due to poor living standards
- Alcoholism
- Absenteeism from work
Describe Brezhnev’s decline and style of living
- Enjoyed a distant leadership with a life of luxury
- Allowed the ‘conditions for the growth of a truly priviledged elite’
- 19 mil members of the comm party vs everyone else
- By the end of his life attempted to address the corruption within the comm party - put Andropov, head of the KGB, and put in anti-corruptrion campaign
- Brezhnev had died in Nov 1982
- Andropov replaced Brezhnev to restore party credibility as he lived in a 2 bed flat
What were Andropov’s aims?
- Tackle economic decline
- Separatism
- Human rights
Describe the corruption in the communist party
- Comm party and nomenklature (bureaucrats) governed every aspect of life- enjoyed priviledges like private shops, limos and exclusive holiday shops
What did Brezhnev do for arms?
- Offered a 25% reduction in strategic weapons and froze nuclear weapons- rejected but sympathised with peace movements in west
- Had hoped the west’s peace movement would scale down the arms race and block the deployment of cruise and Pershing II missiles in europe- but didn’t happen
What happened at the Geneva Summit 1985?
- Reagan had to face objections to communications with Russia before he was allowed to reach out to Gorbachev
- Immediately held a private meeting that ran way over time- cordial, good body language, developing a relationship
- Shouting match over SDI- diametrically opposed- Gorbachev did not want SDI technology
- No actual agreements made
- USSR and USA talking again
What happened at the Reykjavík summit 1986?
- Chernobyl- volunteers had to clean up nuclear mess- showed failings of the Ussr system- Danger of nuclear technology
- Gorbachev now desperate, perestroika and internal changes slowing down
- ‘Zero option’- went way past and Gorbachev proposed abolishing all missiles but 100
- Gorbachev wanted SDI gone- nuclear arms race should never be taken into space- Reagan unwilling to give it up
- Couldn’t agree
- “it had been an intellectual breakthrough between the USA and the USSR”
- No prior work done before proposals- agree in principle just within 2 days- actually trusted each other to respond immediately and able to negotiate on the fly- Could believe and trust each other
What was the 1987 arms reduction treaty?
- Reagan still pursuing star wars- Kremlin thought it would never happen so Gorbachev visited the USA to sign a reduction deal
- INF treaty in Washington: An entire category of weapons destroyed- cruise and Pershing II and SS20s- FIRST REDUCTION OF MISSILES
- Inspection teams from both sides inspected the destruction of weapons
- Moved soviet society away from being closed off
- Star wars now dead
- No longer thought of the USSR as an ‘evil empire’
- BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE ARMS RACE
What were the reasons for economic stagnation in the USSR?
- military production
- problem of central economic planning: 5 year targets insisted on quantity, not quality, and were short term
- inherent conservatism of bureaucrats, managers and ministers
- outdated technology and machinery corruption and the “second economy”
What was military production like in the USSR in the 1980s?
- By 1980s, 25% Soviet economy was based on military spending twice as much of it’s wealth spent on defence compared to USA
- military-industrial complex would obstruct reform
What was the central economic planning like in the USSR?
- Gosplan and 5 year plans
- 5 year targets focussed on quantity not quality. Focused on heavy industry and the military at the expense of consumer goods
- It took 7-10 years for a Lada ordered to be delivered for example
- Andropov reckoned a 30% absentee rate in early 1980s due to alcoholism
- Gosplan would not tolerate rival agencies
- self-management unacceptable -smacked of capitalism and would reduce party control
- inefficiency of state-run factories
What were the consequences of economic stagnation?
- On the criteria of national income, industrial production, agricultural production, labour productivity and real income, Russia’s rate of economic growth had declined from 1960s to the 1980s
- Shortages created opportunities for black market- 1982: 25% GNP.
- 1984: Uzbek cotton scandal showed corruption to the highest level
- Standards of living poor, health poor, alcoholism strife
- 16-40% of the population living in shared apartments. The quality of housing was remarkably poor
- 5% of govt spending spent on health
- Chernobyl disaster
What was Mikhail Gorbachev like and his aims?
