Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The Cold War Ends
1979-1990
- Presidency of
Ronald Reagan
- Reagan pioneers the Strategic Defence Initiative
(SDI) in an attempt to break the nuclear deadlock
- SDI may not increase Soviet arms spending, but
serves to maintain it at current levels at least
- With the rise of Gorbachev in 1985, Reagan is
prepared to open negotiation with the USSR
- Thatcher - 'Here is a man we can do business with.'
- 'Triumphalist' approach asserts it was Reagan's
economic and foreign policy that won the Cold War
- Staunch anti-communist approach in his first term
contrasts with his more negotiable stance in his second
- Described the Soviet Union as 'the Evil Empire' in 1983
- Premiership of
Mikhail Gorbachev
- Gorbachev offers a far more dynamic
approach to contact with the West
- Premierships of Andropov and Chernenko
were ineffective and highly conservative
- Meets with Reagan in Reykjavik, Malta and
Washington for fruitful talks largely successful
in calming tensions with the West
- 'New Political Thinking' pioneers 'Perestroika' in an
attempt to reconstruct the ailing Soviet economy
- Policy of 'Glasnost' attempts to
democratise the Soviet Union
- Abandons the Brezhnev Doctrine, and allows the governments of
Eastern Europe to choose their own political paths
- Refuses to interfere in the overthrow of socialist governments
in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia
- Economic decay of
the Soviet Union
- Inherent weakness of the command rather than
demand Soviet economy in stark contrast to the
more robust US economy
- Growth dropped from 6% in the 60s, to 3% in
the 70s and finally to 2% in the early 80s
- Soviet economy fundamentally weak in producing
new computer technologies
- Cost of supporting the weak
communist governments in
Eastern Europe amounted to over
$80 billion in the 1970s
- Costs of maintaining the arms race during the 80s
meant that Gorbachev was inclined to offer arms
reduction deals with Reagan
- Popular Uprising
in Europe
- Abandonment of the Brezhnev Doctrine by
Gorbachev encourages the people of Eastern
Europe to rise up
- Gorbachev's refusal to help governments of
Honecker and Jaruzelski mean that many regimes
are deposed relatively bloodlessly
- Gorbachev overestimates the strength
of the communist regimes
- 1989 saw mass migration of East Germans to West
Germany, as the borders of Hungary and
Czechoslovakia began to open
- Pressure on East German government to open border with West
culminates in the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990
- German reunification in October 1990 marks huge shift in balance of power in Europe
- Pope John Paul II influences the uprising of the Polish
people under Lech Wałesa's Solidarity movement
- Election in 1989 brings liberal democracy to Poland under Solidarity
- 'Moral Bankruptcy' of Marxist-Leninism undermines faith in
socialism across Eastern Europe
- Gaddis - 'At the beginning of 1989, the Soviet Union,
its empire, its ideology - and therefore the Cold War
itself - was a sandpile ready to slide.'