The Final Years of the Cold War 1981-91 Flashcards
INF Talks/ Reagan proposes ‘zero option’
1981
Talks about intermediate range nuclear missiles
Zero-option= Complete destruction of INF weapons
Brezhnev Dies
1982
Andropov successor
Reagan calls the Soviet Union an ‘Evil Empire’
March 1983
SDI
March 1983
Strategic defence initiative- First strike capability without the risk of MAD
Korean plane KAL 007 shot down by Soviets
September 1983
Deployment of Cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe and Soviets walk out of INF talks
November 1983
Andropov Dies
1984
Chernernko dies
1985
Gorbachev Leader of Soviet Union / INF and START talks resume
March 1985
Geneva Summit
November 1985
Reagan and Gorbachev (First summit since 1979)
-Disagree over SDI but get on well
Reykjavik Summit
1986
Reagan and Gorbachev
-Disagree over SDI but agree on nuclear arms abolition
Washington Summit
1987
Reagan and Gorbachev
-INF treaty signed to dismantle SS-20 and Pershing+ Cruise missiles
Moscow Summit
1988
Reagan and Gorbachev
- Reagan ‘The era of evil empire is a different era’
- Gorbachev promises to remove troops from Afghanistan
- START talks begin
Gorbachev’s speech to the UN
1988
Promises to remove 500,000 Red Army troops from Eastern Europe
George Bush elected as President
1988
Malta Summit
1989
Bush and Gorbachev
- ‘Burried the cold war in the Mediterranean sea’
- Reduce conventional forces in Europe
End of communist rule in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Lea Walesa and Havel become President
1989-90
Walesa- Poland (Solidarity)
Havel- Czechoslovakia (Charter 77)
Fall of the Berlin Wall
November 1989
Hungary first elections
March 1990
Reunification of East and West Germany
October 1990
Official collapse of the Soviet Union/ resignation of Gorbachev
December 1991
