The Collapse Of Detente and the end of the Cold War

Question 0

Why was the new government unstable?

Answer 0

Muslim leaders and figureheads were angered by the socialist regimes, and suffered from personal rivalries and disagreements
This eventually lead to civil war (1979)

Question 1

What was the Kabul revolution? (1978)

Answer 1

Afghanistan’s government was dramatically overthrown by an extreme socialist party run by Mohammed Taraki (qucikly became allied with the USSR

Question 2

What did President Taraki have to do because of the civil war? And what did this lead to?

Answer 2

Accept Hafizullah Amin as prime minister

Amin and Taraki became bitter rivals, in 1979 Amin supporters assassinated Taraki, leaving Amin to claim the presidency

Question 3

Why did Brezhnev decide to invade Afghanistan after Amin took power? (Dec 1979)

Answer 3

The USSR did not trust Amin (even though he was communist) - it was thought he was an American spy
Brezhnev feared the Muslims were planning a revolution and will seize control. This could take effect in other areas nearby (Islamic States were not communist)
Karmal (an afghan communist) argued he had enough support but needed soviet help
Brezhnev believed the USA would tolerate the invasion

Question 4

What happened in the soviet invasion of Afghanistan? (1979)

Answer 4

Soviets killed Amin and replaced him with Karmal.

Was a disaster for both sides as it lasted 10years and 1.5million died

Question 5

What was Caters reaction to the USSR invasion of Afghanistan?

Answer 5

Formed an alliance with china and Israel to support the mujahideen whist also getting the CIA to provide them with weapons and funds
He stopped virtually all trade with the soviets and ended diplomatic relations

Question 6

What is the mujahideen?

Answer 6

An Islamic organisation fighting to free Afghanistan from soviet control

Question 7

How else did Cater make it clear that detente was over?

Answer 7

He ended SALT 2
Increased defence spending and planned for nuclear war
Lead an Olympic boycott where 60 teams didn’t go

Question 8

What did people think of the USA’s new president Reagan? (1981)
What were Reagan’s views?

Answer 8

They were unconvinced and sceptical because of his lack of experience
Reagan believed the Cold War was between good and evil and god was on the USA’s side to build weapons of mass destruction

Question 9

What was Reagan’s plan for winning the Cold War?

Answer 9

Fight to win.
SDI (strategic defence missiles) an army of satellites design to shoot down the USSR’s missiles with powerful lasers (“Star Wars”)

Question 10

How did the soviets respond to SDI’s?

Answer 10

Felt angry (broke the detente pact) and threatened because they could not compete.
They could not build there own because of lack of computers (didn't trust computers mixing with communism)

Question 11

Who was Gorbachov and why was he different? (1985)

Answer 11

The new and last leader of the Soviet Union

He recognised the soviets flaws with communism (economy and popularity mainly)

Question 12

How was Gorbachev’s relationship with the west tested? (1986)

Answer 12

The Chernobyl crisis (nuclear reactor exploded in Ukraine)
Gorbachev covered up the severity of the incident. After the west made him tell the truth, the lie was a symbol of soviet communism

Question 13

What were Gorbachev’s reforms?

Answer 13

Perestroika- Restructuring of the economy to make it more efficient
Glasnost- Openness in the media and censorship to be relaxed

Question 14

What happened at the Geneva summit? (1985)

Answer 14

Reagan desired peace, Gorbachev wanted to persuade Reagan to stop the SDI’s, even though he was in a much weaker position. Nothing was decided
Before, Gorbachev sacked a long standing foreign minister as a sign of change from the aggressive nature of the USSR’s international relations

Question 15

What happened at the Reykjavik meeting? (1986)

Answer 15

Reagan again proposed scrapping all ballistic nuclear missiles, Gorbachev was unwilling because Reagan refused to stop the SDI’s.

Question 16

Why did Reagan change his mind about the evil empire and want to resume detente?

Answer 16

Save money on more arms race’s
Public opinion was against more tension
Gorbachev was liked in the west
He got on with Gorbachev

Question 17

What was the INF treaty? (1987)

Why did Gorbachev give in?

Answer 17

Intermediate nuclear forces treaty
Eliminated nuclear missiles with a certain range
Gorbachev gave into an arms reduction without Reagan stopping SDI’s because he felt safer with his and Reagan’s relationship and arms races were too expensive

Question 18

What happened at the summit conference? (1988)

Answer 18

Gorbachev and Reagan agreed to work towards disarmament of nuclear and conventional weaponry, nothing was officially signed but tensions were eased

Question 19

What was the Malta summit? (1989)

Answer 19

Gorbachev and Bush met for the first time and began to work on future agreements

Question 20

What was the CFE agreement? (1990)

Answer 20

Signed by Gorbachev and Bush, limit were set to the amount of military they could each have in Europe. Was a struggle for the USSR but they signed after long negotiations (during which Hungary left the Warsaw Pact)

Question 21

What was START 1?

Answer 21

Bush and Gorbachev signed it with pens made from scrap nuclear missiles as a symbol. It set limits to the number of most nuclear weapons each side could have

Question 22

What did Gorbachev do in reforms in Eastern Europe? (Late 1980s)

Answer 22

Ideology should play a smaller role in foreign affairs (trade)
Expanded perestroika and glasnost

Question 23

Gorbachev’s lenient reforms weakened communism, even though he never meant to. This lead to the fall of communism in which countries?

Answer 23

East Germany
Poland
Czech Republic/ Slovakia
Hungary

Question 24

How did communism fall in Poland and Hungary? (1989)

Answer 24

Free elections were held and communism lost

Question 25

How did communism fall in the Czech Republic/Slovakia? (1989)

Answer 25

Popular protests lead to the overthrow of the communist government
(The Velvet Revolution)

Question 26

How did the Berlin Wall fall? (1989)

Answer 26

The reforms elsewhere put mounted pressure on East German government to give more freedom. After protests and the fall of communism all around them, they were forced to give in and announced border crossing was now allowed. This lead to thousands jumping the wall from east to west, and knocking it down

Question 27

How did the Warsaw Pact dissolve? (1991)

Answer 27

The large majority of the countries in it were not communist anymore and wanted nothing to do with it. Inevitably, it could not function and ended

Question 28

How did the soviets react to everything? (1991)

Answer 28

A group of government officials organised and succeeded in a coup to ban Gorbachev from entering Moscow and being leader. They wanted to regain soviet power and end Gorbachev’s reforms. This lasted for three days because Boris Yeltsin (the future president) urged people to stop them and he succeeded, returning Gorbachev to president

Question 29

What did Gorbachev do when back in power? (1991)

Answer 29

He created a new constitution (trying to regain communism) which gave the USSR’s remaining countries(Ukraine, Latvia) much more freedom

Question 30

How did Ukraine and Latvia react to the new constitution? (1991)

Answer 30

They wanted full independence and never accepted

Question 31

What happened as a consequence to the Soviets failure? (1991)

Answer 31

Gorbachev resigned and the Soviet Union itself was dissolved, ending the Cold War.