- Orthodox communist
- young
- believed in system, but needed to be more efficient: “We can’t live like this”
- catch up with west economically and technologically, rather than introduce free market
- more open media style
- new appointments: Shevardnadze as
FM; 14 new first secretaries of the
Republics - media friendly individual
Why did Gorbachev introduce Perestroika?
- Restructuring
- Gorbachev believed that that **command economy **needed to be more efficient
-1986-90 five year plan set higher targets to double national income: more unpopular - Gorbachev realised that reform from above needed, so from 1987 he set about reducing central planning, more power to factory managers (over targets, workforce,
product), private enterprise legalised - But limited success and rationing widespread by 1988; industry declining.
What were the aims of Perestroika?
- Centralised planning determined output targets and tended to reject innovation in management and the introduction of new ideas to maximise productivity. Central planning was traditionally focused on the large scale production of industrial goods and heavy industry, with little focus on consumer goods.
- Rejected innovation
How successful was Perestroika?
- The economic crisis faced by the USSR did not cause the collapse of communism. But in conjuncture with glasnost and perestroika it performed a pivotal role.
- Perestroika was the key to Gorbachev’s economic reforms.
- He attempted to maximise the potential of the existing economic and production systems rather than dismantle them- the problem laid in the existing system not Gorbachev’s reforms.
- Joint ventures attempted to allow some independence of the enterprises under the command economy- drained profit and reduced incentive to grow
What was the aim of Glasnost?
Openness
- Wanted to win the support of the people
- Economic and political issues were to be debated openly
- From spring 1986 state censorship of the media was progressively eased
- Reception of foreign broadcasts allowed
- Chernobyl disaster received major publicity and soviet failings in Afghanistan
- Height of glasnost 1988-9- new political organisations established like the Democratic Union, religion tolerated.
- Appearance of uncensored newspapers
How successful was glasnost?
- Irreparably damaged the party in the eyes of soviet citizens.
- In Feb 1990 cancellation of Article 6 of the old soviet constitution (guaranteeing the communist party a leading role in the USSR) destroyed the whole foundation on which the USSR’s govt existed- Govt officials now required 50% of the electorate to remain in power. Internal critique of party
- In March, elections to the Congress of People’s deputies most long term officials were rejected. Gorbachev was elected the first executive pres. of the USSR
What was the aims of Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign?
Aiming to reduce consumption by lowering production of vodka by 10%. Stop health issues and mass absenteeism from work
How successful was Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign?
Unsuccessful increased homemade alcohol, shortages of sugar and lessened the tax profit of the alcohol industry. Campaign achieved little overall and was stopped in 1988
What was the aim of Gorbachev’s industrial efficiency reforms 1985-7?
Increase production in agriculture and light industry (consumer goods). Machine building. Focus on meat and dairy products increasing. 1985-85 producers made more responsible for meeting targets. Introduced push for higher quality products
How successful was Gorbachev’s industrial efficiency reforms 1985-7?
Unsuccessful withdrawn by 1988. Unpopular as it increased hours/ reduced wages
What was the aim of Gorbachev’s Law on Joint ventures 1987?
Prioritise communism through increasing foreign investment. Allowed foreign ownership on 49% of a company at first (state had overpowering rule). But extended to 100% in 1990 like McDonalds.
How successful was Gorbachev’s Law on Joint Ventures?
Ended monopoly of the state. Encouraged competition of prices. But was never truly effective due to soviet central planning. Also as soon as it became profitable the govt would then intervene and tax, causing a disincentive.
What were the aims of Gorbachev’s Enterprise Law 1988?
Devolving decision making to the managers in state owned enterprises (less controlled by Moscow). Reduced subsidies (total income supplied by state)
How successful was the Enterprise Law?
