The arms race Flashcards
What did the arms race impose?
Huge financial costs on both superpowers
What was a problem with the SU?
It was in a weaker economic position to cope with extremely high levels of military spending
What happened to the USSR’s defence expenditure for most of the CW?
It increased by between 4 and 7% each year
By the mid-1980s, what did the Soviet military budget account for?
25% of Soviet GDP and 40% of the state budget, this represented a punishingly high financial commitment to defence in peacetime
What did Gorbachev realise?
That, without large cuts in defence spending to release funds for reform, economic and social conditions in the USSR could not be improved
What did senior Red Army officers recognise?
That the level of military spending was unsustainable
What did the former Soviet military adviser Marshall Sergei Akhromeev recall in 1996?
‘The Soviet Union could no longer continue a policy of military confrontation with the United States and NATO after 1986. The economic possibilities for such a policy had been exhausted’
What was the GDP and population of the USSR and USA in 1989?
USSR (GDP) - $2,659,500
USSR (population) - 291 million
USA (GDP) - $5,233,300
USA (population) - 250 million
What did US military spending as a proportion of GDP average in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s?
1950s - 10%
1960s - 9%
1970s - 5% (due to detente)
1980s - 7%
With its larger and more powerful economy, what could the US afford to do?
Devote a smaller proportion of its resources to defence
What did average annual US military spending during the CW amount to?
$298.5 billion
