Key Topic 3 1972-91 Flashcards
What is detente
De escalation of tension
Evidence of detente (arms race, sino soviet split, war)
- both sides realised money spent on nuclear weapons would be better spent to improve living conditions
- the us president knew the Vietnam war needed to end he left in 1972
- relationship between the USA and china had been established. Aka the sino soviet split. This made it easier to establish diplomatic relationships with each other. Nixon went to china to show he was trying to establish the relationship. He let them join the United Nations
Evidence of detente
Salts 1
1972
Statistic arms limitation talks
Signed by Nixon and Brezhnev
This testified the amount of ICBMs
Both sides could have
Evidence of detente
Space
1975
American astronauts and soviet cosmonauts met up in space and symbolically shook hands
Evidence of detente
Helsinki
1975
Signed by 35 countries including the USA and ussr
Recognition of European borders
Basic human rights
Freedom of speech
This meant that western allies recognised the soviet control
And after decades of communist dictatorship the Soviet Union had agreed to sign for human rights
What went wrong (us preident
1977 new president jimmy carter
He was a democrat
Had different views on USA foreign relations and criticised ussr for abusing human rights
What went wrong (weapons)
Between 1977-79 the ussr replaced it’s out of date nuclear weapons for ss 20 missiles
This lead the west to believe that the ussr had not abandoned the expansion of nuclear weapons
The USA developed cruise missiles
What went wrong (salts 2
With the arms race starting again and the soviet invasion of Afghanistan the us congress refused to ratify salts 2
They believed that the ussr failed to uphold salts 1 and continued with the creation of nuclear weapons
Why did the use invade Afghanistan
Afghanistan bordered some of the soviet states making it easy for Moscow to support a comunisy led government led by tatami when he seized power in Kabul in 1978
Many afghans did not like the new communist government as it went against their Muslim faith. Many Muslim leaders were tortured and killed by the communists. This lead to the formation of the anti communist government aka the mujahideen
1979
Afghan position amin arranged for the murder of the leader taraki and amin seized control. Amin entered descusiom with the USA
This alarmed the USSR who didn’t want American influence. December 24th the Soviet’s invaded Afghanistan
Amin assassinated
Kamal is installed by the ussr in his place
Challenges the ussr army faced
The army was ill prepared for the desert and mountain landscape of Afghanistan
The mujahideen had expert knowledge of their surroundings and used it to their advantage
The mujahideen was motivated as they were fighting for their homeland and religion
Americas response
Support and doctrine
The USA supported the mujahideen and the ussr refused to sign salts 2
The carter doctrine: reinforcing the policy of containment. The USA were prepared to use force to stop any country form taking control of the oil supply in the Middle East
This was set up because the USA believed that the ussr would be a threat to the interest of the Persian gulf.
Americans response
Alliance boycott
Carter formed an alliance with china and Israel to support the mujahideen
They provide military weapons and funds
They stopped trade with the ussr which lead to a deterioration in diplomatic relationships
1980
USA boycotted the Moscow olympics. The ussr did the same by boycotting the 84 Los Angeles Olympics
The ending of the Afghanistan war
1988
New leader Gorbachev signed a deal to end the war
Who was us president in 1980
Reagan
What did Reagan spend 32.6 billion on
The strategic defence initiative (sdi)
Aka Star Wars
The plan was to create a system that would shoot down any missiles launched by the ussr. The would have heavily benefited the USA had it been initiated
The neutron bomb. It was designed to destroy people but leaving property intact
