The moral bankruptcy interpretation: an overall assessment

Question 1

What is this approach particularly valuable in examining?

Answer 1

Soviet behaviour, bearing in mind how the legitimacy factor influence Gorbachev’s new to CW relations

Question 2

What does this interpretation inform?

Answer 2

Reagan’s hard-line strategy in the early 1980s

Question 3

What happened until Gorbachev?

Answer 3

Soviet leaders continued the CW policies even though the problem of moral bankruptcy became increasingly obvious

Question 4

What appeared to have little effect on Soviet behaviour between 1981 and 1985?

Answer 4

Reagan’s moral stance on the USSR

Question 5

How does this interpretation widen the debate beyond the influence of particular leaders?

Answer 5

By focusing on the long-term moral crisis within the Soviet Bloc

Question 6

Which historians emphasise the moral bankruptcy interpretation?

Answer 6

John Lewis Gaddis

Michael Burleigh