T5 International

Question 1

The 1991 Gulf War

Answer 1

• Britain was already committed to conflict in the Gulf, aiming to remove Saddam Hussain’s forces from Kuwait.
• Major visited the British forces in the Gulf, which played well in the national media.
• The Gulf War came to a successful conclusion for the British and their allies in March 1991.
• This foreign policy success certainly boosted Major’s popularity as PM, and was helpful given the 1992 General Election was fast approaching.

Question 2

The End of the Cold War

Answer 2

• When the end of the Cold War came it was not how anyone predicted.
• The peoples of Eastern Europe voted with their feet and 1989 became known as the ‘year of miracles’ as communism peacefully collapsed across Europe.
• The CIA famously failed to predict the collapse of Communism and the end of the Cold War.

Question 3

Gorbachev’s Policies of ‘Glasnost’ & ‘Perestroika’

Answer 3

• The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, was a reformer.
• By the mid-1980s it was obvious that the Soviet economy was in deep trouble.
• Although Gorbachev had introduced some market reforms with glasnost [openness] and perestroika [reform] they had limited impact, except in allowing people to be more critical of their government.

Question 4

End of Communism in Eastern Europe

Answer 4

• When Poland announced, it was going to hold free elections, Gorbachev made it clear that the Soviet Union would not intervene, even when the anti Communist trade Unionist Lech Walesa won the presidency.
• This was a rejection of the Brezhnev Doctrine whereby the Soviet Union had interfered in the domestic affairs of other East European Communist countries to prevent the collapse of communism.
• Previously the Soviet Union had militarily crushed democratic uprising in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968). Realising that the Soviet Union would no longer militarily interfere to prevent the collapse of communism led to a domino effect across Eastern Europe.

Question 5

The role of Thatcher & Reagan

Answer 5

• It was Reagan’s and Thatcher’s insistence on taking a strong line with the USSR and the development of the US Strategic Defence Initiative (Star Wars), which forced Gorbachev to realise that the USSR was no longer strong enough to compete with the West.
• At the same time Reagan and Thatcher’s willingness to negotiate with Gorbachev meant that the Cold War came to a peaceful end.

Question 6

End of Thatcher, Reagan & Gorbachev’s Leadership

Answer 6

• In bringing about the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, however, all the key players failed to see it through to the end.
• Ronald Reagan’s second presidential term finished in 1988 so it was his successor, George Bush Senior, who oversaw the end of the Cold War.
• Mikhail Gorbachev was overtaken by events as the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991; he effectively lost power in a coup in August and resigned at the end of the year.
• Margaret Thatcher fell from power in November 1990.

Question 7

The Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)

Answer 7

• On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West.
• Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders. East and West Berliners flocked to the wall, drinking beer and champagne and chanting “Tor auf!” (“Open the gate!”).
• At midnight, they flooded through the checkpoints.
• More than 2 million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in a celebration that was, one journalist wrote, “the greatest street party in the history of the world.”
• People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall–they became known as ‘wall woodpeckers’—while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section.
• Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945.
• ‘Only today,’ one Berliner spray-painted on a piece of the wall, ‘is the war really over.’
• The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Question 8

Thatcher’s Opposition to German Unification

Answer 8

• Thatcher had feared a German superstate dominating Europe, but she was unable to stop it.
• Germany had been divided between West Germany and East Germany since the end of the Second World War.
• The West German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl became the hero of the hour, at the end of a newly reunified Germany, now with a population of 80 million.
• It was because of her opposition to German re-unification and strained relationship with Helmut Kohl, that Thatcher was not invited to the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1999.
• In the new Easter European states, however, there were no such divided opinions. In these newly independent states, Margaret Thatcher was widely admired for her role in bringing an end to the Cold War.

Question 9

A New World Order

Answer 9

• The Cold War had dominated international relations since the end of the Second World War.
• No one at the time knew what this new world would look like. In fact, even as it was ending, war broke out in the Middle East.
• The president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, sent forces to conquer the oil-rich state of Kuwait in the Arabian Gulf in August 1990.
• In 1991, an American-led international coalition, including Britain, which was backed by a United Nations resolution, expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait in a short military campaign.
• Although Iraq lost the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam Hussein survived and remained the leader of Iraq.
• George Bush Senior remarked that the significance of the 1991 Gulf War was the beginning of a ‘New World Order’.