Limited. State still received 85% of output meaning there was limited competition. Managers had more control over wages meaning costs cut and rising unemployment. In between command and market economy
What was Gorbachev’s ‘new thinking’?
- G needed to cut military expenditure (defence, Afghanistan, E Europe, Africa, etc.), but to do so needed the cooperation of the west.
Party Congress, 1986
- 1. attacked dogmatism of the past (rejected class conflict)
- 2. ended encouragement for revolution abroad
- 3. Internationalist
- 4. rejected Brezhnev Doctine (e.g withdrew from Afghanistan)
What was the soviet withdrawal from Afghaistan like?
.- In 1987, a west German student, Matthias Rust, managed to evade Russian air defences and fly and then land his light aircraft from Germany to Red Square.
- Embarrassment caused to the USSR defence establishment allowed Gorbachev to sack his defence minister and Commander of Air defence, making the task of withdrawal from Afghanistan a little easier between 1988-1989.
- Moreover, his unilateral announcement, at the UN, of vast reductions in Warsaw pact forces in 1988, a reduction of 500,000 men and some 10,000 tanks, helped precipitate the end of the cold war.
- Rejected Brezhnev doctrine
What was Gorbachev’s attitude to the eastern bloc 1988?
- New thinking 1986 and 1988 Manhattan speech- would not prop up Eastern European states
- 1989 wall still in tact- but use of force had been discredited, and no longer possible to control the world though force
- Gorbachev wated to** end the cold war** and loosen control over nations in the soviet bloc
- Told the people of eastern Europe to choose their own fate- convinced these newly free countries would choose socialism with a human face and didn’t think they would run away from Moscow and be grateful
- Some like East ger comm leader relied on Ussr for its consolidation of power
What were the events in Hungary in the late 80s?
- After 1956 economic reforms had mild improvement but the comm govt continued to lose support and aggravate the people
- Demands for greater democracy
- Hungarian leader, Nemeth, visited Gorbachev in 1989 reveal they were giving up socialism in Hungary and adopting multi-party system
- Gorbachev- I don’t agree with the introduction of the multi-party system , but that’s not my responsibility. Would leave Hungary alone despite grievances
- Imre Nagy and comrades given a public funeral (died in 1958)- New start in politics and across whole of Hungary
- Hungary a year prior had taken down its barb wire wall with Austria- iron curtain breaking down, no response from Ussr (could now walk to the west) - east ger leader shocked (Honecker) protested in Moscow, Moscow said they couldn’t do anything about it
What were the events in poland in late 80s?
- Breaking with the communist system
- Political strike by Solidarity- regime had given way
- 1981 with soviet approval solidarity was crushed by army
- 1989 govt has round table talks with solidarity and prepared to shift towards democracy
- Released solidarity prisoners
- Defeat for communists in June election- 99/100 seats for senate were for solidarity- Party leadership made the first steps towards democracy in Poland and Hungary
- Gorbachev would not oppose their reforms
What was Honecker’s response in Poland and Hungary
- Warsaw pact summit- leaders divided Honecker against Poland and Hungary- still wanted grip of communist power
- wanted Gorbachev to uphold Brezhnev doctrine
How did Bush respond to Poland and Hungary moving away from communism?
- Bush visited Poland and Hungary offered little money, didn’t want to waste money on a false promise
- Bush given a piece of barb wire- symbolic of the end of the cold war
- 1989 USA promised not to Americanise now free European states (extend their influence)- a forgotten promise now a days
What were the events in China in 1989?
- Surge for rights had ended in tragedy- Tiananmen square, attacked protestors with soldiers and tanks
- Deng (a reformer) is unwilling to let go of any power
What was the economic situation of the GDR?
- Pollution poisoned air and water, police state, apathy in public
- Criticise society at home but only amongst those you trusted
- Video cameras everywhere
- 1989 East Gers fled to Hungary for a summer holiday (would walk across the border as the iron curtain had fallen)
- West Ger would support all east Gers who supported democracy
The wall comes down- GERMANY 6b)
