The End of the Cold War 1984-1995 Flashcards
What happened in Afghanistan in April 1978?
The Afghan communist party overthrew the monarchy and began a radical reforming programme which created widespread Islamic opposition, and the USSR feared that the impact of this would be the development of Islamic fundamentalism in its southern republics
What happened in Afghanistan in 1979?
In December 1979 soviet troops occupied Afghanistan and executed their unpopular President Amin and replaced him with Kamal, and 200,000 Mujahedin guerrilla fighters fought Soviet occupation fro 10 years
What was the US response to the USSR in Afghanistan?
They saw it as soviet expansionism, and Carter suspended all grain exports, boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games and refused to sign SALT II
How did Reagan support the Mujahedin?
He financially supported them and in 1986 gave them ground to air missiles and shared military intelligence with them, and China also helped. Britain under Thatcher supported US stances, but France and West Germany tried to maintain detente by condemning the invasion verbally
How much did Reagan spend on armaments?
He spend 30% of government funds between 1981-1985
What was the SDI scheme?
It was announced in 1983 by Reagan to create an anti-ballistic missile shield composed of nuclear missiles and lasers in space
What did the USSR do in 1983?
On the 1st September the USSR mistakenly shot down a South Korean passenger plane, which they refused to take responsibility for. relations were so bad that Andropov feared that an annually scheduled NATO exercise might be a nuclear attack
What gave the USSR the title of a gerontocracy?
Adropov died in 1984, his replacement, Chernenko died in March 1985, and his replacement was Gorbachev, who was a younger leader
What was the total production of the USSR compared to that of the USA?
It was 37% of that of the US and could not adapt to inflation, rising oil prices and global economic depression in the early 1980s, and without any innovation the workers were apathetic and resorted to thieving and drunkenness
How did Gorbachev try to increase investment into technology and decentralising the economy?
Perestroika
What happened as a result of Glasnost?
It opened politics to the masses, reducing censorship so that investigative journalism could expose disasters like Chernobyl. New political organisations like the Democratic Union were established, religion was tolerated and books by many former dissidents were published by 1988-1989
What was the Congress of People’s Deputies?
It was formed in May 1989 and elections that represented the people occurred, although at this point it had no power
What did Gorbachev do in February 1990?
Cancelled Article 6 of the Soviet constitution, which guaranteed communist supremacy. In March elections most long term communist officials were rejected and Gorbechev was elected as the first president of the USSR
What did Gorbachev do in April 1985?
He stopped increasing the number of SS-20 missiles installed in Eastern Europe and despite not getting Reagan to give up on SDI in Reykjavik in 1986, they agreed to withdraw medium range missiles from Europe in Washington 1987
What happened in Afghanistan as a result of Gorbachev?
Soviet troops were withdrawn in 1989