Question 10

Major’s Approach to Europe (The Maastricht Treaty)

Answer 10

• Major set out his ambition for Britain to be ‘at the very heart of Europe’ in his early years as PM.
• He hoped that Britain might be able to follow a middle way on Europe – therefore not antagonising either the Eurosceptics who were concerned about a drift towards federalism, or the pro-European Tories.
• However – following the fall of Thatcher the Conservative Party was beginning to be openly divided on this issue.
• There were some pro-European Cabinet Minsters, such as Ken Clarke and Chris Patten; however the Eurosceptics were becoming more vocal and important, such as Michael Portillo and John Redwood.
• The Eurosceptic ministers and MPs were given more encouragement by Thatcher’s increasingly hostile interventions on Europe.
• John Major was personable, and established good personal relationships with European leaders – such as the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
• When negotiating the Maastricht Treaty, Major demonstrated his negotiating ability by securing several special ‘opt-outs’ for Britain which he felt represented a middle way.
• The Maastricht Treaty was designed to set up new structures to deal with the expansion of the EEC. The EEC would become the European Union (EU) and the conditions for the establishment of the single currency were put in place – which would happen in 1999.
• Major secured opt outs on Britain immediately joining the single currency, and on the ‘Social Chapter’, which aimed to regulate working conditions and employment rights (opposed by many Conservatives as the Thatcherites favoured deregulation).
• When Major secured the opt-outs, he received a very positive response in the House of Commons and in the press; however, he did not win over all the Conservatives.
• Rebel Eurosceptic MP’s made it extremely difficult for Major to get the Maastrict Treaty ratified in Parliament.
• Major regularly had to threaten a vote of no confidence which could have resulted in another general election – but these desperate measures had the impact of making Major look weak.
• Major described 3 cabinet Eurosceptics as ‘bastards’ when he thought the TV microphones were off, and also withdrew the whip from 11 Eurosceptic MPs, only to reinstate them 6 months later without them changing their views.
• Although the Maastrict Treaty was eventually ratified by Parliament in 1993, that did not end the divisive issue of Europe.
• James Goldsmith set up the Referendum Party in 1997 to fight the General Election on a single issue – demanding a referendum on the single issue of Britain’s relationship with Europe.

Question 11

The Bosnian Civil War (1992 – 1995)

Answer 11

• In 1989 the USSR collapsed, prompting considerable disruption in the region.
• The Yugoslav President, Slobadan Milosovic transformed from Communist Party leader to an extreme Serbian nationalist, and threatened violent action against the Albanian population in Kosovo.
• In 1991 the rich northern republic of Slovenia declared independence, and Yugoslavia began to break up.
• The other two largest republics – Serbia and Croatia began to deteriorate into violent clashes between people of different ethnic groups and religions.
• Britain supported the approach of mediation and diplomacy favoured by the EU and UN – but the efforts of UK foreign secretary Douglas Hurd and others failed – there didn’t appear to be a clear plan about whether to try and maintain a multi-ethnic Yugoslavia or encourage it to break up.
• The failure of diplomacy led to the outbreak of war in Bosnia, with the Muslim population of eastern Bosnia driven out by violent ethnic cleansing carried out by Bosnian Serb paramilitaries backed by Milosovic’s government.
• In August 1992 Major hosted a joint EU and UN conference in London and a UN peacekeeping force was put in place.
• The Vance-Owen plan was put in place to try and provide a framework for peace – and at the time Major was widely praised for his actions, but there wasn’t much sustained pressure from Europe and the US did not want to intervene.
• Serb aggression continued and conflict in Bosnia continued to 3 years with Sarajevo under constant siege.
• British and European mediation was seen as weak and ineffective – especially after the massacre of more than 7000 Bosnian men and boys in Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces - Dutch UN peacekeepers were massively outnumbered and ordered not to intervene.
• After the massacre Major appealed to President Clinton to intervene – and he agreed.
• American air strikes on Serb forces led to peace talks in Dayton Ohio in December 1995.
• The treaty guaranteed Bosnian independence, protected by a UN force with economic support from the international community.
• These events highlighted Britain’s shifting place in the world.
• States in Eastern Europe were breaking away from USSR and moving towards Europe.
• US dominance seemed unchallenged – and Britain, with her special relationship with the US still strong, expected to play a new world order.